1 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:07,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios, 2 00:00:07,320 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 4 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:18,759 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and I heart Radio and I love 5 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:21,799 Speaker 1: all things tech. And we have done it. We have 6 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:26,799 Speaker 1: reached the ultimate episode of our relationship with media and 7 00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:31,000 Speaker 1: its evolution over the years. Episode seven of that arc. 8 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:34,360 Speaker 1: And uh. When I started down this path, I was 9 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,080 Speaker 1: thinking it might be a three or four part series 10 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:39,520 Speaker 1: and here we are at episode seven, so let's get 11 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:42,880 Speaker 1: right into it now. In the last episode, I talked 12 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,680 Speaker 1: about the development of the MP three compression format, which 13 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:50,760 Speaker 1: would have an enormous impact on both technology and culture, 14 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:53,760 Speaker 1: as well as business. As it turns out, the MP 15 00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: three format is a lossy format that means you lose 16 00:00:57,120 --> 00:00:59,800 Speaker 1: a bit of the information in the original file as 17 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:02,800 Speaker 1: you compress it down, and that means when you decompress it, 18 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: when you expand it back to its regular size later on, 19 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:08,800 Speaker 1: you actually don't have the full file. Some of that 20 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:12,679 Speaker 1: information is just gone now. The goal of the MP 21 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:16,240 Speaker 1: three compression format is to only cut information that doesn't 22 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:20,680 Speaker 1: affect the quality of the ultimate sound, but that depends 23 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,800 Speaker 1: not just on the compression algorithm, but also the sample 24 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:26,000 Speaker 1: rate and the bit depth that you select as you 25 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,520 Speaker 1: compress stuff. As you use the the encoders, typically you 26 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:34,800 Speaker 1: can set these features and you can use you know, 27 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 1: more compression, which means you're going to have UH files 28 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: that are of a smaller size. They're easier to handle, 29 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:44,920 Speaker 1: but they also have more likelihood to have some artifacts 30 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,960 Speaker 1: and distortion in them, or clipping or other elements that 31 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:53,200 Speaker 1: indicate that, yeah, you really compress that file. Now, a 32 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:56,400 Speaker 1: few things helped make the MP three and other compressed 33 00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: audio file formats and enormous success. They weren't huge successes 34 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:03,320 Speaker 1: right out of the gate, but it took a little 35 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:05,960 Speaker 1: time and then once it got to a certain level, 36 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:08,920 Speaker 1: they really took off. The first thing that helped was 37 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,040 Speaker 1: that Internet download throughput was slowly on the rise, meaning 38 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:15,239 Speaker 1: it wouldn't take a full day to download a song 39 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: or anything like back in the old days when we 40 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:20,080 Speaker 1: were all using dial up and we had very slow modems, 41 00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 1: it took ages just to download a small file. You 42 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,480 Speaker 1: wouldn't even dream of trying to tackle something like a 43 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:29,400 Speaker 1: raw audio file, even the compressed one would have taken 44 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 1: quite some time. The second element that really helped was 45 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:36,519 Speaker 1: that hard drive storage space was also climbing, so you 46 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,760 Speaker 1: could fit more files onto your hard drive because the 47 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:43,840 Speaker 1: hard drives were getting higher in capacity. Some MP three 48 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:47,480 Speaker 1: players that came along later on after the MP three 49 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:51,440 Speaker 1: format had been settled, actually had physical hard drives in them. 50 00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:54,920 Speaker 1: They had tiny hard drive platters that actually moved inside 51 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:59,800 Speaker 1: the portable player. Actually had a creative zen player that 52 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:02,560 Speaker 1: was like that is a bit of a brick. It 53 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:05,639 Speaker 1: was heavy and it was a little bulky, largely because 54 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:08,600 Speaker 1: it was housing a physical hard drive. Later on, most 55 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: of these players would switch over to solid state drives. 56 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:15,919 Speaker 1: Those are faster, they're lighter, and you don't have to 57 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: worry about physical moving components with those. The third factor 58 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:21,799 Speaker 1: that made a big impact on the MP three success 59 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:25,840 Speaker 1: was that the compressed files worked well with both both 60 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: of those first two factors. The first two things uh 61 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: complimented the MP three the file sizes. The MP three's 62 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,520 Speaker 1: were smaller than the raw audio files, so they didn't 63 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,040 Speaker 1: take as much time to transfer over the Internet, and 64 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: they took up less hard drive space, which meant that 65 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:43,840 Speaker 1: consumers had a chance to carry around an entire music 66 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:48,160 Speaker 1: library on a portable device. You might be able to 67 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,840 Speaker 1: have a few CDs in your car and thus have 68 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: a selection of maybe a dozen different albums, but on 69 00:03:56,320 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: a portable MP three player of a sufficient hard drive size, 70 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 1: you could have hundreds of songs on there, So it 71 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:05,720 Speaker 1: really changed the game that way. Then there were the 72 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:10,320 Speaker 1: sharing services like Napster and Khaza and lime wire and 73 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 1: numerous others. These were the bane of the recording industry, 74 00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,760 Speaker 1: and they led to some pretty high profile draconian lawsuits 75 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:21,200 Speaker 1: that I'll talk about a bit later in this episode. 76 00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:25,320 Speaker 1: The services enabled users to share copies of files with 77 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:29,360 Speaker 1: each other, and they very quickly became the trading grounds 78 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:34,760 Speaker 1: for copyrighted material, sometimes unreleased copyrighted material, So stuff was 79 00:04:35,279 --> 00:04:39,080 Speaker 1: leaking on the Internet before it could get officially published 80 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:41,920 Speaker 1: as c ds. So instead of going out and buying 81 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:44,320 Speaker 1: a CD and ripping it on a computer to put 82 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,480 Speaker 1: songs on an MP three player, or buying a song 83 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:50,000 Speaker 1: off an online store like iTunes, which came a little 84 00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:53,719 Speaker 1: bit later, people were instead downloading client software to connect 85 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:56,320 Speaker 1: to peer to peer networks and to grab that stuff 86 00:04:56,320 --> 00:04:59,280 Speaker 1: for free. And along the way they risked pulling down 87 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 1: some nasty computer viruses and other malware, because not everything 88 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:06,279 Speaker 1: was what it claimed to be on those services. You 89 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:09,200 Speaker 1: might think, oh, there's the new Bruce Springsteen album. I'm 90 00:05:09,240 --> 00:05:11,280 Speaker 1: just going to download it, and it turns out that 91 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:13,839 Speaker 1: it's a trojan horse for some sort of malware that 92 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: you're completely unaware of. It was not unusual in those 93 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: days to download a file and then try to play 94 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:21,800 Speaker 1: it so you can listen to the music and nothing 95 00:05:22,080 --> 00:05:24,320 Speaker 1: seems to happen, and you might think, oh, it's a 96 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: corrupted file. The download didn't happen properly. It could also 97 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:30,880 Speaker 1: be that it was actually malware, So that was a 98 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:34,360 Speaker 1: risk you had to take um and hopefully you were 99 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:36,800 Speaker 1: at least aware of that risk if you were engaged 100 00:05:36,839 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 1: in that behavior. Now, some people became obsessed with collecting 101 00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:45,719 Speaker 1: music files. They established enormous digital music libraries of their own. 102 00:05:45,839 --> 00:05:49,080 Speaker 1: Sometimes they'd even download stuff they never really planned to 103 00:05:49,160 --> 00:05:52,160 Speaker 1: listen to, just so that they could have it. And 104 00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,840 Speaker 1: people were purchasing fewer CDs, and that was a huge 105 00:05:56,000 --> 00:05:59,200 Speaker 1: blow to the recording industry. There were multiple reasons for that, 106 00:05:59,279 --> 00:06:01,240 Speaker 1: and again I'll talk about that a little bit more 107 00:06:01,279 --> 00:06:04,800 Speaker 1: in depth later on, but this was this was a 108 00:06:04,839 --> 00:06:09,800 Speaker 1: scary thing for record labels because the profit margin for 109 00:06:09,839 --> 00:06:13,120 Speaker 1: CDs was really good. You know, the CDs were cheap 110 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:16,360 Speaker 1: to manufacture, you could sell them for a really good profit, 111 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:20,039 Speaker 1: and companies obviously did not want that cash cow to 112 00:06:20,080 --> 00:06:24,040 Speaker 1: go away. So when they started seeing that trend on 113 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:27,680 Speaker 1: the decline, companies really freaked out. And there were a 114 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: lot of different reasons that contributed to that decline, but 115 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:34,880 Speaker 1: the company seemed to really focus on piracy as being 116 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:39,440 Speaker 1: the one main reason for that happening. Worse than that, 117 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:42,520 Speaker 1: companies started seeing those albums get leaked, like I said, 118 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:45,520 Speaker 1: before they could even publish them, and they were wondering, 119 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,320 Speaker 1: how is this happening? How can these songs that haven't 120 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:52,240 Speaker 1: even published, they haven't played on the radio, they shouldn't 121 00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: really be outside the control of the company. How are 122 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:58,839 Speaker 1: they getting out to get leaked onto these