This is an interesting “pro-Napster” article by Janis Ian.
THE INTERNET DEBACLE - AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW
StG
I knew the truth at seventeen
that getting free music is really keen
let the RIAA vent its spleen
the last hit I had was when Strom Thurman was a teen
I’m afraid I don’t really have a HO on this subject, other than a vague feeling of disgust toward the recording industry. I’m working on getting a little more educated about it, though, and this article was helpful. Thanks for the link.
There was a similar article by Courtney Love during the Napster debates that also described how the industry screwed the artists. It may have been on Slate, I’m not sure.
I agree whole heartedly with Janis Ian’s opinion. The recording industry would probably give the Mafia a few lessons in shaking people down. I only buy used CD’s because I believe the prices for new ones are unconscionable. I must admit that I’ve never downloaded music before, but I’d like to be able to. My take on Napster is that the music was purchased by someone, somewhere, so it’s the same thing as copying a tape for a friend.
I think I remember what you’re thinking of, Revtim. I remember reading something along the lines of Courtney seeing about $80,000 a year from her record sales, which was like dirt when compared to the money she brings in from concerts and such.
LilShieste
medstar: No offense but your attitude is what promotes the RIAAs draconian tactics. They point to attitudes like that and say “see this is why we need help.” first, copying tapes is also illegal.
However, Janis Ian pretty much described my opinion on the subject to a T.
Courtney Love’s article was on Salon and can still be found there.
Erek
Let’s remember, whatever your personal attitude, copying music is illegal.
I have kind of a “thing” about this, as I’ve known some semi-pro musicians, and they were very pointed about copying being the way to steal their wages for having gone to work and produced a product.
OTOH, this business about wanting royalties on used CDs is just silly.
Thanks, I knew it was one of those online mags that started with an ‘S’.
Are you sure though it can still be read there, though? I was unable to find it with Slate’s search mechanism.
Just to clarify, I believe copying music for personal use is legal, it’s when you give the copies to others (or share it online) that you cross the line.
Here ya go … Courtney Love does the math.
As to the issue, I think we’re at a turning point for the music industry and things will look very different in a few years. Whatever you’re opinion piracy is here and it’s not going away.
What we need to do is provide easy and efficent ways for (honest) people to contribute directly to the artists and engineers. This makes the recording companies nervous 'cos it’s their profits, but sooner or later they’ll have to embrace some ‘new’ way of doing things or face going bust.
'tis some interesting times we live in.
SD
alright, copying music is illegal… so i think that these file sharing kids are basically (whether they know it or not) excercizing a new kind of civil disobedience. And i applaud it.
This has a personal stake for me, as I am a professional sound designer for a living, and therefore i spend a great deal of time surfing file sharing programs looking for obscure tunes, and like Ian, i probably burn somewhere in the neghborhood of 5 or 6 thousand CDs a year. Heres the rub: every producer i work with has a blanket contract with ASCAP/BMI for public rebroadcast of published songs.
IOW, the producers I work with pay a periodic fee, and have the right to rebroadcast just about anything they want. Thus, my downloading of music i don’t “own” is perfectly legal, and is in fact, paid for by my producers.
If those bastards make my job more complicated by making me go out and buy every single CD i need to copy ONE SONG from, my job starts to get prohibitively expensive real quick. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the stuff i find online is near impossible to find IRL. I’m not alone here by the way, DJs are often in the same boat. So all of Ians arguements not withstanding, how does the RIAA proposed to let me keep doing my job, in which i rely very heavily on file-sharing, and in the process, break no laws?
Further, when i was younger, i was less than compulsive in my care of my CDS, over the years, I’ve probably killed near a thousand thru bad scratches, sun exposure, stepping on them, theft, pet mishaps, etc… but I still piad for the right to play that music. So if i want to listen to Head on the Door by the Cure again, I’ll be DAMNED if i am going to go out and pay for it. I’m heading to the internet. And i’m fine with that.
Not to mention the hundreds of tapes I had that the RIAA- sponsored CD revoloution made obsolete. I bought em though. I gave the Artists and the Record Companies my money, and i think i am still entitled to my music. Not the warped, staticky barely audible bled thru copies that i have to dig out my old cassette player to listen to either. I am entitled to master quality sound recordings, or at least, hi-bandwidth MP3s.
So how does the RIAA propose to distinguish between people like me, and cases of completely legitimate use (of which i’m sure there are plenty), and this melodramatically termed “piracy”, that is sending the multinational Music conglomerates to the poor house? Seems like a losing battle to me.
the RIAA can rot…
On an interesting side note, I think the Flaming Lips are actually about the best model out there for a post Napster economic band model. The bands latest album “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” is available (almost in its entirity- for free) on ther bands website. It comes out next week on CD. The band is organizing listening parties in clubs and bars around the country with a special remix of the album that won’t be made available in any format. You come to the party, pay to get in, and you get the CD to take home with you.
Over the past several years, the Lips have found a number of ways to turn the focus of thier recorded music into communal events, where hearing the work in a specific “unpirate-able” context is half the fun.
In doing so, ithink theat they are recognizing something interestng about the music experience that seems to be akin to the Open Source movement in software development.
By admitting to themselves that the internet has rendered scarcity model of Record industry economics obsolete, they resign themselves to (or more probably- embrace) the fact that they no longer have a “product” of any supply-and-demand based value, and recast themselves as service providers, rather than goods producers. The service in this case being live performance, and listening events with special multichannel mixes and multimedia accompaniment that finds its value in the experience, which, unlike a recorded song, is unpirateable.
They are keeping music alive and vital in a similar way to how the film industry stays alive and vital. Sure I could buy a pirated DVD of Attack of the Clones, but the fun of it is in seeing it in a theatre, with great sound, with a bunch of other people. When i buy a mocie ticket, i am paying for an experience, a service, in a way, as opposed to a product. Same with the Lips and a number of other bands exploring similar territory.
In this way, CD sales becomes a secondary issue, basically a promotional tool, which historicaly, was the original point of recorded music anyway. It was a way to let a band publicize its arrival in a new town. And as Ian mentioned, most musicians still make thier bread and butter thru live shows and the only people who really get rich of recorded music (with exceptions, sure) are the record companies and ridiculously huge acts with massive marketing machines at thier disposal.
Another great example of file sharing as an effective marketing tool is Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album, which was available in its entirity on the bands website for MONTHS before it was released and still sold 55,000 copies in its first week of release. Which is a VERY respectable number for an indie band.
I could go on… but it seems like we are all largely on the same page here, just needed to rant.
CJ
Thanks **SpaceDog **!
Michael Jackson should have went on a tirade about the internet instead of racism. The record company would have stood behind him 100%.