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[incredibledisc]

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Record companies win £41m damages

Suprised no one else has mentioned this today.

[Jim Stax]

I like the "human error" bit. Wouldn't like to be the guy that missed the small print on that one. Wonder if it will come out of his wages

[incredibledisc]

I seem to remember a certain Mr Branson once being up before the beak for doing pretty much the same thing when he first started Virgin.

Bottom line is people want to pay the lowest price for their music. If the prices for UK sourced cds were competitive enough people wouldn't have to buy imports. All the BPI is trying to do is enforce a protectionist market that suits them best not the consumer or even the artist. Check this excerpt from an interview with Trent Reznor...

Herald Sun: It must be an odd time then to have a new album, "Year Zero", out?

Trent: It's a very odd time to be a musician on a major label, because there's so much resentment towards the record industry that it's hard to position yourself in a place with the fans where you don't look like a greedy asshole. But at the same time, when our record came out I was disappointed at the number of people that actually bought it. If this had been 10 years ago I would think "Well, not that many people are into it. OK, that kinda sucks. Yeah I could point fingers but the blame would be with me, maybe I'm not relevant." But on this record, I know people have it and I know it's on everybody's iPods, but the climate is such that people don't buy it because it's easier to steal it.


You're a bit of a computer geek. You must have been there, too?

Oh, I understand that — I steal music too, I'm not gonna say I don't. But it's tough not to resent people for doing it when you're the guy making the music that would like to reap a benefit from that. On the other hand, you got record labels that are doing everything they can to piss people off and rip them off. I created a little issue down here because the first thing I did when I got to Sydney is I walk into HMV, the week the record's out, and I see it on the rack with a bunch of other releases. And every release I see: $21.99, $22.99, $24.99. And ours doesn't have a sticker on it. I look close and "Oh, it's $34.99." So I walk over to see our live DVD "Beside You in Time", and I see that it's also priced six, seven, eight dollars more than every other disc on there. And I can't figure out why that would be.

Did you have a word to anyone?

Well, in Brisbane I end up meeting and greeting some record label people, who are pleasant enough, and one of them is a sales guy, so I say "Why is this the case?" He goes "Because your packaging is a lot more expensive". I know how much the packaging costs — it costs me, not them, it costs me 83 cents more to have a CD with the colour-changing ink on it. I'm taking the hit on that, not them. So I said "Well, it doesn't cost $10 more." "Ah, well, you're right, it doesn't. Basically it's because we know you've got a core audience that's gonna buy whatever we put out, so we can charge more for that. It's the pop stuff we have to discount to get people to buy it. True fans will pay whatever." And I just said "That's the most insulting thing I've heard. I've garnered a core audience that you feel it's OK to rip off? F--- you." That's also why you don't see any label people here, 'cos I said "F--- you people. Stay out of my f---ing show. If you wanna come, pay the ticket like anyone else. F--- you guys." They're thieves. I don't blame people for stealing music if this is the kind of s--- that they pull off.

Where does that extra $10 on your album go?

That money's not going into my pocket, I can promise you that. It's just these guys who have f---ed themselves out of a job essentially, that now take it out on ripping off the public. I've got a battle where I'm trying to put out quality material that matters and I've got fans that feel it's their right to steal it and I've got a company that's so bureaucratic and clumsy and ignorant and behind the times they don't know what to do, so they rip the people off.

Given all that, do you have any idea how to approach the release of your next album?

I have one record left that I owe a major label, then I will never be seen in a situation like this again. If I could do what I want right now, I would put out my next album, you could download it from my site at as high a bit-rate as you want, pay $4 through PayPal. Come see the show and buy a T-shirt if you like it. I would put out a nicely packaged merchandise piece, if you want to own a physical thing. And it would come out the day that it's done in the studio, not this "Let's wait three months" bulls---.

CD Wow also does import DVDs (as do Play and Amazon) What's the difference between buying an import cd from Hong Kong and buying a Region 1 DVD cheaper and months before it hits the shelves on Region 2?