Email BPI

RobDickinson · 22-01-2004, 10:31 AM

general@bpi.co.uk

rant away - I have.

Between CD-wow and copy protection I'm all in for mp3/p2p now.

22-01-2004, 11:12 AM

Thanks for the address!

I've just sent the following:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I'm very disappointed with the BPI's attitude to online retailers. Your action against CDwow (and proposed actions against other reputable online retailers) seems to amount to little more than price fixing.

CDwow provide an excellent service, and I use them a fair bit. I also use HMV in the high street, and several other online retailers. It seems ridiculous, in a time when the record industry is paranoid about mp3s and pirating, that you should choose to effectively take action against those of us who choose to buy proper, legitimate CDs. I have read that it is an issue of 'copyright': how can this be so, if these retailers are selling legitimate, original CDs? This sounds more like an excuse to rip off the consumer.

I normally buy between 5 and 10 CDs a month. I shall be joining the current campaign, which proposes to boycott the purchase of ANY CD for the month of February.

Please stop victimising honest consumers who only want to pay a fair price for their albums.

chris110 · 22-01-2004, 11:29 AM

I sent an email yesterday, but it was to a different address,i will be emailing this one when i get the oppertunity. We have to all elt them know how we feel.

Piya · 22-01-2004, 11:49 AM

Sent the following email to them this morning:

"Dear Sir
It's wrong to force CD-Wow to increase the price to UK consumers. Rip-off Britain again, isn't it. I'll boycott the music buying until this silly action is revoked."

MartinImber · 22-01-2004, 11:53 AM

I emailed them yesterday.

I NEVER pay over £10 for a CD

CLH · 22-01-2004, 12:55 PM

E-mailed them two weeks ago! No reply mind.

William123 · 22-01-2004, 1:14 PM

I've sent them a total of 20 emails over the last couple of weeks on this and other matters...not one single reply, not surprised really.

They can stick their restrictive distribution tactics up their corporate arses........sideways

Radiohead · 22-01-2004, 4:17 PM

I sent this yesterday, but knowing the arrogance of the industry we're dealing with I don't expect a response:

"I am stunned to read of your settlement with CD-Wow. As you will know this will force them to add a surcharge of £2 to each CD shipped to a UK buyer, resulting in UK consumers paying more for your often over-priced products.

It seems that you and the music industry are not happy with just criminalising legitimate consumers by enforcing low-rent copy protection systems and thereby dictating where we can play the product we have purchased, now you are actively engaging in protectionism and thus raising prices.

Does it not seem obvious that in doing so CD-Wow, and as a result the music industry, will suffer reduced sales - at the very time that you and your legions of hand-wringers are bleating about falls in sales. By increasing prices and offering consumers less choice you will serve only to increase the numbers of people downloading music via P2P applications, a good number of them in protest at your ludicrously misguided actions.

Here's an idea - stop paying your creatively bankrupt executives inflated salaries and stop trying to create immediate hit acts for a short-term profit. Start thinking about the changing face of music consumption, react to it in imaginative ways and allow decent acts time to develop before discarding them after 1 album and dropping £50m on some half-baked boy band. Look at your pricing models and realise that they're woefully out of date - £9.99 for a CD on the High Street is a fair price, £13.99 certainly isn't (step forward HMV and Virgin). £7.99 is a fair price for a CD bought online - well, it was before your myopic acts closed off that particular avenue.

The BPI once sued radio stations for playing music in the 1920's - have you learnt nothing? The mind truly boggles.

Yours in despair"

23-01-2004, 9:12 AM

Sent the following myself and will continue to do so each time I make a new purchase:

Dear Sir / Madam,

Just a brief note to let you know that I (and probably thousands of others) will never again purchase a CD manufactured within the EU.

The BPI's actions over recent weeks and months stink of price-fixing. I have recently found a legal download site, based outside the EU and I will be purchasing all music from that site in the future . The artists will still get their royalties but the BPI won't get a penny. I shall of course be giving the address of this website to as many people as I can.

Any music I cannot find on this particular website I will purchase from US online stores.

I shall email you regularly to let you know what music I have purchased and to give you a running total on how much of my money has gone to the BPI.

The BPI's arrogance will be its' downfall.

Yours sincerely,

Ratso

PS. I've just bought two 'Rory Gallagher' CDs from the download site for approximately £1.50. Total to the BPI: £0.00

I don't have much faith that it will make much difference though.

Ratso

Azrikam · 23-01-2004, 12:17 PM

It's good to see people actually taking a stand. I hope people also back up their emails where it counts... on the bottom line, by not buying CDs at inflated prices.