>I think you're missing Jon's point. The Garthman has been selling his CDs
>for considerably lower than what he could undoubtedly get for them. He's
>been doing the same with his concert tickets for quite some time. He
>could easily be making more money from sales than he is right now if he
>stopped the considerable discounting of his recordings and concert
>tickets. Whatever else you wanna say about Garth, he ain't no business
>dummy. If his *primary* motivation for selling tons of CDs and concert
>tickets was to make as much money as possible, he surely wouldn't be
>sellin' his stuff so cheap. As Jon sez, most likely he's after the fame
>that goes with the record numbers. If he just wanted the bucks, he could
>easily be making more than he is now.--don
>
I don't care if Garth Brooks has an ego the size of Montana, selling CDs at
that price and charging those kind of ticket prices is a good thing for his
fans. If Bruce Springsteen or Randy Newman want to sell their new box sets
at Garth Brooks-like prices, I wouldn't complain. And I'd even buy those.
While we're at it, let's price those "Beg, Scream, & Shout" and "Nuggets"
box sets down there too.
Jon W. said:
>OK, consider it stricken, but with none of those things - err...uhh...
>except for old P2 printouts - can you sell the item in question and still
>retain a reasonably faithful, functional copy thereof (and why the issue
>gets sharper as home recording technologies improve).
Jon makes a good point here. If a person with a CDR burner takes his good
powers (making cool compilations, trading live recordings with fans who
will buy all the artist's commercially released output and pay to see live
performances) and turns evil and starts making CDRs of commercial releases,
it seems like it could significantly hurt an artist from a financial
standpoint. I can buy a car or a Van Gogh (well, not really) and sell it to
another party but just the buyer gets the item for their use or enjoyment
from the time when the tranaction takes place. CDs can be different if a
person is dishonest and has a CDR burner. They can conceivably buy a Del
McCoury CD, burn a CDR, and then sell the CD (as well as numerous CDRs to
people who want to save a buck). I can't replicate a car or Van Gogh for a
fraction of the cost, keep the almost exact replication, and then sell the
the car or Van Gogh. I don't believe this is much of a problem now but it
seems like it could be as soon as more and more people get CDR burners as
the price keeps dropping. In the case of CDs, the CDR is not just a
reasonably, functional copy, I think most people would be hard-pressed to
notice any difference from a sound standpoint. As for people who buy a
commercially released CD and decide to sell it, I see no problem with that
whatsoever. That becomes the equivalent of the sale of any other
second-hand item. The new recording technology does make the issue more
complex than before however.
-John
