Piracy Facts: MP3 quality compared to CD Quality

With such Internet resources such as BearShare, Limewire, Frostwire, The Pirate Bay, and an endless amount of torrent sites available in the U.S. and around the world, it's no surprise that people like to pirate music. Most people feel that they listen to too many artists to purchase CDs and singles, that the CD won't be worth the investment, that they are limited on the available sources and mediums for which they get their music, or are just plain cheap. But, what most of these "pirates" don't know is that the quality for which they download this music is slim to nothing compared to the quality you get from a purchased CD or single. Let me explain:

The highest available MP3 quality available through downloaded music offline is 320 mega bits per second (Mbps). The quality of a purchased CD or single is 1,411 Kilo bytes per second (Kbps). Now, some of you may be reading this and saying to yourselves, "Who cares, the music I download is good enough for me", but for those who enjoy high-quality music and true sound such as myself, will appreciate what I'm about to explain. 

A megabit is equal to only 0.000125 kilobytes. Let me break down the math for you to make it as simple as possible, because the numbers can get very tricky if you don't pay very close attention.

1 mega bit= 0.000125 kilobytes.

320Mbps (MP3's highest quality)=0.04 kilobytes (1/2,250 of the average CD quality track)

The Math: 

Avg. CD Track quality: 90Kbps

Highest MP3 quality: 320Mbps

You simply identify that 0.04 is 4/100's of a Kilobyte.

Then you multiply this number by this number by 90 (Avg. CD track quality) and you end up with the number 2,250

These numbers state that even if you download the highest quality MP3 song available through piracy, that it still only equals 0.04 of the total available 90 Kbps of a standard CD quality song. Wait, I know what you're thinking, why did he only state 90Kbps if the CD quality is 1,441. I stated the number 90Kbps because that is 1/16 of the total CD quality available. The number 16 represents the standard number of tracks recorded on a CD. Here's the breakdown:

1CD=1,411Kbps

1,411Kbps/16 tracks= Roughly 90Kbps per track

320 Mbps X 0.000125Kbps= 0.04 (The total percentage of quality you get from a downloaded MP3 compared to that of a CD quality recording. 

My thoughts in comparison of CD quality to MP3 quality:

If you've ever purchased multiple CDs and listened to them critically you will notice the clarity of the instruments to be very crisp, clean, and detailed. Pirated music compresses the audio down to nearly nothing and cuts out a lot of the equalization and clarity of sounds recorded on professional equipment. I can write an entire article on such compression and details, but will spare you the boredom of such information. Just know that MP3s are compressed files of originally recorded and professional mastered audio. So, before you download your music for free, think about the amount of quality you're getting. You're getting a very low quality track compared to that of which you would get from a purchased CD.

Remember the saying, "You get what you pay for"

Self-Experiment:

Search your house, car, garage, etc for a CD that you actually purchased from a retailer. Listen to a few selected tracks very carefully, preferably on high quality speakers,surround sound speakers, or high-quality headphones. If you listen carefully you'll notice that instruments such as drums, kicks (in rap), guitars, etc are crisp and full of clarity. You can feel the hard hit of the kick, the strum of each guitar note, and the rhythm of the drums. Now after you listen to that particular track(s) about three to four times, search for the song via the internet. After listening to your selected song for about 10-30 seconds, you can already hear the difference in quality. 

Thank You to all who have read this post and I hope from now on that you will purchase music not only for the quality, but for the sake of artists and the industry as a whole. 

God Bless,

William "Real Will" Dodd

Independent Artist: Is it really worth it?

Most artists today don't really care for a major record deal much like they did years ago. Mainly because they are afraid, and assume that labels will try to take advantage of them, which in most cases is true. Most artists only see a small royalty rate which is typically as little as 3% and usually contains a cap of 15% (For major selling artists).

If I were to put myself in an independent artist shoes (again, because I've been there before), I would be furious if a label only offered me 3% of my albums sales etc. This means, in numbers, that if an album sales 100,000 copies at $10/each I would only receive $30,000 (way lower than the average American income of $46,326. <http://www.mybudget360.com/how-much-does-the-average-american-make-breaking-down-the-us-household-income-numbers/> This as well as mainstream media, are the main reason most artists today want to do it themselves, and quite frankly, I don't blame them. Lets crunch some numbers here (These are slightly higher than the previous numbers and based on a major artist)

500,000 (albums) x $10 (each)= $5,000,000

Recoupment (Meaning what it cost the label to make your album, they always ensure they get it back):

Album cost (Average for majors): $500,000 (This includes hiring producers, band players, back up vocalists, mastering fees, studio time, promotion, distribution fees, artwork fees, and so forth.)

That leaves only $4,500,000 for the artist (Sounds nice don't it but wait more costs.......)

Now we have to cut out tour support average ($500,000) and then also manager commission (20%) of artist royalties ($)

Leaving: $3,900,970

Radio Promotion: $200,000

manager: $164,232

Lawyer: $200,000

Business Manager: $164,232

Manufacturing Costs: $250,000

Leaving: $3,330,776

Publishing Royalties: $750,000 (Money paid to those who wrote an artists songs)

Leaving: $2,580,776

marketing: 2 Million

Leaving: $821,164 (before manager pay) $492,700 after  for the artist.

All numbers based on <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml>

Artist (solo) royalty (let's do one for the low and high 3% and 15%)

Solo Low: $14,781 (with this kind of royalty you might as well be working at McDonalds (14,874-18,840) <http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Fast_Food_Worker/Hourly_Rate>

Solo Artist high: $123,274

For more information on artist royalty rates, statistics, recoupment costs, and so forth. Be sure to check out, or purchase a book entitled All You Need To Know About The Music Business by Donald S. Passman, I myself have read this book, and know that it gives you information on every subject about the music business from a lawyer's point of view. I hope you all enjoyed this post, and I look forward to   doing even more.

Thank You,

William Dodd