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Indies Blossoming Despite RIAA
Shadow Wrought writes "We have all read the numerous RIAA articles on Slashdot, not to mention scores of other articles that discuss the industry's purported demise. An article at the Christian Science Monitor calls this assumption into question by pointing to the success that Indie Labels are beginning to enjoy. An interesting read and one that provides pretty good support against the RIAA's argument that a quartet of college students is responsible for their troubles."
and their movie friends, but I'm undecided on the larger issue--when you spend lots of money producing an intellectual property, then some retard comes along and copies it to a million of his friends for free, should he be held responsible for committing some (perhaps new variety of) theft?
Thanks to CD burners costing dirt these days, you can find individual bands all over the net who are publishing on their own. CDBaby.com offers a storefront and listening booth for hundreds of these bands. Dig around a little and listen with an open mind. You will find something you like.
If they still offer it, try and get your hands on one of the sampler discs (100 MP3 tunes from different bands, broken down by genre) and see if you don't find a dozen albums you want.
There's a HUGE amount of good stuff here, and the bulk of the cash goes to the band. You pay less than you pay for most mainstream commercial music, and sometimes the band even writes directly to ask what you thought of the disc afterward. Virtually all of the bands are accessible and love it when you write them to chat as well.
After the band, the rest of the cash goes to the guys you see on the CDBaby website. NO RIAA GOUGING HERE. No subsidizing bastard lawyer cabals. They even run OpenBSD and Apache. It's ALL good! :-)
No, I don't work for them, I'm just a very happy customer. I've bought over a hundred discs, and I don't miss pouring through the old over-hyped and mass-produced sludge to find the rare gem one bit!
Can you tell I like CDBaby?
Indies Blossoming Despite RIAA
Seriously, if the RIAA weren't into heavy handed tactics, sueing students, making virtually-unusable copy-protected CD's, and charging unreasonable amounts for music... how would Indie music be doing?
Hell, I think that the RIAA is helping Indie music. People don't want to pay for overpriced music anymore, they're looking at alternatives... copying is free but becoming less attractive due to lawsuit... so the next cheapest route is indie and others (not to mention some often damn good tunes).
"Another secret of their success is that the (indie) labels target consumers - namely, adults - who are still willing to pay for their music, rather than download it for free"... The simple fact is this: in this dumpy economy, adults have the most disposable income, while kids have LESS money to spend. Yet, the 'big five' still cluelessly market primarily to kids! It's no wonder why their sales are down! One other thing not mentioned in this article though: If you go to most of the artists' web sites mentioned in the story, you'll find that you can listen to and/or download their music there. These artists don't have airplay, so they rely on the web as their 'radio'. They USE the web to get their songs heard. The web and downloading is BENEFICAL to them! This runs entirely opposite to the 'big five' who see the web as evil, something to be sued out of existance! Gee, I wonder who's wrong here? Even stranger, I wonder why Congress seems to always listen to the 'big 5 losers' instead of the winners when they pass their laws concerning the Internet!
This statement presumes that there is only one kind of business research--the old kind. Although it flies in the face of outmoded business models, the "piracy" model has many strenghts, from which the RIAA is too bloated to learn.
Bye-bye, Bronto!
A new distribution model will achieve prominence within the next five years, and with it a cascade of changes in the the structure of copyright law.
It's funny that they didn't mention the most successful indie label out there, Epitaph.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
It's real easy to not be greedy when you don't have any cash. People always talk about how "indie" labels don't screw over their artists, and about how the music is so much better. While this may be true in some respects, look at the other side.
The local band I can't sing but my tits are great, are more than willing to accept the major label money when it is offered to steal them away from the local record label, based out of Bobs garage. ("It doesn't pay well, but we love making music") The label then dishes out tons of cash to promote this shit band, who would never get any publicity outside of the leaflets they plaster all over their local, BoonFuck, Iowa clubs. The label also gives tons of free swag to the big DJ's in the major markets to get them to play the first single off their record. They take off, become multi-millionaires, and all of a sudden complain of mistreatment from their label.
