Zorionak eta urte berri on danori!

Ultimo día de curro del año, ZORIONAK ETA URTE BERRI ON!

Why Most Artists Profit from Piracy

Piracy is not all that bad for musicians. In fact, research has shown that less popular artists actually profit from piracy. This can be concluded from, and is supported by several studies. Frustrated as they are, the music industry claims that they lose millions a year due to piracy, but is this really the case?

Two facts:

Album sales are declining.

75% of all artists profit from filesharing.

We will try to explain these two seemingly contradicting facts, and list three factors that may help us understand what’s going on…

Artists sell more albums thanks to piracy
Several studies have shown that most artists actually profit from unauthorized sharing of files. They sell more albums because people have the opportunity to download songs and entire albums for free. A study by Blackburn (2004), a PhD student from Harvard, found that the 75% of the artist actually profit from piracy. Blackburn reports that the most popular artist (top 25%) sell less records. However, the remaining 75% of all artists actually profit from filesharing. The same pattern was found by Pedersen (2006, see graph), who analyzed the change in royalties paid by the Nordisk Copyright Bureau between 2001 and 2005.

But why do these artists sell more? Well, there are a couple of possible explanations.

Music from highly popular artists is widely available on filesharing networks. If pirates mainly download albums from these artists, they will have more money left to buy albums of less popular artists.

People have the opportunity to discover new music for free. It is thus easier to find new, and less popular artists. It is likely that people will buy albums from these artists as well if they like what they hear.

It is not only piracy that makes it easier to discover new artists, social music services like Last.fm and Pandora also contribute to this phenomenon. The rise in income from concerts shows that the interest in music is increasing instead of declining.

LPs, CDs, DVDs and MP3s
The increased album sales in the late 90’s may very well have been caused, at least in part, by the shift from cassettes and LPs to CDs (and not just piracy!). CD players were getting more and more popular and a lot of people were exchanging their LP collections for CD collections. After 2000, CDs were not that special anymore, and the number of albums sold normalized (see graph below). It’s also likely that the decline in CD sales was influenced by the increased popularity of DVDs and MP3s.

This argument is also mentioned in a research paper by Hong (2004):

The results indicate that transition from LPs to CDs might describe the increase in music sales during the 1990’s.

And in a report from Pedersen (2006):

the period 1995-2000 represents a truly unique situation in the modern history of Danish record sales and 10 million units sold in 2004 is more likely a return to regular conditions than a sign of crisis.

This graph plots the number of albums sold in Denmark, and shows that the decline in sales after 2000 is not that special, but the uprise in the late 90’s is (Source: Pedersen, 2006).

The Internet is changing the way people experience music
Like we mentioned before, the Internet opened up a ton of possibilities for people to discover new artists and music. Not only illegal downloads, but also legal downloads, or paid downloads with the possibility to preview songs make it easier to discover new artists.

Social communities, and music services like Last.fm and Pandora also play a big role in the evolution of our music experience. Before the Internet, people had only a few possibilities to discover new music. Friends, radio stations and record stores are three of them, where the last two are in part sponsored by the marketing campaigns of the music industry. Today people are less dependent on what the music industry is campaigning for.

Wait a minute… the music industry and the RIAA always say that they are losing huge amounts of money because of filesharing. Isn’t this true?
Well, the fact is that there are less albums sold in total compared to some of the years when album sales were booming. However, it is hard to attribute this decline in sales to piracy (alone). From the research that has been done on this topic we can conclude that the effect of piracy on the music industry’s lost income lies somewhere between 0 and 30% (of the decline in sales, not of the sales in total). Pollock (2006) gives a comprehensive overview of these studies and concludes:

The basic result is that online illegal file-sharing probably has some negative impact on traditional sales but the effect is appears to be quite small. The size of this effect is debated, and ranges from 0 to 100% of the sales decline in recent years, but a figure of between 0 and 30% would be a reasonable consensus value (i.e. that file-sharing accounted for 0-30% of the decline in sales not a 0-30% decline in sales). At the same time there is still substantial disagreement in the literature with the most impressive paper to date (Oberholzer and Strumpf 2005) estimating no impact from file-sharing.

