Comments by Brother Dallas

Led Zeppelin, against Atlantics wishes, refused to release any singles

Why the negative tone with this article?

That the consumer is the winner
that corporations are forced to innovate
corporations, shareholders, govts are forced to capitalize, merge, to facilitate innovation
business is forced to act by the hand of the consumer

perfection of the capitalist / freemarket system

How is this not a great thing?

So the world economy collapses, chaos ensues.

You've got a bunker, beans, guns, dogfood, water and gold. Dog food because if Mad Max can survive on Dog Food then so can you.

Then you need to buy gas so you can drive to buy more beans and water; you travel to Thunderdome to trade with Tina Turner.

What is the exchange rate of gold/gas or gold/beans going to be?
Does MasterBlaster set the value of gold?

We are not safer
Government Contract for Who
confiscate toothpaste

Hey you Economist Nerds- quite a a cream-puff piece of an article! Did Pimco's PR dept infiltrate your editorial dept? were you that hard up to take a trip to Newps? (understandable with the beautiful beaches and stuff)

I see. so you are saying this is a kind of
"Fat Person carbon-tax"

speaking of boondoggles

i wonder if Michael Grunwald is on this case... he spoke with Harry Shearer about Govt fund Boondoggles & Pork project by the Army Corps of Engineers in this weekends (Feb 14, 2010) edition of "Le Show"

check it out here:
http://www.harryshearer.com/news/le_show/

Dear Economist Editors-

Please clarify the following and, going forward, please institute a policy to clarify these numbers:

"Sales recovered sharply in early October—particularly in food and footwear, but also in clothing and furniture—according to a survey released by the Confederation of British Industry."

Is This a Year over Year comparison?
A seasonal comparison?
A month-to-month comparison?

dbriley- Musicians (if they wrote the song) get a royalty every time their song is played on the radio and even when other people perform them at concerts. http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-royalties1.htm

One vehicle of compensation for composer/writer/license holder's of the song (think Michael Jackson with some of the Beatles catalog) is through a service called ASCAP. http://www.ascap.com

the composers/song owners rights are backed by US & International copyright laws. these laws also have issues that need to be worked out. think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trampled_Under_Foot Trampled under foot by Led Zeppelin. Lyrics & Music was inspired by Robert Johnson & Stevie Wonder, but executed & remade as a new song here. but i digress...

Please - lets understand the paradox and ambiguity of the music "Industry" and its relationship with "Musicians / composers / artists." Both parties have benefited from their relationships. We want our rock stars to rock out and go all 'Jim Morrison' on our shits so we can live vicariously through them. I dont want to sully Jim Morrisons legacy of raunchy, off-the-hook, out-of-control behavior by imagining he cared about where the dollars were coming from. but somebody had to do it.

This is not an "Us & Them" situation so lets please not polarize & simplify a complex situation that is mixing art & business.

Part of the "Music Industry" ie the labels have it in their best interest to maximize revenue of the song or act they have rights to. This, at some point, will also benefit the artist. In maximizing the revenue of the SONG shouldn't they be able to negotiate with Radio Stations & Internet outlets about how much should be made?

the artists willingly Signed a contract with Said Music Label. have you heard, very often, that a young rock or rap star does not take money from the label - but instead plows ahead with HARD work of recording, performing & signs a deal later when they have more negotiating leverage? some are doing that now, and bypassing labels (think Radiohead recently) and are taking control of their rights. but most - take the quick, easy money. when they take the quick easy money they give up their rights to the labels. the labels are taking a risk putting up capital to support (recording, advertising and more etc.)

therefore if you illegally share the music and dont pay a dime - then you are guaranteeing that the artist/songwriter is definitely NOT going to get paid. not cool.

this industry has been radically re-shaped and revolutionized in the past 10 years. I am looking forward to seeing the next 10 years. the Myspace revolution is allowing bands to directly reach and communicate with their audience.

c'mon now economist. you are better than this conjecture-laden, trendy article.

people will still choose value.
often- goods are cheap for a reason.

even the communist leaders recognize the value in a mercedes benz.

lots of idealists here. idealism is nice. realism is tough. there are bad people out there. there are bullies. will men take advantage of each other and fight - for no good reason - other than self-perpetuated delusions and divisions? YES.is the US perfect? no.do we sometimes bully? yesdo we have a system that will mostly check ourselves? probably.do i distrust/question our own system & govt? yes. would i trust another system or govt more. ABSOLUTELY NOT.