MegaUpload Shut Down Because of Megabox Jukebox Service?
The downfall of MegaUpload is surrounded by yet another conspiracy theory.
One rumor is now suggesting that authorities had to strike because of possible pressure from the music industry as the service was about to launch a music service called MegaBox that could have enabled artists to give away their music for free and get paid by MegaUpload via secondary revenue that may have been generated by tools such as advertising. Given the size of MegaUpload, at the time of its shutdown the 13th largest website, hosted on more than a thousand servers and more than 1 billion visitors every month, MegaUpload could have been a serious threat in such a venture for the music industry. Keep in mind, this is a rumor, not a confirmed fact.
Even though, the speculation that the music industry was able to convince the FBI to shut down MegaUpload just in time before there may have been an inconvenient iTunes competitor is a spicy exercise. Imagine a service that attracts 50 million users a day and gives away music free of charge, while keeping artists happy. Suddenly you don't need music publishers anymore. Has there been a shady operation in the background? We don't know and I will leave that up to you to decide.
Of course, as it stands, MegaUpload and its sparkling and money-flaunting founder Kim Dotcom (born Kim Schmitz) are accused of mass piracy and there is a good chance that Dotcom won't get away with a slap on his hands as he did when he was convicted of insider trading and embezzlement in 2002 and 2003. Dotcom received a probationary sentence in both cases.
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War on drugs & piracy - never-ending waste of our tax dollars.
wait, isnt that the guy that has the highest score on COD MW3?
I can see both the good and the bad in this, but its mostly bad. Basically the ones that benefit from this are consumers and current artists. But future musicians would have a very hard time getting noticed because of this. for new artists, their success depends largely on being signed.
This service would put off alot of people from buying music and publishers will fall. And there will be noone to sign and invest in new bands. Therefore these bands will have to get by on word of mouth alone and gigs. And eventually retire before doing anything big. And then the music industry would be doomed.
Im glad this Megabox was never final, but sadly I think its innevitable for another similar service to appear.
tell that to a family who has had a loved one captured by those pirates, and held hostage for years for a payout.
Im glad we are happy to send the navy out to protect ships rather then decide their lives arnt worth spending your tax dollars on
I can see both the good and the bad in this, but its mostly bad. Basically the ones that benefit from this are consumers and current artists. But future musicians would have a very hard time getting noticed because of this. for new artists, their success depends largely on being signed.This service would put off alot of people from buying music and publishers will fall. And there will be noone to sign and invest in new bands. Therefore these bands will have to get by on word of mouth alone and gigs. And eventually retire before doing anything big. And then the music industry would be doomed.Im glad this Megabox was never final, but sadly I think its innevitable for another similar service to appear.
I think you'll find your lines crossed here. Most upcoming artists with anything of note to offer get over looked by the music industry in favor of an ever growing popularity to sign mediocre talent which they can manipulate using auto tune and then continually feed the garbage out to gullible tone deaf people for maximum profit.
i heard that they were also planning to sell music and given 90% of the money to artists.
I can see both the good and the bad in this, but its mostly bad. Basically the ones that benefit from this are consumers and current artists. But future musicians would have a very hard time getting noticed because of this. for new artists, their success depends largely on being signed.This service would put off alot of people from buying music and publishers will fall. And there will be noone to sign and invest in new bands. Therefore these bands will have to get by on word of mouth alone and gigs. And eventually retire before doing anything big. And then the music industry would be doomed.Im glad this Megabox was never final, but sadly I think its innevitable for another similar service to appear.
and un proven band getting signed is just giving them a debt, and letting them have VERY little leverage.
the best thing a band can do is get a studio recording for their best song, and youtube it, get adds off it and put it up on a distribution platform like itunes, and try to get the word out.
if you can plan your own tours, you can make even more money, and wont be screwed by record companies.
most people wont even break even on their debt with the record companies till their 3rd cd if they are lucky.
I dont know. what else I can say about it. love megaupload and hate it. I m a megaupload user and I m also knowing it is gonna to hurt the music. and movie and the software in the futurebut I just can't offer too much things I want. . who else will go into bestbuy straightto the CD section or the movie section after knowing megaupload.
RIP. megaupload, fileserve. filesonic.
Sucks they had some decent tv programs (with commercials) on mega upload. Like the TV people, don't get enough money???
i heard that they were also planning to sell music and given 90% of the money to artists.
That's 85% more what the record labels currently give to the artists. As always the music industry screws the people and the artists
This IP/copyright nonsense is getting way out of control. No law maker has the consumer's best interest in mind, it's all about the big companies with all the lobbyists. I want people to get paid for their work, but we need some compromise. I just don't think you can treat digital content the same as a regular product, it just isn't.
I am amazed at how people still use traditional services such as RIAA. Why bother, when you can go straight to the distributors? Same with movies. Why go through a studio, if you've already got the capitol to make the movie, just sell online. Perhaps it'd be good if there were an easy way to get it to theaters too...
I was contemplating the trick of getting an Ebook on to Nook and Kindle just yesterday. Not the devices, I mean the service. Why sell your rights to some company who only puts them in the same distribution as you would? It's not like you need to print an actual book anymore. In the same way, you no longer need to cut a CD. Just record using your high end computer gadgets. Either distribute via YouTube, or some other ad supported service. You'll end up with the same revenue, but keep all your rights.
