October 18, 2010 at 14:39Why is the opinion “they want to pay for a good product” wrong
I so often meet in disputes about copyright and p2p the statement “you need to make a high-quality product, and people will be happy to pay money for it, despite the torrents”, that, seeing the next repetition on Habré , which was actively used, I decided to write a text with specific arguments about why this is completely untrue. As a music journalist, I have an idea of what kind of music is being sold, so I will give examples from this area.
1. There are many parameters that are not related to the “quality” of creativity, which affect how much it is in demand. For example, in order to become a great hit sounding from each iron, a piece of music must be a song three to four minutes long with a verse-chorus structure of the text and a catchy melody, and not some avant-garde symphony. Or, for example, there is a dependence of popularity on the context: in the United States, country is sold with a bang, but we do not need anyone. So, even if we assume that sales depend on "quality", this is far from the only thing on which they depend, and "quality" in itself does not guarantee success. Half an hour-long ambient tracks will never lead the charts of radio stations and will not overtake pop singer Kesha in sales, even if they are a hundred times more beautiful than Kesha's songs.
2. Even if we consider those cases where the “tactical and technical characteristics” are equal (say, we will only talk about pop hits), that is, the difference in “quality” could really make itself felt and reveal the strongest, this still not happening. If you rummage in your memory, then you will surely recall both the cases when something worthwhile, original, interesting and high-quality appeared on the tops of the charts, and the cases when there was another boy band there, no different from thousands of others. Yes, it is possible that original and interesting hits will live on for centuries, and everyone will forget about the boy band a year after its collapse, but we are not talking about posthumous fame, but about sales here and now - and they turn out to be equal in outstanding works and outright bullshit.
3. Once the argument about quality is given in disputes about p2p, they probably mean that torrents should put everything in its place: let there be a lot of garbage in the charts, but they will download it for free, but it’s really worthy to buy for money to proudly put on the shelf. Is this happening? As practice shows, in the case of music, the effect “a person downloaded an album, he turned out to be outstanding, a person bought a licensed disc” is either insignificant in the overall scale of sales, or does not lead to any specific result, because people understand the “outstanding” too differently . The general picture is this: over the past decade, music sales have fallen by half - and this applies to all music ( update: they ask to give at least some links to the data - I found about the USA, not the whole world, but the essence is clear) Having read quite a lot of statistical and analytical materials on this topic, I haven’t seen in any of them the words that in one and the same genre, some groups have sales falling noticeably faster than others. I don’t see any evidence that good music began to sell better than bad (or bad better than good). Sometimes sales in a particular case may not correlate with general trends, but for other reasons. For example, last year youtube’s debut star Susan Boyle became the best-selling album. I think this is largely due to the fact that her target audience is women over 40 who, relatively speaking, listen to one new album a year and do not always know which side the computer turns on. Naturally, they did not climb into the torrents for Boyle's album, but during a visit to the supermarket, when they saw it in a prominent place, many of them bought it with groceries. But the album Lady Gaga, despite the frantic rotation, sold less - because her audience knows how to use torrents, and in supermarkets it happens less often. It says nothing about which of the two albums is better.
As for the specific situation with Metro 2033, in the case of which this thesis was recalled, here I would like to note several things. Firstly, with the circulation of books in Russia there is no transparency, so Glukhovsky can embellish (after all, he is fantastic :)). Secondly, the book was able to disperse in such a circulation due to the fact that it is an action-packed fantasy intended for mass reading in the same metro, which means that saying to all authors “write better and they will buy you like that” is pointless: if the author specializing in serious serious classic-style novels, then, if he writes a book at least three times better than “Metro 2033”, he cannot reach a circulation of half a million (well, in general, see paragraph 1). And thirdly, I want to make the following forecast: in the coming years, with the spread of readers, the best-selling author in Russia will finally be Daria Dontsova. Because Pelevin’s readers will switch to readers and torrents, and Dontsova will be read by the masses who are far from readers and high technologies. Because first of all, those who think literature is important and valuable to think about buying a reader - and those who are not interested in literature read Dontsova, but simply want to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. Because Pelevin’s readers will switch to readers and torrents, and Dontsova will be read by the masses who are far from readers and high technologies. Because first of all, those who think literature is important and valuable to think about buying a reader - and those who are not interested in literature read Dontsova, but simply want to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. Because Pelevin’s readers will switch to readers and torrents, and Dontsova will be read by the masses who are far from readers and high technologies. Because first of all, those who think literature is important and valuable to think about buying a reader - and those who are not interested in literature read Dontsova, but simply want to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. far from readers and high technology. Because first of all, those who think literature is important and valuable to think about buying a reader - and those who are not interested in literature read Dontsova, but simply want to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. far from readers and high technology. Because first of all, those who think literature is important and valuable to think about buying a reader - and those who are not interested in literature read Dontsova, but simply want to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. but just wants to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. but just wants to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova.
