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http://www.riaaradar.com/ For a list of RIAA free artists.

Try the link without the extra ".".

I use the site http://www.riaaradar.com./

It has a listing of many mainstream albums and shows whether or not they are published by the RIAA.

I usually look through their RIAA-free lists and see if there's anything I'm interested in.

Also, see http://www.riaaradar.com/

Carey

I will not buy another CD as long as the music industry persists in these law suites. I will only buy music when I can buy it directly from the artist, without a music company in the middle and then only from artists that do not support suing their fans.

May I recommend;

http://www.riaaradar.com/

From there I learned which Christmas music to buy this year. As popular a Wizards in Winter was for annimated Christmas lights was last year, they are off the list.. TSO is on an RIAA label. On the other hand American Gramaphone is safe. I'll buy Mannheim Steamroller instead.

I agree that correlation does not equal causation.
If you want evidence, just take a look into my past. When I was in high school, I lived in the country. There were no FM stations. The local AM station carried Country and Western. I didn't buy much music. LP's and 8 tracks were popular along with brick size mono compact tape recorders with fidelity good enough for voice letters. I managed to collect a couple LP's and 8 track tapes to play with, but nothing serious.

After high school, I went into the Navy. Here I became exposed to lots of great music much like a typical middle schooler or high school kid does now. I invested in great equipment, bought the best blank tapes, had a good linear track turntable with moving coil cartridge, etc and a pair of quality solenoid operated cassette decks. I made mix tapes, traded tapes, and bought albums of my favorite artists to put on tape to play in my car. Artists included Pink Floyd, Styx, Queen, Tomita, etc. My peak piracy days was my peak purchasing days. Without the peer to peer dorm life, I would not have had the exposure and would not have bought nearly as much stuff.

Now I am married and have kids and grandkids. Any band that needs to curse or have a screamer is not my idea of music contrary to what my adopted kids like. Other than volume to the wall distorted by heavy compression junk, I don't have much exposure to new music anymore. Most of my exposure to great music is often called illegal. For example, I caught the fantastic light show last Christmas with the house with the synchronized lights. By any RIAA rulings, that publication and distribution of the the song Wizards in Winter was a violation of copyright. Trans Siberian Orchestra on the other hand made a hero out of the guy and gave him VIP treatment to one of their concerts. Was he a criminal guilty of massive online copyright infringement, or a creative artist using and promoting another artist? The only reason he wasn't prosecuted was because the backlash would have been severe and swift. The artist that doesn't understand this is the artist once known as prince. See what happened when someone put a short video of a toddler dancing? The artist didn't get it. TSO and the RIAA could have been in the same boat but much worse for that Christmas light show.

I went to buy the album, but with the current litigation, I am directly avoiding RIAA labels. Unfortunately that album is on an RIAA label. Sorry TSO.

http://www.riaaradar.com/search.asp Search for Trans-Siberian

Peer to Peer is how people find out about new great bands. It's advertising.

The band is coming to my local area this fall. Unless they drop their label, I am not going to the concert.
If my dorm tape recordings could have resulted in the same $222,000.00 settlement, than I want no part in the industry that is suing their best customers.

In a nutshell, I am not legally exposed to new good music. Stuff on the radio is payola and off limits RIAA, ASCAP, BMI on my reject list. I don't buy music I don't know about. I do know about the litigation. I am voting against it as much a possible. Anybody tainted by it is someone to not do business with. I don't pirate it. I simply don't accept it.

RIAA Radar is a start.

Think of all the DVDs and CDs those BitTorrent users will buy with $195,000 !!!

Before you buy any CD's and line the pockets of the litigious bastards, please visit here;

http://www.riaaradar.com/
http://defectivebydesign.org/

Shop informed.

How many people have ever bought music direct-from-the-artist over the web or in person?

In person, dozens of times, maybe even a hundred(?). Over the web, maybe a couple dozen times.

Next time: this weekend, Ultimatum (Albuquerque thrash band) releases their new CD. I'll be rocking out as they play, and at the merch table afterwards, putting cash directly into band member's hand.

And like the vast majority of today's recorded music, the RIAA is not involved.

Other than my subscription to eMusic, I pretty much only buy music direct-from-the-artist. This usually includes getting a record (on vinyl) at shows, which hopefully includes mp3 downloads that labels like Merge and Sub Pop include with their LPs. I also bought the Radiohead record (at $5) online.

I see 2 benefits to this approach:

1. (I like to think) artists get more from the sale than they would if I bought it from a shop.
2. The labels that make up the RIAA get less (if any) money from the sale. (I usually only go to shows of bands on independent labels - "safe" on the RIAA Radar).

