Hoping for pigs to grow wings and fly...

I believe that men have very limited patience level. If they see something that is not right, they’ll let it go the first time. Then let it go the second time, thinking that everything deserves another chance. When the third time comes… you don’t wanna be in the way.

My patience level for a particular public service announcement has officially vanished. So ladies and gentlemen… Beware of my venting!

The announcement that I was referring to earlier is the anti piracy campaign that is bombarding the radio stations every single hour. The ones that have famous artists enroling us to support them by not buying pirated albums. Somehow it makes me have this feeling that recording labels think that I am an idiot. I wonder which planet they come from….

Here’s my issue about this campaign.

Based on the few travelling that I did when I was younger, I found that how Malaysians spend RM10 here is exactly how Britons spend 10 pounds, the Americans spend USD10 and Australians spend AUSD10. A can of coke is RM1, 90p in UK, 80 cents in US and 80 cents in Australia. A MacValue meal is around RM8 here, 5 pounds in UK, and around 5 bucks in US. Follow me so far?

Now, can someone out there please enlighten me… How come CDs here cost around RM40 and around 12 pounds in UK and 15 bucks in US?

I don’t blame people downloading songs and buying pirated albums every now and then. My justification is recording companies have compromised a lot on recording quality because consumers now don’t care about it that much anymore, and also because out of an album, I’ll probably only like one or two songs. So, for most, limewire and RM10 CDs is a gift from heaven.

I really want to support the artists with their income. I really do. I just am sick and tired of making the recording labels fat and rich when our artists are still struggling after all the hard work. Here’s my stand.

Now, is it easier to change a few people’s mindset or try and change the whole nation? I think it is easier to change a few. In this case, isn’t it easier for the artists or the recording labels to change their way of doing business? I think it is faster and more efficient that way.

Here are some options:

1) Artists – Based on the prices of CDs right now, I don’t think your royalty is justified. So, promoting anti piracy does not solve your problem. It only makes the fat cat… errr… fatter!

So, ask for more! I will support you in buying originals if I know you’re getting more!

2) Recording labels – Come on… Stop being greedy and arrogant about doing your business! It is time to change your ways. Why not produce options for your consumers. Reduce the CD price to let’s say RM15, but give it to me in a soft plastic cover, no printing on the CD and a one page sleeve only. People like me only want the CD, not how beautiful it looks like. If I want the full option, then sell it to me for RM30 (I know you got printing cost to cover). Have the cheapest option to be RM1 for a song downloaded in MP3 format on a website.

Maybe this is not the best option, I am sure there are more ways. Important thing is coming from killing the piracy market by making consumers feel stupid and illogical to buy pirated.

So, this way, everybody wins. The consumers win by getting it cheaper with guaranteed quality (definitely better than pirated). The artists win by getting more money out of that little royalty they get by more sales. And the recording labels win by maintaining your profit margins, feeding your hundreds of staff and getting more CD sales.

So come on… let’s not be greedy and share. As Gandhi once said, “the world is enough to feed the need… not enough to feed one man’s greed”

And recording labels… stop hoping for pigs to grow wings and fly…