The Demise of the Music Industry: Music Piracy

Personally, I miss the days as a child when a visit to the music store was a real experience. I used to love to look through the records. After buying one, I couldn’t wait to get it home and remove the cellophane wrapper. Aah……the smell of the vinyl recording. The crackling sound as the needle made contact. Great memories. Although it’s not as exciting as it was as a child, I still go shopping every week for CDs.

With today’s available technology, I can understand the move to new music distribution methods such as iTunes. However, call me a prude, but I never been able to support the idea of illegal music downloading. I have found it very frustrating that so many people do it, as I have always viewed it theft.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), “many do not understand the significant negative impact of piracy on the music industry. Though it would appear that record companies are still making their money and that artists are still getting rich, these impressions are mere fallacies. Each sale by a pirate represents a lost legitimate sale, thereby depriving not only the record company of profits, but also the artist, producer, songwriter, publisher, retailer, … and the list goes on.”

The adverse effects include:

1. Consumers (such as myself) lose because the savings enjoyed by music pirates drives up the costs of legitimate products.
2. Retailers lose because they can’t compete with the prices offered by illegal vendors.
3. Record companies lose. It is estimated that 85% of music recordings do not generate enough revenue to cover their costs. Record companies require the revenue from the profitable 15% of recordings to sustain their business operations. Without it, they are at risk.
4. Creative artists lose

In a very public case, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were angered when their Stadium Arcadium album was leaked to the public and distributed online prior to its official release. As recording artist Tool noted, "Basically, it's about music -- if you didn't create it, why should you exploit it? True fans don't rip off their artists."

My Ebay Experience: Am I The Only One Getting Screwed?

I would classify myself as an early to late adopter of new technology. I am definitely not out there leading the pack when it comes to purchasing the latest “toys”. Last summer, I decided to try Ebay for the first time. It seemed like all of my friends had been using it for some time. Our rounds of golf would not go by without one of the boys talking about some great deal he got on a golf club from Ebay. I went in search of such a deal.

I decided that I wanted the new TaylorMade R7 driver, the hottest club on the market. It was retailing for $499.99 CDN, $574.99 with tax. I set my maximum price based on the retail price and the savings I was looking for. A few days later, I was thrilled to win the bid for $320 US, $340 US with shipping. Unfortunately, my excitement turned to rage when the club arrived. There were two additional charges: duty and a very expensive UPS brokerage charge that I was not expecting. With the addition of these two charges, the total came to $563.07 CDN. So, for the great savings of $11.92, I spent two weeks waiting for the club to arrive, while losing the customer service and product guarantee I would have secured by purchasing retail.

I decided to give Ebay another shot before Christmas. I won the bid on a statue and promptly paid the seller. Unfortunately, I never received the statue nor my money back from my trustworthy PayPal transaction.

Support your local retailer!

Secure online shopping, my butt……It must be Karma.

My I.T. Skills Used to be Marketable: What Happened?

I’ll start by acknowledging that I have been out of the programming game for a few years now. Had I stayed in the game, I would have surely made efforts to keep up with the latest technology as best I could. That being said, I still find it amazing how quickly the “cutting edge” skills I came out of school with less than ten years ago have become obsolete. Gone is the high demand for programming knowledge in Visual Basic and Active Server Pages, having been replaced with the likes of Flash and Java.

I remember starting my programming career in 1998. I used to listen to the mainframe software developers complain about the lack of programming opportunities for people with their “outdated” skill set. I remember feeling sorry for them and their plight, all the while believing that it would never happen to me. In my opinion, my skills were hot and were always going to be hot…..I was the man! In fact, to highlight my value, I took the time to study for and obtain Microsoft’s premiere programming certification: the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD). Having this certification was supposed to qualify me as a Microsoft programming expert…Microsoft said so!

Unfortunately, I seemed to be the only one in my neck of the woods that had ever heard of the certification. In fact, most people assumed that MCSD was an abbreviation for a Masters in Computer Science, with the exception being those that actually had a Masters in Computer Science. I began to wonder if those hundreds of hours of study were worth it.

I must admit that I am embarrassingly out of touch with today’s hottest technology: blogs, Blackberrys, FaceBook, Wi-Fi…..it’s all been Greek to me. This course has come along at a good time, as it is forcing me out of the dark days. I am starting to feel like I am once again somewhat knowledgeable with the latest “toys”.

Thankfully, SQL Server and Oracle are still around, so I can at least discuss database technology with today’s I.T. talent. Ironically, the certification I received so long ago is still valid.

When I.T. Goes Bad: The Sobeys SAP Fiasco

I.T systems are generally discussed in terms of the benefits they provide. Most would agree that technology is required to sustain competitive advantage or even simply to remain competitive. However, every once in a while, the implementation of technology goes terribly wrong, leaving devastating consequences. Case in point: Sobeys’ implementation of its SAP-powered Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

For the most part, SAP software is used successfully around the world in numerous organizations. However, in December of 2000, the system caused its database to crash, leaving it unable to process the transactions moving through the stores' systems. The problem created a five-week backlog just before the holiday shopping period.

In January, 2001, Sobeys announced that it was ditching the software due to "systemic problems" and "insufficient core functionality”, as it could not handle its ordering and data processing needs for its stores in Ontario and Atlantic Canada.

The SAP software was a complete disaster for the organization. Sobeys had no choice but to write off all the assets related to the SAP information technology initiative so that additional losses could be avoided. The $89 million project ended up costing the company $50 million. In addition, the interruption of business cut its quarterly operating profit by 16 cents a share.

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