Clear Channel Radio iis running an advertising campaign with the theme “Respect the Music” that has a lot of anti-filesharing rhetoric and a lot of scolding fingerwaving.
The utter hypocracy of the ads is insulting to the general intelegence. Clear Channel could not care less about artists’ rights, so long as they get their money. If the “free music” technique of 20-30 years ago, that being recording songs off of broadcast raido onto audio cassette, they wouldn’t care one bit about the copyright of the artist, because it’d mean a higher market share for them.
Just give it up, Clear Channel. You’re NOT fooling anyone.
Well, they are hypocrites, but not because of the rationale you gave. “20-30 years ago,” Clear Channel Communication was a couple of radio stations out of San Antonio. I doubt it had much of a stance about artist rights and it sure didn’t encourage people to listen in so they could tape record songs.
But they were, and are, being hypocrital for another reason. For the last eight years now, CCC has fought battles in the courtroom, petitioned the Copyright Office, testified before committees in Congress, and sent witnesses to testify in Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel hearings, all in the effort to reduce or eliminate royalty payments CCC must pay to the recording industry. If it truly cared about the rights of artists as much it claims it does, someone ought to tell them that actions speak louder than commercials.
ClearChannel is a scourge on America. Their efforts to ruin the quality of commercial radio have been gargantuan. I operate on the premise that everything they do and say is representative of ongoing works of the devil, so though I haven’t heard (seen?) these ads, I will express solidarity nonetheless.
Wait, you don’t understand. If everyone has a copy of the song that CCC plays, then no one will turn on the radio anymore! Clearly, we must stop the scourge of file sharing before everyone has the file!
Arrrgh!Boo!Hiss!Send the Viking minions to destroy CCC!!!I hate them with a passion that burns well…pretty darn hot in my pure Texas blood. In the DFW area, they are pretty much the ONLY choice and it really pisses me off when they say the station’s call letters and then “Another Clear Channel choice”. They aren’t a choice…they’re the only dog in the fight down here!
So preach on,brother (or sister)!
I think the single biggest flaw in the whole file-sharing thing is that it isn’t about the artists. Yeah, we’ve got Metallica and an Britney Spears and stuff saying don’t download music because it’s stealing from artists. Well, if all those anti-filesharing initiatives the record companies and stuff propose will end piracy and put more money in the artist’s pocket, then why hasn’t every fricken band on earth come out and said, “stop downloading our music, assclown!”
And I do not think I will be able to control my rage the next time I hear the slow sales of “Britney’s Dance Remix V. 2.0” or “Pre-fabricated Angry Young Rebellious Teen Group #27” blamed on “piracy” instead of “the economy sucks and everyone’s flat fucking broke and doesn’t have $18.99 to spend on a CD” or “the CD is garbage and no one wants it”.
Clear Channel is also politically conservative as well. If your politics run to the center or to the left of center, you need to make sure their income is minimized, since their help goes to conservative candidates.
Speaking as someone who wants to be a talk radio dj, I say this is the biggest reason to say Fuck You Clear Channel.
Wide spread satellite radio will be the end of ‘local feel’ talk shows like Steve Dahl here in Chicago or whatever local talk guy you have in Maine, or New York or California or Idaho…because the nationally syndicated shows that cater to everyone in the nation with a wide, bland palette of discussion topics will be broadcast on satellite radio, and no one in Idaho cares to hear about the ridiculous eye make up on Betty Loren Maltese here in Chicago.
Actually, I just thought of something. Don’t most radio stations have the music as mp3 files? If this is the case, does every station buy (or receive) the CD and load tracks into the computer for play at will? Surely they wouldn’t take advantage of the Internet themselves and share a common file among stations of the same bent?
I’ve heard the Clear Channel ads, they’ve struck me as robber barons getting mad because thieves are robbing some of their trains. The big crooks are pissed off because lots of little crooks are swiping some of their swag.
In other threads, people have linked to Phobe Snow’s statements that her sales have gone up during this time of people downloading her older songs and apparently then going out and buying her music. I live in an area where I can hear two different Clear Channel oldies stations, they sure as hell aren’t playing her these days. Neither is another adult contemporary/oldies station in the area that plays lots of singer/songwriter music from Snow’s heyday. Just my opinion and she is just one artist, but people are getting exposed to her music again spurring a rise in her sales, and it probably isn’t from airplay on Clear Channel stations.
Clear Channel telling anyone to “Respect the Music!” More like “Respect Our Bottom Line, Suckers!”
However, as if Clear Channel’s heavy-handed and finger-pointing ads weren’t bad enough, there’s something a lot more ominous on the file-sharing horizon.
Interesting thing about that article is that they’re billing downloaders 8 dollars an album. Maybe if they charged 8 dollars for an album in the first place, people would actually be able to afford them.