If some of the big groups are going to divest themselves of their overlords, I'll be starting up with the purchasing again.


You didn't have to stop. Just let the buyer beware.
http://www.riaaradar.com/

My most recent purchase was from here.
http://www.riaaradar.com/search.asp?searchtype=ArtistSearch&keyword=Christopher+Peacock

If some of the big groups are going to divest themselves of their overlords, I'll be starting up with the purchasing again.


You didn't have to stop. Just let the buyer beware.
http://www.riaaradar.com/

My most recent purchase was from here.
http://www.riaaradar.com/search.asp?searchtype=ArtistSearch&keyword=Christopher+Peacock

I challenge Slashdot to boycott the US recording and movie industry... either that or stop whining...

I've been in that mode since I first heard about the settlement support center and the settle or sue with no options except being dead accepted.

Can I go on whining now? In the meantime I only buy from non-RIAA sources.
http://www.riaaradar.com/

I haven't yet deleted all the RIAA music from my hard drive, but with the liability issue presented for having it there, I'll wipe it and start with only non-RIAA titles.

Boycott the RIAA. It's easy to do. Just check the RIAA Radar before purchasing any music. Encourage your friends to do the same.

Tra-la-fucking-la.

The "victory" is mixed much like my feelings... downloading the songs illegally was wrong. I find no moral standing there. Yet, at the same time, the ridiculous approach the RIAA is taking in these cases - and this equally ridiculous reward - leave me unwilling to condemn the defendant.

Oh well. I've bought one RIAA-backed album in four years, and that was a mistake. RIAA Rader. Learn it. Love it. Tell the RIAA they can go fuck themselves with various sharp objects.

I thought we weren't supposed to buy from them and support evil patent trolls.

I think the one-click thing is more of an eye-rolling than a boycotting type of thing. So you can go ahead and keep shopping at Amazon.

But we aren't supposed to buy from Apple anyways because of their iPhone shenanagins. But we are supposed to love Apple because its trendy. I am so confused.

What's so confusing? You are supposed to love Apple, but shop somewhere else - pretty simple (also, their music store is pretty miserable).

or if I am supposed to loathe all of the RIAA music and not buy DRM or non-DRM music from any source if it is RIAA owned.

Yes, absolutely, that one. Do continue to do that. (have I plugged http://www.riaaradar.com/ yet today?)

What about indie music with DRM?

Trick question - you are only supposed to buy indie music on vinyl.

Hope that cleared things up (the sad part is that I'm serious about most of that).

... RIAA Radar to the rescue!

http://www.riaaradar.com/

It's probably more effective to buy non-RIAA music than to get free non-RIAA music. Somebody else making money really sends a message to the RIAA. Music closer to the mainstream might make the point hit home better.

Of course, the best music for you to consume is the music you like best. Music is kind of like food, though: Once you get used to organic vegan health food (ick!), you can't stomach greasy mass-produced stuff anymore. Well, I still like greasy mass-produced food, but I can't tolerate Metallica or Faith Hill. Now while I eat a cheeseburger, I listen to State Of Corruption or John Prine.

I don't buy RIAA-related music; if I want to hear some, I borrow the CD from the state library system.

Links for non-RIAA music:
http://www.riaaradar.com/ -- Look up a CD you want to buy and see if it's RIAA-affiliated
http://www.emusic.com/ -- Commercial music from non-RIAA labels, cheap, in DRM-free MP3s
http://garageband.com/
http://www.stage.fm/

It's easy to find indie country music that I like; loads of it gets played on Sirius Outlaw Country. Metal, OTOH, is a littel more difficult. So...anybody want to recommend some good indie hard rock / metal for someone who like Corrosion Of Conformity, Type O Negative, Black Sabbath, Monster Magnet, Tool, Anthrax, Rammstein, Megadeth, and Faith No More?

By the way, your sig says you spend your entertainment dollars elsewhere for 7 years.. 7 years!! Nice work. Where do you spend it?
I'm not GP, and this is just stuff I know of:
alternativetentacles.com (alice donut is awesome)
nitro records
epitaph records
k records

Check this out:
http://www.riaaradar.com/zeitgeist_topamazonsafe.a sp

so there's stuff. There's been stuff for a long long time. I still buy some RIAA stuff, but it's somewhat of a deterrent, since I have tons of music over the past 20-30 years that I can buy that's not RIAA.

I have been boycotting all RIAA product for about 6 months now and I can tell you, I don't miss it. Indy label misc and film actually has to be good because it doesn't have a massive corporate beauracracy tweaking every aspect of how to sell crap to sheep. (I'm thinking Clearchannel here). Defund these corporate bullies. That is one thing they cannot fight no matter how many gov't stooges they have on the payroll!

