What the record companies never say

[VivaHollandia]

Dear all,

According to my last.fm profile (www.last.fm/user/michielcaspar) I listen to 14 songs per day on average. Let's say a song lasts 3 minutes on average. That means i spend 42 minutes a day on it, which means 15 330 minutes a year, which i 255,5 hours. If I spent the time working for 10 euros an hour (a normal/slightly low wage in holland), then I would have mad 2555 euro. According to Unicef they can give 8 children necessary vaccinations a year for 10 euro's a month, so 120 euro total. I could have spent 21,3 times the 120 euro's if I worked instead of music, which means I could have taken care of enough vaccination for 170 children. So in theory I might be responsible for the death of 170 children.

My conclusion is that music is a very dangerous hobby.

In my everyday experiences I find that people are not aware of this life threatening downside of listening to music. This is why I think record companies should take their responsibility. However, after so many years of denial they probably won't do that. Therefore I plead for government intervention. It should be obliged for record companies to make people aware. My suggestion is that there should be warnings either on the physical cd itself, or on the tracks. For example, each cd should start on track 1 with a spoken warning : "Listening to this cd once a day may lead to the death of 170 children."

Who is with me and/or has other suggestions?

 

[someofusisturningnasty]

Re: What the record companies never say..

Dear all,

According to my last.fm profile (www.last.fm/user/michielcaspar) I listen to 14 songs per day on average. Let's say a song lasts 3 minutes on average. That means i spend 42 minutes a day on it, which means 15 330 minutes a year, which i 255,5 hours. If I spent the time working for 10 euros an hour (a normal/slightly low wage in holland), then I would have mad 2555 euro. According to Unicef they can give 8 children necessary vaccinations a year for 10 euro's a month, so 120 euro total. I could have spent 21,3 times the 120 euro's if I worked instead of music, which means I could have taken care of enough vaccination for 170 children. So in theory I might be responsible for the death of 170 children.

My conclusion is that music is a very dangerous hobby.

In my everyday experiences I find that people are not aware of this life threatening downside of listening to music. This is why I think record companies should take their responsibility. However, after so many years of denial they probably won't do that. Therefore I plead for government intervention. It should be obliged for record companies to make people aware. My suggestion is that there should be warnings either on the physical cd itself, or on the tracks. For example, each cd should start on track 1 with a spoken warning : "Listening to this cd once a day may lead to the death of 170 children."

Who is with me and/or has other suggestions?

How utterly ridiculous.

 

[Robert Tressell]

Re: What the record companies never say..

Dear all,

According to my last.fm profile (www.last.fm/user/michielcaspar) I listen to 14 songs per day on average. Let's say a song lasts 3 minutes on average. That means i spend 42 minutes a day on it, which means 15 330 minutes a year, which i 255,5 hours. If I spent the time working for 10 euros an hour (a normal/slightly low wage in holland), then I would have mad 2555 euro. According to Unicef they can give 8 children necessary vaccinations a year for 10 euro's a month, so 120 euro total. I could have spent 21,3 times the 120 euro's if I worked instead of music, which means I could have taken care of enough vaccination for 170 children. So in theory I might be responsible for the death of 170 children.

My conclusion is that music is a very dangerous hobby.

In my everyday experiences I find that people are not aware of this life threatening downside of listening to music. This is why I think record companies should take their responsibility. However, after so many years of denial they probably won't do that. Therefore I plead for government intervention. It should be obliged for record companies to make people aware. My suggestion is that there should be warnings either on the physical cd itself, or on the tracks. For example, each cd should start on track 1 with a spoken warning : "Listening to this cd once a day may lead to the death of 170 children."

Who is with me and/or has other suggestions?

I'd go for that. I think when you go on Itunes etc you should have to choose everytime you are about to make a purchase. It could say "buy this or save children from dying?"

 

[john86]

Re: What the record companies never say..

Is this a joke?

 

[VivaHollandia]

Re: What the record companies never say..

