this week, janet’s new album “Discipline” debuted at number one on the billboard hot 200 selling… 181,000 copies. now, this may sound like a rather large figure, but let’s take a look at her last album’s sales and charting… in 2006, janet Jackson released “2.0. Y.O.” this album peaked, and debuted, at number two. it sold 296,000 copies. the album before it, “Damita Jo,” also debuting and peaking at number two, 381,000 copies. see a trend here?
“to what can we attribute this stunning lack of album sales?” you ask. well, excellent question! this stunning lack of CD sales can be largely attributed to… piracy. music sales have been declining rapidly due to the dramatic increase of pirated music. but you may ask, “isn’t that stealing?” another excellent question, and the answer is a resounding “yes!”
people won’t just walk into a store and steal a CD. and in my ignorance, I always assumed it was because upstanding citizens were relatively decent and respectful when it came to others’ property. well, apparently I’m quite misguided. it turns out the real reason is that they know they’d get caught. this is nothing short of infuriating. i really am not concerned if one thinks that an artist makes too much money or whether or not a person believes he or she should have to pay $10-$15 dollars for a CD, stealing other people’s property is a crime. unfortunately, it isn’t often treated as such.
I am under the impression that most people know piracy is a crime, but maybe some people just don’t understand the concept of copyrighting. so, I’m curious… for anyone reading, a.) did you know that online piracy is a crime, b.) do you feel that the majority of downloaders are also informed about anti-piracy laws, and c.) are people upstanding enough to give a crap?
(album sales info from www.billboard.com)
3 comments:
A good point but do you think that people are just not interested in Janet's music anymore. To be honest I haven't heared any of her new songs and I didn't even know she had a new album out. I'm sure there are some Janet fans who turned thier backs on her music and/or just stole it outright. You can't blame it completely on piracy however.
To bring it back to the point of piracy though, first off; albums cost closer to $24-$29 than $10-15. Not trying to nitpick, just trying to show my own personal experience. I do buy when I can, however, sometimes that just isnt financially possible. What is your opinion on youtube? I use that a lot because I feel slightly less like a thief when using it because I consider that I am only using it until I get together the money for whatever I want to buy.
You are less of a thief when using YouTube. Haha. YouTube shifts the responsibility from consumer to company by officially only hosting legal material. So unless a user knows beyond shadow of doubt that a piece is posted illegally, which legally speaking is almost never, the user is not committing an illegal act. Ethically, I guess that would be a bit of a gray area.
Thanks to both of you for the feedback!
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