services? Because 123 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:01,640 Speaker 1: people were downloading the late songs from artists days or 124 00:07:01,680 --> 00:07:04,960 Speaker 1: sometimes even weeks before the album would actually drop. The 125 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 1: New Yorker did a profile on someone responsible for thousands 126 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:10,920 Speaker 1: of leaks. He was not the only one, but this 127 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:13,160 Speaker 1: is a representation of what was going on. It was 128 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:16,040 Speaker 1: a guy named Dell Glover. He was working at a 129 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: PolyGram c D manufacturing facility in the Carolinas, and Glover 130 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,640 Speaker 1: claimed he never personally smuggled any of those production CDs 131 00:07:23,720 --> 00:07:26,040 Speaker 1: out of the facility, but he had a network of 132 00:07:26,080 --> 00:07:29,080 Speaker 1: employees who would do that for them for him, So 133 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:32,520 Speaker 1: he would, you know, rely on these people to smuggle 134 00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:37,120 Speaker 1: up brand new CDs that were being produced but not 135 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:40,000 Speaker 1: yet being sold. One of the ways they would do 136 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:43,240 Speaker 1: this is they would commonly produce more CDs than they 137 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:46,480 Speaker 1: actually needed for an order, because sometimes you know, you 138 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:50,840 Speaker 1: have irregular CDs that are pressed something there might be 139 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:55,000 Speaker 1: some manufacturing error, something is affecting the quality, uh, And 140 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:57,520 Speaker 1: sometimes he would just end up with extras anyway. And 141 00:07:57,560 --> 00:07:59,840 Speaker 1: those extras were always meant to go through a shredder 142 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:03,360 Speaker 1: so that the material could be destroyed and then recycled. 143 00:08:03,840 --> 00:08:08,800 Speaker 1: But you could just secretly, you know, hide one of 144 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:12,200 Speaker 1: those CDs on your person while you're taking all the 145 00:08:12,240 --> 00:08:14,119 Speaker 1: rest of the shutter because no one was keeping track 146 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,600 Speaker 1: of the shredded disks. So if you did it and 147 00:08:18,680 --> 00:08:21,000 Speaker 1: you were careful and you didn't get caught, you could 148 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,360 Speaker 1: stand to gain from that. So Glover would take the 149 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:26,880 Speaker 1: smuggled disks home and then he would rip the music 150 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:29,640 Speaker 1: off of them using his computer and upload the files 151 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:32,720 Speaker 1: to a ringleader of a piracy ring, who then made 152 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:35,960 Speaker 1: them available on various peer to peer networks, well first 153 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:39,599 Speaker 1: on centralized networks and later peer to peer networks. This 154 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:43,800 Speaker 1: also helped start the idea that the content on the 155 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:46,160 Speaker 1: Internet is free. It's a It's an idea that's got 156 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:49,520 Speaker 1: a pretty strong hold on the average Internet users. Psyche 157 00:08:49,559 --> 00:08:52,880 Speaker 1: this these days, this concept that if I, if I 158 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:55,480 Speaker 1: go online, I should be able to get stuff for free. 159 00:08:55,880 --> 00:08:58,720 Speaker 1: People got used to that idea. They didn't have to 160 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: walk into a store and lay down cash for a purchase. Now, 161 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:05,600 Speaker 1: in some cases, artists or companies might allow people to 162 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,880 Speaker 1: listen to or even download some content for free. It 163 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:12,160 Speaker 1: actually becomes something they're welcoming. They might think of it 164 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:15,760 Speaker 1: as a type of marketing. But in other cases, people 165 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:18,160 Speaker 1: were just pirating the heck out of stuff. They were 166 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:22,040 Speaker 1: just copying it because they could not because it was 167 00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:26,000 Speaker 1: allowed and the thought of paying for content was on 168 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:29,319 Speaker 1: the decline. The revenue model for the web was largely 169 00:09:29,440 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 1: ad based. Right if you went to a website, chances 170 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:36,679 Speaker 1: are that website was making money by using web advertising. 171 00:09:36,720 --> 00:09:40,599 Speaker 1: They were selling space on the web page that advertisers 172 00:09:40,640 --> 00:09:44,400 Speaker 1: would pay money to occupy for a certain amount of time. 173 00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:50,200 Speaker 1: And uh, this was not ideal for content creators necessarily 174 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:53,960 Speaker 1: because and and for website operators too, because people were 175 00:09:53,960 --> 00:09:56,320 Speaker 1: starting to develop what we largely would refer to as 176 00:09:56,480 --> 00:10:00,560 Speaker 1: as a ad blindness. People would stop pay attention to 177 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:02,520 Speaker 1: the fact that there even were ads. They're just paying 178 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:06,319 Speaker 1: attention to the content. That led to some pretty irritating 179 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:10,199 Speaker 1: trends and advertising things like pop ups and pop unders 180 00:10:10,240 --> 00:10:14,120 Speaker 1: and ads with full sound that just start playing as 181 00:10:14,120 --> 00:10:16,720 Speaker 1: soon as they load on your screen. Irritating stuff like 182 00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:21,840 Speaker 1: that that would uh decrease your enjoyment of the web experience. 183 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: But it also meant that a lot of people would 184 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:28,760 Speaker 1: install ad blockers so that they could not have that 185 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:33,360 Speaker 1: experience and still get the content they wanted. The content 186 00:10:33,520 --> 00:10:36,959 Speaker 1: wasn't technically free because it was being paid for by advertising, 187 00:10:37,240 --> 00:10:41,240 Speaker 1: but the end user was not directly paying for the experience, right. 188 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:43,760 Speaker 1: It wasn't like it was behind a paywall, So for 189 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:46,720 Speaker 1: the user it felt like everything is free. And when 190 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:50,040 Speaker 1: everything feels like it's free, it then feels like a 191 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:53,440 Speaker 1: huge imposition to be told, Hey, if you want access 192 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:55,839 Speaker 1: to this, you've got to pay for it, and so 193 00:10:55,880 --> 00:11:00,280 Speaker 1: it kind of conditioned people to an expectation that intent 194 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 1: needs to be free. Um, that's a huge problem, not 195 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:09,760 Speaker 1: just for music, it's for web content in general, and 196 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:12,920 Speaker 1: I'll talk about that a little bit later too. But 197 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:15,520 Speaker 1: this was also a shift away from owning a physical 198 00:11:15,520 --> 00:11:19,160 Speaker 1: copy of a song or a movie or television show, 199 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:22,480 Speaker 1: as those would follow the same path. If you could 200 00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:25,640 Speaker 1: get a digital version and it was a good enough 201 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:28,600 Speaker 1: digital version of whatever it was you wanted, there wasn't 202 00:11:28,679 --> 00:11:31,800 Speaker 1: much call for buying something that would take up physical space. 203 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:34,640 Speaker 1: There are still people who preferred having a physical copy, 204 00:11:34,679 --> 00:11:37,160 Speaker 1: and there still are today. There are people who would 205 00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:40,120 Speaker 1: much prefer to go out and get physical copies of movies, 206 00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:43,320 Speaker 1: largely because it's a good way to guarantee you're getting 207 00:11:43,679 --> 00:11:49,920 Speaker 1: the best uh experience for your money, and that things 208 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:52,280 Speaker 1: like a Blu ray disk. Like let's say you're going 209 00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:57,079 Speaker 1: to get a four K Ultra high definition disk and uh, 210 00:11:57,240 --> 00:11:59,280 Speaker 1: you want to watch it on a four K television, 211 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:02,560 Speaker 1: You're probably going to have a better experience than watching 212 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,559 Speaker 1: a digital version that's gone through compression. In the decompression 213 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:09,280 Speaker 1: that still might be really good, it might be better 214 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:13,480 Speaker 1: than high definition, but it's probably not going to measure 215 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:15,440 Speaker 1: up to the physical copy. So there's some people who 216 00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:18,800 Speaker 1: still demand that. They also might want things like the 217 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:22,679 Speaker 1: cover art or liner notes or special features, or they 218 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:25,800 Speaker 1: may just want something physical to relate to with the 219 00:12:25,920 --> 00:12:29,360 Speaker 1: music or movies or television that they enjoyed. They might 220 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:33,760 Speaker 1: have a sort of a psychological attachment to that. And 221 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:37,040 Speaker 1: then there's the audio file community. They were largely against 222 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:42,359 Speaker 1: digital files in general, compression in particular, and really lossy formats. 223 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:46,400 Speaker 1: They hated that idea because they were very passionate and 224 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:51,520 Speaker 1: arguing that that approach was decreasing the actual quality of 225 00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:54,800 Speaker 1: the music itself. Now, generally speaking, you could tell the 226 00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:57,960 Speaker 1: difference between a good analog recording played on a decent 227 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:01,200 Speaker 1: stereo system and a digital file of the same piece 228 00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:04,320 Speaker 1: of music played on a comparable sound system, specifically a 229 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:08,440 Speaker 1: compressed digital file. The more extreme the compression, the easier 230 00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:10,800 Speaker 1: it was to tell the difference between the two. And 231 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,439 Speaker 1: so there was a community of audio files who protested 232 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:17,080 Speaker 1: how the compressed format was ruining the beauty of the 233 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:21,040 Speaker 1: experience of listening to music. But for many people, including myself, 234 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:24,960 Speaker 1: the convenience factor mattered way more than the quality of 235 00:13:25,000 --> 00:13:27,920 Speaker 1: the music. While the difference might be noticeable between the 236 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:31,120 Speaker 1: perfect sound system and a portable MP three player, most 237 00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:32,839 Speaker 1: people just wanted to be able to hear the songs 238 00:13:32,880 --> 00:13:35,640 Speaker 1: they liked in an easy to carry format, and as 239 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:39,200 Speaker 1: long as the compression wasn't really ruining the song, it 240 00:13:39,280 --> 00:13:42,040 Speaker 1: was fine. You know, it might not be the best quality. 