Saturday, December 5, 2009

Best Letter Of The Year

Taken from the January 2010 issue of MOJO:


16 comments:

Anonymous said...

This guy sounds like a smart guy!

"Shorty" Zax

cmealha said...

Tell the truth. Are you Anon?

Sal Nunziato said...

I am not ANON. The letter would have been rife with profanities if I was.

John Rosenfelder said...

the elaborate rationalization of a THIEF.

unreleased material - do artists have the right to control what is marketed? do labels have the right to keep the amount of titles scarce? is there an aesthetic benefit to the fans?

reissues in different configurations - what about people who haven't been fans for forty years? what about new devices?

high prices - just because he can't afford something doesn't mean you can steal it. the marketplace determines prices. should a beatles cd cost less or more than terminator 2 on dvd, a $9 mojo magazine, etc?

i could go on. i'm a fan but i'm in the music business too. this dude's a thief and there's no excuse for that. go to the library.

don't hate the player nor the game. the music business has been better for america than most. where is the rancor about the oil or banking business? or food? come on folks.

soundsource said...

right on brother right on

Sal Nunziato said...

It's a shame this guy admitted to stealing. Hard to justify any of his points, of which he makes a few good ones.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with this guy.

Record companies are desperate for cash any way they can get it.

reissue, repackage, resell. to that same fucking people. over and over and over again. Do you really think more than a sliver of a percent of the purchasers of the Beatles boxes were under the age of 35? its the same people that bought the albums in the first place.

Hey labels, how about doing what you were there to do in the first place, find some NEW talent, develop it, record it, promote and get it out there. Stop reselling us the same shit.

The record companies think they have a license to steal, so now this guy has given himself license to steal too. an eye for an eye.

Two wrongs dont make a right, but you cant deny the points he makes.

Sal Nunziato said...

"should a beatles cd cost less or more than terminator 2 on dvd, a $9 mojo magazine, etc?"

Something came to mind when reading this. Back in the dark ages of VHS, a friend managed a video store and I of course became a collector. At the time, I had been waiting patiently for the release of Coppola's notorious bomb, "One From The Heart," which is still a personal fave. My friend said it was a $79.99 list price. I thought that was odd. No one cared anout this movie. Wouldn't it make sense that such a bomb should sell for $19.99, while a blockbuster like E.T. should sell for $79.99?

His answer, "No. Columbia Pictures wants to make back some of the money it lost on the shit movie, knowing full well EVERY VIDEO store will buy at least one."

Sounds a bit slimy. And while there's nothing to justify stealing, there seems to be so little to say in defense of the labels.

Anonymous said...

sal you don't take into account that one from the heart was no indie film but a big budget flop produced by francis ford coppola. they had the right to try to recoup.

as far as mr. anonymous, just because there is a new configuration, you don't have to buy it.

if you aren't willing to pay for the beatles, the best band ever, or pay a premium for obscurities like one from the heart, how can the music business possibly be profitable?

forget about all the other types of businesses. i challenge mr. anonymous and sal to steal from concert promoters like he is stealing files.

again, where is the rancor about live nation or ticketmaster and the exorbitant concert prices?

it is very difficult to make money in the music business, even in the heyday. why do you think ahmet ertegun is famous? he's the only record guy w/a 50 year career!

it's a low margin business with a ton of failure. again, what other businesses would you deny survival to?

f you mr. anonymous.

Sal Nunziato said...

New Anonymous,

I never said "STEAL FILES!" I paid for BOTH Beatles boxes and would have paid for both if each was $100 more expensive."

As for "One From The Heart," that was one example of many.

Tickets for Eric Clapton & Jeff Beck at MSG go onsale tomorrow, with the top ticket price at $254, not including service fees. We could go on and on about the raping of the fan, but let's face it, no one complains when they have the money.

Again, I do NOT condone stealing, I simply understand. I watched my successful retail business get squashed to nothing because CDs became too expensive and illegal downloading became too easy. I'd like it all back.

John Rosenfelder said...

hey sal i was the second anonymous but hit send in a pique of rage about the looting of the record biz by haters.

it's all overpriced, no question. i'm particularly pissed at the yankees myself.

the library is still a legal solution to folks on the struggle.

Anonymous said...

Low Margin Business mr second anon???

you clearly don't know the business, do you realize what the markup was on CDs during the 1990s?? then people startted buyin less CDs, so what do they do? raise the price more!!

the reality is, record companies don't do what they were started for, they are now desperate for cash and are ripping off loyal fans. kids arent buying music like you did, old people like you and I are buying music. Thats not a profitable business plan, is it?

and your comments about complaining about the concert business, and oil, banking, etc just tells me that you are diverting the issue because you have no answer --

"why dont you complain about other bad people and leave my bad people alone?"

John Rosenfelder said...

no my point is there's nothing wrong with trying to earn a profit, whether it was in the 90s or currently. obviously, it's much different now.

even in the 90s, however, most releases were not profitable.

there are a ton of arguments. if you think the price is too high, theft is not the answer. go to a library or save up.

are you happy now we are back on the original topic. if you don't want a new configuration, keep listening to 45s, 78s, etc. are cds and mp3s an improvement or just a way to make money?

whatever the case, i'm not a petty crook like you.

FD13NYC said...

Oh stop with this honest and righteous bullshit. There are millions of "petty crooks" out there downloading music simply because they can, because it's available.

Whether you can or can't afford music to buy for yourself, when it's offered to you for free on a silver platter (pardon the pun) it's up to the person and their conscience to take advantage of the situation.

Now let's all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

John Dillinger's ghost

soundsource said...

it's a great letter but i'm responding to something else that mr. wood has not posted yet but may soon. on a momentous night in american cultural history both bruce "The Boss" Springsteen and Mel "The 2000 Year Old Man" Brooks were both inducted into some national Kennedy Arts Something. And for good measure the threw in De Niro and Dave Brubeck and some opera broad. But really two cultural icons like "da boss" and der two thousnd year old man on one night......it's almost as big as the remastered Beatles CD's. what do you think they talked about.....wish i was some dandruff on mel Brooks shoulder. the mind reels.

Noam Sane said...

I'm pretty much in agreement with this letter. CDs turned into this huge scam and that's where I parted ways with the record industry; I too bought 45s, LPs, EPs, 8-tracks, cassettes (which were the biggest rip-off of all; cheap crap generally), then CDs, then GOLD CDs! Direct from master (which is how it should have been done in the first place, rather than jacking up the already ridiculous price another $10)...and so on. Fuck it. I still buy plenty of stuff, but I have absolutely zero guilt about downloading and you can call me any name you want.

The world is a maelstrom of change; the old paradigm is gone.
Nobody is guaranteed anything, especially bloated income for jobs that contribute little or nothing to making the world better.