Here's a helpful link...
http://www.riaaradar.com/

The problem is not the device itself, it's the company pushing it. You may get a better product (although, let's be honest, marginally better) but MSFT cripples the dang thing with DRM. It's the RIAA's dream device, so buried in DRM that it's capabilities count for nothing, since you cannot really take advantage of them.

The great thing about RIAA suing people is that they're the ones doing the dirty work. But as in the MAFIAA, you can be sure that there is never any specific company that ordered each lawsuit. So how can you blame, say, Capitol?

Boycotting the big fours is a good start, but a good thing would be RIAA-tracking sites like http://www.riaaradar.com/ or some other way people can know. It's very difficult, since idependent labels might have a joint venture with a small RIAA member, but it's probably possible to turn it into some kind of "rotten" percentage.

The problem is how to make it easy to use. A user-friendly, but probably infeasible solution would be if you just took a picture of the bar code of an album, then submitted that image to a search function that would immediately return all the dirt of any company involved in releasing said album.

Sorry, my link is broken, first post here, try this http://riaaradar.com/ Okay, yeah that works. It helps to read instructions :)

I agree. I give my money to the indie labels. Indie music is better anyway. I boycott the RIAA and all of their mainstream garbage. One day they will not be able to pay all of their lawyer thugs. I do my part to bring that day closer by always checking here before I buy an album. http://www.riaaradar.com/search.asp/

A couple of things that have made the issue more complex: the RIAA has been known to inflate their membership roster and require Indie labels to sue inorder to be removed (the indies were afraid RIAA association would hurt their sales). Inflating the RIAA roster helps them claim they represent "90% of the music sold in the United States" (which most of congress seem to believe). Secondly, the RIAA has known it's been unpopular for years and that people were avoiding buying their members labels. So larger labels began to dividing off and renaming smaller labels to seem independent.

There's rarely a good reason why a trade organization feels so compeled to keep their membership secret. Do you think RIAA knows that downloading hasn't caused their loss in sales?

Agreed. Unfortunately, after discovering http://riaaradar.com/ my music purchases have taken a sharp dive; it's sad to see so many of my favorite artists in league with the RIAA. My usual habit these days is to check a label for RIAA membership; if it's a positive, I either skip out on the album or pirate the music, ramp up my upload rate for some super seeding, and burn a few discs to distrubte to friends (if I'm feeling spiteful). If negative, I scan iTunes/eMusic/Rhapsody/etc. for downloadable tracks and buy. Downloadpunk in particular has an attractive system set up in which you can donate a portion of your purchase to a charity of your choice and download your non-DRM music in a ZIP file. In worst case scenarios, i.e. stores don't carry what I'm looking for, unacceptable bit rate, etc., I have to resort to AllofMp3, but I don't like it, and usually send a letter to my usual stores.

Why not buy CDs, you ask? I dislike physical media. I don't get any visceral satisfaction from owning things, it's a pain in the ass to catalogue, and I prefer my iPod-centric multimedia setup. Call me a clueless consumer whore, but I don't mind the media shift. Digital audio is a much more flexible medium and I really enjoy being able to carry all of my music with me, even if I lose some quality. I have yet to hear vinyl yet though, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

What the music industry doesn't realize is that I am a customer. I enjoy supporting music, I love concerts, I play an instrument myself. I write to artists, I buy merchandise, I share music with my friends.

But when the industry starts suing innocent people, manipulating the legal system to their own ends, utilizing scare tactics, masquerading as a disciplinary force to college students, funding anti-competitive legislation, building a monopoly by hedging out internet radio, wasting billions of dollars on useless DRM schemes (thereby alienating the customer and driving up CD prices in the process, killing the music even moreso), implying that copyright infringement is tantamount to thievery and even murder, even connecting BitTorrent with terrorism, they have made a new enemy. I will never purchase an RIAA label album again in any medium. Not even if the RIAA relents, reforms, or even dissolves.

If every music fan came to this conclusion, the RIAA might finally realize that the cost of their actions far exceeds any monetary profits they might make from monopolizing the music industry in such a hostile, arrogant fashion.

But I guess that's the thing: the RIAA doesn't give a shit about its customers. I can rant and rave and boycott the RIAA all I want, but what do they care? It's more profitable to sue me.

i was just trying to be funny. i failed. : (

here and here are where i actually go when i want to know if i can buy a cd. too bad the link from wikipedia to that huge list at riaa.com is broken.

And being the free market the point of a company is to maximize shareholders profits and not too bring the next great artist to the spotlight.