241 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:45,040 Speaker 1: You might not get the levels of bass or trouble 242 00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:47,400 Speaker 1: that you would get with a really good stereo system, 243 00:13:47,440 --> 00:13:51,040 Speaker 1: but if the song sounds like the song in general, 244 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:55,079 Speaker 1: then that was good enough. Meanwhile, things would get worse 245 00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:57,840 Speaker 1: for audio files because of a trend in music that 246 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:01,280 Speaker 1: was being affected by compression, a front type of compression. 247 00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:05,520 Speaker 1: Online music forums were starting to erupt around the same 248 00:14:05,559 --> 00:14:09,880 Speaker 1: time period, with conversations about music being louder than it 249 00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:13,719 Speaker 1: had been before that the actual recordings being pressed to 250 00:14:13,880 --> 00:14:18,440 Speaker 1: c D we're at a volume greater than previous generations 251 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,680 Speaker 1: of music. So if you put a CD in and 252 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:24,560 Speaker 1: you set the volume on your CD player, let's say 253 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:28,600 Speaker 1: five out of ten, and you're playing a CD of 254 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:32,400 Speaker 1: older music, then it might be a comfortable listening experience. 255 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:36,640 Speaker 1: But then you put in a more recent album and 256 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:38,480 Speaker 1: it would suddenly be too loud to listen to you 257 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:44,280 Speaker 1: would have to adjust the volume. Well, compression was having 258 00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:46,920 Speaker 1: a big effect on the quality of music. See, the 259 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:50,840 Speaker 1: conversation was really about the dynamic nature of sound and music, 260 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:55,360 Speaker 1: and most people refer to dynamic as a range of 261 00:14:56,240 --> 00:14:59,040 Speaker 1: sounds and their loudness. It's really kind of a range 262 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:04,160 Speaker 1: of volume. A dynamic song, therefore, would have quiet components 263 00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:07,280 Speaker 1: and loud components, and there should be a pretty decent 264 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:10,160 Speaker 1: range between the two, and ideally you should be able 265 00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:11,760 Speaker 1: to hear all of it based on the way the 266 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 1: music is constructed and recorded. Now, Emmanuel Derrity actually did 267 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:20,200 Speaker 1: an analysis of music from the nineteen seventies up through 268 00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:23,360 Speaker 1: two thousand ten to see whether or not music as 269 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:27,800 Speaker 1: a whole really did get louder and less dynamic. He 270 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:31,760 Speaker 1: published the findings on the website sound on sound dot 271 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:35,400 Speaker 1: com and found that, yeah, music did get louder. The 272 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:39,200 Speaker 1: dynamic question is actually a little more complicated. But he 273 00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:42,640 Speaker 1: traced the trends in music, finding that as time went on, 274 00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:48,280 Speaker 1: music recordings were getting louder, and that at the same time, 275 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:52,520 Speaker 1: the range between the peak loudness and the median loudness 276 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:55,280 Speaker 1: of the songs was decreasing. So in other words, in 277 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:58,600 Speaker 1: earlier music, you might get a few moments of loudness, 278 00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:03,280 Speaker 1: but most of the time the the median volume was lower, 279 00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:06,880 Speaker 1: so you had a range there. In later songs, the 280 00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:11,520 Speaker 1: peak wasn't necessarily much higher than the median, so the 281 00:16:11,560 --> 00:16:15,280 Speaker 1: loudest sound was not that different from the median sound, 282 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:18,440 Speaker 1: and that meant there was less dynamic range, at least 283 00:16:18,440 --> 00:16:22,760 Speaker 1: according to this volume approach, and and some people argued 284 00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:26,680 Speaker 1: it led to a homogeneous, noisy, less interesting sound overall, 285 00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:30,200 Speaker 1: Drudy actually found there was more loudness range than people 286 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:33,360 Speaker 1: typically imagined in that more recent music. But it gets 287 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:38,480 Speaker 1: super technical now. The reason for that wasn't just that 288 00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:41,160 Speaker 1: it was a change in taste for music, but that 289 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:43,520 Speaker 1: was part of it. It was also in the nature 290 00:16:43,560 --> 00:16:46,880 Speaker 1: of compression and what people referred to as digital brick 291 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:51,280 Speaker 1: walls now. Essentially, to get music that loud, you had 292 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:54,400 Speaker 1: to put a hard upper limit on the loudest noise 293 00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:59,240 Speaker 1: because the CD could only replicate so loud of a 294 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:03,000 Speaker 1: noise before you'd start getting a distortion like clipping or 295 00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:06,080 Speaker 1: other artifacts. But that compression would also mean that it 296 00:17:06,119 --> 00:17:09,880 Speaker 1: would square off the peaks in sound. It would create 297 00:17:10,080 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 1: a digital version of distortion that would only appear in 298 00:17:14,040 --> 00:17:15,960 Speaker 1: the recorded version. If you were able to listen to 299 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:20,879 Speaker 1: the original decompressed version, it would sound very, very different. 300 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:23,520 Speaker 1: So you could do that to create an effect on purpose, 301 00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:26,119 Speaker 1: but a lot of people just found that it was 302 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:31,199 Speaker 1: having a negative impact on the quality of sound overall. This, 303 00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:32,560 Speaker 1: by the way, it's not the same thing as m 304 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:36,080 Speaker 1: P three compression. With this recording compression, we're talking about 305 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:39,720 Speaker 1: compressing the upper and lower limits of a sound's loudness. 306 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:43,199 Speaker 1: We're not talking about compressing a digital file size. Now. 307 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:46,120 Speaker 1: I mentioned this because you'll often hear music fans talk 308 00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:49,159 Speaker 1: about how compression has had a negative impact on music, 309 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:52,480 Speaker 1: but they are frequently talking more about the production side 310 00:17:52,480 --> 00:17:56,480 Speaker 1: of music and not necessarily on the end digital file format. 311 00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:59,520 Speaker 1: But for the record, both processes can have a negative 312 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:02,040 Speaker 1: impact on the final quality of a sound. And the 313 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:05,720 Speaker 1: loudness wars were largely brought about because the CD form 314 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:08,639 Speaker 1: factor and the trend to push the limits of the 315 00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:11,840 Speaker 1: levels of loudness that CD s and CD players could handle. 316 00:18:12,119 --> 00:18:15,119 Speaker 1: It wasn't on the digital file side at all. But 317 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:17,679 Speaker 1: let's get back to those digital files. That's really what 318 00:18:17,760 --> 00:18:20,680 Speaker 1: I was talking about in this episode. Anyway, the recording 319 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:24,159 Speaker 1: industry tried lots of different tactics to try and stop 320 00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: the flood of leaks and downloads. As album sales began 321 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:30,560 Speaker 1: to decline, and the industry had been on a trend, 322 00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:34,919 Speaker 1: enjoying a decade of incredibly robust sales. As soon as 323 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:40,240 Speaker 1: the CD had premiered, it was starting to already gain momentum. 324 00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:44,399 Speaker 1: It would overtake cassettes, and then it would eclipse previous 325 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:49,120 Speaker 1: sales figures of cassettes and vinyl, doing gang buster business 326 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:53,359 Speaker 1: for the recording industry. It was and and a great 327 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:56,280 Speaker 1: time to be the head of a recording label. But 328 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:03,120 Speaker 1: after that, once those hayed a years had passed, the 329 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:05,600 Speaker 1: industry started looking at these declines and it was a 330 00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:08,159 Speaker 1: really harsh wake up call to see those numbers go 331 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:10,880 Speaker 1: the other way. And the companies were not just gonna 332 00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:14,480 Speaker 1: take this lying down. Many tried various digital rights management 333 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,320 Speaker 1: strategies to protect the music under their labels. They tried 334 00:19:17,359 --> 00:19:20,960 Speaker 1: to protect c d s, the famous one being Sony 335 00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:25,000 Speaker 1: when it backfired on them, uh, But there were others 336 00:19:25,040 --> 00:19:27,800 Speaker 1: that tried different methods as well in an effort to 337 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:31,399 Speaker 1: limit how people could use digital files. But typically that 338 00:19:31,440 --> 00:19:34,159 Speaker 1: would just mean hackers would find the d r M 339 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:36,880 Speaker 1: and strip it out of the music files and share 340 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:39,840 Speaker 1: it anyway. The other big move that organizations like the 341 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:44,080 Speaker 1: Recording Industry Association of America or r I double A 342 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:48,919 Speaker 1: that they took was was legal action, and boy hawdy, 343 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,520 Speaker 1: did they go all out in that realm. The targets 344 00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:56,200 Speaker 1: didn't just include services like Napster that enabled file sharing 345 00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:59,400 Speaker 1: on a grand scale. They also included regular folks who 346 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:03,600 Speaker 1: were engaged in some illegal file sharing and some people 347 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:08,680 Speaker 1: who probably weren't, and the stakes were really high. I'll 348 00:20:08,680 --> 00:20:11,600 Speaker 1: talk about that more in just a second, but first 349 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:22,280 Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. The r I double A 350 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:27,080 Speaker 1: sued Napster in December. The service had only gone live 351 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:30,320 Speaker 1: in June of n r I double A did not 352 00:20:30,600 --> 00:20:34,439 Speaker 1: waste time about this, and like many legal processes, this 353 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:37,879 Speaker 1: one took a long time to reconcile. And it was 354 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:40,800 Speaker 1: tricky because the d m c A did establish that 355 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:44,719 Speaker 1: service providers are not responsible for how their customers use 356 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:48,639 Speaker 1: their service as long as the service itself is in 357 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:52,320 Speaker 1: fact legal and pure to pure distribution is a perfectly 358 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:57,399 Speaker 1: legal process. The problem wasn't with the method necessarily, but 359 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:01,840 Speaker 1: the content that users were uploading and sharing. It's it's 360 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:05,080 Speaker 1: legal to use peer to peer networks to distribute files, 361 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,080 Speaker 1: that's their purpose. It's not legal to use peer to 362 00:21:08,119 --> 00:21:11,199 Speaker 1: peer to distribute files without the authorization of the owner 363 00:21:11,280 --> 00:21:15,960 Speaker 1: of the intellectual property. To use an analogy, it's perfectly 364 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:20,320 Speaker 1: legal to use the road system to transport stuff from 365 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:22,359 Speaker 1: one city to another. We do it all the time. 366 00:21:22,800 --> 00:21:25,199 Speaker 1: That's what the road system is for. But it is 367 00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:30,880 Speaker 1: illegal to smuggle contraband. However, if someone were caught smuggling, 368 00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:34,280 Speaker 1: the law wouldn't go after the Federal Highway Administration in 369 00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:37,200 Speaker 1: the United States because it's not the f h W 370 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:41,199 Speaker 1: as fault that someone was transporting illegal goods using the 371 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:45,080 Speaker 1: highways that the agency actually oversees. The same concept was 372 00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:47,760 Speaker 1: meant to apply to online providers, but there was a 373 00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:51,080 Speaker 1: caveat The providers had to be willing and able to 374 00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:55,160 Speaker 1: take action against people who are using the services illegally. 