Fuck 'em....Yeah, fuck the RIAA and all the suits and major labels who parasite off the works of the creative and the sweat and blood of the music consumers out there. Through high power lobbying, the RIAA has gotten the Bush administration's Copyright Board to approve a totally wrong royalty rate. So, while they drive Internet radio totally underground in this country by making it economically impossible to stream music over the Internet, the big corporate broadcasters continue to rake in huge amounts of money without having to compensate musicians at all (according to Bill Goldsmith)
Personally, I agree with Jefitoblog that this is a great time for a boycott. Only I think that it should be a permanent boycott of all major labels and anybody else who supports the RIAA. At the same time, I think we, all music consumers, should directly support the artists we listen to by, if nothing else, sending them money via their websites (all artists have a web presence...find it and figure out how to send 'em money.)
Frankly, I've written about the music industry before; this latest big "FUCK YOU" from the suits who have taken over this industry is just confirmation that change is more than overdue...it is vital. What is needed now is a paradigm change in the way music is distributed to (for want of a better term) consumers. Prior to Thomas Alva Edison, the only way to distribute music was via live performance or printed sheet music. That meant that if one didn't play a musical instrument, about the only way one could enjoy music was to physically be in the presence of a person making said music. Mr. Edison changed all that.
However, the making of music and then reproducing it post Edison required a considerable investment in both equipment and knowledge. In other words, recording music was not something that just anybody could do--until the invention of magnetic tape and the creation of relatively inexpensive recorders. I can remember my father recording stuff by placing microphones in front of speakers. Those weren't the highest quality recordings, but they sufficed. However, for the most part we didn't record stuff because it was simply too much trouble. When I could buy a 45rpm disc for less than a buck, why would I want to spend an hour trying to get a decent recording of it off somebody else's copy? And this reasoning pretty much held true as cassette recorders became available. I could (and did) record off FM radio stations by plugging leads into recorder and receiver. It made recording stuff easier, but it was still better to go out and buy the albums. They still weren't that expensive and it was still easier.
Now we have the internet and streaming media. But wait, capturing streaming media is a pain in the butt. If one is listening to Radio Paradise or some other station using Winamp, or Real Player or Windows Media Player, one can't click a button and tell the software to store that stream on your hard drive. No, you have to go get third party software, install it and then deal with the large file one ends up with . It is, in fact, a pain in the butt. I listen to streaming music, and I send my favorite online radio stations money as my way of supporting both the station and the artists the station streams. If I hear something really good, I either go out and buy the cd or I try to buy the specific track online. (I think that the online prices-per-track are way too high, but that is another rant...)
However, as of now my support for music is going to change. I will still send my listener supported radio stations donations in proportion to how much I listen to them. But...I will no longer purchase CDs or tracks from any sourse other than directly from the artist. Period! The major labels and the RIAA get not a cent of my money. I feel for the artists, I don't feel for the parasite bloodsuckers....
I am going to go back to the model I proposed a long time ago, and see if it isn't perhaps time to dust it off and begin to really work at implementing it. Also, I wonder just how much dark fiber optic cable is available in, say, Panama. One could run an Internet radio station from Panama, and the RIAA would, basically, be left with its figurative thumb up its figurative ass. Works for me!
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