Music Downloading - it costs the Earth!!!

One of the common behaviours of the Industry formerly known as Music is the casting of enormous figures upon the waters. Their valuations and damage estimates are only meant
to impress the supremely gullible - like elected officials, deluded musicians and lapdog pseudo-journalists.

Good ol' Cracked has taken some of the Industry's own figures from their case against Pirate Bay and extrapolated them...

how do you spell "psychotic"?

for more useful insights, click on over
to Cracked...




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Death of a Record Store

Here's another of the voices rarely heard when talking about music and downloading...

someone who used to run a record store.

In this case, it's a couple of guys who started a store in New York City in the 90s. They thought they if they worked hard, and made sure their staff could respond to both the average listener and the ones looking for something special, they had a shot. 


It had been a going concern through the 90s, but their record store is gone now. Closed. Defunct.
Out of business.

What do these music lovers have to say about their experience and the cause of its demise?

"The sad thing is that CDs and downloads could have coexisted peacefully and profitably. The current state of affairs is largely the result of shortsightedness and boneheadedness by the major record labels and the Recording Industry Association of America, who managed to achieve the opposite of everything they wanted in trying to keep the music business prospering. The association is like a gardener who tried to rid his lawn of weeds and wound up killing the trees instead.

In the late ’90s, our business, and the music retail business in general, was booming. Enter Napster, the granddaddy of illegal download sites. How did the major record labels react? By continuing their campaign to eliminate the comparatively unprofitable CD single, raising list prices on album-length CDs to $18 or $19 and promoting artists like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears — whose strength was single songs, not albums. The result was a lot of unhappy customers, who blamed retailers like us for the dearth of singles and the high prices.

The recording industry association saw the threat that illegal downloads would pose to CD sales. But rather than working with Napster, it tried to sue the company out of existence — which was like thinking you’ve killed all the roaches in your apartment because you squashed the one you saw in the kitchen. More illegal download sites cropped up faster than the association’s lawyers could say “cease and desist.”

...read the rest of this ear-opening tale from 2007
at the New York Times

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the US DMCA - wtf?

...run into this yet in your Googling?

you will.

the world is getting smaller.

thanks to the RIAA and the MPAA.

suck it up.

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What do the listeners think?

Given the low opinion that the industry and its acolytes have of  the people who listen to music,
it follows that they would rarely concern themselves with what those people think...

Here are  a couple online polls i've run into recently, from a couple of disparate sources-
the CBC and Billboard magazine.

the CBC poll has to do with the proposed
new fee/tax on audio devices:

...more than 2 to 1 opposed.

***

the Billboard poll is pretty self-explanatory...

once again, about 66% don't agree
with the Industry...


but once again, nothing could matter less.

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A Brief History of File Sharing

In the beginning,

there was the internet,

    ...and it was good.

For the first time, computers could talk to each other, whether they were in the next room or on the other side of the country.

Computers talk to each other by exchanging information. The reason they want to talk to
each other is access more information.

In digital terms, to share files. 

People began using their computers to access remote files 0n other people's computers using
file system mounting on Usenet (1980), and FTP servers (1985). As time went by, more and more people wanted to access more and more files and long story short, the internet was born!


When mp3 encoding was standardized in 1991, audio files became much smaller - ergo, easier
to post and easier to download.

***



uh-oh...




***

In June 1999, Napster pulled out onto the information superhighway. Napster was an online music peer-to-peer file sharing that allowed people to easily share their MP3 files with others.


So it was that the file wars began.


on December 7, 1999, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed a lawsuit against Napster for facilitating the  transfer of copyright materials.

The RIAA felt Napster was the spawn of Satan. When Metallica found out that an unreleased demo of one of their songs was available on Napster, they thought so too and filed suit. A month later, so did Dr. Dre.

Napster's defenders included many music lovers, including 'underground' labels and musicians like Radiohead, Chuck D from Public Enemy and dj xealot.

The publicity surrounding the case raised Napster's profile considerably- soon, more than 26 million people had signed up.

Be that as it may, Napster was shut down in July 2001. Sort of...

***

The RIAA had won. Napster was off the grid.
 
The lawsuit, though, had introduced millions of people to downloading music from the internet. What had been an underground activity of highly motivated music geeks became a household word.

The RIAA had won the battle, but who exactly would win the war on sharing was, and still is,
an open question.

***

 

Post-Napster, other sites and software programs have come along...

Gnutella, eDonkey,, Kazaa, Audiogalaxy Satellite, LimeWire, BitTorrent and Pirate Bay...

***



The Industrial approach has not resolved anything. It's made a lot of money for a lot of lawyers, but it has not made the world a better, safer place for copyright holders.

It's started a digital game of 'whack-a-mole'.