375 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:58,320 Speaker 1: If a copyright holder, such as a music label were 376 00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:01,840 Speaker 1: to contact a service like Napster, that service was supposed 377 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,120 Speaker 1: to help clamp down on illegal behaviors, and in return, 378 00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:08,520 Speaker 1: the service would receive the protection of safe harbor. So 379 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:11,399 Speaker 1: part of the lawsuit was alleging that Napster was willfully 380 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:15,000 Speaker 1: turning a blind eye to illegal behavior on the service. Now, 381 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:17,639 Speaker 1: for the record, Napster did try to comply with this, 382 00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:21,800 Speaker 1: but they were only able to demonstrate that their their 383 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:29,040 Speaker 1: ability to prevent illegal file sharing was point four percent effective, 384 00:22:29,600 --> 00:22:32,800 Speaker 1: and the prosecution argue that that wasn't good enough. It 385 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:35,480 Speaker 1: had to be a hundred percent effective, which led some 386 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:39,160 Speaker 1: people to say, this isn't actually an attack on Napster, 387 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:42,160 Speaker 1: this is an attack on peer to peer file sharing 388 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:46,520 Speaker 1: as a strategy in the first place. Um, And so 389 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:50,280 Speaker 1: it led to a pretty ugly fight. The lawsuit also 390 00:22:50,359 --> 00:22:52,960 Speaker 1: led to Napster shutting down its existing service in two 391 00:22:52,960 --> 00:22:56,000 Speaker 1: thousand one. The lawsuit kept on going at that point. 392 00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,000 Speaker 1: The following year, a judge and an appeals court both 393 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:03,040 Speaker 1: found that Napster was liable for numerous copyright copyright violations 394 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:07,240 Speaker 1: in separate lawsuits with artists like Dr Dre and Metallica. 395 00:23:07,400 --> 00:23:11,120 Speaker 1: Napster would settle out of court, paying handsomely to do so, 396 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:16,000 Speaker 1: and Napster would go bankrupt. They would eventually re emerge 397 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,760 Speaker 1: in a very different format as an online music store. 398 00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:23,320 Speaker 1: It was not really the same entity as the original company, 399 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:25,879 Speaker 1: UM that, like I said, that company had gone bankrupt. 400 00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:28,880 Speaker 1: Another company came in and bought up all the assets. Uh. 401 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:30,879 Speaker 1: And in fact, there's actually been a couple of different 402 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,920 Speaker 1: music related services called Napster since the original shut down, 403 00:23:35,280 --> 00:23:38,160 Speaker 1: and Napster wasn't the only entity the r I Double 404 00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:41,480 Speaker 1: A and music artists went after. As I mentioned earlier, 405 00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:45,119 Speaker 1: individuals who used these services were also targeted. UM And, 406 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,840 Speaker 1: as my colleague Ben Bolan might say, here's where it 407 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:55,639 Speaker 1: gets crazy, because the industry went thermonuclear against people, and 408 00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 1: not only did it hurt a lot of people, it 409 00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:01,760 Speaker 1: didn't actually achieve the goal that the industry had set 410 00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:05,080 Speaker 1: out to do, which was essentially to scare off pirates 411 00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,080 Speaker 1: so that they wouldn't copy and share music files. As 412 00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:12,640 Speaker 1: it turned out, the actions didn't curtail that behavior at all. 413 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: So to go into all the different lawsuits would take 414 00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:19,120 Speaker 1: a few episodes all by itself. So I'm just gonna 415 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:21,800 Speaker 1: hit a few highlights, or you might want to call 416 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:23,960 Speaker 1: them low lights. Now. I'm pulling a lot of this 417 00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:26,360 Speaker 1: information from a white paper that was published in two 418 00:24:26,359 --> 00:24:30,280 Speaker 1: thousand eight by the Electronic Frontier Foundation titled r I 419 00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:34,600 Speaker 1: Double A versus the people. Five years later, in April 420 00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:37,760 Speaker 1: two thousand three, the r I Double A sued four 421 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:41,439 Speaker 1: college students. The students would ultimately settle out of court, 422 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:45,119 Speaker 1: not necessarily because they felt they had done something wrong 423 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:49,560 Speaker 1: were illegal, but because going into the court system would 424 00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:53,000 Speaker 1: be very expensive, much more expensive. Even if they won 425 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:55,560 Speaker 1: the fight, they might end up having to spend way 426 00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:59,080 Speaker 1: more money in legal fees than if they settled off court, 427 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:02,000 Speaker 1: and in at least one of those cases, the amount 428 00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:05,200 Speaker 1: of the settlement was exactly the same as the amount 429 00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:07,840 Speaker 1: the student happened to have in his bank account, and 430 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,760 Speaker 1: it effectively wiped out his college fund. The reaction against 431 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:13,840 Speaker 1: the r I Double A was mostly negative, with many 432 00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:16,359 Speaker 1: people saying that this was an overstep, that it was 433 00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:22,520 Speaker 1: being far too cruel in its pursuit of pirates, and 434 00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:27,880 Speaker 1: the the payments the penalties people were facing were far 435 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,560 Speaker 1: greater than what was justified. On September eight, two thousand three, 436 00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:35,640 Speaker 1: the r I Double A would sue two hundred sixty 437 00:25:35,680 --> 00:25:39,480 Speaker 1: one Americans, alleging that those people were illegally sharing music 438 00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:42,560 Speaker 1: on peer to peer networks, and, as many have written 439 00:25:42,560 --> 00:25:45,960 Speaker 1: in the years since, it was a particularly aggressive and 440 00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:50,920 Speaker 1: confrontational and ultimately stupid move. After all, the industry was 441 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:55,760 Speaker 1: attacking music fans. The very consumers that supported the industry 442 00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:57,600 Speaker 1: were the ones that the R I double A were 443 00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,800 Speaker 1: going after, so in hindsight it seems pretty ere. Then 444 00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:03,440 Speaker 1: this move would alienate a lot of people, even those 445 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:07,480 Speaker 1: who had never illegally downloaded a song, and industry that 446 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:10,199 Speaker 1: sues its own customers is not likely to see a 447 00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:12,639 Speaker 1: sales jump as a result. That's not how you build 448 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:16,720 Speaker 1: customer loyalty. And not only was it aggressive and ineffective, 449 00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:19,720 Speaker 1: it was a faulty process. The R I double A 450 00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:23,679 Speaker 1: was collecting IP addresses by joining the same file sharing 451 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:27,240 Speaker 1: services that pirates were using, and then searching for people 452 00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:31,320 Speaker 1: who are uploading music that was in the represented record 453 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:35,239 Speaker 1: labels directories um in the R I double A, but 454 00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:39,400 Speaker 1: an IP address doesn't automatically tell you the physical address 455 00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:43,040 Speaker 1: of a device. To get that information, the I double 456 00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,320 Speaker 1: A actually had to go after Internet service providers or 457 00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:48,679 Speaker 1: I s p s. So the I s p s 458 00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:53,840 Speaker 1: have an incentive to withhold that personal information of their customers, 459 00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:58,480 Speaker 1: because the handing over customer data is a great way 460 00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:01,840 Speaker 1: to to lose your customer ors confidence. The R I 461 00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:03,960 Speaker 1: double A leverage the rules of the d m c 462 00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:07,600 Speaker 1: A to force the hands of the Internet service providers. 463 00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:10,400 Speaker 1: If the I s P s didn't comply, they wouldn't 464 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,640 Speaker 1: be protected under the rules of the d m c A. Now, 465 00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:16,200 Speaker 1: at first, the r I double A tried to subpoena 466 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:20,359 Speaker 1: I s P customers names and addresses from the I 467 00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:24,440 Speaker 1: s P s just with allegations of copyright infringement. So 468 00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:26,879 Speaker 1: in other words, this wasn't as the result of a 469 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:31,359 Speaker 1: lawsuit or even they didn't even present evidence to support 470 00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:34,480 Speaker 1: their claims. They said, we suspect the person using this 471 00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:38,080 Speaker 1: I P address is committing piracy. We want their name 472 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:41,760 Speaker 1: and address. So they weren't coming forward with any stronger 473 00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:47,320 Speaker 1: request than that. That tactic ultimately failed, as various public 474 00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:49,960 Speaker 1: interest groups and the e f F challenged that practice 475 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:52,760 Speaker 1: in court, and the court agreed, saying no, you need 476 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:55,240 Speaker 1: more than just an allegation to get the hold of 477 00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:58,480 Speaker 1: that information. There was a period, though, when the court 478 00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:02,959 Speaker 1: was still deciding this, where the practice was effectively legal, 479 00:28:03,119 --> 00:28:06,240 Speaker 1: or at least it wasn't illegal, and in that period, 480 00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:09,840 Speaker 1: the r I double A issued subpoenas to various I 481 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:12,480 Speaker 1: s P s. Now, some of those two d sixty 482 00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,919 Speaker 1: one people that the I R A A sued in 483 00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:21,000 Speaker 1: September two three. We're probably fairly active in copyright infringement. 