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Why Brazil needs Napster



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 1 May 2000 00:32:40 -0000
From: Vladimir Cunha <vlad@disinfo.net>

Here in Brazil Napster became one of the most popular softwares of all
time. One reason is because an imported CD costs around US$ 20 or US$ 25
(american) or US$30 (european). The other reason is that we have on of the
most stupid records industry in the whole world.  The brazilian majors
doesn't work with singles and put a very high price on it's CDs: US$ 15.
Considerind that more than 50% of the population lives just with US$ 60
per month, it's a very abusive price. And, because of this, we are on a
situation now that almost 50% of the CDs that are sold on Brazil are
pirate CDs, that costs around US$ 5 or US$ 7 on the black market. So, if
you live in Brazil and you're watching MTV and just loved the new song of
Foo Fighters, Butthole Surfers, Dead Can Dance or wherever you have two
options: buy the oficial CD for just one song ( even if you hated the rest
of the album) or record it on cassete if you know someone who has it. Or,
if you have Napster, download it from the Internet. That's why Napster is
so popular: because that, in Brazil, we don't have any kind of options to
buy music for more accessive prices. Maybe for you in the USA or Europe it
may sounds absurd that a record industry without a singles market could
exist, but that's our reality. 

So, for us, Napster is like a bless. Because, in a certain way, it makes
us free from the dictatorship of the brazillian records industry.

Best.
Vladimir Cunha
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