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Why the RIAA Really Hates Downloads
wtansill recommends the saga of Jeff Price, who traveled from successful small record label owner to successful Internet-era music distributor. His piece describes clearly what the major record labels used to be good for and why they are now good for nothing but getting in the way. "Allowing all music creators 'in' is both exciting and frightening. Some argue that we need subjective gatekeepers as filters. No matter which way you feel about it, there are a few indisputable facts -- control has been taken away from the 'four major labels' and the traditional media outlets. We, the 'masses,' now have access to create, distribute, discover, promote, share and listen to any music. Hopefully access to all of this new music will inspire us, make us think and open doors and minds to new experiences we choose, not what a corporation or media outlet decides we should want."
Where do you get this misinformation? Rich Internet Applications Anonymous loves downloads. Can't get enough of them. http://riaa.buzztown.org/
From the tomes of Slashdot's quote at the bottom of the article on this one:
Your wise men don't know how it feels To be thick as a brick. -- Jethro Tull, "Thick As A Brick"I thought it was quite accurate.
The recording industry are just a bunch of puffed out suits beating their own chests in response to the threat of something surpassing them. They'll get bored eventually.
I drink to make other people interesting!
We win. You lose. Hugs and kisses, Everyone
I make websites and stuff. Buy one.
I think you're missing the subtle distinction between "evolve and grow feathers" and "get tarred and feathered".
Smallpox was a technological advance?
I just read Slashdot for the articles.
They are farmers, and the musicians are livestock.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
exaggerated.
Yeah yeah, I know, we've all by now heard a one-hit wonder who was NOT signed by a label. (Like the "Chocolate Rain" guy, who probably will go down for the most overplayed 3 notes in history. Choc-late Raaaaaain...) The thing is, when we buy (or listen to, ya dirty scallywags) music, who do we overwhelmingly choose? The same old Britstreet Boy , the same old Sir 50 Snoopenem, the same-old Avrilguilera. For every play, download, or purchase that the long tail Code Monkey type songs get, the #1 (and, for that number, the #40) pick up tens of thousands. That is taken *in aggregate*.
The labels didn't just get a lock on the market because they control distribution. They've got a lock because they realize that music is an experience people want to share, music is a status symbol, and thus people want to listen to the music that other people are listening to. This has the same network effects that a Facebook or AIM or Microsoft Office does. The core music consumer is a high school or college student, and God forbid you listen to something nobody else in your circle of friends does at that age.
(Look at the P2P networks, too -- people are not downloading the Collected Traditional Swahili Spirituals Remixed To The Tune of "Waterworks" Compilation. The top downloads almost invariably track, in lockstep, the top selling songs/movies/games which appeal to teenage males.)
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
It was more advanced than tinypox.
Well, thanks to the Internet, I'm now bored with sex.
Blonde Dance Clone #4 is my favorite band. I didn't know they were on a major label, but then again, I download all my music from torrents.
You are welcome on my lawn.
"There will still be gatekeepers, but the new gatekeepers will be bloggers and other online communities that promote music they've heard and appreciate."
Oh, well, that's a relief - for a minute there I thought the gatekeepers were going to be self important blowhards with little taste and no style.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
This new promotion style will more closely mirror this "organic" model of promotion.
;)
"Organic"? You damn communist hippies are becoming like the Borg.
Unfortunately, when I look for someone to tell me what to do I find... a vast array of products and services that will do so. How do I know which one to listen to? I really need one large entity that answers all my questions with certainty and finality. Freedom is highly over-rated. Give me the security of being a nameless, faceless member of the herd. Give me the warm, fuzzy feeling of having a benevolent daddy figure watching over me and telling me what to do and what not to.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Damn I hate the RIAA; I just searched for Blonde Dance Clone torrentz and they've removed them. Why is the man keeping us down like this? Why wont they let me listen to music I have already heard before for free? wtf?
andy