RIAA lawsuits and changing the music industry

[Auburn Annie]

There's an article in today's CBS News website on the file-sharing lawsuits. The author offers a variety of eventual results as the industry flails about trying to save the old business model while the ground shifts under their feet. An excerpt:


"Big Music Fights For Its Future"
Sept. 11, 2003

"...Another possibility - and this is something that the recording industry isn't going to like - is that we start to rethink the nature of the music business. Just as the break up of AT&T helped lower the cost of long distance calls, the dilution of the oligopoly of big record labels could dramatically reduce the price of recorded music.

There was a time when artists needed big record companies because the cost of recording, pressing and promoting an album was prohibitively expensive for all but well-heeled companies. But those days may be over.

Today, technology makes it possible not only to professionally record music on a standard PC or Mac, but also to burn CDs or upload music so that fans can buy it directly. Perhaps what we, as a society, ought to be thinking about is a new paradigm for music.

Such a paradigm might have less room for big record companies or even big name artists, but it could have plenty of room for the thousands of talented musicians whose work is barely noticed because they either don't have a recording contract or - for whatever reasons - they're not heavily marketed by the labels who have signed them.

Fans would still have music and musicians would have an audience and a market. Few if any of these musicians would stand a chance of becoming a multimillionaire superstar, but that's already the case. For every superstar, there are thousands of very talented artists who make virtually nothing from their music.

A paradigm shift doesn't happen by fiat, but if the recording industry succeeds in alienating itself from enough of its customers, we might see such a scenario evolve over time.

In the meantime, I recommend that people refrain from stealing music and start looking around for alternatives - including legal Internet downloading sites - that feature emerging artists and something even more radical: go to local concerts, support your local musicians and buy their CDs. They'll appreciate your support and they certainly won't sue you."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/...in572599.shtml

Well you know this boils down to one simple thing for me, swapping tunes on the net is really no different than going to your buddy's place and borrowing 10 LP's so you can have them on cassette ( ok so this is dated, but you get my drift) Growing up as a kid before the advent of CD's etc, if I liked an LP enough, I bought it. Nothing is more aggravating than blowing $30 on a CD that is filled with drivel and one hit song.

Side note, none of Gord's stuff is drivel. Artists of the future will have to be creative in how they market their CD's. Jann Arden as an example with her newest CD has also included rare video clips and what not that you can access with a PIN number, stuff you can't see if you download it off WinMX.

[TheWatchman]

I assume that Winmx is also illegal? I have only heard of Kaaza or whatever it is called in the recent lawsuits.

Kazaa is a gateway for pop ups as well as a file sharing program. I spent twenty minutes the other day pulling all it's bits and pieces off of a co-workers computer at work with spy sweeper. If one finds one's self with naked women on one's screen when one boots up one might be advised to yank Kazaa off. Course, had it been naked men, most likely we would have left it on. All female office.


quote:Originally posted by TheWatchman:
I assume that Winmx is also illegal? I have only heard of Kaaza or whatever it is called in the recent lawsuits.





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Born once - Got it right the first time. )O(

[Auburn Annie]

We took Kazaa off long ago; weirdly I read somewhere on RIAA that they didn't have as much of a problem with people downloading as they did with making their own files available. Huh?? Two sides of the same coin.

Anyway, the ads were beyond annoying. I think the Lite version of Kazaa has fewer problems that way but I still don't like software that requires you to add this or that beyond the basics. We don't have it on our computer - I won't let the kids add or delete any programs (because I'm the one who has to figure out where the audio driver disappeared to when all of a sudden there's no sound, and I'm NOT happy being the family tech.)

I agree, Gord, it's no different that making copies at home from your friends' recordings (harder to do back in the days of vinyl.) And I agree it's an expensive bummer to pay almost $20 for one or maybe 2 songs worth listening to - and no returns if you don't like it. Buying a pig in a poke, as the old saying goes.

HEY HERE IS AN IDEA BUY A CD BRING IT HOME COPY IT THEN GIVE TO A BUDDY FOR HIS WINK, WINK BIRTHDAY AND THEN HE DOES THE SAME THING AND SO ON AND SO ON.THE MUSIC INDUSTRY SHOULD KEEP UP WITH TECHNOLOGY, ALL PEOPLE REALY WANT IS A CD FULL OF SONGS THEY WANT TO HEAR. IF I COULD GO TO A STORE AND BUT A CD WITH ONLY THE SONGS I WANT ON IT, I WOULD PAY 10 BUCKS OR SO FOR IT.THIS DAY IN AGE THERE SHOULD BE ZERO HARD TO FIND SONGS.

