And, the RIAA wonders why people pirate music. Well, here is an example of why.
During the 80s, Jon Anderson, best known for being the lead singer of Yes, and Vangelis, best known for writing Chariots of Fire had an occasional musical partnership. They produced only one truly memorable song, at least in my opinion, The Friends of Mr. Cairo.
For some reason, today I was struck by a desire to own a copy of this song. I am sort of an old fashioned sort, I prefer to buy music, but I love the modern ability to buy single songs as mp3s. No need to buy all the filler, just buy the songs you want.
Now, before going on, I should state that I am opposed to music piracy. Artists have a right to control how their output is distributed, and they certainly have a right to profit from their output...within reason. I like being able to buy single songs, because I own a lot of LP records from my youth, and a fairly large collection of CDs. I own a lot of crappy music. The crappy music I own is the filler in between the hits on a lot of the LPs, and a few of the CDs that I own. I also want to admit that I often enjoy some of the songs that are not hits on the albums I buy. I often find the hits too, I think the word I want is insipid, and feel that other songs are better examples of the artist's talent. I could quote examples, but the only one I can think of off the top of my head is City of Love from the Yes album 90125, which I like even better than their #1 hit, Owner of a Lonely Heart.
So, I do not mind when an artist, like Pink Floyd, actually attempts to control the rights to their music and enforce their right to sell their music as an album, rather than as a song. I feel like this is especially important for Pink Floyd, where most of their albums are concept albums, where the songs work together to tell a story or express a meaning larger than one song.
Okay, so back to The Friends of Mr. Cairo.
The song originally appeared on an album of the same name, which seems rather hard to find now. It also appears on a best of album of Jon and Vangelis, as the combined albums are attributed. So, I find that I can buy this album as mp3s, which I should be okay with, but....there is a difference this time.
The entire album, The Best of Jon and Vangelis, is available as an mp3 album for $9.49, which seems a little high, but then again, I feel that way about most ebooks too. The problem is that each of the other 8 songs on the album is available, individually, for 99 cents. 8 songs for 99 cents each, or $9.49 for the whole album. Now again, that does not sound too bad, but the problem is that the only way to get The Friends of Mr, Cairo is to pay for the whole album. If I want Italian Song (another song on the Best of album), 99 cents, but if I want The Friends of Mr. Cairo, $9.49 for the whole album.
And that is where I call cheap shot.
This is not about maintaining the integrity of a body of work. Heck, a best of album really isn't a body of work, it is the highlights of a body of work. If they had the album The Friends of Mr. Cairo, and none of the songs were available separately, and you had to buy the album to get any of the songs, then I could see it as an artist trying to maintain the integrity of body of work, but this is just a crass attempt to extort the public into paying more money. Essentially, you are paying $9.49 for one song. Yes, they are throwing in 8 more, but if you only wanted them, you could get them for only $7.92.
This makes me rethink my stance on piracy. I am still against it, but this sort of extortion is why people pirate music...well, at least some of them.
I would be happy to pay Jon and Vangelis for this song, but I am unwilling to pay this sort of price for 8 songs I do not want and the one I do. I will now go out of my way to ensure that I buy a used copy of the CD, so that none of my money will go to either of them. I will get what I really want, and the media will join my collection, but none of that money will go into the hands of the artists, or any of the middlemen.
This is my response to this extortion, others will probably jump on Torrent without a second thought, and I cannot say I blame them, in this case.
