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RIAA Writes Its Own News For Local TV
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Did your local news recently do a two-minute clip on music copyright infringement? If so, you can thank the RIAA. They sent out a video press release to local news stations as part of their 'holiday anti-piracy campaign.' In it, they warn people that the best way to avoid counterfeit music is to avoid 'compilation CDs that could only exist in the dreams of a music fan' and to trust their ears, because illegally copied music usually sounds 'atrocious.' Instead, they encourage watchers to buy ringtones for Christmas."
and start fighting.
Why doesn't the EFF release a press release occasionally, like this, mentioning the things being done by the [MP|RI]AA to inform the consumers about fair use, laws going into effect and how they will affect us, asking people to contact their reps, etc.?
Lets stop blocking and start punching a bit. Face it, we're geeks, are faces weren't exactly pretty to begin with, it's not like we have much to loose if we get hit there once or twice...
Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
I love how the guy bemoaning the evils of pirating and its association with organized crime is standing in front of a huge portrait of Frank Sinatra, one of the most "connected" artists in American history. That ranks up there with when the (Bill) Clinton reelection campaign chose Mambo #5 ("a little bit of Monica in my life") as its theme song for the convention. It doesn't take a downtown PR firm to figure this crap out.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
The new trend around here is to play the hellish clip at people when they call so they have something to listen to instead of the normal dialtone (or whatever you call the sound that lets you know it's ringing at the other end).
I don't know what the bandwidth of a GSM phone call is but the latest RIAA offerings sound like somebody being strangled in the middle of a punk-rock nightclub. It takes you a few seconds to even figure out it's supposed to be music and not your phone dying.
No sig today...
There are, in fact, very few artists who can produce a consistently good album from first track to last. It was Phil Spector that once famously observed that albums are two or three good songs and a bunch of filler. He was, of course, much more of a singles producer, much more interested in producing hit songs than hit albums.
There are a few acts out there that can make interesting albums, but when it comes to Britney Spears and that ilk, they simply don't have the talent to do it, and the album really is a few hits surrounded by a bunch of garbage. Because the single was all but killed by the end of the 1980s, this is the only music distribution they have.
That is until the Internet, but because the record companies so thoroughly have fucked that up, they're now stuck with an overpriced format that's largely unlistenable junk, and have declared such a tremendous war on consumers that the obvious route of again going back in time to selling singles is a door they simply refuse to open.
They are unimaginative dinosaurs, a pack of accountants and lawyers (whatever happened to the old A&R guys and producers who actually had some independence). These guys don't understand music, to them an album should function like any economic widget, and they have so muddied the water with people who have no business even being in a studio that now people are increasingly unwilling to pay their artificially high CD prices and want the few actually good songs the industry really produces.
I think the most telling thing isn't the complaints of younger artists, but of older artists who have been in the business for decades now. Paul McCartney, who has probably made more money for EMI through the Beatles and his solo work, than most of these crap bands they have now, thinks that the company is old and staid.
Unfortunately governments, rather than recognizing that no amount of legislation can ever keep an out-moded business model alive, have been bought by RIAA and its various international act-alikes, and thus rather than politicians saying "Look, solve your own problem." are allowing the record industry to drive further down the road of absolute extinction.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I keep hearing this rumor that they make most of their money on ringtones now.
They really, badly need to get back to their core business. It's evolved a bit, but they still have a chance to figure it out before all their artists flip them the bird and go completely independent.
This is the Internet. You have one shot to become the middleman, before someone like Google or Amazon takes that role from you.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Sadly this is getting all too common. Energy companies pay PR firms to make feature spots panning ethanol production, ethanol producers countering with feature spots of their own, the Bush administration making fake news stories in support of No Child Left Behind and the Iraq war, the military does it, pharmaceuticals, Microsoft PR is quite active in print media and tech publications, the Men's Warehouse is famously behind the yearly "suits are back" media blitz every year...it's quite the trend in PR. No surprise RIAA would want to get in on the act. But, like everything else they do, they do it badly.
Perhaps if they laid off the cocaine the world might make more sense.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Did you notice there is no copyright notice on that clip? No copyright? Doesn't that mean someone could take that clip and re-edit it into...oh, I don't know...something the RIAA never intended and have it bite them in the ass?
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.