484 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:23,840 Speaker 1: They may very well have been the appropriate people to 485 00:28:23,920 --> 00:28:26,760 Speaker 1: go after, at least from the perspective of these people 486 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:31,560 Speaker 1: were actively committing this infringing behavior. But there was someone 487 00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:36,240 Speaker 1: that list who won a lot of sympathy from the public, 488 00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:41,080 Speaker 1: like Brianna Lahara. She was twelve years old and the 489 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:43,760 Speaker 1: R I double A came after her like she was 490 00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:48,240 Speaker 1: some sort of evil super genius. She was living in 491 00:28:48,240 --> 00:28:52,760 Speaker 1: a public housing development in New York City, and her 492 00:28:52,880 --> 00:28:57,440 Speaker 1: mom was a single mother raising this kid, and they 493 00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:00,800 Speaker 1: were targeted by this initial blast of loss, and her 494 00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:03,320 Speaker 1: only real option was to sell the case out of 495 00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:06,040 Speaker 1: court because there's no way she could afford going to 496 00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:11,120 Speaker 1: court and defending herself. That settlement would include a two 497 00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:16,880 Speaker 1: thousand dollar fine and the requirement that she apologized publicly. 498 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:23,040 Speaker 1: So here's the thing. Turns out, having a massive multibillion 499 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:27,600 Speaker 1: dollar conglomerate of companies come after and force a young, 500 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:32,160 Speaker 1: poor girl to apologize publicly isn't the best PR movement 501 00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:35,280 Speaker 1: in the world. It seemed pretty clear that Lahara wasn't 502 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,280 Speaker 1: some sort of existential threat to the r I double A, 503 00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,960 Speaker 1: and this was a real abuse of the legal system. 504 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:44,960 Speaker 1: And then there were all the people who were targeted 505 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:48,480 Speaker 1: who clearly had nothing to do with illegal downloads. Sarah 506 00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:50,520 Speaker 1: Ward was one of those people. She was accused of 507 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:54,640 Speaker 1: using Kaza to download hardcore rap music, but this grandmother 508 00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:57,800 Speaker 1: probably didn't do that, seeing as how the only computer 509 00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:00,520 Speaker 1: she owned was a Mac computer and Kaza was only 510 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:04,720 Speaker 1: compatible with Windows machines. She wasn't apparently running a virtual 511 00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:07,640 Speaker 1: Windows machine on her computer, so chances are she was 512 00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:10,080 Speaker 1: not the right person. The r I double A did 513 00:30:10,120 --> 00:30:14,040 Speaker 1: eventually withdraw the lawsuit, but did not apologize for making 514 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:16,840 Speaker 1: that mistake. And it wasn't the only mistake. The list 515 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:18,920 Speaker 1: of people that was sued by the R I double 516 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:22,000 Speaker 1: A also included a family in Georgia then not only 517 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,040 Speaker 1: didn't have an Internet connection, they didn't have a computer 518 00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:27,720 Speaker 1: at all. There was no way for them to commit 519 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:30,719 Speaker 1: the crime that r I double A accused them of. 520 00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,360 Speaker 1: There were even people on that list who were actually deceased, 521 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:37,560 Speaker 1: so clearly the r I double A was using a 522 00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:41,400 Speaker 1: very wide, very inaccurate net to try and catch a 523 00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:45,280 Speaker 1: few big fish. As a message to pirates everywhere, and 524 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:47,960 Speaker 1: the two sixty one lawsuits were just the beginning. Over 525 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:52,000 Speaker 1: the course of several years, nearly thirty thousand Americans were 526 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:54,520 Speaker 1: targeted by the r I double A in an effort 527 00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,880 Speaker 1: to create an environment that would discourage illegal file sharing. 528 00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:01,320 Speaker 1: So why did that accomplish? Mostly they made the r 529 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,120 Speaker 1: I double A look like a vicious, uncarring group of 530 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,200 Speaker 1: greedy corporate jerks who are willing to financially ruin the 531 00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:10,320 Speaker 1: lives of people who are already vulnerable in an effort 532 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:14,040 Speaker 1: to secure their own bottom line. So it didn't win 533 00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:19,080 Speaker 1: them a whole lot of goodwill, and piracy continued unabated, 534 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,640 Speaker 1: And there's no big shock there. We've seen time and 535 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:25,840 Speaker 1: time again the more extreme punishments do not discourage crime, 536 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:29,240 Speaker 1: but for some reason, we keep trying that approach. Anyway, 537 00:31:29,440 --> 00:31:32,800 Speaker 1: while the industries were able to shut down services, you know, 538 00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,440 Speaker 1: they were able to target the actual services and not 539 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:39,360 Speaker 1: necessarily the users. Other services would pop up, and some 540 00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:42,640 Speaker 1: were operating in foreign countries, which made it more difficult 541 00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:44,280 Speaker 1: for the r I double A to go after them 542 00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:46,840 Speaker 1: because they were outside the jurisdiction of the United States 543 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:50,360 Speaker 1: legal system. It would lead to the industry lobbying for 544 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:52,880 Speaker 1: new legislation in the US to force I s p 545 00:31:53,040 --> 00:31:56,640 Speaker 1: s to block access to those services that were outside 546 00:31:56,880 --> 00:31:59,240 Speaker 1: the US. But I've covered some of those efforts in 547 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:02,440 Speaker 1: previous episodes tech Stuff, And as I mentioned before, the 548 00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:05,320 Speaker 1: r I double A wasn't helped by claiming piracy has 549 00:32:05,360 --> 00:32:11,040 Speaker 1: a demonstrable, calculable effect on diminished sales because it's impossible 550 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:15,440 Speaker 1: to equate every download as a lost sale. It's quite 551 00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:19,280 Speaker 1: possible that the person who illegally downloaded a file would 552 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,680 Speaker 1: have never purchased an album or song. Otherwise, it's just 553 00:32:22,720 --> 00:32:25,440 Speaker 1: as possible that after they downloaded it, they would go 554 00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,440 Speaker 1: out and buy the song legally. There were people who 555 00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,040 Speaker 1: did that too. They might just download it to listen 556 00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:32,640 Speaker 1: to it to determine whether or not they wanted to 557 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:35,360 Speaker 1: go buy the album, so it worked both ways. There 558 00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:39,320 Speaker 1: was no way to say a a any single pirated 559 00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:43,480 Speaker 1: instance would lead to a loss in revenue. So the 560 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:46,320 Speaker 1: justification the R I double A was using when it 561 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:50,280 Speaker 1: was deciding what damages it should be receiving from people 562 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:54,960 Speaker 1: was completely unjustifiable. Is based on faulty logic. You can't 563 00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:59,400 Speaker 1: say you owe me X dollars because you cost me 564 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,880 Speaker 1: x dollars when you can't be sure that that's the case. 565 00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:07,000 Speaker 1: So it was a huge issue. Ultimately, the music labels 566 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:09,760 Speaker 1: that fund the r I double A began to withdraw 567 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:13,160 Speaker 1: their funding, and this was for a lot of different reasons, 568 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,360 Speaker 1: but one of them was that the country was entering 569 00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:19,040 Speaker 1: a recession and that, coupled with the already established trend 570 00:33:19,120 --> 00:33:22,080 Speaker 1: of lower record sales, was starting to put the squeeze 571 00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:26,480 Speaker 1: on record label company budgets, and there was the possibility 572 00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:29,400 Speaker 1: that our I double A would just dissolve completely due 573 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:34,160 Speaker 1: to lack of funding. So the industry organization stopped pursuing lawsuits, 574 00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:37,520 Speaker 1: not because it suddenly had a change of heart and said, oh, 575 00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:40,200 Speaker 1: you know what, we've been real jerks about this. Instead, 576 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:42,240 Speaker 1: they stopped it because they ran out of cash to 577 00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:47,240 Speaker 1: keep doing it. They did maintain more lawsuits against the services, 578 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:50,560 Speaker 1: but they stopped going after people. Now, let me be clear, 579 00:33:50,960 --> 00:33:53,560 Speaker 1: I don't think theft is good. I don't think it's 580 00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:57,560 Speaker 1: a good thing to share copyrighted material without authorization. I 581 00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:00,600 Speaker 1: do think that artists should be compensated for their work, 582 00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 1: and that if you want to access something that's behind 583 00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:06,680 Speaker 1: a paywall, you should either pay for that access or 584 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:10,239 Speaker 1: you just do without. You don't work your way around it. 585 00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:12,600 Speaker 1: You don't try and get to the content without paying 586 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:15,880 Speaker 1: for it. Otherwise, if you do that, then you have 587 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:20,120 Speaker 1: removed the monetary incentive to create something. And there are 588 00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:23,080 Speaker 1: creative types who want to create no matter what, you know, 589 00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:25,400 Speaker 1: but most of them also want to make a living. 