the RIAA plague and a SOLUTION

[StealthyV]

ok, I know what you're all thinking: get rid of the RIAA, and that's a great solution. but that's not what I came up with.

recently, I purchased a brand-new dj-style record player (turntable) from eBay. it was nice and affordable ($150USD), and I bought it mainly to play music I can't find anywhere... mostly international techno (progressive and trance, with some vocal trance, and deep house), as well as "promotional copies" of recent releases.
a bit of background:

the CDs I *did* find of the techno genre are all imports and priced $20-$30USD for 8-20 songs, some 2-CD sets being sold at Borders for over $32USD, last month. this frustrated me to no end, until I found some of these songs on the p2p network, now declared illegal.
but the real music I love is only truly found on 12" vinyl, the classic DJ tool...one that has been reliable and contains incredible sound. I have purchased vinyl from eBay, local stores, and the internet, and have been excited with each release I received.
[tonight I won an auction on eBay for a double-LP set of "The Eminem Show"]

now my solution is this;
though not fool-proof (I do know of a way to get around this, but hear me out)...I propose that the music industry start mass-producing vinyl once more. Sound quality is much better than cds, and owning "rights" to the songs would be plenty obvious. Digital copying of this medium is slightly different, and would dissuade the more casual of file sharers.
the only flaw I see is "where there is a will, there's a way" but I feel that by moving the market back to a tried and true medium that has survived since Alexander Graham Bell's time would make the copying and distributing of files a more difficult task.

does this sound plausible? or did a long night of meaningless homework fudge my brain?

~Branson
thanks for reading

[SiliconJon]

I'm all up for the return of analog music medium. It's a far superior quality, but then again the music industry prefers the distribution in inferior quality as it is much cheaper, and then they can charge more, and make even more money....mwahahahaha

But then again, I'm not going to buy any of it simply because I'm ON STRIKE. They will get no more of my money for quite some time to come. I don't think very many people are boycotting CD's, though. I still see a lot of folks who simply don't care how insane the RIAA is, they want their music, they buy their music no matter how much it costs. These consumers will keep the RIAA alive and happy [well, not happy, hence the lawsuits...]

[ArcticFox]

SiliconJon, just remember that every little bit helps. I too am boycotting CD's due to the RIAA. If I want something, I'll hit up a used music store or the like.

CD's may not have the audio signature that vinyl does, but I sure am wondering how long it will take the industry to switch to DVD-Audio or SACD's.

[SpookyEddy]

Glad I didn't waste my hard earned money on an ipod , I will just sling my portable turntable on my back and head out for a quick run. After that perhaps I will get a vinyl autoloader for my car, all that analogue goodness

Vinyl can sound good and I do like it, in the same way that I like valve amplifiers but I can't see a mass migration happening any time soon. Vinyl is much higher maintanance than a CD and generally impractical for a wide range of situations.

Anyway.. carry on

Regards

ed

[ArcticFox]

Originally posted by SpookyEddy
Glad I didn't waste my hard earned money on an ipod , I will just sling my portable turntable on my back and head out for a quick run.

Even with Mp3 sharing on a decline, I'll still invest in a player such as an iPod for one reason - it's a lot easier to buy used CD's, rip them, compress to MP3, then transfer hundreds to a little player than it is to carry around a CD binder that doesn't have your whole collection in it anyways. I hope that companies and people do what I do, as it would be a waste to produce mp3 players like they are and then stop because of stupid lawsuits.

[QCompson]

lol, portable turntable for a jog... does that have an anti-skip feature?

But seriously, vinyl is fine for listening to tunes at home, but in most cases just isn't practical anymore. I love the fact that music is migrating away from physical forms, so that it may be transferred and used in a variety of mediums (burned to a cd, or transferred to a mp3 player, or just played off the computer). One of the great benefits I find of having a mp3 library on a computer is the speed at which you can move between different albums and tracks; think how easy it is to queue up a massive playlist for a party on a computer, as opposed to gathering together all the different CDs, tapes, records, or whatever.