They may maximize the short term profits but the long term effect can be very different. The most profitable periods for the music industry followed periods where they developed new talent. Look at the late 60's - early 70's for example.

The industry thinks file sharing is the cause of their downfall. Actually they have 2 enemies that are bigger than this:
1) ClearChannel and the other narrow-casters who limit what people hear on the radio.
2) Themselves- They do not develop the new talent. They could find low cost ways to do this if they did not have their heads up their butts. They are also suing their customer base. This one reason why I do not purchase CDs unless they clear RIAA Radar.

I haven't bought a CD in four years, and I'm older than God. If I'm not buying them, I can't imagine who is.

When I pay for music, I buy the CD. I just can't envisage paying money for an ephemeral lossy digital file (hard drives crash more often than houses burn down). Now, I haven't actually listened to a CD in a couple of years, but at least for now, that's the way to buy.

And when I like something that's released by a RIAA member (plug: RIAA Radar), I buy the CD used; so this sucks.

i too think that this looks like racketeering plain and simple, which should automatically classify the R.I. Ass of A as a corrupt organisation as definded by the RICO act of 1970:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_ and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act

http://www.ricoact.com/ricoact/
criminal activity: checked: collecting money for copyrighted works you don't own. (doesn't RIAA always claim that copyright infringement and piracy is a crime ?? here's that claim thrown right back at you dudes)

long term: checked: they have been doing this for quite a while now

statute of limitations of 4 years: checked (for most artists only though, some of them have let too much time to pass): there are surely at least a few artists that have only launched in these past 4 years, and are being 'milked' with this 'protection' tax by the R.I. Ass of A

quote from the article:
--------------
Go to the SoundExchange site: http://plays.soundexchange.com/... and take a look at the hundreds of indie labels for whom SoundExchange claims they have collected royalties. Enter some of those label names on http://www.riaaradar.com/... and notice how few are actually members of the RIAA. Contact the label and ask if they are a member of RIAA and they almost certainly aren't and may not even be aware that SoundExchange is collecting royalty fees on their music.
------------------

A link to help people know if music they have or music they're considering buying was released by a member of the RIAA:
The RIAA Radar.

Just don't buy RIAA music. It's not that hard. I'd put my usual links to a dozen sites where you can find great independent/free music, but you guys can probably find them yourselves.

'Course I can never resist linking RIAA radar:
http://www.riaaradar.com/

I for one am leaving the DNC feedback on their feedback page:
http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contactissues

Here is what my feedback looked like:
I think it is a serious mistake for the DNC to closely associate itself with the RIAA. The RIAA is despised in more technical literate circles, and increasingly at universities for their questionable legal maneuvers in their holy war against file sharing.

Close association with the RIAA reinforces stereotypes about the DNC being "no different" then the RNC as both are "owned by corporate interests". Please reconsider the decision to appoint Jenni Engebretsen to the Convention leadership team. I'm sure she is a great lady and did wonderful things for Kerry/Edwards, but I have serious problems with the morality of her employer. Her involvement at a leadership position casts a shadow over the entire Democratic party in my eyes, and in the eyes of many others.

Thanks for your time, a few links about the RIAA follow.

http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/07/04/13/162 5218.shtml
http://www.boycott-riaa.com/
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20061219/121441.s html
http://www.riaaradar.com/
http://consumerist.com/consumer/worst-company-in-a merica/worst-company-in-america-2007-final-deathma tch-244408.php

"You are quite correct in buying CDs from non RIAA labels (there's a website for this, can't remember it)."

http://www.riaaradar.com/search.asp

The american music industry has terrorized and pirated artist's creativity/music for long enough. Cut off their funding :

http://www.riaaradar.com/zeitgeist_topamazonsafe.a sp

so in short, the RIAA have found a niche successful business model based on intimidating people into giving them money. Frankly, that's not going anywhere any time soon unless people actually start to do something about it. http://www.riaaradar.com/ might be a possible direction to start. There might be better ways...

Quantum - I'll not sure if your attack is warrented given the fact that it was supposedly the job of the secret police in 1984 to know everything about a person. The phrase from the novel was "thoughtcrime". Big Brother was supposedly able to get children to turn against their parents to expose them of thoughtcrime. This is very similar to colleges turning against their students to expose them to the RIAA of "copyright infringement". Also, video cameras were everywhere. Do you remember the trouble Winston went through in the beginning of the story to find a place where he could be sure he could read a simple note? He certainly was afraid for his life to read it... that's what the RIAA wants us to feel about pirating music.