590 00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:28,800 Speaker 1: They have to pay bills, have to be able to eat, 591 00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:32,400 Speaker 1: so they need to earn money. And it's not really 592 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,000 Speaker 1: fair to ask someone who is making the stuff you 593 00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:39,480 Speaker 1: love do it for free and then supplement that somehow 594 00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:42,520 Speaker 1: through numerous other jobs so that they can make a living. 595 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:46,439 Speaker 1: So I understand where the disconnect is because it's really 596 00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:50,080 Speaker 1: easy to look at mega successful artists and say, well, 597 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:52,759 Speaker 1: that person is rich. You know, they've got to they've 598 00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:56,799 Speaker 1: got multiple houses, they're always in the headlines for having 599 00:34:56,800 --> 00:35:01,200 Speaker 1: these extravagant parties and stuff, so stealing music doesn't hurt them. 600 00:35:01,200 --> 00:35:03,520 Speaker 1: And that's probably true for those folks, But there are 601 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:05,719 Speaker 1: a lot of creators out there who are doing what 602 00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:09,040 Speaker 1: they love and they're either barely scraping by or they're 603 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:12,160 Speaker 1: not even able to live off of that art. So 604 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:16,839 Speaker 1: the attitude is ultimately really harmful. To those artists. Now 605 00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:19,720 Speaker 1: that being said, the R I double A wasn't exactly 606 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:22,839 Speaker 1: looking out for the artists, So they're not the good 607 00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:26,200 Speaker 1: guys in this either. That really wasn't part of their equation. 608 00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:28,000 Speaker 1: The R I double A was looking out for the 609 00:35:28,080 --> 00:35:32,480 Speaker 1: record labels. And record labels make their money by exploiting artists. 610 00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:36,680 Speaker 1: Now that's a word with negative connotation. It doesn't necessarily 611 00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:41,080 Speaker 1: have to be negative. It doesn't necessarily mean an unfair exploitation. 612 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:47,640 Speaker 1: But record companies frequently did unfairly exploit artists. So if 613 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:51,400 Speaker 1: the artists create the music and the record labels produce it, 614 00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:54,960 Speaker 1: publish it, market it, promoted, arrange for distribution, all that 615 00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:57,759 Speaker 1: kind of stuff you see where there's this relationship there 616 00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,840 Speaker 1: where if the artists didn't and go through a label, 617 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:02,759 Speaker 1: they'd have to do all of that on their own, 618 00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:06,720 Speaker 1: and that's hard there. They don't necessarily have the infrastructure 619 00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:09,200 Speaker 1: to deal with that and do it themselves, and the 620 00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:11,880 Speaker 1: record labels handle all that. So you understand why the 621 00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:16,120 Speaker 1: record labels deserve a cut. But the record labels had 622 00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:18,960 Speaker 1: most of the power in most of those situations, unless 623 00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:23,160 Speaker 1: an artist got so popular that it was a detriment 624 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:26,000 Speaker 1: to the record label if they lost that artist, and 625 00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:29,759 Speaker 1: the artist had enough leverage to negotiate a really good 626 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,680 Speaker 1: deal for themselves. Most artists weren't in that category. So 627 00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:36,600 Speaker 1: while the R I double A was going after all 628 00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:40,120 Speaker 1: these file sharing entities and the people using them in 629 00:36:40,160 --> 00:36:43,040 Speaker 1: the name of preserving copyright, the money the R I 630 00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:46,920 Speaker 1: double A was actually getting from those settlements, uh didn't 631 00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:49,279 Speaker 1: make its way to the artists whose work was being 632 00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,920 Speaker 1: freely exchanged. So you had artists who are like, my 633 00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:56,759 Speaker 1: music is being shared for free, and I know you're 634 00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:58,920 Speaker 1: getting money from settlements, but I'm not seeing any of 635 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,040 Speaker 1: that cash. So the people downloading music were engaged in 636 00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:06,400 Speaker 1: harmful behavior, the R I double A engaged in devastatingly 637 00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:09,600 Speaker 1: harmful behavior, and artists were caught in the middle. And 638 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,040 Speaker 1: we're starting to get really frustrated now. Some of them 639 00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:15,040 Speaker 1: didn't see the harm and file sharing, and they genuinely 640 00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:17,720 Speaker 1: wanted as many people as possible to hear their work, 641 00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,000 Speaker 1: So they were in favor of this. They thought, oh, 642 00:37:21,160 --> 00:37:24,360 Speaker 1: this is disrupting the industry. The industry is filled with corruption. 643 00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:28,200 Speaker 1: I'm cool with it. But some such as Metallica, saw 644 00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:31,560 Speaker 1: piracy as a direct threat to their livelihood. They said, 645 00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:34,680 Speaker 1: how are we supposed to sell our music online? If 646 00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:37,240 Speaker 1: the guy next to us is giving it away for free, 647 00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:39,919 Speaker 1: no one's gonna buy from us. They can just get 648 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:44,440 Speaker 1: the songs for free right next door. From an internet perspective, 649 00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:48,840 Speaker 1: most artists fell somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. 650 00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:52,279 Speaker 1: You know. They weren't necessarily as extreme as Metallica, but 651 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:56,560 Speaker 1: not as uh lack of daisical as those who were like, 652 00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,960 Speaker 1: let's disrupt the system. And they weren't getting much help 653 00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:03,120 Speaker 1: either way. But while the record labels were worried that 654 00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:05,080 Speaker 1: piracy was going to be the end of them, another 655 00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:07,960 Speaker 1: shift was coming that would change things up. It was 656 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:11,560 Speaker 1: an approach that would dramatically shift behaviors and do away 657 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:13,640 Speaker 1: with the idea of owning copies of music in the 658 00:38:13,680 --> 00:38:17,279 Speaker 1: first place. It would be streaming services, which I'll talk 659 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:19,600 Speaker 1: about more in just a second, right after we take 660 00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:30,120 Speaker 1: this break. Alright, So, year after year, the music industry 661 00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:33,960 Speaker 1: was facing huge cutbacks due to flagging revenues. And it's 662 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:36,880 Speaker 1: hard to feel much sympathy if I'm being really honest, 663 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:39,600 Speaker 1: because the industry was also known for not just being 664 00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:43,200 Speaker 1: insanely profitable for many years, but also for a rather 665 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:48,600 Speaker 1: hedonistic approach to business. There are legendary stories about parties 666 00:38:48,640 --> 00:38:52,920 Speaker 1: and drug use, and lavish offices for record label executives 667 00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:57,320 Speaker 1: and crazy bonuses that they enjoyed, mostly at the expense 668 00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:00,080 Speaker 1: of the musicians who are creating the stuff the record 669 00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:03,920 Speaker 1: labels were selling. And there were some artists who likewise 670 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:08,239 Speaker 1: enjoyed comparable lifestyles. But for every Madonna, you had hundreds 671 00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:11,560 Speaker 1: of artists who were making maybe a decent living, but 672 00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:13,960 Speaker 1: they were not not getting rich, or some people who 673 00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:17,000 Speaker 1: weren't even able to get by even as being assigned 674 00:39:17,080 --> 00:39:19,920 Speaker 1: artists with a record label. So generally speaking, artists weren't 675 00:39:19,960 --> 00:39:23,719 Speaker 1: being paid anything until an album published, and then they 676 00:39:23,719 --> 00:39:27,040 Speaker 1: would get some money. And in order to make serious money, 677 00:39:27,080 --> 00:39:30,280 Speaker 1: to really make back enough money to justify the amount 678 00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:33,640 Speaker 1: of time you spent recording the album, the album's sales 679 00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:36,719 Speaker 1: had to do really, really well. Then the artists would 680 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,520 Speaker 1: get royalties, which are a percentage of each sale. And 681 00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:42,440 Speaker 1: I think I need to give you a quick word 682 00:39:42,520 --> 00:39:46,640 Speaker 1: on how royalties typically work so you understand how this 683 00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:51,000 Speaker 1: model tends to to work in the entertainment business. So, 684 00:39:51,040 --> 00:39:55,320 Speaker 1: in the negotiation phase, an artists and a label or 685 00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:58,800 Speaker 1: a publisher come to an agreement, and that agreement typically 686 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:03,160 Speaker 1: includes a guarantee payment on delivery or publication of content. 687 00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:06,920 Speaker 1: So in this case, we're talking about the an album dropping. 688 00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:10,040 Speaker 1: So the artist comes up to the record label and 689 00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:13,600 Speaker 1: they say, all right, when the album drops, the record 690 00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:16,960 Speaker 1: label is going to pay the artist fifty dollars. That's 691 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,760 Speaker 1: a decent chunk of change. Fifty grand is that's nothing 692 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:22,680 Speaker 1: to sneeze at, but it's not gonna make anyone rich, right, 693 00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:24,480 Speaker 1: it's not gonna make them shop for a brand new 694 00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:27,239 Speaker 1: house in Beverly Hills or anything. Now, along with that 695 00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:31,239 Speaker 1: negotiation is the royalty rate. So let's just say, for 696 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:34,520 Speaker 1: the purposes of an example, that the rate is five 697 00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:37,719 Speaker 1: cents per copy sold. Now, does that mean when the 698 00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:40,560 Speaker 1: first copy of the album is purchased that the artist 699 00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:45,520 Speaker 1: gets a shiny new nickel. No, because that nickel typically 700 00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:49,400 Speaker 1: actually goes to pay off the fifty thousand dollars that 701 00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:52,960 Speaker 1: the publisher initially paid the artist. So, in other words, 702 00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:56,719 Speaker 1: you have to pay off that fifty guaranteed payment before 703 00:40:56,800 --> 00:41:00,560 Speaker 1: you start accumulating royalties after that. And there are one 704 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:04,560 Speaker 1: million nickels in fifty thousand dollars. So the record label 705 00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,760 Speaker 1: would need to sell a million copies of the album 706 00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,800 