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I wonder what their opinion of iTunes is? And be honest.

Downhill Battle runs this thing. They are a non-profit music activism group dedicated to returning diversity to mainstream music. They are two very idealistic non-artists who definitely are not trying to boost their own sales. Hopefully they will choose well whom they support and publicly document their reasoning. Incidentally, they need help with the backend for the Recycler, so please contact them if you think you can help (and you are inclined to help them, of course).

Downhill Battle runs this thing. They are a non-profit music activism group dedicated to returning diversity to mainstream music. They are two very idealistic non-artists who definitely are not trying to boost their own sales. Hopefully they will choose well whom they support and publicly document their reasoning. Incidentally, they need help with the backend for the Recycler, so please contact them if you think you can help (and you are inclined to help them, of course).

" Which Musicians are Getting the Money?

Every week or so, we'll be choosing a few independent artists and a particular album of theirs which we will repeatedly purchase using the donated codes. If we buy enough copies of a single album, we might even be able to move it up the iTunes charts-- it's not too hard these days. All the artists will be from independent labels with reputations for treating artists fairly.

How do I know you guys aren't just going to buy music for yourself?

Well, we run the music activism project Downhill Battle, which is working to bring positive change to the music industry. A central theme of our site is that it's simply unethical to purchase major label music. So clearly, if we wanted free major label music, we'd just take it. Furthermore, since iTunes is essentially a voluntary contribution system (you're paying for something that you could get for free), there's just no incentive to scam people out of bottlecaps. We're just trying to make it easier for people to do something good with their caps instead of throwing them away."

Holy Shit, Batman! Score another one for the "can load the page before hitting reply button" team!

A post on Downhill Battle says they need help automating the redemption. Applescript, anyone? Something else?

Anyone really interested in the future of this issue would do him/herself well to check out downhillbattle.org, particularly their parody of and challenge to iTunes

Anyone really interested in the future of this issue would do him/herself well to check out downhillbattle.org, particularly their parody of and challenge to iTunes

I guess that artists are more than happy with such a system.
Want to know how much iTunes gives ?

Sorry, but anybody that uses these services and feels they're sticking it to the RIAA while rewarding the artist has their head in the sand.

Sort of. This is its parent site.

Damn funny though.

I don't know if there's a connection, but links on this site go to www.downhillbattle.org, which was co-created by a developer for MUTE

I don't know if there's a connection, but links on this site go to www.downhillbattle.org, which was co-created by a developer for MUTE

Downhill Battle is calling for the record companies to return the money they've gotten from the suits so far. How would you feel if you just coughed up $5,000 to the RIAA and now you find out they weren't even supposed to get your name?

Downhill Battle is calling for the record companies to return the money they've gotten from the suits so far. How would you feel if you just coughed up $5,000 to the RIAA and now you find out they weren't even supposed to get your name?

check it out: iTunes sucks !

I'd support Itunes if it were its own industry, with its own music, like mp3.com. The problem with Itunes is it takes the flawed recording industry and extends their monopoly. This would be like steve jobs releasing a version of Microsoft Windows for the Mac, and expecting us all to use that. Its bullshit.

If I wanted to support the RIAA I'd buy buying CD's right now. Take a hint!

Support Itunes(RIAA)> but not the artists?

Its cool that an online music store has taken off, but this still propagates the Record industry's business model.
Its time for all of those who flame at the riaa but at the same time praise Apple to step up.

Nothing has really changed, it just looks prettier with an os x theme.

in store stickering of major label cds:

"WARNING: this record label pays radio stations to keep independent music off the air"

About Apple iTunes... I read an article in the newspaper (here in Ottawa) about how artists are only receiveing one DIME out of each $1.00 download. Apple takes 34 cents and the record company gets the rest. Nice eh? Once again the industry manages to screw the artist out of 90% of the profit. This is why people are downloading illegally online. If I felt that the artist was going to get 50% of the profit I might actually go and pay ITunes a visit. As it stands now the only way to make sure an artist gets any real money is to buy their merch when I go and see them. At least then I don't feel guilty about downloading a song or two because I know I'm not giving it to some fat cat in a suit who could care less about developing a band anyway. (Bassballs)

This link has more, worth a look.... It has a spoof on the "switch" ads...

You'll like this page =)

No guarantee that this is accurate.

Source

Apple says iTunes is "better than free" because it's "fair to the artists and record labels." That's simply not true. First of all, Apple gets 3 times as much money as musicians from each sale. Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold, a huge amount considering how little they have to do.

Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract. Many of them will never even see this paltry share because they have to pay for producers and recording costs, both of which can be enormous.

Until the musician "recoups" these costs, when you buy an iTunes song, the label gives them nothing.

