lots of great thoughts here everyone...
Perhaps it is because I am so young (21y) but I don't really see the point of vinyl. Sure, it looks pretty nice, and supposedly the sound quality is a bit higher. But who can hear that? When most people can't even hear the difference between flac and 320 kbps (at least, I don't hear it). I can't really compare the sound quality of the small amount of vinyl that I do own, because my record player is unfortunately crappy. (I have richard skelton-landings waiting for me when I finally buy a decent player though)
yes, this is all very valid.. it's still a specialist market.. for those who love the format. it's not convenient at all and that's why it remains a niche format.. and will likely not rise again to its old levels or the levels of CD sales.
Another relevant note: most people I know barely buy music (CD;mp3 or vinyl) at all. I think people of "my generation" ( 
) somehow have the idea that there is no reason to pay for music, films etc. (for example, look at albums which have 1000 copies or so sold and 40,000 unique listeners on last.fm)
yes, this is a very scary fact.. that an entire generation is being raised to think that music (and other forms of media) should be free and disposable. you guys are the future, and that's precisely why we're having this conversion. you (i mean you in the large sense) have spoken.. and demanded that music be free. it is now our responsibility as artists and labels to come up with a working model that can sustain that.
Should I feel bad about this? Because I am willing to listen to everyone's input
while i agree that a lot of free (illegal) music out there allows people to discover artists they might not have ever heard of before... but, the fact remains, CD and digital sales are not making up for this loss from illegal file sharing. so as much as people say they want to support the artists or are using illegal file sharing as a way to discover new artists, they simply aren't supporting them.
i've said it before in this forum... and other places.. but i like to put it like this...
go into work tomorrow and tell your boss you'll work for free. do it. if you won't do that, then you're a hypocrite for stealing other people's work. period. artists and labels work very hard to make good music, just as people work very hard at their jobs doing whatever it is that they do. professional artists dont want to work for free just as professional lawyers, accountants, builders, doctors, salesmen, etc want to work for free.
(again, to Rupske, i'm not attacking YOU specificially, just the damage done by file sharing).
maybe we can make a pro/con list of what happens when an artist's work get stolen:
pros:
you discover more music
maybe an artist's live shows are more attended by a larger number of people going to the shows.
cons:
you're stealing an artist's intellectual property
you're taking money away from that artist to help them create more work
which in turn supports music hardware and software developers, studios, etc
music becomes disposable
labels get hurt and will have to make compromises or shut down
labels will no longer be able to support/promote artists
however, the fact is, music IS being stolen, it will continue to be stolen and, frankly, there's nothing an artist or label can do about it except stop making music. so.. it becomes our job to find ways to stay afloat while the work gets stolen..
and, because this is the way things are now, we WILL find a way around this.. whether it's something as sad as cheaper packaging, lack of physical media (ie: production costs)... or, something wonderful and clever.. which is where i hope all of this ends up. there IS a solution out there.. no one has found it yet, but there is a happy medium to keep the file sharers and the supporters happy while giving the artists a reason to make music and labels a reason to curate something beautiful.
too many thoughts in my head.. onto more threads!
taylor