Again, this is just my opinion, but when Sheryl Crowe cries, I just keep thinking "Go back to stripping, Honey."
If this article confuses you, don't worry. It was posted yesterday in a much clearer fashion.
Here's my nomination for the icon.
"Derp de derp."
Uh, so doesn't this mean that these indie labels are succeding becuase they purposely target their music to those who will pay for music? Sorry I don't see this as an argument against the RIAA, more likely it's an argument that downloading music does effect sales.
You are right on the mark with the ascertion that Indies are a big threat to the media moguls. The media giants know it and find every way possible to thwart independent film and music development.
Independent film makers are a threat in two big ways: There is direct competition in that the indies take attention away from Hollywood. They also are a prime example of how new technologies are making way for new voices...going square in the face of the RIAA's claim that piracy is leading to cultural doom.
The RIAA wants to create a Star Wars theme of evil pirates stealing from artists. The surge of independent film making is showing the opposite...that the technology is opening ground for new voices. As we see independent artists making in roads with new technology, we see that the true pirates of the silver screen are the big media moguls and Hollywood super class that has dominated film for the last century
yeah but check out the leadership... which is nearly 100% major label folks, as far as I can read.
A very large number of 'indie' labels are RIAA members. Check the list, your favorite indie label is probably on it.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
They don't have enough money and never will. Someone noticed that everyone but the RIAA can do better without the RIAA. So what happens when the RIAA buys out hundreds of independent record lables and shuts them down or otherwise makes them suck? Hundreds of new ones sprout up. If you are a manager who was feeling furfilled making money for yourself and your musicians by promoting good music, you set up a new shop. The artists, who didn't have to give up their rights to their work the last time, walk right on over too.
Game over, you lose.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Way back in the day there was a funky country and western record shop that sold some punk records in the back. Most of the time they were bands I never heard of, but they were on SST or Beggars Banquet and the like, so it was a pretty good chance the record was something I liked (ain't no way Epic records or Sony could make the same claim). Also, the records sold for close to $5 apiece. If it completely sucked, I wasn't out a whole lot of cash.
And friends from across the country would send me tapes of bands that were local or the grand tradition of the punk comp. Range of music tastes broadens, buy more records...
The argument then was home tapeing was killing the record industry. This was when indie labels were flourishing. All without radio airplay, promotion, or any of the other things that were making the major labels' records cost near $12. I had close to 100 records. Maybe 15 were major label.
Fast forward. I now have (err, carry the five, add the two) close to 1000 CDs. Most of them are indie releases.
And the recording industry is claiming downloads are killing the music industry.
I still buy CDs. A good portion of them are used. I have yet to see my favorite used CD shop close because all this rampant piracy. If anything, I buy more music because of the used CD store. I can listen to the CD before I but it. I can try out other music forms. And the guys are usually pretty cool about returns. Plus the CDs usually run around $8.
But this also means I have to wait a couple of months for a CD to show up used. Long painful wait. If the CD is $11 new, I might pop for it. Or if it is a very good recording (Mobile Fidelity, when they use to be around), or if is hard to find; $30.
A reasonable computer costs near $700. Add $50 a month for DSL service. An ink cartridge every couple of months if you want inserts, $240. The inserts themselves about 50 cents apiece. Plus blank media, 50 cents for something decent. Plus reasonable burning software, $50.
$841 to burn a CD. Even with the best economies of scale, close to $15 a CD.
I'm just not seeing this free download.
Not to mention it's a hassle to find something you actually like and burn it, no liner notes, and MP3s don't sound very good.
I have yet to see piracy flourish unless prices where artificially high ("Psst... come here. I have a copy to sell you for $5. Oh, you could buy a used copy for $8, or a new copy for $12..."). Give me a break.
I do, however, have lots of burned software $).