Editorial: The Short-sided Opinion on the likes of DLC and Digital Distribution

The last time I checked, it was illegal to digitally downloaded material that was considered by the RIAA as "pirated" software. Recently, I've taken notice that many companies, big and small, are allowing free distribution of certain copyrighted materials, and are using the global marketplace as a think tank for freely marketing original content by struggling artists who are not getting the proper pay and to me this is promoting the very illegal distribution that so many feel hurts the entertainment industry. Sadly, you have to deal with contemporary mediums for outsourcing materials like new albums, digital books, and even podcasts in the form of free samples, which hardly ever help the "little guy/gal" indie entertainer. This mostly relates to advertisers taking hard-working entertainers to the cleaners more heavily than ever before.
In recent months, there have been so many digitally distributed resources for people to manage to transfer via the world wide net, that it is almost impossible to imagine there being any income or capital of any sort for the modern-day musician. The art is thrown around by mega structures, that the artist is starving more now than ever before. I am not talking about the likes of Lady Gaga, although she is digitally downloaded enough that she losses hundereds of thousands of monies from income, but her work is so wildly popular with the demographic, it becomes pennies on the dollar.
Digital Distribution, whether through a source such as iTunes, or Bit Torrent for the illgeal distributer, pirating is now a threat more to the start-up artist, rather than the hit-making machines that are artistic elite. Granted, stealing from any artist who has actually put the thought and heart into their achievements should be wrong on levels from both sides of the spectrum, but I worry mostly for the likes of the classic independent, struggling artist who has no means to survive except for the fruit of their own labor. In this modern digital age, we see the likes of film, music, and even pirated software for videogames going against the developers who try the best to make the most out of what they can. Most monies are made within the first month of release for most games, films, and albums, after that, it's back to the drawing board, and the artist must struggle to rise to the top again.
Game developers use a tatic that sometimes pays off, and that is downloadable content. This is used for most gamers, who spend a lot on new-age technology to support their favorite passtime,to further enhance the gameplay of their favorite games. Developers do at times insult gamers who feel that DLC stands for vapor-ware, or uncompleted software, but in the struggling times, such as is with the music industry, developers and producers simply try to give the best possible experience with their software, in hopes of having gamers and sometimes new gamers to a said genre or series, to come back ravenously for more.
In the spectrum of gaming, the internet has at times allowed for positive conditions to the entertainment platform, considerably in the aspect of updates, and patches to fix all bugs in a game. For some, this is seen as a "lazy" form of developing, but meeting unrealistic deadlines for encoding thousands of lines of information can sometimes be haphazardous to those who try to get the best version of the game on the market. Most people do complain games should be finished before being shipped onto the shelves, but considering that the games patches and updates are usually free, complaints are respected, but not taking as serious as with the prices of DLC.
In the lines of the DLC, this is where games are usually made better with added bonus content that will run a gamer a full $75 to $100 (including purchase of the said game disc) when all content is officially uploaded onto stores like the PSN Store or Xbox Live. Content is not needed to experience the full-fledged game, but what once was included in most games on previous systems, now cost the player extended investments, and is rarely available in another format other than digitally downloaded versions. For some, although a rare minority, DLC is impossible do to internet scarcity, or the sort of connection only available in their area. Believe it or not, some places in the world, even the United States, are without the access to broadband or cable.
The gamers left out of the DLC movement, can at times find certain DLC available to buy on disc format at their local videogame store, but these options are scarce, if ever existant. The worst part is that developers who do deserve the extra services are bound to find, even at the lowest minority, pirating of the above software outlets, hence much money spent to distribution, but more importantly development, is taken out of the hands of those who create these billion dollar titles, and they recieve and even lower portion of the slave wage already the minimum.
Over the years, I have always been pro business to these, and other individuals who spend much of their lives developing the entertainmetns we now take for granted. The monies poured in are never the return, and if only for the love of the job do the individuals who create such entertainments continue to go along, and continue creating these amazing games, albums, and films. Although I do not talk much about the banking industry that is Hollywood here, I will say that even the highest paid director sometimes develops a movie worth his salary.
Thank you for reading the Malacast Editorial, I hope you've enjoyed this short editiorial on the basis of DLC and Digital Distribution, its pros and cons, and why examples of commisions like the RIAA are sometimes right about pirating digital content. I will give a further analysis on this topic, as it's always a blowhard one I deal with and am questioned about on the more-than-rarest of occasions. Thank you again for reading.