Slashdot Mirror

Could you please supply a reference for this statement? TIA

The top entry is responses to questions from Slashdot.. Nice!

Rep. Boucher:

I am in the process of drafting comprehensive legislation which will
reaffirm the fair use rights of the users of information and create a
better balance between the copyright owners, who currently dominate the
Congressional debates on intellectual property measures, and the users
of copyrighted information.

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2001&post=2001-03-28$7

http://www.boycott-riaa.com/editorials/boucher
http://www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?StoryID=10943
http://www.house.gov/berman/newsroom/p2p_analysis.html

I can understand what you are saying. However, I believe the RIAA only succeeds at making untalented "artists" survive. If you have talent, most likely you will be able to develop a fanbase without the help of the RIAA. At least that's how it is in today's world. There are so many good bands out there that get free promotion from their fans regardless of their label affiliations or lack thereof. They may not be superstars, but they're not unknown.

It's kinda easy to predict Norah Jones will be a big hit, AFTER the fact that she is already a big hit. That's like predicting what will happen on your birthday, the day after.

Polyphonic HMI had nothing to do with her success, she was actually taken under the wing and helped to the top by my favorite 8-string guitarrist, Charlie Hunter (formerly of Blue Note.)

From jambase: "En route to a recording session for his most recent Blue Note release, Songs from the Analog Playground, eight-string guitar wizard Charlie Hunter and his bandmates first heard the First Sessions EP when their manager was played the album way to the studio. At first note, orders ensued to find the girl at once. Contact was made and Norah was hunted down at the Midtown restaurant where she was working as a waitress. Arriving at the studio and meeting the musicians, Norah was given the lyrics to a song written by Brian Ferry entitled "More Than This." Never before seeing these words let alone knowing the song, Norah was asked to just give it a shot. After getting a feel for the song, she began to sing the band playing behind her. At song's end, Norah timidly asked, "if that was okay?" For a minute everyone in the room remained speechless, mesmerized by Norah's radiant essence. Unanimously, it was decided that yes, it was in fact okay."

The Jamband/Grassroots scene is one viable alternative. The scene, which has its roots in bands such as the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band, the jamband/grassroots scene is based on the principles of "tour lots, play well, allow tape trading".

Bands like Phish, Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer (three rather different artists) have become very popular primarily because of tape trading and putting on a good live show which varies night to night.

Some sites of particular interest are Homegrown Music Network and Jambase, the latter of which has a huge database of members interested in and willing to promote the bands it serves. Bands seeking to promote shows in certain cities pay Jambase to allow them access to all the members in certain zip codes, cities and states. These fans get promotional material to spread around their area, thus gaining more interest in the concert.

Another great site is archive.org's etree archive which has full concerts of lots of bands (from big names such as Dave Matthews to the unknowns like the Motet) in lossless SHN format.

Of course, the limitations of this scene is that it's basically all wrinkly old hippies noodling away on covers of Grateful Dead songs, but there are innovators such as the New Deal and Disco Biscuits, who play live, improvised trance/breakbeat house. Or Howie Day, a singer-songwriter playing Radiohead influenced songs using loops and samples to create a unique sound. OAR play (somewhat turgid) reggae-rock, and Illinois' Umphrey's McGee present us with an alternate universe of "What if Phish listened to Pink Floyd and Genesis rather than the Grateful Dead?". There's something for [mostly] everyone.

So what? I haven't listened to music on the radio since high school. Why? Well I can decide what I want to listen to for myself. If you can't investigate new music on your own then the radio telling you what to like shouldn't be a concern of yours.

Checkout some independent or smaller labels. Labels like Matador Records, Prawn Song, Fat Wreck, and may others. It's a shame that labels like Grand Royal were forced out of business for not force-feeding the status quo. Read Nude As The News for non mainstream album reviews.

Find a band you Like and check out their influences. This is a good way to find new stuff to listen to. Like Led Zeppelin? Listen to Muddy Waters. Like Trey Solo? Listen to Count Basie, Sun Ra, or Little Feet. Like Primus? Listen To Rush. Ect.

GO SEE LIVE MUSIC! If you live near a large city there are tons of show to go see, there are some good websites dedicated to finding shows in your area. Check out Jambase for example.

Trade Live Music! There are several communities for the trading of live tapes, a large number of bands ok the taping of their shows and the thousands of tapes are out there for free. One Such community Etree is a great example of this.

Listen to College radio if you live near one!

Don't complain about the lack of variety on the radio, just don't listen to it.

Burris

In a world where you can't stop people from copying your work (unless you never release it), I think artists and authors will find that they make the most money by letting their work spread into as many hands as possible and make it as easy as possible for people to tip the artist, no matter where they get the work from.

The Grateful Dead pioneered this model by giving away their live performances. Phish showed that anyone could become successful this way, it was not something unique to the Grateful Dead. Now there are a bazillion Jam Bands that allow recording and trading of their concerts. Pretty soon they will be able to actually get income directly from tape trading as well!

Burris

Can you imagine bands "open-sourcing" their pieces? Not only would we have access to every music sheet they write on, but they would be giving their "software" out for free. How would they make a living?

Those two bands are the best two examples of the "Jam Band" business model; tour a lot, play a differen show every night, let people record and trade the music; lather, rinse, repeat. There's a whole industry of bands using this model and some are quite successful.

Yes, these bands also sell albums which are not freely distributable, but it is clear that album sales are not a very large portion of their income at all and they subsist almost entirely on live performances. As Public Enemy's Chuck D has said, you can't download the actual artists.

Some bands using the "Jam Band" model also have had radio hits and became _very_ successful, including Dave Matthews Band and Blues Traveler.

Burris

lets you know about tech cons and expos BEFORE they happen? like I use jambase.com to find out about cool shows BEFORE they happen... Nothing makes me more pissed off than to find out about an event I would go to when it has already started or is over.

Everyone has to learn about a band before they can be fans of that band. Tape trading allows new fans to check out bands. It is It is very similar to swapping mp3s (or other formats) on the web, only it has been around a few decades longer. in fact, the web has allowed for quicker and more trades (see links at end of post for more info on this). This has resulted in a boom to the jamband scene.

So others know, the scene is not made of just the big names you know of (and that many people think of as "hippie dippie bands"). There are in fact hundreds of bands in the scene that range from a more classical jam style to jazz to funk to Latino, etc. There is no one style of jamband (Check out Jambase.com for dates of a jamband playing in your area).

What I am trying to say is what the jamband community has known for a long time, allowing your music to be traded free of charge to the public, can pay off in many other ways in the long run (more ticket sales, album sales, merchandise sales, etc.). We are in a new age, where record labels need to learn that a 35 minute CD for $16+ is no longer acceptable, and the fans have the power now to prove this. As it has been said many times before, labels are going to have to figure out new ways of doing business because the old model just doesn't cut it anymore. These labels have to come to a realization, stop fighting the inevitable, and change their models of business. We are in an age where the consumer has the upper hand, and many more companies are learning this the hard way.

If you are interested in seeing more of the jamband community and how it operates check out these sites (these are only a few of the thousands of sites on the web about/for tape trading, if you are seriously interested in more sites or information just follow the links from these pages):

etree.org - This is a community dedicated to freely trading tapes (only of bands that allow it) via shorten format (a non-lossy form of compression).
Sugar Megs - a community that trades full shows in the mp3 format