Artists Blast The RIAA's Tactics
from the good-for-them dept
Most people here know that the RIAA’s mantra that they’re just “protecting the artists” is a lie. They’re protecting their own profits – which they do their best not to distribute to the artists. Musicians get very little of their money from royalties – most of it goes directly into the music industry machine. So, it’s good to hear a bunch of musicians stand up and say that they’re just as pissed off at the RIAA’s sue ’em into submission tactics as the rest of us. Some of the best quotes come from David Draiman of Disturbed (admittedly a band I’ve never heard of, though the article says they have a platinum debut album on the charts – shows how much I pay attention to popular music these days). First he says: “This is not rocket science. Instead of spending all this money litigating against kids who are the people they’re trying to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn how to effectively use the Internet.” Later in the article, he adds: “For the artists, my ass. I didn’t ask them to protect me, and I don’t want their protection.” The article also mentions that some artists are embracing file sharing on their own, and offering their own MP3s online knowing that it helps them build a larger following.
Comments on “Artists Blast The RIAA's Tactics”
Aha! another part of the RIAA strategy (maybe)
Reading this makes me realize another “threat” to the RIAA’s hegemony: By making legitimate file swapping difficult and a quagmire, they reduce the chance that bands without contracts (handcuffs) will succeed.
If independent bands had access to a popular (unencumbered) distribution model with no costs, they would probably become a threat to the popularity of contracted music market share.
You say that this model exists? Not if many file sharers view the activity as risky – this is another devious reason for the lawsuits and publicity.
Come to think of it, since there are SO MANY independants with talent, it is PROBABLE that the RIAA’s market share would decline. No wonder they don’t care if customers are pissed. Hopefully the legal system will see this as monopolistic constraint of innovation.
Re: Aha! another part of the RIAA strategy (maybe
Such a model does exist. Checkout http://www.freedistribute.org
Simply put, you give your album away and encourage your fans to make the copies for you. It’s like a peer to peer record deal.
Want to make a difference ?
Want to make a difference ?
http://www.boycott-riaa.com/
Ok Mike, chill out … Paul Revere had to repeat his message and so must I so that people who may not have seen the other stories can find out how they can actively make a difference in this fight against the RIAA. Peace.
Re: Want to make a difference ?
Have I ever complained about this URL being posted? No. It was the guy who was spamming every story with his URL that I complained about.
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Great article by a miusician and why the RIAA is mistaken …
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Last night I paid $40 for a concert ticket because I heard some music I got from P2P, but I won’t pay $15 for a CD. There are other ways to make money without even selling music!
Last week my girlfriend went to an Iron Maiden concert where the artists actually shouted “if you want to copy this to your mobile phone and put it on the internet, go ahead we don’t mind!” GREAT, this is really a technology-aware band.
Disturbed
Disturbed is pretty popular. They are a rock/alternative band, and have been played on rock stations all over the country. They also show up on MTV (whenever they get around to playing music).
Songs include “Stupify”, “Believed”, “Remember”, “The Sickness”, and others. Pull a sample from iTunes or Amazon and you might recoginize them. If you dig it, then download it from iTunes or one of the other services. 🙂
Amazon’s Listing
Artists and labels economic interests differ
Artists make more money from touring, and labels make more money from the CDs. So it figures that the labels are more interested in charging for CDs, and the artists would like to see more people get their music so they’ll come to the concerts.