Topic: Jeremy Soule compares music piracy to the Holocaust

[idolminds]

No really.

How bad is piracy today?

But forget the Pirate Bay… Piracy is now mainstream. Not since the Holocaust have we seen so many people of a select group forcibly stripped of their livelihoods in a public euphoria of false morals. As one who is of Jewish descent, I can say that I make this statement in a very narrow fashion, but there are similarities. Creators are being vilified, laughed off and treated with indifference by scary multitudes of people who care not for artists’ lives or liberties–let alone the concerns involved in the making of art. The new “norm” is being heralded as “liberation” from the “contrived” and “unfair” standards of fees and payments that have traditionally been worked out in a fair market society. Instead, this is the new unfair market society. The “Jews” in this valid analogy are creators. We are losing our homes, our futures and our ability to take care of our children. Laugh. I dare you. And unlike the streetlamp lighters, the world still needs creators!

Yeah, I don't think you're going to get a lot of support on that position.

You can read the rest of his big rant there, but its pretty clear hes missed the point of what people are telling him.

What he hears: "You have to find a new business mode so we can all have free stuff."
Whats actually said: "Everything can be had for free, you need a new business model."

Piracy is here to stay, we can make as many copies as we want of everything. There is no going back to pre-internet days, you MUST adapt to the situation. You don't have to like it and I'm sure its a really shitty situation, but these are the facts. Adapt or die.

[shock]

Someone needed to fill Metallica's void.

[MysterD]

Obviously, Soule is NOT doing enough w/ his DirectSong service - b/c THIS should be where he's making the money. There are reasons products like GOG, Steam, Amazon Download Services, ITunes, and many of the other digital services do so well - b/c they offer MORE than just the bare-bones type of stuff. They don't just offer their MAIN product, but ALSO other things and other functionality that you can ONLY get if you are a member of their service.

Really, what does DirectSong have going for it? Well, it's DRM-FREE - that's a great start, but that's about it.
When do they ever have nice cheap sales like say Amazon MP3? Do they offer Cloud services? Do they offer a client-program?

[idolminds]

We were discussing this in IRC. Soule gets contracts to compose for games. Thats where he gets his money, which make his comments make even less sense.

[gpw11]

Well, he also sells the soundtracks (it seems).  I imagine game soundtracks probably have a high piracy rate.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, but he isn't a band. That isn't his bread and butter. Getting paid large sums of money to compose soundtracks for games is what he really does, not sell music. I think people would scoff pretty readily if, say, Danny Elfman or John Williams started bitching about how much money they were losing from pirated Edward Scissorhands or Star Wars soundtrack CDs. Granted, Soule probably doesn't make as much and is a bit more "self employed", but the fact remains that he has a day job, and I imagine it pays pretty damned well.

[gpw11]

Very good point.

[shock]

I read it again.  He seems to be doing what all of the record label executives do when talking about piracy: equate downloads with lost sales.  It's just not true.  I do believe that SOME of the downloads are lost sales, but I think many, if not the majority of them, are people that care enough to pirate the song/game a try, but wouldn't buy it.

That said, it would be naive to say that piracy isn't affecting the PC gaming industry.

[Cobra951]

Clearly free downloads and youtube clips have little to do with lost sales.  Plus the very analogy to genocide is so specious it doesn't deserve even the little attention we've given it here.

[MysterD]

When it comes to soundtracks, I think CD Projekt + GOG has the right attitude - just include the soundtrack w/ a purchase of their game. [shrug]