December 2, 2009 at 16:09The greed revolution in the music industry
I honestly reacted skeptically to the information about the impending bankruptcy of the twistedmusic studio (published, for example, Shpongle).
I only know that we are balancing on the verge of bankruptcy and are looking for any options ... 12 loyal fans on this forum are not enough to maintain the label ... How much do you think Twisted has in his bank account? Try to guess? Over $ 10,000? Over $ 20,000? Well, actually, less than $ 1,000 ... ...
How can a label selling thousands of copies of famous artists sell daily?
But recently I stumbled on the net on an interesting article by Benn Jordan (The Flashbulb, Human Action Network, Acid Wolf).
The article in a truncated form is distributed in torrent fileswith the music of this musician, for example.
I have always been interested in the view on copyright and piracy on the other side of the barricades, namely the point of view of the musicians themselves. Since both the position of the RIAA and the position of users of illegal content proper are generally known.
Everything turned out to be much more complicated. More than once I came across messages, but I bought this album (on Amazon / Aityuns) and supported my favorite artist. Hmm, are you sure about that?
Picture to attract attention:
I will allow myself a few excerpts from the article.
About Napster:
- Digital music piracy already existed, but with Napster everything became so damn easy ...
- America stopped buying music and a new industry of making money appeared on the general theft of albums of their favorite bands.
About RIAA:
- Anyone who is involved in music piracy (or was engaged) under the new law should RIAA $ 750 for each track downloaded and $ 150,000 for each shared track ...
- 0% of this money from litigation goes to the artist’s pocket.
About consumers:
- I’m not even going to deny that sometimes I’m tempted to embed a random person who praises my music: “I downloaded all your albums and ...”.
- The RIAA relied on music pirates to destroy the independent market, and independent music fans did just that.
About Amazon:
- When I started to meet musicians who surpassed me in recognition and sales, I noticed that many of them were in much worse financial condition.
- So, is it possible that Best Buy, Amazon or Borders earned more than all of us combined from the sale of one of my albums?
About iTunes:
- Since Apple opened iTunes, I sent them email by email, trying to find out how to put the contents of my Alphabasic label on iTunes. Time after time I filled out their forms, and never once did they reward me with a response. Many of my friends ran into a similar problem. Of course, the majors did not have any problems getting on iTunes, and ran from a low start to rob artists using new technologies.
About Apple:
- Last year, the Apple website promoted iTunes as "fair to the artist." Believe me, no one more than I despised Apple's tactics of false advertising and unethical ways of doing business, but this was the last straw. I started sending Apple emails and letters demanding to indicate the share of each artist in the iTunes interface, if Apple really believes in its justice. This, of course, did not happen, but they removed their statements about justice from the site.
Plan Z:
- The recipe is simple. Many of us artists have fans who are happy to buy and listen to our music. The time has come for a hunger strike for that part of the music industry that treated us so badly, which, no matter how arrogant it may sound, needs us more than we need it. None of today's consumers will stop listening to their favorite band just because Circuit City (*** a large CD store) does not sell its CDs.
Instead of an afterword:
- As a rule, the best way you can support an artist is to buy his album directly from the record label, if possible.
Full article (translation by Garin).
I only know that we are balancing on the verge of bankruptcy and are looking for any options ... 12 loyal fans on this forum are not enough to maintain the label ... How much do you think Twisted has in his bank account? Try to guess? Over $ 10,000? Over $ 20,000? Well, actually, less than $ 1,000 ... ...
How can a label selling thousands of copies of famous artists sell daily?
But recently I stumbled on the net on an interesting article by Benn Jordan (The Flashbulb, Human Action Network, Acid Wolf).
The article in a truncated form is distributed in torrent fileswith the music of this musician, for example.
I have always been interested in the view on copyright and piracy on the other side of the barricades, namely the point of view of the musicians themselves. Since both the position of the RIAA and the position of users of illegal content proper are generally known.
Everything turned out to be much more complicated. More than once I came across messages, but I bought this album (on Amazon / Aityuns) and supported my favorite artist. Hmm, are you sure about that?
Picture to attract attention:
I will allow myself a few excerpts from the article.
About Napster:
- Digital music piracy already existed, but with Napster everything became so damn easy ...
- America stopped buying music and a new industry of making money appeared on the general theft of albums of their favorite bands.
About RIAA:
- Anyone who is involved in music piracy (or was engaged) under the new law should RIAA $ 750 for each track downloaded and $ 150,000 for each shared track ...
- 0% of this money from litigation goes to the artist’s pocket.
About consumers:
- I’m not even going to deny that sometimes I’m tempted to embed a random person who praises my music: “I downloaded all your albums and ...”.
- The RIAA relied on music pirates to destroy the independent market, and independent music fans did just that.
About Amazon:
- When I started to meet musicians who surpassed me in recognition and sales, I noticed that many of them were in much worse financial condition.
- So, is it possible that Best Buy, Amazon or Borders earned more than all of us combined from the sale of one of my albums?
About iTunes:
- Since Apple opened iTunes, I sent them email by email, trying to find out how to put the contents of my Alphabasic label on iTunes. Time after time I filled out their forms, and never once did they reward me with a response. Many of my friends ran into a similar problem. Of course, the majors did not have any problems getting on iTunes, and ran from a low start to rob artists using new technologies.
About Apple:
- Last year, the Apple website promoted iTunes as "fair to the artist." Believe me, no one more than I despised Apple's tactics of false advertising and unethical ways of doing business, but this was the last straw. I started sending Apple emails and letters demanding to indicate the share of each artist in the iTunes interface, if Apple really believes in its justice. This, of course, did not happen, but they removed their statements about justice from the site.
Plan Z:
- The recipe is simple. Many of us artists have fans who are happy to buy and listen to our music. The time has come for a hunger strike for that part of the music industry that treated us so badly, which, no matter how arrogant it may sound, needs us more than we need it. None of today's consumers will stop listening to their favorite band just because Circuit City (*** a large CD store) does not sell its CDs.
Instead of an afterword:
- As a rule, the best way you can support an artist is to buy his album directly from the record label, if possible.
Full article (translation by Garin).