3 ms·

Napster launched in 1999, The Pirate Bay launched in 2003, Spotify only launched internationally in 2010 / 2011. There's been a decade without proper legal opti

Napster launched in 1999, The Pirate Bay launched in 2003, Spotify only launched internationally in 2010 / 2011. There's been a decade without proper legal options to get music. Buying CDs wasn't a reasonable choice anymore in the digital age, CDs were outdated and not fit in the age where people could buy portable mp3 players. The music industry was beyond late, they were a full decade late to the party and paid the price for it. It was the same for movies for even a longer time until Netflix caught up, personally I couldn't buy the movies or series I wanted at the time, it wasn't available anywhere.

cubefox 3y ago
> Napster launched in 1999, The Pirate Bay launched in 2003, Spotify only launched internationally in 2010 / 2011. There's been a decade without proper legal options to get music. That's simply false, iTunes launched in 2001.
- realusername 3y ago
  Yes I know, I specifically avoided to talk about it since it did not really meet the demand at the time. The catalog was too small and DRMs were not removable at the time (until 2009) so it was pretty much useless for an mp3 player. I still give it to iTunes, it was the only legal place to buy music for the longest time even if it was limited. Also the Windows version and the music store only launched in 2003.
  - cubefox 3y ago
    Steam DRM (video games) is also not removable. And iTunes music did work on iPods. The main issue was that most people filled their iPods with pirated music instead.
    - realusername 3y ago
      But Steam games do work straight away on your computer, iTunes DRM music did not work on your average mp3 player everybody had. It's not like you could do something about it, it just refused to play it, I know, I had one. And if you're asking customers to pay money to get the legal music and then download a DRM removal software from some Russian website to be able to listen to it (that might existed at the time, I don't remember), well that's even more hassle than piracy. Even Apple themselves noticed the problem but a little too late, by then Spotify was already starting to spread.
      - cubefox 3y ago
        Even iPod owners filled their hard drives with pirated MP3s. And every smartphone can support any DRM music software just as much as every PC can support something like Steam. The admissable reasons for piracy have long ceased to exist, yet people still don't like to pay for music. The revenue is still not on 1999 levels. It should be much higher by now if piracy wasn't a possibility.
        realusername 3y ago
        As much iPods were a commercial success, they were absolutely dwarfed more than 10 to 1 by the number of standard mp3 players and those could not read DRM music at all. Out of my whole high school, you only had maybe one or two guys with a real iPod and thousands of mp3 players. They were much cheaper to buy and even easier to use. And not sure why you bring smartphones, by the time modern smartphones were popular in the 2010s, people were using Spotify already. > The revenue is still not on 1999 levels. It should be much higher by now if piracy wasn't a possibility. Music piracy is at its lowest now it has ever been since the 80s.
- zirgs 3y ago
  iTunes only launched in 2011/2012 in Eastern Europe and many other countries. Before that the only way to get music digitally was to download it from P2P networks.
  - cubefox 3y ago
    And of course in 2012, Eastern Europeans started to pay for their music, right? No? Maybe they were pirating it because piracy is free.
    - zirgs 3y ago
      A lot of them - me included -started to use Spotify, because it is cheap and convenient. It really converted lots of pirates to paying customers. There simply was no legal option to buy music digitally before that. CDs were overpriced and inconvenient.

cubefox 3y ago

> Napster launched in 1999, The Pirate Bay launched in 2003, Spotify only launched internationally in 2010 / 2011. There's been a decade without proper legal options to get music. That's simply false, iTunes launched in 2001.

realusername 3y ago
Yes I know, I specifically avoided to talk about it since it did not really meet the demand at the time. The catalog was too small and DRMs were not removable at the time (until 2009) so it was pretty much useless for an mp3 player. I still give it to iTunes, it was the only legal place to buy music for the longest time even if it was limited. Also the Windows version and the music store only launched in 2003.
- cubefox 3y ago
  Steam DRM (video games) is also not removable. And iTunes music did work on iPods. The main issue was that most people filled their iPods with pirated music instead.
  - realusername 3y ago
    But Steam games do work straight away on your computer, iTunes DRM music did not work on your average mp3 player everybody had. It's not like you could do something about it, it just refused to play it, I know, I had one. And if you're asking customers to pay money to get the legal music and then download a DRM removal software from some Russian website to be able to listen to it (that might existed at the time, I don't remember), well that's even more hassle than piracy. Even Apple themselves noticed the problem but a little too late, by then Spotify was already starting to spread.
    - cubefox 3y ago
      Even iPod owners filled their hard drives with pirated MP3s. And every smartphone can support any DRM music software just as much as every PC can support something like Steam. The admissable reasons for piracy have long ceased to exist, yet people still don't like to pay for music. The revenue is still not on 1999 levels. It should be much higher by now if piracy wasn't a possibility.
      - realusername 3y ago
        As much iPods were a commercial success, they were absolutely dwarfed more than 10 to 1 by the number of standard mp3 players and those could not read DRM music at all. Out of my whole high school, you only had maybe one or two guys with a real iPod and thousands of mp3 players. They were much cheaper to buy and even easier to use. And not sure why you bring smartphones, by the time modern smartphones were popular in the 2010s, people were using Spotify already. > The revenue is still not on 1999 levels. It should be much higher by now if piracy wasn't a possibility. Music piracy is at its lowest now it has ever been since the 80s.
zirgs 3y ago
iTunes only launched in 2011/2012 in Eastern Europe and many other countries. Before that the only way to get music digitally was to download it from P2P networks.
- cubefox 3y ago
  And of course in 2012, Eastern Europeans started to pay for their music, right? No? Maybe they were pirating it because piracy is free.
  - zirgs 3y ago
    A lot of them - me included -started to use Spotify, because it is cheap and convenient. It really converted lots of pirates to paying customers. There simply was no legal option to buy music digitally before that. CDs were overpriced and inconvenient.