TO ALL ARENA FANS!!!

[creme anglais]

Hi all,
The sharing of music files is SERIOUSLY damaging to the future of the music we make and the music we love.
I have set up a myspace called "ProgAgainstPirates" please, please, stand up and be counted against this devasting activity.
The page will, like all myspaces, evolve and I welcome ideas and comments from you all, I have only just set it up this afternoon so there is a lot of work to do!!!!
I plan to get as many bands as poss on the "top friends" section so you wil be seen easily, and I want as many prog fans as possible to stand up and add their names.
I firmly believe that we liitle people can make a dint in this download culture if we all stand TOGETHER, so if you are a member of a myspace belonging to a band please, please send them a link and get them to stand alongside us.

http://www.myspace.com/progagainstpirates


Thanks all,

[CompanyCroydon]

Martin Orfords reply to a poster, Which is excellent.

chewbacca2460 wrote:
Most of the money on a CD is record company profit taking. You never see execs from sony driving battered old cars, listening to tunes on old, battered kit. My heart bleeds puple pis for them. If the price in this country was equivalent to that elsewhere on this planet I might listyen to your argument, until that happens, I would stand completly behind polly's post.

I download, if I like I go out and buy. If I don't, it gets deleted. I don't make copies for other people. It's the people who do that you should be targetting.

Edit to add - Lars Uhlric is a ****


With all due respect, that's complete and utter nonsense. It's also the biggest myth in the music industry. The greedy ones in the chain are the shops who make a mark-up of sometimes as much as £7.00-£8.00 per CD, having invested nothing whatever in the making of it. Record companies are NOT the greedy ones, and in most cases, we only receive about £3.50 per copy from a CD sold in Germany for instance (where most of our sales are) AND we have to pay to get it there in the first place. So from our £3.50 (less delivery) we have to cover the cost of recording the album, manufacturing it, promoting it, and paying the artists and the songwriters and the general running of the label. This leaves very little if any profit unless you are manufacturing huge quantities in which case the manufacturing cost comes down a bit. But I simply won't accept that record companies are greedy. If you check my car you'll find that it's a 14-year-old Ford Escort van, and salary-wise I earn less than a McDonalds trainee.

With regard to the downloading thing, personally I'm not impressed if we have 2 million fans that download for free - they're no use to us whatsoever and I'd rather have just one that actually buys the CDs. Because if everyone expects to get music for free, all the middle ground of the music business (and that includes IQ) will disappear. And all that will be left are the amateur no-hopers and the superstars. The rest of us will all have given up due to lack of funding. This is not something that could happen, it's happening already, and based on current trends I give bands like IQ and record companies like GEP a life-expectancy of 5 years at best. 

Widge

[JJ II]

I fully agree with Widge. Dutch rocker Ayreon had exactly the same experience (in terms of 'the market going downhill'). I think he once mentioned 30% in the last 5 years.

On the other side, I still do see ridiculous prices. I wanted to buy the new Blind Ego CD today, which was in the shop for 27,50 euro !!! Sorry?? 

Finally. I really oppose downloading or copying while you konw it's really gonna hurt the smaller bands, but I must confess: I do own a lot of bootlegs: live-recordigs of bands (like IQ and Arena) that I own every single album of.

[Peter]

I haven't followed the other thread that was quoted above (can you please post a link?), but I believe the original poster surely had the Sony and EMI bosses in mind when he wrote.

[Iggy]

Here you are if you are interested.

It was a very liveely debate

http://www.gep.co.uk/iq/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=1933

[Teunis]

Oh no, not again

[Iggy]

Sorry but he did ask.

i don't think the same would happen here.   

[Teunis]

Sorry but he did ask.

i don't think the same would happen here.   

. Only joking. But you're right. Discussions never get out of hand here. Well ....... at least no fights  .

[gelert]

. Only joking. But you're right. Discussions never get out of hand here. Well ....... at least no fights  .

"F1 is better than Prog"

Discuss...

[Nicky007]

"F1 is better than Prog"

Discuss...

Well, if "progressive" means f* 2 or more (re Stevie's post), then I'l stick to the good old-fashioned (monogamous) f1 

Nicky.