RiSa and torrent website truce?

[LazyLion]

Yes, very nice analogy. The only problem with online stores is that you have to pay more or less the same price (calculated per track), but: you additionally have to pay for the bandwidth you're using, which is a considerable expense in this country; you are generally forced to listen the music in a lossy format; and you are unable to acquire the physical case with poster, lyrics, diary entries, etc.

I think for online stores they should make the tracks cheaper. Currently rhythmonline.com (or something) sells the tracks @ R7 each, which doesn't compensate for the bandwidth you have to pay and for the lack of physical extras. I think R5 or even R4 per track would be a big step in the right direction to promote online sales.

And iTune's $1 per track is just ridiculous, considering you can't copy the music (or something - I haven't experienced it yet).

Yes, you are right. The online tracks should be significantly cheaper. I would think around 2 or 3 rand is fair for a track. Remember, more sales equals greater revenue. And no DRM crap. If it is cheap and easy enough, people won't bother pirating it.

 

[JPZaayman]

Actually, they were trying very much to mind their own business, they didn't like anyone pointing at them. You can verify that here on this board. But they are not to blame.

RISA's business model is collapsing and they are looking for someone to blame. They would do better to get online and promote their business and artists to the very people who are most likely to buy their client's music. But instead they chose to P*$$ them off by accusing them of wrongdoing and taking down their meeting place.

Look at it this way...

a crowd of people are standing in a market place listening to music on their iPods and cellphones. They are discussing the latest bands and hip music. Some of them are swapping the tracks they like by bluetooth on their cellphones. Somebody makes a list of who has which music on which cellphone.

Now RISA have a shop where they sell music... but it is outside of town on an old abandoned road that nobody uses anymore. RISA sells the music on old cassette tapes... but if you want one track you have to buy the entire cassette tape for R120.00.

RISA are upset that all these people in the market place are exchanging the music they love and not paying for it. so instead of opening up a store on the marketplace and selling individual tracks of their music (also via bluetooth), they find the owner of the marketplace and pressure him to shut down the marketplace. They also sieze the written list of music as evidence of wrongdoing and threaten to sue the inventors of the bluetooth technology for allowing "piracy".

You see how ludicrous this is?

They lost the advantage... and now they are just trying to sue anyone and anything to stop their loss of sales.

When the simplest thing in the world would have been to get online and just sell their music.

Excellent.