4 ms·

They used to say the same thing about PC games until Valve came along with Steam and made it easier and more convenient to buy games legally and install/keep th

They used to say the same thing about PC games until Valve came along with Steam and made it easier and more convenient to buy games legally and install/keep them updated and enjoy the network experience than it was to download them illegally and steal them. The music industry needs something they can really get behind that's good for both the consumer AND the publisher, and I don't think any of the services right now have really come out enough on top to say that's the one. I would say the big contenders right now are Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music. We'll have to see what happens.

mjevans 10y ago
The problem there is that what has been in the best interests of both the consumer AND the artist has been the death of the old, crooked, music /distribution/ industry. That used to be just because they were crooked and cooking the books (how else do you explain millions in sales again and again without any substantive profit to the artist to show for it); which is still true. What's true now is that they simply aren't necessary. Digital distribution offers a far more efficient and direct distribution method. Bringing this back to Valve; publishing physical copies of games/etc is now far more something to do for collectors as a bonus. Access to the games themselves are handled via Valve, GoG, humble 'indie' bundle, etc.
- FussyZeus 10y ago
  > The problem there is that what has been in the best interests of both the consumer AND the artist has been the death of the old, crooked, music /distribution/ industry. I don't suspect music distributors have much longer to go really.
vanderZwan 10y ago
What about bandcamp? A few weeks ago I discovered the Analog Africa label[0], which is all about old school afrobeats. The label lets me listen to any album for free on their bandcamp page, puts in effort to track down the original artists, write great liner notes and blog entries on the process[1], etc. I don't think I've spent as much money on music as I have on this label in ages. So yes, I'm very much agreeing with Gabe Newell's claim that piracy is a service problem. [0] http://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/ http://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/ [1] http://analogafrica.blogspot.com/?view=classic http://analogafrica.blogspot.com/?view=classic
- FussyZeus 10y ago
  It's a service problem that none of the current distributors of mainstream music seem willing to solve.
  - vanderZwan 10y ago
    They're just trying to milk the old model as long as possible while also having profits with the new one.
wanderr 10y ago
I'm not actually sure that Valve has solved that problem. I don't follow the video game industry very closely but a little googling turned up some articles claiming that game piracy is on the rise and represents a real threat to the industry...whether those are remotely accurate or not, I can't judge. It certainly wouldn't be the first time an industry made a lot of noise about how terrible everything is while actually thriving, so let's assume for the sake of argument that Valve has largely solved game piracy. I don't think the two are directly comparable, given that playing a game necessarily requires running code and games can easily require an Internet connection these days, in fact it seems like more and more popular games are online multi-player types. It is significantly easier to make it too hard to be worth pirating a game, so I would argue that Valve offers some nice carrots but the sticks are sufficiently pointy. Meanwhile, with music, all you need are the bits or the sounds which you can then turn back into slightly lower quality bits, I don't think there is a reasonable means to make pirating music more difficult.
deckard1 10y ago
Apples to oranges. PC gamers are tech savvy. They understand the real danger of running random crack.exe files and pirated software from the internet. You're not going to get a virus from playing an audio or video file. The value of services such as Spotify or SiriusXM is really dependent on listening habits. I drive very little, so no matter how cheap SiriusXM offers their service to me, it's still not worth it. And I love their service, too. It's a fantastic service. But it's not something I'm going to pay for.
- FussyZeus 10y ago
  PC gamers are not universally tech savvy, and cracking games (especially newer ones) usually involves a lot more than just running a cracked exe. Games that are licensed through Steam are exceptionally difficult to pirate. Not impossible, just difficult, and most gamers once they reach an age with disposable income would just as soon pay the $60 bucks and enjoy the multiplayer/ranking/etc. I agree on the second point, I have a 7 minute commute so a streaming service just isn't a huge thing for me. I'm a collector and my music tastes are admittedly fickle, so I stick to managing a library in an ownCloud instance that I control. It's just easier for me.

mjevans 10y ago

The problem there is that what has been in the best interests of both the consumer AND the artist has been the death of the old, crooked, music /distribution/ industry. That used to be just because they were crooked and cooking the books (how else do you explain millions in sales again and again without any substantive profit to the artist to show for it); which is still true. What's true now is that they simply aren't necessary. Digital distribution offers a far more efficient and direct distribution method. Bringing this back to Valve; publishing physical copies of games/etc is now far more something to do for collectors as a bonus. Access to the games themselves are handled via Valve, GoG, humble 'indie' bundle, etc.

FussyZeus 10y ago
> The problem there is that what has been in the best interests of both the consumer AND the artist has been the death of the old, crooked, music /distribution/ industry. I don't suspect music distributors have much longer to go really.

vanderZwan 10y ago

What about bandcamp? A few weeks ago I discovered the Analog Africa label[0], which is all about old school afrobeats. The label lets me listen to any album for free on their bandcamp page, puts in effort to track down the original artists, write great liner notes and blog entries on the process[1], etc. I don't think I've spent as much money on music as I have on this label in ages. So yes, I'm very much agreeing with Gabe Newell's claim that piracy is a service problem. [0] http://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/ http://analogafrica.bandcamp.com/ [1] http://analogafrica.blogspot.com/?view=classic http://analogafrica.blogspot.com/?view=classic

FussyZeus 10y ago
It's a service problem that none of the current distributors of mainstream music seem willing to solve.
- vanderZwan 10y ago
  They're just trying to milk the old model as long as possible while also having profits with the new one.

wanderr 10y ago

I'm not actually sure that Valve has solved that problem. I don't follow the video game industry very closely but a little googling turned up some articles claiming that game piracy is on the rise and represents a real threat to the industry...whether those are remotely accurate or not, I can't judge. It certainly wouldn't be the first time an industry made a lot of noise about how terrible everything is while actually thriving, so let's assume for the sake of argument that Valve has largely solved game piracy. I don't think the two are directly comparable, given that playing a game necessarily requires running code and games can easily require an Internet connection these days, in fact it seems like more and more popular games are online multi-player types. It is significantly easier to make it too hard to be worth pirating a game, so I would argue that Valve offers some nice carrots but the sticks are sufficiently pointy. Meanwhile, with music, all you need are the bits or the sounds which you can then turn back into slightly lower quality bits, I don't think there is a reasonable means to make pirating music more difficult.

deckard1 10y ago

Apples to oranges. PC gamers are tech savvy. They understand the real danger of running random crack.exe files and pirated software from the internet. You're not going to get a virus from playing an audio or video file. The value of services such as Spotify or SiriusXM is really dependent on listening habits. I drive very little, so no matter how cheap SiriusXM offers their service to me, it's still not worth it. And I love their service, too. It's a fantastic service. But it's not something I'm going to pay for.

FussyZeus 10y ago
PC gamers are not universally tech savvy, and cracking games (especially newer ones) usually involves a lot more than just running a cracked exe. Games that are licensed through Steam are exceptionally difficult to pirate. Not impossible, just difficult, and most gamers once they reach an age with disposable income would just as soon pay the $60 bucks and enjoy the multiplayer/ranking/etc. I agree on the second point, I have a 7 minute commute so a streaming service just isn't a huge thing for me. I'm a collector and my music tastes are admittedly fickle, so I stick to managing a library in an ownCloud instance that I control. It's just easier for me.