larsinio’s logic

Hello brand new visitor, hope you become a resident!

This was way, way under the radar of all my readings, but apparently Google has teamed up with the Big Three music labels (Sony, BMG, Warner) to provide free music to Chinese internet users with the hope of recouping money via advertising revenue. China’s #1 search engine, Baidu already does this.

So why is this happening? Apparently people in China are so used to their free downloads of music, that they would never think of purchasing it! SO the labels apparently have no other course than to give it away! Won’t somebody please think of 50 cent’s children!

I have said often that, if the music labels would recover much more money by just trying to convert 1% of the Chinese music market into paying, legit customers they’d make so much more dinero than they would ever would going after Music Grabbin’ Granny, Leechin Lil’ Lisa, or Downloadin Dave… the Dog.

So you can check the site out here, you can look/search but can’t download. A few interesting observations:

• Guns n Roses  horrible new album “Chinese Democracy’ is not available
• Rage Against the Machine’s “Evil Empire” is available
• System of a Down’s “Steal this Album” is available
• Grateful Dead’s “China Cat Sunflower” is not available
  

Of course there could be a legal market in China and rampant marketplace piracy and bootlegs could be reduced. At the least a Canadian-style approach of taxing blank discs could be used to recoup lost revenue. But of course China, our most favoured trading partner, still doesn’t care about any sort of Intellectual property laws or patents. And for some reason, teh US doesn’t make an issue. Probably somethign to do with China buying all of our debt used to finance political wars and subsidize failed energy policies.

Of course this is also happening at the same time that Sweden launched the iPred system, enablign their equivelent of teh RIAA/MPAA to directly send fines to  people without need of any silly old legal system

In case you’re saying “Wow I dont want to be screwed over to help a soverign country!” Well guess what, what do you think the flushing out of all our domestic industries has helped us? Gee, I wonder.