Karaoke Forums

...Yesterday I went over to my parent's house, as I was doing some repair work around their house, I took a break for some lunch. Went inside their house and the TV was on cnbc, as usual. At some point during that time the subject shifted to "Amazon's Music Service" being brought up by one of cnbc's analyst. I only caught a little bit of it (giving it my one-eye, one-ear attention) but couldn't believe what I was hearing..... I thought, "Wow! They're doing what?"

...Here's a link in case you haven't heard yet:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/10/amazon ... k-as-1998/

...So you're probably thinking, "Nice service, so what's the big deal, MMO? I mean, it looks like an added bonus for anyone who has ever purchased a physical music CD from Amazon since 1998. I think it's great that Amazon is giving all their customers, that purchased any physical music cd albums from them in the past, a free ripped download of those albums purchased. So what's your point?"

...Think a little deeper here. Besides the fact that they (Amazon) has records of your purchases on file, how do they know you actually STILL HAVE the physical music cd/s that you previously purchased... I just can't believe this is legal? Maybe it's just that Karaoke Audit Mentality that I have embedded in my brain?

From the article you linked -

'The option has been made possible by deals made with record labels and music publishers, Amazon says. According to Steve Boom, Amazon’s VP of Worldwide Digital Music, the company now has deals in place with the three major labels (EMI, now a part of Universal; Sony; and Warner) as well as hundreds of independent labels. On the publisher side, Amazon has participation from all the major music publishers and “hundreds, if not thousands,” of smaller publishers, says Boom.'

I have faith that Amazon actually did get approval from the publishers for this.

-Chris

_________________
-Chris

Chris,
...Yes, I agree with you that MOST LIKELY, from the article alone, which I also read, it has been approved to carry on with this offer to it's customers. I don't believe a company like Amazon would put their neck out on a line without legal approval. However, let's put up a little scenario here:

....A customer has been purchasing physical music cds from Amazon for many, many, many years. As soon as he/she receives them, they unwrap each one from the case, rip each one to say an external hard drive and put each cd back in it's jewel case, leaving the music cds in "Like New" condition. As the years pass, the customer ends up with a library of roughly 1,000 cds. Let's say, one day this customer wakes up and decides he/she wants to sale their music cd collection and is also including the external hard drive (all legal back-up copies and nothing more). He/she is also deleting any other copies on any of their other devices he/she owns. Reason for selling? Maybe the need the money, don't really listen to music that much anymore or whatever reason it might be, they just want to sale them and are hoping to make back some of his/her investment.

....So, they wind up selling their collection for say $3.00 per cd and $100.00 for the drive for a total of $3,100.00 (1000 music cds and the external hard drive). Then one day they wake up, turn on their computer, log into their Amazon account and then "Bam" there's the Amazon Cloud loaded with all of their previously purchased albums in MP3 files. Obviously an honest person would delete all of the music but how many others would?

....The above mentioned isn't anything new but some people do go out and buy music cds or karaoke cdgs, rip them and then turn around and sale the physical discs and keep the ripped copies. Or even go further by making more copies and either selling or sharing them.

....I just figure one day we will see more subscription/cloud services pop up and none of this will even matter because for a subscription price, the customer will have access to thousands and thousands of songs. Just thought is was rather odd when I first saw this yesterday.

It's already here - Karaoke Cloud, the days of buying a physical CD of new music is almost over.

Hey Rick,
...I'm well aware of the Karaoke Cloud itself. Quoting myself here "...I just figure one day we will see more subscription/cloud services pop up and none of this will even matter because for a subscription price, the customer will have access to thousands and thousands of songs."

...For a few years now, many have said the end of the CD is near, I also assumed it would have been but here's a quote from the article...While much of the current tech coverage is focused on the latest in streaming music, including both radio services like Pandora, as well as on-demand options like Spotify, Boom says people still like to buy physical music. “It’s almost 50 percent of the music market in the U.S.,” he says. “Only in 2011 did digital overtake physical in the United States, and in many countries, physical still represents 70 to 80 percent of music being sold.” At Amazon, both the physical and digital music businesses continue to grow, he adds, but declined to provide specific numbers.

You're right madmusicone. I'll keep getting my primecuts on cd, even though the downloads are available., until they stop sending them. My kids, 26 and 20, think CDs are like kerosene lanterns.

I think you hit the nail on the head rick, it's all generational. Believe it or not some people still have the old 78 records, or 45's. It all depends with what you were raised with, and people getting back to the good old days. Usually those days were just like today, with time they just seem better. My kids wonder why I bother with hosting at all, they think I should just sit, that is something I will never do. Once you start setting then people want to put you on a shelf, or worse warehouse you in a home. Have a blessed day.