Give the Public What They Want

Record companies are crying foul saying that the public are draining record companies' money. The record companies have been firing lawsuits at civilians left and right. They have million dollar lawsuits against little girls. Spoofing or corrupting download songs has been another weapon of choice against music downloading for the music industry. I think these are poor tactics that the music industry uses, especially siccing lawsuits on 12 year old girls. It is only making their industry look like the villain. As for spoofing and corrupting the song, I think that it is somewhat of a deterrent but not much. I think if people intend to get free music, they will get free music.

I propose a campaign that will get the consumers to want to buy the Cd's over downloading it. I know that seems like a simple answer and it probably is but how does one get consumers to buy their Cd's instead of downloading it? I think record companies should start selling the cheaper Cd's. Selling them so cheap that people would not bother with wasting time and energy to download music. That will put the sites like Napster to it's death because without any traffic, there would be no funding from investors. I think that music companies may lose money but in the long run they will sell more records because people can afford the CD. That will generate more fans. More fans will mean sales of related items like posters, key rings, etc.. And they still can do endorsement , concerts, and radio plays that will also make the record industry and artists money. What about little "garage bands"; little unknown bands that are struggling to make it? How will they make their money? I think the music business has been a tough one to get into to. New bands struggle to make it all the time. Majority of the start-up bands fail not because of music downloading, it is because they suck. If they are good, they would just have to wait for a record company to pick them up. Once they are signed by a record label, they can use the same theory to sell their albums real cheap so more people will buy it. If people like it, they will have more fans that help the band get revenue through other endorsements.

My other strategy would be to have an incentive that makes them want to buy the Cd's. Buy enough of so and so's record label, or music genre and the buyer gets a choice to a concert of their picking. The record industry could put something like a card with a number code in it. Let's say buyer need x numbers of cards (code can only be used once), when they have enough, they can send it in or redeem it for a concert of their choice online.The more they have, the more extravagant the concert prize will be. The biggest prize will be that they will get to go backstage and meet whom ever they choose. I know there are thousands, if not millions of fans who would do anything to meet Band "X" after a concert and if that means shelling out a few more hundred dollars to buy Cd's, they will.