1. There are many parameters that are not related to the “quality” of creativity, which affect how much it is in demand. For example, in order to become a great hit sounding from each iron, a piece of music must be a song three to four minutes long with a verse-chorus structure of the text and a catchy melody, and not some avant-garde symphony. Or, for example, there is a dependence of popularity on the context: in the United States, country is sold with a bang, but we do not need anyone. So, even if we assume that sales depend on "quality", this is far from the only thing on which they depend, and "quality" in itself does not guarantee success. Half an hour-long ambient tracks will never lead the charts of radio stations and will not overtake pop singer Kesha in sales, even if they are a hundred times more beautiful than Kesha's songs.
2. Even if we consider those cases where the “tactical and technical characteristics” are equal (say, we will only talk about pop hits), that is, the difference in “quality” could really make itself felt and reveal the strongest, this still not happening. If you rummage in your memory, then you will surely recall both the cases when something worthwhile, original, interesting and high-quality appeared on the tops of the charts, and the cases when there was another boy band there, no different from thousands of others. Yes, it is possible that original and interesting hits will live on for centuries, and everyone will forget about the boy band a year after its collapse, but we are not talking about posthumous fame, but about sales here and now - and they turn out to be equal in outstanding works and outright bullshit.
3. Once the argument about quality is given in disputes about p2p, they probably mean that torrents should put everything in its place: let there be a lot of garbage in the charts, but they will download it for free, but it’s really worthy to buy for money to proudly put on the shelf. Is this happening? As practice shows, in the case of music, the effect “a person downloaded an album, he turned out to be outstanding, a person bought a licensed disc” is either insignificant in the overall scale of sales, or does not lead to any specific result, because people understand the “outstanding” too differently . The general picture is this: over the past decade, music sales have fallen by half - and this applies to all music ( update: they ask to give at least some links to the data - I found about the USA, not the whole world, but the essence is clear) Having read quite a lot of statistical and analytical materials on this topic, I haven’t seen in any of them the words that in one and the same genre, some groups have sales falling noticeably faster than others. I don’t see any evidence that good music began to sell better than bad (or bad better than good). Sometimes sales in a particular case may not correlate with general trends, but for other reasons. For example, last year youtube’s debut star Susan Boyle became the best-selling album. I think this is largely due to the fact that her target audience is women over 40 who, relatively speaking, listen to one new album a year and do not always know which side the computer turns on. Naturally, they did not climb into the torrents for Boyle's album, but during a visit to the supermarket, when they saw it in a prominent place, many of them bought it with groceries. But the album Lady Gaga, despite the frantic rotation, sold less - because her audience knows how to use torrents, and in supermarkets it happens less often. It says nothing about which of the two albums is better.
As for the specific situation with Metro 2033, in the case of which this thesis was recalled, here I would like to note several things. Firstly, with the circulation of books in Russia there is no transparency, so Glukhovsky can embellish (after all, he is fantastic :)). Secondly, the book was able to disperse in such a circulation due to the fact that it is an action-packed fantasy intended for mass reading in the same metro, which means that saying to all authors “write better and they will buy you like that” is pointless: if the author specializing in serious serious classic-style novels, then, if he writes a book at least three times better than “Metro 2033”, he cannot reach a circulation of half a million (well, in general, see paragraph 1). And thirdly, I want to make the following forecast: in the coming years, with the spread of readers, the best-selling author in Russia will finally be Daria Dontsova. Because Pelevin’s readers will switch to readers and torrents, and Dontsova will be read by the masses who are far from readers and high technologies. Because first of all, those who think literature is important and valuable to think about buying a reader - and those who are not interested in literature read Dontsova, but simply want to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. Because Pelevin’s readers will switch to readers and torrents, and Dontsova will be read by the masses who are far from readers and high technologies. Because first of all, those who think literature is important and valuable to think about buying a reader - and those who are not interested in literature read Dontsova, but simply want to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. Because Pelevin’s readers will switch to readers and torrents, and Dontsova will be read by the masses who are far from readers and high technologies. Because first of all, those who think literature is important and valuable to think about buying a reader - and those who are not interested in literature read Dontsova, but simply want to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. far from readers and high technology. Because first of all, those who think literature is important and valuable to think about buying a reader - and those who are not interested in literature read Dontsova, but simply want to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. far from readers and high technology. Because first of all, those who think literature is important and valuable to think about buying a reader - and those who are not interested in literature read Dontsova, but simply want to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. but just wants to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova. but just wants to kill time on the subway or train. Because you need to buy a good book for decorating a shelf in a good hardcover edition, which is expensive - Dontsova is bought cheaply in paperbacks, read in the subway and then thrown away, it’s not a pity. Do you think that in the era of torrents people will continue to pay with pleasure only for the best? In this case, you will also have to agree that the best books in modern Russian literature are the books of Daria Dontsova.