Francis Ford Coppola: "Who Says Artists Have to Make Money?"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 31st Jan 2011 15:32 UTC
Multimedia, AV Francis Ford Coppola is one of the most prestigious and critically acclaimed directors in cinematographic history. He directed, among others, the Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, and has won so many awards it's hard to keep track. In an interview with 99%, he touched on the subject of art and making money, and his musings are fascinating, and yet another indication that the times are changing in the content industry. "Who says artists have to make money?" Coppola wonders.
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jgagnon
Member since:
2008-06-24

Because people paid for vinyl to get the songs that they could play when they wanted to. Those that thought it was too much, stuck with listening to the radio. Today you have a different arena. Music and other entertainment is available from many sources. People can "shop around" and get what they want, sometimes even legally for "free" (to them).

If it costs you $20 for a CD from a store or you can buy it online for $12, there are a lot of people that would go with the online version. Better yet, get a subscription to some online radio-like product and get the songs you want whenever you want them, without having to buy a new CD every week or so. A similar inconvenience can be avoided online by only buying the songs you actually like instead of a CD of 12 songs and only 3 that you like.

If you want to put some blame somewhere, blame the clueless music powerhouses that seem to only be interested in selling products people no longer want. People want to be able to buy their music once and listen to it in any way they see fit, not having to pay for it again and again for every device and day of the week. The music industry would never have tried that in the vinyl days (Please sir/madame, buy one record for every record player in your house!). The Internet didn't create piracy, it just made a way for people to get what they wanted, not paying was just a side-effect (desirable by some/many, for sure).

The success of iTunes, Amazon, and other non-DRM music stores should be reason enough for the industry folks to realize that people want, and will pay for, the "buy once, play anywhere" model. Many people will pay for the right product even if the "illegal" free option is available. I'm one of those people and most of the people I know are, too.

Reply Parent Score: 2

kuraegomon Member since:
2009-01-05

And the first person to mention paying once for media in this reply thread was ...?

Reply Parent Score: 1

Moredhas Member since:
2008-04-10

Exactly right, the internet didn't invent piracy. My family were pirating music LONG before the internet came along. Well, it would be called piracy now, anyway. They'd buy the CD and then record it onto a cassette for the car. Hell, most stereos came with that as a listed feature!

The legal ground is a little more questionable when we'd buy CDs and give people cassette copies of them in exchange for cassettes of CDs they'd bought. ;)

Reply Parent Score: 4

lucas_maximus Member since:
2009-08-18

That is fair use in the U.K. , you can make as many copies as you like for yourself.

Reply Parent Score: 2

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