I'd go for that. I think when you go on Itunes etc you should have to choose everytime you are about to make a purchase. It could say "buy this or save children from dying?"

This is a very interesting thought. I was just thinking of a special tax for cd's and other sorts of albums, to discourage people from buying them. 50% more expensive should lead to a good decrease of sales.

Another more radical (and thus better) one would be to register how much a person listens to music, when he's not doing anything else that is of value. If a person crosses a limit, let's say 30 mins per day, then he gets fined, and that money goes to the places where they need it.

Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before. I dreamed that all the world agreed to listen to music no more.

 

[bored]

Re: What the record companies never say..

I'd hate to live in a world where the government taxes me for my down time. They already tax me when I'm working. They tax me when I spend my money. They tax me to drive down their roads. Is nothing sacred?

 

[Emotional Guide Dog]

I work, I'm very good at my job & once a month I get paid for it.
Then once every two years, I do something for Comic Relief. I also put money in charity buckets, gave some to the Haiti fund & in the past I did a half marathon for Meningitis Research & an abseil for the Royal National Institute For The Blind.

If you're going to tell me I should feel guilty about paying for music occasionally, you can f*** RIGHT off.

 

[jamescagney]

If only they would invent a way to listen to music and do other things (like work) at the same time.

I think they should also tax your chewing gum. You could be walking to work or to a charity benefit, if you weren't too busy chewing gum.

Vacation should be taxed as well. You could be working instead.

 

[Robert Tressell]

Re: What the record companies never say..

This is a very interesting thought. I was just thinking of a special tax for cd's and other sorts of albums, to discourage people from buying them. 50% more expensive should lead to a good decrease of sales.

Another more radical (and thus better) one would be to register how much a person listens to music, when he's not doing anything else that is of value. If a person crosses a limit, let's say 30 mins per day, then he gets fined, and that money goes to the places where they need it.

Last night I had the strangest dream I ever dreamed before. I dreamed that all the world agreed to listen to music no more.

The problem would be finding out how much time people really waste on music, you can't rely on individuals to time themselves.
Perhaps some kind of microchip embedded in each of us that can detect when we listen to music. Once a month it could send details to the government who would then charge each of us the required amount.

I'm not sure how we deal with this issue, but I do thank you for raising it.

 

[VivaHollandia]

Re: What the record companies never say..

The problem would be finding out how much time people really waste on music, you can't rely on individuals to time themselves.
Perhaps some kind of microchip embedded in each of us that can detect when we listen to music. Once a month it could send details to the government who would then charge each of us the required amount.

I'm not sure how we deal with this issue, but I do thank you for raising it.

Haha oh yes, I think we are at the point of total control now

For the people who were confused by the other messages, all I did was trying to get a hold of a gut feeling I have. I can try to give you the background of why I wrote this, maybe you can understand what I mean then.

Please think of cigarettes or alcohol instead of cd's, you will see what I wrote was the same, the only difference was that it is not socially accepted. There are many other examples I could give, such as 'feeling safe', terrorism, the environmental problems, the financial crisis. I find this kind of argumenting is well accepted now, when it is about socially accepted topics. Who finds it strange nowadays to be asked by a total stranger (e.g. a policeman) to prove your identity? Or when it's on the news that people lose their jobs because of the financial crisis?

Don't be fooled people, think for yourself! When you see reasons like I mentioned above (environment, crisis, etc) ask yourself, why is this in the news? What advantage is it to either the government, the company, or the individual to say this? And what is the advantage of mentioning the crisis, mentioning the environmental problems? I assure you, in 99% of those cases those problems are merely used as a way of legitimating unlegitimate actions, to make money, or to gain/remain power.

EDIT: All of those so-called "problems" are argumented in exactly the same way I did. I don't say there wasn't a financial crisis, but I do say we should have serious to what extend companies really had to fire people because of it. I don't say there isn't an environmental problem, but the reasoning just isn't right. Just like my plan with cd-warnings.