One of the things we can be pretty sure of is that the music industry is starting to lose control over their customers. A great deal of their income was generated by overly promoted albums and artists. It are those artists and albums that suffer the most from piracy. It gets harder and harder for the music industry to market artists to the top position of the charts now the customers heva all kinds of alternative ways to discover new music.

In conclusion we could say that music is more alive than ever before, that piracy is a tool to build a fanbase, and that the times when the music industry could dictate what we were listening to are over.

And that’s a good thing…

La batidora definitiva

Los pronósticos de Othar

Vemos que Othar se va desviando de los resultados aunque en los puntos acumulados no va tan descaminado:

Real Madrid—Athletic 0 8

Athletic—Recreativo 3 11

Deportivo—Athletic 0 11

Athletic—Zaragoza 3 14

Mallorca—Athletic 1 15

Athletic—Villarreal 3 18

Levante—Athletic 0 18


TOTAL......1ª Vuelta 18 Puntos
=======

2ª Vuelta


R. Sociedad—Athletic 1 19

Athletic—Betis 3 22

Atlético—Athletic 0 22

Athletic—Getafe 3 25

Barcelona—Athletic 0 25

Athletic—Nástic 3 28

Celta—Athletic 0 28

Athletic—Osasuna 3 31

Racing—Athletic 1 32

Athletic—Valencia 1 33

Athletic—Español 3 36

Sevilla—Athletic 0 36

Athletic—Real Madrid 0 36

Recreativo—Athletic 1 37

Athletic—Deportivo 1 38

Zaragoza—Athletic 0 38

Athletic—Mallorca 3 41

Villareal—Athletic 0 41

Athletic—Levante 3 44


TOTAL......2ª Vuelta 26 Puntos
=======

Se tinto

Parodia de vaya semanita del anuncio de BMW con Bruce Lee

Señoras y Señores...ISMAEL URZAIZ

BRICOMANIA: Achicharra tu iPod

BRICOMANIA: Taladra tu portátil

Lauren Postigo

No es que tuviera un especial aprecio a Lauren Postigo, pero gracias a él pudimos disfrutar de este sketch de Martes y Trece, y ahora que Lauren ha muerto sirva como homenaje.

Que te pudras CABRÓN

"Sigan ustedes sabiendo que, mucho más temprano que tarde, de nuevo abrirán las grandes alamedas por donde pase el hombre libre para construir una sociedad mejor."

Los pedos de una mujer obligan a un avión a hacer un aterrizaje de emergencia

06.12.06

Ni por llevar explosivos en la suela de los zapatos, ni por transportar líquidos en el equipaje de mano. El último incidente aereo ha tenido como protagonista algo tan "natural" como los gases, flatulencias, pedos,… o como queramos llamarlos.

La psicosis aeronáutica de los estadounidenses está tan extendida que ha llegado a influir en algo tan puramente fisiológico como lo es deponer tranquilamente, aunque sea en los angostos cubículos de los aviones.

El caso es real: un inoportuno ataque de flatulencias y el pudor de la pasajera que lo sufrió ha obligado a un avión de American Airlines a aterrizar de emergencia en el aeropuerto de Nashville (Tennessee).

Varios pasajeros del avión, que volaba de Washington a Dallas (Texas), comenzaron a sentir olor a fósforos quemados y se desató la alarma, por lo que el piloto decidió aterrizar en Nashville.

Los 99 pasajeros y los cinco miembros de la tripulación fueron desalojados del avión, al igual que todo el equipaje, para hacer una inspección, en la que los perros de la policía detectaron los fósforos quemados dentro del aparato.

Tras interrogar a una pasajera, esta reconoció haber encendido las cerillas para ocultar el hedor de sus flatulencias y que aseguró tener problemas médicos.