But your attack on communism from two posts ago was unwarrented. The government was Ingsol, which stood for English Socialism. The tennents of socialism is a state run socio-econmic system. Communism, on the other hand, should be noted for having the characteristic of not having different classes. Your ignorance of this fact points out that you obviously didn't notice how the High Party controlled things and left the Party to *think* they were better off then the other guys (the Proles).

The Party was really just the pawns of the High Party, though. The colleges and their students are just pawns of the RIAA.

Maybe I'm drawing the analogy too far... but recall that Winston hears a Prole singing a tune (Part 2, Chapter 4 - Paragraph 4) and thinking she did it more soulfully than the inhumane system that created it? That's what the RIAA doesn't want.

So what's the answer? Empower artists who don't care whether you download their songs by buying their non-RIAA albums and going to their shows.

And stop being ignorant, you insensitive clod!

Everyone over 10 has realized that the RIAA is a decaying corpse and (I sincerely believe) would boycott them completely if it were made easy.

Excellent point. Here is Wikipedia's list of RIAA Member Labels. The big four, * EMI * Sony BMG Music Entertainment * Universal Music Group * Warner Music Group

The list is long, long, long, and even though the Wikipedia list thoughtfully lists them in alphabetical order, it may be easier to look up potential purchases on riaaradar.com, and pass if RIAA tainted, or acquire by other means (buying 2nd hand is legit still I think, and doesn't put money in member label coffers).

You are right. The record labels who are demanding to take the deposition of a 10-year-old girl are identified in the answer and counterclaims.

They are -Atlantic Recording -Priority Records -Capitol Records -UMG Music and -BMG Music. Everyone out there, please boycott those labels.

Is the order they appear on the documents based on anything in particular? It looked like it might be alphabetical on the state of incorporation (California, Delaware, New York). Atlantic and its artists deserve responsibility, but I'd hate to let Capitol and BMG (or some of their artists, like "Paul McCartney" [Capitol] and "Bob Dylan" [Sony BMG]) off the hook just because of where the corporate headquarters is.

Everyone over 10 has realized that the RIAA is a decaying corpse and (I sincerely believe) would boycott them completely if it were made easy.

I don't agree that the RIAA makes for a great front for Warner, Sony BMG, et al to use as a shield. I personally (and many friends of mine) won't buy from *any* label under the RIAA umbrella, and we use the RIAA-Radar to help our purchasing decisions.

Being in the RIAA can't help more than it hurts.

Have you considered just avoiding music from RIAA labels? There are plenty of independent labels out there. I have found the RIAA Radar to be very helpful.

They shouldn't be suing their customers AT ALL, never mind the legal shit. When they sue children, the disabled, the dead, and so on it's even worse. It really gets my goat that people will defend these bastards. They have reduced my purchasing of CD's dramatically, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who checks riaaradar.com when considering a CD purchase. What they're doing is not only wicked, it's stupid.

Well a lot (if not most) of the labels on there are actually owned by the Big 4, but there were a few that surprised me (Absolutely Kosher, how could you?). In any case, this is a nice site: http://www.riaaradar.com/ as one can type in an artist, album, or label and find out its affiliation with the RIAA.

What the GP said is actually very true. I do not understand why you asked for proof, because he gave you an example immediately after his allegation:

They carry cocteau twins and breeders (for example) who are on 4ad. And who owns 4ad? Beggars Banquet - and BB is an RIAA affiliate.

It is a little trick that the big five use, and it has been going on for a good little while now. Take Island Records, as another example. It was the largest indie label in history. Who owns it now? Everyone's favorite dickheads, UMG. Check out the Island Records website, though. See any mention of it being a UMG affiliate?

That is how it works. The big five know that they are hated by the majority of the people who listen to real indie, punk, rock n' roll, et cetera. They buy up independents or spin off their own little "divisions", keep it as quiet as possible, and hope that you won't notice.

If you want to be certain that what you are planning to purchase, whether it be a download or a CD in a store, is in fact not affiliated in any way with the RIAA, I suggest bookmarking the RIAA Radar, and using it constantly. That's what I do, anyway.

What needs to happen is for Internet radio stations to turn to independent labels. Consumers will buy the music they hear. If Internet radio stations commit to changing the majority of their playlist to artists on non-RIAA labels then the majority of profits will be diverted from the RIAA - they don't get per play royalties and they don't get royalties on purchases. ("Genuine solution is actually really easy")

> I wish there was a way to incite a universal boycott
> of ALL **AA related products. Perhaps that would get
> someone's attention.

Well... I think this project is a good start:
http://www.riaaradar.com/

(http://www.buyblue.org/ is another good example of using information to speak in a language corporations understand.)

Perhaps in the future the majority of people buying on the Net will use some sort of autonomous agent to help them avoid products/companies that violate their personal ethics.