I can see both the good and the bad in this, but its mostly bad. Basically the ones that benefit from this are consumers and current artists. But future musicians would have a very hard time getting noticed because of this. for new artists, their success depends largely on being signed.This service would put off alot of people from buying music and publishers will fall. And there will be noone to sign and invest in new bands. Therefore these bands will have to get by on word of mouth alone and gigs. And eventually retire before doing anything big. And then the music industry would be doomed.Im glad this Megabox was never final, but sadly I think its innevitable for another similar service to appear.
Artists would get by on popularity and gigs, actual talent and effort instead of hand picking acts based on their image and synthesizing them some talent? Sounds like the best thing that could ever happen to consumers.
Kim Dotcom's really not that great of a guy either though, kind of guilty of money crimes in the past and would probably have taken a lot of people's money. He has a point, this is just as much about the war he's had with the industry as it is any crimes he's committed. I mean, there's plenty of criminals around the world. Plenty of large counterfeiting rings in China, actual ripping off physical products and selling bootlegs. Or they could have went in to grab one of the many drug cartel kingpins in South/Central America. Or perhaps one of the multiple child prostitution rings around the world and even in the US. No? Our biggest priority is a copyright infringer?
Odds are he'll get 10x the sentence most child rapists/murderers do.
i want to know why swizz beat's isn't in jail ..................
This IP/copyright nonsense is getting way out of control. No law maker has the consumer's best interest in mind, it's all about the big companies with all the lobbyists. I want people to get paid for their work, but we need some compromise. I just don't think you can treat digital content the same as a regular product, it just isn't.
Even in worst case scenario with the cost of piracy being as they say (jobs, quality etc. something for the common people that is, because we all know they billionaires are selfless and don't think of their own profit and their third pool or second helicopter) the value I think is in the enjoyment of freedom to use the free internet as it was meant to be, freely.
Can you put a price and value on peace of mind?
p.s. wouldn't it be great if instead of putting effort into controlling the way users chose to use the copyrighted material, they put effort into providing users with the best experience and reliability possible compared to the price?
Like Steam vs. Sony's rootkits vs. torrenting the unpatched and potentially trojan-ed version?
The RIAA may in the long run kill itself.
Technology has come to the point where even a garage band with little financial backing can 'produce' top quality sound; never mind the fact that prob 99.9% of pirated music is MP3 format anyway, something that is not even remotely CD quality; and CD quality is the low end of music production these days.
bottom line, the 'need' for an expensive studio and for a record producer is vanishing and the more acts that find out about it the better. Let's give them a way to self publish; and make a living doing so and before you know it the RIAA can call it a day.
smells like apple had a part in this too...
If he had been skinny they never would have charged him.
Thanks FBI for protecting me from this evil company....Yet Bank of America still operating... interesting...
Pay the right people and you get whatever you want. U.S. Capitalism.
I hadn't seen a picture of Kim Dotcom and assumed that they were female. Why not given that Kim is a girl's name right?
My image of Kim Dotcom went from a sassy woman who looks like Summer Glau to that balding chubber. The horror!
The music industry is a parasite that along with iCrap-the-defrauder deserves to be eradicated. And let us not forget the publishing industry. The world has to wake up to these thieving middlemen. They are not needed and can be done away with.
But future musicians would have a very hard time getting noticed because of this. for new artists, their success depends largely on being signed.
Yeah.... no. We're not in 1995 anymore. Musicians get noticed faster and more easily since the internet. I can easily imagine that such a system would incorporate a "new artists" section, which music lovers crave. In 2012, signing an artist is leeching money off him for no added benefit.
That's 85% more what the record labels currently give to the artists. As always the music industry screws the people and the artists
98,73% more.
Yes, the Megabox plan was to allow artists to sell their work and keep most of the profit, or offer it for free and Megabox would push them money for doing so.
I'm not sure why an iTunes wouldn't go for that as well. You'd have the music industry market over night.
I don't mind them arresting Dotcom if he's actually involved with piracy or copyright infringement, or in the least possibly obstruction.
That should have nothing to do with his wealth or how many cars he has. Nothing wrong with being rich or poor, and especially achieving wealth by legal means.
Pay the right people and you get whatever you want. U.S. Capitalism.
Pay the right people and still don't get what you wanted...Socialism.
War on drugs & piracy - never-ending waste of our tax dollars.
well that increases the profits of the media companies which in return increases taxes
war on drugs is like wars on serial killers and stuff like that, it saves your life and the lives of people you love (and hate)
well that increases the profits of the media companies which in return increases taxeswar on drugs is like wars on serial killers and stuff like that, it saves your life and the lives of people you love (and hate)
Except for the fact that our government is the reason these drugs are even getting into America. It is just another form of control, and another way for the government to wage war against it's own citizens.
Except for the fact that our government is the reason these drugs are even getting into America. It is just another form of control, and another way for the government to wage war against it's own citizens.
ITS E CONSPIRECY I TEL YE!
Its only good time when the artists can do what they want with their music. time for change is near. goodbye music industry!!!
tell that to a family who has had a loved one captured by those pirates, and held hostage for years for a payout.Im glad we are happy to send the navy out to protect ships rather then decide their lives arnt worth spending your tax dollars on
dude what you smokin?, the article is about digital piracy and the music being scared of what this guy could have done, not what's going on in africa