Speaker 1: before the artist would start to see any money in royalties, 707 00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:13,520 Speaker 1: and then from that point forward they would get a 708 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:17,120 Speaker 1: nickel off of every sale. So if an album does really, 709 00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:20,160 Speaker 1: really well and stills sells millions and millions of copies, 710 00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:24,040 Speaker 1: and artists can make some serious cash through royalties, And 711 00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:26,680 Speaker 1: as long as the album is in print, the potential 712 00:41:26,719 --> 00:41:29,400 Speaker 1: to earn those royalties continues. You know, as long as 713 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,719 Speaker 1: the album is still available to purchase as new, then 714 00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:36,240 Speaker 1: you could still be making money off a classic album 715 00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:40,480 Speaker 1: or a remaster years after you first publish it, depending 716 00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:44,200 Speaker 1: upon the contract negotiations you went through before. But if 717 00:41:44,239 --> 00:41:47,520 Speaker 1: the album only receives modest sales, then the artists won't 718 00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:49,840 Speaker 1: get any royalties at all. Like if they don't sell 719 00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:53,000 Speaker 1: a million copies, they never pay off that fifty grant. However, 720 00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:56,520 Speaker 1: they also don't have to pay back the difference to 721 00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:59,160 Speaker 1: the publisher. It's not like, oh, well, we only sold 722 00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:02,759 Speaker 1: thirty thousand dollars worth of the album. If we look 723 00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:06,040 Speaker 1: at your royalty rate, you don't have to return twenty grand. 724 00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:10,160 Speaker 1: You keep the fifty. After CD sales started to decline 725 00:42:10,160 --> 00:42:13,399 Speaker 1: in two thousand, the record label companies began to face 726 00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:16,560 Speaker 1: some pretty harsh realities. Things got worse year after year. 727 00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:19,600 Speaker 1: They had to start laying off employees. It was a 728 00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:23,560 Speaker 1: very drastic change from the days where it looked like 729 00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:26,600 Speaker 1: there was no end in sight to all the parties 730 00:42:27,040 --> 00:42:30,719 Speaker 1: and all the drugs and all the bad behaviors. UM 731 00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:33,320 Speaker 1: I never occupied that world, so I don't know if 732 00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:37,680 Speaker 1: all of that behavior stopped once things started getting more 733 00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:39,879 Speaker 1: real for the record labels, or if they just kept 734 00:42:39,920 --> 00:42:42,520 Speaker 1: doing it in the hopes that maybe that would help 735 00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:44,759 Speaker 1: ease the pain. I wasn't there, so I don't know. 736 00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:47,799 Speaker 1: But the years from two thousand to two thousand ten 737 00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:51,279 Speaker 1: we're really really rough on the industry in general. Now, 738 00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:54,960 Speaker 1: in two thousand eight, the streaming service Spotify launched and 739 00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:57,960 Speaker 1: it would become one of the most important players in 740 00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:01,759 Speaker 1: the streaming game. At the time, it wasn't seen as 741 00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:04,240 Speaker 1: the savior of the music industry, but things have changed 742 00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:07,719 Speaker 1: since then. The streaming model pays record labels a royalty 743 00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:11,160 Speaker 1: fee per stream, and it's typically a fraction of a 744 00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:15,760 Speaker 1: fraction of a penny per stream. So let's say a 745 00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:18,440 Speaker 1: a play of a recording is a stream. Now, according 746 00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:23,000 Speaker 1: to a survey by Digital Music News in eighteen, the 747 00:43:23,080 --> 00:43:27,680 Speaker 1: royalty rate range from point zero zero three nine seven 748 00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:31,600 Speaker 1: dollars that would be on Spotify to point zero zero 749 00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:35,360 Speaker 1: seven eight three dollars on Apple Music. And it's not 750 00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:38,560 Speaker 1: a one size fits all rate. Record labels could negotiate 751 00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:41,920 Speaker 1: those rates on behalf of artists and influential artists sometimes 752 00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:44,200 Speaker 1: have the clout to demand that their work remain off 753 00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:47,839 Speaker 1: the server services entirely if they think the royalty rates 754 00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:50,000 Speaker 1: are too low. Lots of artists have done this Adell 755 00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:54,320 Speaker 1: for example, um They've said, no, I'm not going to 756 00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:58,600 Speaker 1: allow my music to be on those services because the 757 00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:02,279 Speaker 1: royalty fee they're paying is are too low. A lot 758 00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:04,600 Speaker 1: of artists, however, don't have that cloud and they don't 759 00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:07,520 Speaker 1: really have any option. But what became really clear later 760 00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:11,280 Speaker 1: on was that these tiny fractions of a penny really 761 00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:14,400 Speaker 1: do add up when you start looking at them collectively. 762 00:44:14,920 --> 00:44:17,279 Speaker 1: And the big reason for that is it's not a 763 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:21,360 Speaker 1: one time occurrence per customer. So the profit margins on 764 00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:24,239 Speaker 1: c d s were great and the royalties were more 765 00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:27,640 Speaker 1: profitable per sale at first glance, But when you go 766 00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:30,719 Speaker 1: out to buy a CD as a customer, you buy 767 00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:33,279 Speaker 1: it just the one time. You aren't going to go 768 00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:36,080 Speaker 1: buy a new copy of the same c D. Every 769 00:44:36,080 --> 00:44:38,160 Speaker 1: time you want to listen to the c D, you 770 00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:41,320 Speaker 1: just listen to the one you've got. So CD sales 771 00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:44,320 Speaker 1: had a natural curve to them. It would peak often 772 00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:46,640 Speaker 1: right around release or if a single from the album 773 00:44:46,719 --> 00:44:49,560 Speaker 1: got a lot of radio play, and then sales would 774 00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:53,520 Speaker 1: drop off gradually. But with streaming, a payment goes through 775 00:44:53,560 --> 00:44:57,440 Speaker 1: with every stream, so every time a person listens to 776 00:44:57,520 --> 00:45:01,080 Speaker 1: the same song, it triggers a payment, a royalty payment. 777 00:45:01,560 --> 00:45:03,640 Speaker 1: So if you put a song on repeat. Let's say 778 00:45:03,640 --> 00:45:05,560 Speaker 1: that you've got a song that you particularly like and 779 00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:07,400 Speaker 1: it's just stuck in your head and you gotta you 780 00:45:07,480 --> 00:45:09,759 Speaker 1: gotta listen to it, like twenty times in a row. 781 00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:11,960 Speaker 1: This happens to me all the time. Well, that's actually 782 00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:14,720 Speaker 1: twenty royalty payments. They end up going to that record 783 00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:17,640 Speaker 1: label and to that artist. A portion of it goes 784 00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:23,879 Speaker 1: to the artist, So while the initial amount is less 785 00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:26,799 Speaker 1: than what you would get with a CD sale, you 786 00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:29,560 Speaker 1: do it way more frequently because it's every time you 787 00:45:29,640 --> 00:45:32,000 Speaker 1: listen to it, not just every time you purchase it. 788 00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,080 Speaker 1: So record labels began to shift to support that model 789 00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:39,000 Speaker 1: once the economic realities became clear, and streaming gradually grew 790 00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:42,279 Speaker 1: to become a more prominent component in revenue. Now, it 791 00:45:42,320 --> 00:45:45,440 Speaker 1: also meant that some artists that might have trouble getting 792 00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:48,040 Speaker 1: traction in the world of c d s started finding 793 00:45:48,080 --> 00:45:51,759 Speaker 1: sustainable success through streaming. So it might be an artist that, 794 00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:54,920 Speaker 1: you know, maybe they'd only sell a couple of thousand 795 00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:58,800 Speaker 1: albums in the traditional way, that people would discover them online, 796 00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:02,000 Speaker 1: and they would get very popular that way. Now people 797 00:46:02,000 --> 00:46:05,959 Speaker 1: who usually would be struggling and be unable to live 798 00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:08,840 Speaker 1: just off of their music might even be able to 799 00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:11,080 Speaker 1: make a career out of it. They again might not 800 00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:13,800 Speaker 1: be getting rich, but they might be making a comfortable living. 801 00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:17,319 Speaker 1: Not At the same time, the streaming services themselves were 802 00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:21,040 Speaker 1: actually struggling to become profitable. They were operating, they were popular, 803 00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:23,560 Speaker 1: they just weren't making a lot of money. There was 804 00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:26,520 Speaker 1: clearly a business there, so there were a lot of 805 00:46:26,520 --> 00:46:30,319 Speaker 1: investors who were willing to support these services with the 806 00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:33,760 Speaker 1: thought that eventually they would turn a profit. People wanted 807 00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:36,239 Speaker 1: to listen to music, record labels were willing to play 808 00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:39,040 Speaker 1: ball in return for those royalties, and at least some 809 00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:42,600 Speaker 1: artists were totally on board or powerless if they didn't 810 00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:46,920 Speaker 1: have the influence, but making money as the service was 811 00:46:46,960 --> 00:46:49,480 Speaker 1: a bit of a challenge. It wasn't until very recently 812 00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:53,799 Speaker 1: that Spotify posted a profitable quarter from revenue. They did 813 00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:56,600 Speaker 1: have one profitable quarter earlier, but that was due to 814 00:46:56,640 --> 00:46:59,560 Speaker 1: attacks windfall, and you can't build a business off of that. 815 00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:02,120 Speaker 1: That's some us like a one off event. But they 816 00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:04,480 Speaker 1: did have a profitable quarter recently, so they were able 817 00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:08,400 Speaker 1: to show that maybe now it's actually a revenue model 818 00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:13,120 Speaker 1: that works. These services typically generate revenue through ad supported material. 