[Auburn Annie]

quote:Originally posted by VISITOR 31971:
[B] .... IF I COULD GO TO A STORE AND BUY A CD WITH ONLY THE SONGS I WANT ON IT, I WOULD PAY 10 BUCKS OR SO FOR IT.[B]

(Taking my fingers out of my ears)... I think this was briefly tried but why it never took off I'm not sure. I don't think it was price but lack of songs available for the experiment. Lots of companies didn't want to separate from the album concept. Still don't apparently.

[Borderstone]

Personally,I'd rather just go to the store. It's what I've always been doing and I'll get my music that way until,for whatever reason,I can't anymore. I know that I don't have a PC but even if I did,I'd still not bother. Just call me old fashioned but i like to have the music in hand,even if I have to pay just a bit more. Been me,later!

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Borderstone - "Little 'Ol Message Maker Me!"

[Auburn Annie]

http://salisburypost.townnews.com/ar...eka_column.txt

Speak of the devil - RIAA and Lightfoot in the same post!

[TheWatchman]

Here is what Johnny Cash had to say on the subject...

Statement of Mr. John R. Cash before the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property
September 17, 1997

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to testify here today. I've made many appearances in my life, but this is my first one before Congress. My day-to-day life is making and performing music.And, while it may not seem obvious, what you're considering here today affects that day-to-day life.

I'd like to start with an example of why these treaties are important. Just yesterday, my
friends at the RIAA did an Internet search with my name. Wouldn't you know it, there
on the World Wide Web was one of my biggest hits, "Ring of Fire," on a web site in
Slovenia.My song, available for users around the world to download -- in CD-quality
sound.

Maybe I should be flattered that someone in Slovenia likes my song, but when he or
she makes it available to millions of people, this hardly seems fair.

This is exactly the problem the Treaties are designed to address.

When I started, it was at a small recording studio that was home to a lot of interesting
singers and songwriters. We were recording on vinyl. We didn't know what a cassette
tape was, much less a computer.We were making music in real life.Cyberspace wasn't
even the stuff of science fiction.

A lot has changed between now and then, but the Copyright law has managed to keep
pace. And today, we ought to make room for copyright on the Internet.

Our founding fathers included copyright in the Constitution, for good reason: it
represents an important American value. It says our laws respect what we create with
our heads as much as what we build with our hands. That's true in real life, and it ought
to be true in cyberspace too.

New technologies bring new opportunities and challenges.We're not recording on vinyl
anymore. We're recording on computer discs.We're a digital industry and music is
changing hands at incredible speeds. Push a button and it's gone.

On one hand, this is great. But, on the other, it presents new challenges for artists.

In the old days, people stealing music were hampered by the fact that it was tough to
get good quality recordings and tough to distribute their pirated products.
Today, digital technology has changed all that. For every legitimate site on the Internet, there seem to be dozens more encouraging outright theft -- some with literally hundreds of songs for
the taking. Slovenia was just one example.

That's why the Treaties are so important.Other countries must change their laws to bring them up to the same high standard we already enjoy in the United States.

I'm proud of what Congress has done in the past to protect American creators and
proud of our country's copyright laws. I'm also proud of what creators have done for
the United States, and want to ensure that musicians coming up today -- including my
own children who are trying to make it in this business -- have their country behind
them and every opportunity they deserve. Because American music is the most popular
in the world, it is also the most at risk in other countries. The Treaties will provide the
protection American artists need.

You know, I've been working for a long time and I've played in front of a lot of different audiences, coal miners, convicts, railroad engineers,
lawmakers, and Presidents. It's the music that brings you there and it's the music that keeps
you going. The music comes from our hearts, from joy, inspiration, pain and heartbreak, from loneliness and love.The music and the artists that create and perform it deserve protection, the protection of copyright, whether it's an old 45 or a song we've yet to hear from an artist who is still waiting for a break.

Please protect one of our country's greatest treasures -- the artists who bring to life the
songs of America's past, present and future.

Thank you.

John R. Cash