About an hour ago I compared 27 songs that I had queued up in my iTunes "shopping cart" against the RIAA Radar search engine. Every single song was from an album produced by an RIAA member. So I dumped my queue and iTunes lost a $26.73 sale. That is my protest against the RIAA's campaign to save themselves and other buggy whip industries.

emusic.com

If it was buy one song at a time, I might go for it, but I pay enough monthly subscriptions between dish, cell, dsl and netflix.

Their webpage hawks the free trial at you like crazy and hides the real price but it starts at $9.99/month for 40 downloads per month.

I'm trying to be satisfied with stuff I found through Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads and avoid supporting the dinosaurs completely. GarageBand looks promising- I can listen to RealAudio songs & "radio" at work, add the ones I like to my playlist & download 'em to my iPod at home.

You can still help people that were sued in the last round by making a contribution directly to them using the Peer-to-Peer Legal Defense Fund at downhillbattle.org . Defendents from this round of suits are going to be added soon also.

It should also be noted that before filing this round of 80 suits, the RIAA sent letters to 200 people demanding settlements or else. While they portray this as a compromise, it actually just lets the RIAA avoid media scrutiny of those 200 people, keeping the next Brianna Lahara out of the spotlight. These extra-judicial fines are now happening in secret.

Try googling "iTunes for Windows", first result: iTunes iSbogus about why iTunes is bad for musicians because it keeps the RIAA from crumbling (also because musicians get the same shitty cut that they get in bricks and mortar even though the bricks are gone).

The boycott is going mainstream. Here is a URL Http://www.downhillbattle.org http://downhillbattle.org/

Downhillbattle.org, a music activism site, has set up a defense fund to help those who have been sued pay their legal bills. Slashdotters are always saying that more people should fight the suits, help out those who are.

iTMS sales are also great

Now that we have to pay for napster, it's not that cool anymore.
But now that I'm out of college, I'm not that cool anymore either.

Now that we have to pay for napster, it's not that cool anymore.
But now that I'm out of college, I'm not that cool anymore either.

Isn't karma whoring fun?

Yes, you make excellent points.

But at this point, it doesn't even matter that what these people are doing is illegal!

EFF said it best, but I'll paraphrase:

Enjoying music is not wrong! Technology has enabled music lovers to build the largest collections of music ever! With a large harddrive and a fast internet connection, it is painfully easy to develop a collection of music that would take months to listen to end-to-end.

Instead of providing users with a legitimate way of doing this, the RIAA has set out on a path to criminalise music lovers everywhere.

What I mean is, it's become apparent that CDs are just not convenient enough for people to buy lots of them; people want to pay for single-song downloads, and then only have exactly what songs they like. Instead of enabling this and making life good for consumers and artists alike, the RIAA is alienating EVERYBODY.

I suggest everybody go out and discover independant music. I've been surfing on iuma.com (Internet Underground Music Archive), and I've found lots of great music that the artists want you to download for free. It's free, it's legit, and it's not the cookie-cutter shite that the RIAA has been pushing lately.

So I say, fuck the RIAA. If they want to put all of their potential customers in jail, they can go out of business for all I care.

And finally, check out Downhill Battle, and Don't Buy CDs , two good sites advocating the downfall of the RIAA.

Yup. It's called Downhill Battle. They have some interesting information and links to relevant resources, including a site that will check to see whether a certain album has been released by the RIAA so you can avoid buying it. (Seems like it's down right now, though). Cool stuff.

Not to sound like a total "let's organize a boycott" dweeb, but what about sending in packages that look like amnesty confessions, but just say "Go fuck yourselves." Or better yet, are fliers from dowhnhillbattle.org. If everyone who was pissed off at the RIAA sent them a fake affadavit, it might do more than just bitching endlessly here on /.

Anyone brave enough to question the distilled coolade that is Apple and anything they touch since coming out with OSX ("ooh, ooh, pretty and Unix, ooh, OOH, AAaahhhh..") might find this spoof of iTunes to be an amuzing antidote.

A lot of people, myself included, would prefer to buy our music legitimatly.

We are fighting back. People are boycotting, people are buying used CDs, people are setting up sites like

http://www.downhillbattle.org/
And http://www.boycott-riaa.com/

The fight is just beginning! Its not even close to being over. This should prove that fighting back works more than begging politicians with emails and letters.

Hmm Look at the stuff on iTunes.. the MASSIVE decline in sales.

You should check out the site http://downhillbattle.org/ and see what the RIAA is doing. They are only making the revolution more organized and more powerful. The more people they sue, the more who will join the boycott, the more hated the RIAA will become.

And for them to DARE use the "scare and awe" crap, thats like declaring we are all terrorists!

"Buy our music or else you are supporting terrorism!"