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Musicians Get Together For Anti-RIAA Concerts
DarkZero writes "The Sacramento Bee is currently running an article
about several different bands getting together for five concerts to raise money for the Recording Artists Coalition with the express purpose of fighting the RIAA and the
unfair treatment of its musicians. The acts lined up include Elton John, Billy Joel, Ozzy Osbourne, Stevie Nick
s, The Offspring, The Eagles, Weezer, and plenty of other bands. Good for them. (And for those that are wonderi
ng, the RAC's site, ArtistsAgainstPiracy.com, is actually an anti-RIAA and somewhat pro-Napster site, not what you would immediately expect it
to be.)"
He's written quite a bit about the RIAA on his site. Here's one:n ta ries/20000321work4hire.html
http://www.npgmusicclub.com/npgmc/freedom/comme
--- Work, worry, consume, die. It's a wonderful life. -- Bill Griffith
A nice article detailing the coming demise of the RIAA!
Short summary - its about how the music industry is starting to collapse. Like a rat backed into a corner, the RIAA is trying to impose some "strongarm" tatics. Mostly this article deals with music encryption on their CD's, but does do a bang up job discussing its flaws.
What I really don't understand is why the RIAA wants to treat US the consumers, as bad guys? What ever happened to trying to PLEASE the customer, not piss them off even more? Haven't any of these folks taken economics classes in school (that is if they even WENT), its called supply and demand. You f@ck up the supply chain more by flooding the country who BUYS most of their crap with non-working, encrypted coasters, and the demand for said crap drops - thus inciting further financial ruin to them.
Finally - don't play the "piracy" card for the kiddies of the USA, just LOOK at Asia! Piracy is by far more rampant there than anywhere in the world! If you are going to try and claim that MP3's and Napster have taken a "gouge" out of your music sales think again. Just take a walk down the streets of Bejiing during the open market and see how many illegal software and music titles you can find amongst the rats.......
To the RIAA - I say F@CK you, you're day will come when your empire will topple......
Are there great musicians out there that fight the RIAA? Yeah...and you know what, you never hear about them. They play in local bars, small venues, and maybe, just maybe, might get lucky and become famous around where they're at. But on the whole, without the immense marketing power of RIAA companies, musicians won't become famous.
This is why they *willingly* submit to the "work for hire" concept. Those millions upon millions of album sales would never happen without the millions of dollars that the recording companies dump into selling and producing an act. From making the professional recording, to selling the band, arranging concert venues, scheduling TV appearances, pulling favors to get them invited to parties, everything.
Saying a musician deserves total ownership of his songs is like saying an architect or the construction worker deserves total ownership of a building. Unless they're the ones that financed the construction, they take their paycheck and go on to the next job. Looking back and going "well, ya know, that wasn't fair" is just stupid.
Surf through MP3.com some days and look for some good bands. There are great acts in there, truly talented musicians that have day jobs in addition to their music. Some even get their own CDs pressed by independent CD manufacturers and pack envelopes filled with them on their own kitchen tables.
These are the people that truely drive music. The guys you hear on the radio and see on MTV are nothing more than the faces of a multi-million dollar money machine. To make them out to be more is giving them more credit than they deserve.
That's a great lineup! I like and respect all those bands. Especially The Eagles, Dixie Chicks, Offspring, and Weezer. Throw in Guns and Roses and it would be perfect. They all play their own insturnments, write their own songs, and apparently they can see Hillary Rosen and her mates at the RIAA as the evil greedy people they are.
This is a breathtaking new level of corruption - from the party that promised to "restore honor and integrity to the White House." Surpassing even the time that Republican Tom Delay delivered envelopes full of cash from tobacco companies to members of Congress who had just voted for a pro-tobacco bill. he did this on the floor of the House of Representatives just after the vote.
The reason these guys get into office is because this cash buys thousands of campaign commercials telling us how honest they are and how corrupt the Democrats are. Yes, the same Democrats who are trying to make this sort of bribery illegal.