RIAA/MPAA – spin words, propaganda

You know what I love? The spin words “costing the industry”, “costing record companies”, etc. Why are they spin words? Cost implies they are actually paying something, or losing something they already had. In fact, it’s simply that they are not getting a piece of revenue. I realize this is semantic, but when it comes to things like these propaganda and PR are really what make or break it. I like to say “Record companies allege they would make an additional $x Billion were it not for file-sharing.”

…allege because the recording industry likes to pretend it is a constant that the people downloading mp3s would just as well purchase the music otherwise. (Obviously, because there’s no other way they are out any money – they didn’t produce the mp3s, they didn’t spend the time ripping cds, etc.) That’s not the case. A large portion of mp3 downloads are ’sample’, where a potential fan downloads a song to make a decision whether or not it’s worth listening to.

~ by wynneth on January 30, 2009.