El vuelo despegó de nuevo, pero dejó a la mujer en tierra.

El FBI y la Administración de Seguridad en Transportes han intervenido en la "emergencia" y la compañía American Airlines ha prohibido a la mujer volver a volar con la aerolínea "durante mucho tiempo".

Los pronósticos de Othar

Semana a semana repasaremos los pronósticos de Othar:

Real Madrid—Athletic 0 8

Athletic—Recreativo 3 11

Deportivo—Athletic 0 11

Athletic—Zaragoza 3 14

Mallorca—Athletic 1 15

Athletic—Villarreal 3 18

Levante—Athletic 0 18


TOTAL......1ª Vuelta 18 Puntos
=======

2ª Vuelta


R. Sociedad—Athletic 1 19

Athletic—Betis 3 22

Atlético—Athletic 0 22

Athletic—Getafe 3 25

Barcelona—Athletic 0 25

Athletic—Nástic 3 28

Celta—Athletic 0 28

Athletic—Osasuna 3 31

Racing—Athletic 1 32

Athletic—Valencia 1 33

Athletic—Español 3 36

Sevilla—Athletic 0 36

Athletic—Real Madrid 0 36

Recreativo—Athletic 1 37

Athletic—Deportivo 1 38

Zaragoza—Athletic 0 38

Athletic—Mallorca 3 41

Villareal—Athletic 0 41

Athletic—Levante 3 44


TOTAL......2ª Vuelta 26 Puntos
=======

SparkingToys

SparkingToys será la banda revelación del 2007, verdad Evskis?.

Por fin victoria en San Mamés!!

Por fin el Athletic ganó en San Mamés, 4-2 al Recre, revelación de la temporada. Dos golazos de Urzaiz más dos ayuditas del Recre y la cagada habitual de Sarriegi, que cada vez que mete gol en propia meta gana el Athletic.

Tatuate el nº PI

Un friki que se ha tatuado el nº PI en el brazo.

Supergrass - Alright

Buckcherry - Borderline

Dance with me people
Yeah
The canvas of an open mind
Well it makes a good mold
I'm taking off on you this time
Don't be late for the show
We're always laughing and singing and groovin and loving and reaching for more
I can't sleep on it tonight
But tomorrow will bring more
You know what I'm talking about
Now here we go

CHORUS
So come and ride
On the borderline
The timing's right
Are you satisfied

I thought about a time away
And I'm taking it slow
It's hard to break away from loving when it feels so good
We're always laughing and singing and grooving and loving and reaching for more
I cannot sleep on it tonight
But tomorrow will bring more
And he always loves you all, come on now

So come and ride
On the borderline
The timing's right
Are you satisfied
Are you satisfied

SOLO

Alright
Yeah
Alright
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Done so much living, baby
All the way to top we go
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Done so much living, baby
All the way to top
When you love, yeah
When you love, yeah
Well you always gotta give back to love
When you love, yeah
When you love, yeah
Well you always gotta give back to love

So come and ride
On the borderline
The timing's right
Are you satisfied
Talk to me now
So come ride
On the borderline
The timing's right
Are you satsified....

Orbaiz adios a la temporada

Pablo Orbaiz dice adios a la temporada, fué la parte más negativa del partido de ayer donde el athletic dió una buena imagen. Espero que los dirigentes del club reaccionen rápido y no se les ocurra cargar a Murillo con el curro de Orbaiz.

No puedo de creello!!!

Dando una vuelta por no me puedo creer que lo hayan inventado me he encontrado con estas cosillas:

Arbol de navidad invertido, el anticristo!!!!!


Exprime limón de diseño ideal para no salpicar a los vecinos de mesa.


Almohadas dispensa kleenex, quien no ha echado de menos algo así esas noches de trancazo y chorreo de mocos?

Gana Chavez

Ayer aterrizaba mi hermano en Caracas en pleno extasis chavista, todavía no tengo noticias de él, igual se dejaron llevar por la marea roja y están de celebración.