Free Stuff leading to Hell? (was: OT: Audio Quality (Was advice needed)

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On 28 dec 2006, at 18.54, mark sottilaro wrote:

> Quality of an LCD?  Ha, there's the rub: LCD's
> generally suck compared to a good CRT with the same
> resolution.  Way better contrast for sure.  People buy
> LCDs not for their quality but for their thin/light
> nature.  People didn't buy CDs for their quality, they
> bought them because they were easier to stock (for
> retail and consumer) and more durable/portable.
> People don't buy mp3s for... oh wait, they ususally
> just download them for free.
>
> Basically it's all going to hell. ;)  I'm betting
> it'll be somewhere between Bladerunner and Mad Max
> (but Mel will be shouting more anti semetic phrases)


I see no "going to hell" dimension in the fact that people download  
music for free. Why not? Myself I don't mind sending a money donation  
to the music creator if I particularly like something. The challenge  
with the internet is that most of the free stuff is not very good,  
from an artistic point of view. With old times record labels it was  
the other way around; only the fact that a creator was signed to have  
his/her outlet physically copied and distributed by the label worked  
as a public quality level assurance. So because of this new world  
order you can not expect people to pay up front for culture. The  
relevant modern way to consume culture is to use it first and then  
pay the creator if it you like the product (and if you have money).  
The good side is that it brings up a new generation of community  
oriented customers that want to "do the right thing" - equalling  
sponsor creators that provide good "free stuff" - and also that  
narrow artistic outlets can exist easier today than if a solid  
marketing budget should be needed before even thinking about sharing  
the content.

I'm a big fan of the Creative Commons movement and I'm seriously  
looking into giving away an entire album, newly recorded, at http:// 
www.jamendo.com or some related player.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)
http://tinyurl.com/fauvm (podcast)
http://www.myspace.com/looproom