[KRAFTWERK] Re: KRAFTWERK Digest, Vol 23, Issue 13

[Matthew Dean]

Hey Tomasz, I agree, you're not evil! In a way it's like 
going to the movies. You buy a ticket and pay; but now,
because suddenly you've entered their building, it is now
totally illegal to take your own sweets or popcorn. You
can ONLY buy THEIR popcorn or sweets, and it's triple the
usual price. Why must I pay ZAR10 for a medium coke, when
I can buy a small bottle for half that? Either you buy 
their popcorn, or you have nothing. Then you get "crooks" 
like me, who smuggle my own sweets and drink into the 
cinema... am I now evil, and am I going to cause the 
cinema to go bankrupt? Or am I just sick to death of 
getting ripped off from an unfair monopoly?

Same with CDs to an extent. Sure, the artists deserve their
royalties, because they are the talented ones. And with
big sales, they will get handsomely rewarded. But the 
record companies are bleeding us dry. They say that CDRs
are killing the profits - so how do they react? They 
INCREASE the price of CDS! I'm sorry - surely if the price
is higher, it gives us more reason to copy! 

And what I don't get... the copyright issue. Why is it that
classical CDs, eg Beethoven, cost a fraction of the price
of a popular CD, yet it is among the most popular music of
all time??? Why do the direct descendants of Beethoven
not get paid a cent? Why is there no question of royalties
when someone plays Beethoven at a venue or on the radio?
Why can any person in the world perform Beethoven and not
get into sh1t for it? Yet when you take songs that are 40-
50 years old, that are so popular worldwide, that they have
become almost traditional songs, there is a whole question
of royalties, copyright, and the record companies are so 
full of sh1t? So now I'm evil because I have 2-3 copied
Beatles CDs, among my whole collection of originals. I have
1962-66 on cassette and LP, but I'm a crook because I
compiled all the songs from the other albums and recreated
1962-66 on a CDR...

And do we have a choice? Either we pay EMI crazy money for 
CDs, or we go without... whatever happened to choice? Why
can we not get decent music by the same (old) artists on
other labels? For instance, I can buy the best of Jimi
Hendrix for a full-price CD, but in Germany I bought a 
cheap 2CD best of, 1/3 of the price and all the same songs!
Why can it not be like that with everybody! In the old days
it was, you could get cheap compilation LPs with all the
original songs - nowadays anything that is original costs
big money!

And in the case of Kraftwerk, we are mostly loyal fans,
but they never release albums! For years we have had to
contact each other via the mailing lists, scour the 
Internet, patience for many years, simply to get a little 
bit of news about Kraftwerk - let alone any music! And
what about people like us in Africa? Just getting the 
normal albums like Autobahn is difficult enough, and when
you do find them, they cost double the price! So we have 
had to resort to bootlegs, illegal mixes, CDR copies... but
we love KW's music, so we keep on trying!

So there! This is our loyalty... the KW fans are among the
most loyal - and most masochistic - around!

As for Der Katalog, forget it. If there are bonus tracks,
or something to look out for, then I will sell my originals
and buy Der Katalog. Otherwise, what is the point?

Cheers
Matt

http://www.geocities.com/kraftwerk_za 


>I am not loyal?! I am fan of them since 1981. I regularly
>spend large 
>amounts on official Kraftwerk stuff. I have whole
>discography, English 
>versions, German versiona, both on LP, on CD. I will also
>purchase whole 
>stuff again if Der Katalog will appear (again: both
>language versions, maybe 
>SACD too).
>Isn't enough?! If Kraftwerk don't want me to download
>so-called illegal 
>material, they can make it available for all interested. I
>would be very 
>happy to pay Kraftwerk for their yet unrealesed three 1997
>tracks.
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