819 00:47:13,239 --> 00:47:18,040 Speaker 1: They sell advertising time on their services, or they might 820 00:47:18,200 --> 00:47:21,760 Speaker 1: also offer subscription plans to customers. They might do both, 821 00:47:22,239 --> 00:47:25,080 Speaker 1: So a typical service could have a free tier in 822 00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:27,759 Speaker 1: which you can listen to music, but you might have 823 00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:31,600 Speaker 1: limited features and you would have commercials play between every 824 00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:35,520 Speaker 1: few songs, or you might have a selection of subscription 825 00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:39,120 Speaker 1: tiers that might be ad free. They could include other 826 00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:41,080 Speaker 1: features like being able to listen to the same song 827 00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:44,479 Speaker 1: more than once, um, that sort of thing. And many 828 00:47:44,600 --> 00:47:47,680 Speaker 1: also offer digital stores where if you want, you can 829 00:47:47,719 --> 00:47:51,239 Speaker 1: purchase songs and download them, kind of like in the 830 00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:53,839 Speaker 1: old days, or like on iTunes or something like that 831 00:47:54,360 --> 00:47:58,120 Speaker 1: um or you could have a limited cashing feature that 832 00:47:58,160 --> 00:48:02,080 Speaker 1: allows for offline listening. Now, this model caught on with 833 00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:04,920 Speaker 1: the public as well, and there are several streaming services 834 00:48:04,920 --> 00:48:07,759 Speaker 1: that you can subscribe to and the interest of full disclosure, 835 00:48:08,080 --> 00:48:10,759 Speaker 1: I Heart Media has an app that they use the 836 00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:13,160 Speaker 1: where you can listen to streaming music, and they talk 837 00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:18,160 Speaker 1: about how their approach is different from say Spotify, and 838 00:48:18,239 --> 00:48:23,000 Speaker 1: that it's all about curating a an experience and it 839 00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:27,800 Speaker 1: becomes a kind of a uh a collaborative effort between 840 00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:31,120 Speaker 1: the service and the listener. And then other services are 841 00:48:31,120 --> 00:48:35,279 Speaker 1: more about on demand listening. So they're very different approaches here, 842 00:48:35,520 --> 00:48:39,640 Speaker 1: but they're both geared towards having people be able to 843 00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:45,360 Speaker 1: access music through streaming as opposed to downloading. So Pandora 844 00:48:45,480 --> 00:48:47,759 Speaker 1: is another example. They select music for you based on 845 00:48:47,800 --> 00:48:50,719 Speaker 1: an algorithm and some guidance from the individual users. You 846 00:48:50,800 --> 00:48:53,239 Speaker 1: might give it a specific song that you like, and 847 00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:55,160 Speaker 1: it will go out and seek other songs that it 848 00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:57,600 Speaker 1: determines are similar to that one and serve them up 849 00:48:57,600 --> 00:49:00,200 Speaker 1: to you. Maybe you like it, maybe you don't. And 850 00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:02,800 Speaker 1: there are rules that these companies typically have to follow. 851 00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:05,520 Speaker 1: Uh those are rules they're set by recording labels and 852 00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:08,200 Speaker 1: broadcast companies, and it's been a challenge for many of 853 00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:10,719 Speaker 1: those companies to make the business actually earn money, and 854 00:49:10,840 --> 00:49:15,200 Speaker 1: many would exist primarily off of repeated rounds of funding campaigns. 855 00:49:15,640 --> 00:49:18,000 Speaker 1: And while I focused on the music industry in this episode, 856 00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:21,000 Speaker 1: we've seen the same thing happen with media like film 857 00:49:21,000 --> 00:49:23,760 Speaker 1: and television. Took a little longer for those to really 858 00:49:24,280 --> 00:49:28,640 Speaker 1: have that same experience, largely because the file sizes are 859 00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:32,800 Speaker 1: typically much much bigger than with music files, and so 860 00:49:33,000 --> 00:49:36,560 Speaker 1: the limitations of technology gave them a bit more breathing 861 00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:40,879 Speaker 1: space than the recording industry had. But services like Netflix, 862 00:49:41,000 --> 00:49:46,320 Speaker 1: Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney's upcoming streaming service, and more provide 863 00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:49,879 Speaker 1: users with on demand digital streaming of films and TV 864 00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:54,480 Speaker 1: shows that belong in the libraries of those services. The 865 00:49:54,520 --> 00:49:58,120 Speaker 1: film and TV industries tried working with TV manufacturers to 866 00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:02,960 Speaker 1: push for advancements like ultra high definition, high dynamic range content, 867 00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:06,120 Speaker 1: even three D systems was an effort to help boost 868 00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:10,800 Speaker 1: sales both of hardware and of content and just increased revenues. 869 00:50:11,080 --> 00:50:14,439 Speaker 1: Much of that has had limited success. In the case 870 00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:16,799 Speaker 1: of three D it was pretty much a flop, and 871 00:50:16,840 --> 00:50:20,279 Speaker 1: we've seen cable subscriptions on the decline, streaming services have 872 00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:22,839 Speaker 1: been doing pretty well, so well in fact, that now 873 00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:26,520 Speaker 1: these distribution companies are also production companies. You know, a 874 00:50:26,560 --> 00:50:29,440 Speaker 1: decade ago, it would seem odd to suggest a company 875 00:50:29,480 --> 00:50:31,680 Speaker 1: like Netflix would be able to go toe to toe 876 00:50:31,800 --> 00:50:35,880 Speaker 1: with established, older media companies to produce award winning content, 877 00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:39,400 Speaker 1: and yet that's happened several times in the last few years. Today, 878 00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:42,680 Speaker 1: we have a culture of cord cutters who are canceling 879 00:50:42,719 --> 00:50:46,600 Speaker 1: cable subscriptions in favor of online delivery. You have cord never's. 880 00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:49,239 Speaker 1: Those are people who never had a subscription to pay 881 00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:52,759 Speaker 1: TV in the first place. They've only received things either 882 00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:56,160 Speaker 1: over the air or online. And this trend hasn't been 883 00:50:56,239 --> 00:50:59,560 Speaker 1: so large as to necessitate a complete change in the 884 00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:02,080 Speaker 1: entertain and industry, but it could be the beginning of 885 00:51:02,120 --> 00:51:05,920 Speaker 1: another very large disruption. So if the streaming model continues 886 00:51:05,960 --> 00:51:09,239 Speaker 1: to grow, or at least hold steady, while cable subscriptions 887 00:51:09,239 --> 00:51:12,600 Speaker 1: continue to fall, we might see a drastic change in 888 00:51:12,719 --> 00:51:16,640 Speaker 1: television and film production. Now we're seeing an increased emphasis 889 00:51:16,800 --> 00:51:20,839 Speaker 1: on huge, tent pole blockbusters in film, you know, like 890 00:51:20,880 --> 00:51:23,120 Speaker 1: the vast majority of them are coming from a single 891 00:51:23,160 --> 00:51:26,160 Speaker 1: movie studio that being the Walt Disney Company, which owns 892 00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:28,840 Speaker 1: not just all the Disney I p but Star Wars 893 00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:31,640 Speaker 1: and Marvel, and they just had the acquisition of Fox 894 00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:34,600 Speaker 1: as well. There's still a call for independent films, but 895 00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:37,879 Speaker 1: many of those have sought new ways to reach audiences. 896 00:51:37,920 --> 00:51:41,600 Speaker 1: Some have been released both in theaters and on online 897 00:51:41,680 --> 00:51:46,040 Speaker 1: channels UH and available for streaming, sometimes for a small fee, 898 00:51:46,600 --> 00:51:49,080 Speaker 1: but at the same time when it's out in theaters. 899 00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:52,840 Speaker 1: Others have skipped cinema distribution entirely and struck deals with 900 00:51:52,880 --> 00:51:56,399 Speaker 1: companies like Netflix to get distribution that way. And as 901 00:51:56,440 --> 00:52:00,239 Speaker 1: we head toward the future and which pay TV is 902 00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:03,799 Speaker 1: having this this existential crisis, we are left with a question. 903 00:52:03,800 --> 00:52:05,839 Speaker 1: Are we going to see a future where PayTV goes 904 00:52:05,880 --> 00:52:10,080 Speaker 1: away and movie theaters are only for showing Disney films 905 00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:12,960 Speaker 1: and everything else reaches us on one of a dozen 906 00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:17,720 Speaker 1: streaming services, or will it be possible that the proliferation 907 00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:20,600 Speaker 1: of all these different services, each of which has its 908 00:52:20,640 --> 00:52:25,200 Speaker 1: own selection of exclusive content and features, will ultimately frustrate 909 00:52:25,239 --> 00:52:27,480 Speaker 1: consumers who just want access to all the things they 910 00:52:27,520 --> 00:52:29,680 Speaker 1: like in one place. I know a lot of people 911 00:52:29,680 --> 00:52:32,120 Speaker 1: who said I quit cable because I thought it was 912 00:52:32,160 --> 00:52:33,960 Speaker 1: too expensive, and it was given me too much of 913 00:52:33,960 --> 00:52:36,560 Speaker 1: the stuff that I don't care about and not enough 914 00:52:36,600 --> 00:52:39,479 Speaker 1: of the stuff I do care about. But now there's 915 00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:42,799 Speaker 1: so many different streaming services and no one has everything 916 00:52:42,960 --> 00:52:44,480 Speaker 1: that in order for me to get all the stuff 917 00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:47,240 Speaker 1: I want, I have to subscribe to half a dozen 918 00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:50,479 Speaker 1: streaming services, which doesn't seem like it's any better than 919 00:52:50,560 --> 00:52:52,880 Speaker 1: one single cable service. So there's still a lot of 920 00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:56,120 Speaker 1: frustration out there. These are questions that we can't answer yet. 921 00:52:56,160 --> 00:52:57,799 Speaker 1: We don't know how it's all going to turn out, 922 00:52:58,080 --> 00:53:00,279 Speaker 1: so I'll likely have to do more episode in this 923 00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:02,799 Speaker 1: vein in the future, but for now it's time to 924 00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:05,480 Speaker 1: leave off and move on to other topics. We are 925 00:53:05,600 --> 00:53:10,200 Speaker 1: done talking about the evolution of entertainment media and how 926 00:53:10,320 --> 00:53:13,520 Speaker 1: that has changed our consumption. We have gotten to the 927 00:53:13,520 --> 00:53:17,200 Speaker 1: point now where a lot of people don't bother owning 928 00:53:17,440 --> 00:53:21,480 Speaker 1: music anymore. Instead, they will pay for a subscription to 929 00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:25,320 Speaker 1: or listen to ads in return for access to a 930 00:53:26,360 --> 00:53:31,520 Speaker 1: service that serves up music on demand in streaming format, 931 00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:34,239 Speaker 1: and not purchase it at all. I mean, I know 932 00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:36,080 Speaker 1: a lot of people who the way they listen to 933 00:53:36,160 --> 00:53:39,520 Speaker 1: music is they just start a YouTube playlist and they 934 00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:42,680 Speaker 1: listen to it that way, So it's it's a very 935 00:53:42,719 --> 00:53:46,239 Speaker 1: different world from the world of vinyl and and c 936 00:53:46,440 --> 00:53:48,960 Speaker 1: D s or even older if we want to go 937 00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:55,400 Speaker 1: with like you know, wax cylinders. So yeah, interesting, interesting story, 938 00:53:55,520 --> 00:53:58,240 Speaker 1: But we're going to now move on to other topics. 939 00:53:58,239 --> 00:54:00,360 Speaker 1: So look forward to something totally to friend in the 940 00:54:00,360 --> 00:54:02,480 Speaker 1: next episode. And if you guys want to reach out 941 00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:05,400 Speaker 1: with your own suggestions, you can email me the addresses 942 00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:08,000 Speaker 1: tech stuff at how stuff works dot com. Pop on 943 00:54:08,080 --> 00:54:10,960 Speaker 1: over to tech stuff podcast dot com. That's our website 944 00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:13,760 Speaker 1: where we have an archive of all of our previous episodes, 945 00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:17,360 Speaker 1: plus access to our social media accounts over on Facebook 946 00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:20,080 Speaker 1: and Twitter. There's also a link there to our online store. 947 00:54:20,120 --> 00:54:22,600 Speaker 1: Remember every purchase you make there goes to help the show, 948 00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:24,960 Speaker 1: and we greatly appreciate it, and I'll talk to you 949 00:54:25,040 --> 00:54:32,680 Speaker 1: again really soon. Text Stuff is a production of I 950 00:54:32,760 --> 00:54:35,719 Speaker 1: Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my 951 00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:39,480 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 952 00:54:39,600 --> 00:54:41,600 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.