I, Downloader 5 - What? Me Listen?

if the Music Industry and their more vocal sub-contractors* have one ace up their sleeve,
it's their ability to stay on message.

ten years into a new Millenium, they are still chanting the mantra they entered it with - the Industry is in decline because people are 'stealing' their 'intellectual property' on the internet.

they can prove it, with their own statistics. the statistics are then  translated into financial losses, at an exchange rate of 1:1, where each alleged download equals one lost retail sale.

these fantasy figures make it clear that their former customers are now active participants in a global crime wave bigger than the Medellin cartel.

as though this were not enough, the news of this sonic apocalypse is wrapped in an Industrial pink fuzzy blanket of love for the Artists... big ones, little ones, old ones and especially the young ones, as given their fiscal projections one or more of the big three or four won't be able to be there to help crazy kids everywhere live the Dream of trans-national, rock-pop-alt-crossover success.

***

...all of which adds up to a sense of entitlement verging on the sociopathic. it boils down to...


We rock. Totally.

it's those Fans who suck.

***

 it's an interesting gambit. as long as you stay
in their script, it all seems to make some
kind of sense. i guess.

the only problem is that they are wrong... as wrong as wrong can be. it would actually be hard for them to be more wrong.

these Industrial pain cries are the same ones heard near what we now call the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, as mammoths, ground sloths and sabre tooth cats sank into the tar pits.

do you smell methane?

***

looking at it all from a decidedly Old School bench,
i think the people who upload music files, and the people who download music files are the people who really love music.

...as much as any major dude. 

the Industry and their acolytes no longer seem to know what it's like to love music beyond reason.

they lack clue one about the difference between a music lover, and 'a fan'... maybe they're not music lovers. maybe, they're not even be fans.

they're not listening - which is odd, on one level and yet on another might explain why they release so much unessential  music by so many second-rate, one-hit-maybe fame sluts.

and their child-like wonder when we the people don't pony up like it's 1999...
like we used to...


they're asking "where's all that easy money gone?", while we're asking "what is this shit?"

***

                   They would not listen
                   they're not
                   list'ning still
                   perhaps they never will.

from Vincent - Don McLean

- tbc -






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I, Downloader 4 - People's exhibit A

i'm not telling you all this to pass for cool. i'm not. on a good day, i'm more honest than i was the day before. the only difference between me now and then is now i really don't care.

my entry-level geeking skills or music cred are not going to impress girls, or even many guys. in the grand scheme, i am as far from being a serious Stones freak as Voyager 1 is from your sewer outflow pipe.

but there are people out there...

***

PEOPLE'S EXHIBIT A

i'm just laying out people's exhibit A. me.

the only way i can talk about music is honestly. if i have a heart, it's only because music kept it fed and watered. if there's a reason i still believe human beings are worth more than a bucket of warm spit, it's music.

***

i don't think it's sacred, but i do think it's how we connect with our creator, each other... and ourselves.

it's not product or a unit, or anything with a bullet, and it is sure as hell not anybody's 'precious'.

it's a river, not a resource. it's not a line item, and it's not just luck.

every people/tribe/ nation/community makes music, and many still do. music is not now - nor has it ever been - all about a professional situation.

it's something musicians and listeners have been working on together for several thousand years. maybe that's why ancient music still carries so much power.

the people making the music were connected to the people listening to the music. they were coming together with a common desire. everybody involved wanted to get off.

***

some people seem mystified as to why live music still sells while CD sales are falling all the time.
most people know the best music is live and direct. when everyone hears the same note at the same time, we're connected.  we transcend ourselves.
why is it that some people don't get it?

why can't they see the 'duh'?

aren't they listening?

- next: I Downloader 5  - What? me Listen?

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I, Downloader 3 - me, Mick and music

music saved my life.

ever since the summer of '64 when i first heard George Harrison hit that Rickenbacker chord that kicks off A Hard Day's Night, music has been an essential part of my life... and the lives of most of the people around me.

i've spent decades bring musicians and audiences together around  stages in parks, clubs, community halls and sidewalks, and getting those musicians paid. along the way, a lot of indies move mad product, working like a dog and loving every minute of it.

i've spent more money on music recordings than other people have putting their kids through school, and so did most of my friends.

then and now, we put a high value on our music... sometimes, more than the people making it and never any less than anyone at any major labels.

***

one of the bands i have listened to a lot is the Rolling Stones. i started listening when Satisfaction came out, and i kept listening til about Black and Blue.

i hung this poster on my wall for years, because i thought it was so damn good. i've worn 4 Stones tour shirts into threadbare oblivion.



i've seen them live 3 times - '72 and '75 in Maple Leaf Gardens and once in Oshawa at the benefit Keith Richards had to do for the blind after his smack bust in Toronto.

i have probably bought 20 Stones albums in my time, six of which were Exile on Main Street.

i bought my first copy the day i got out of high school- went home and proceeded to blast it out
of mom and dad's stereo while hustling my younger brother to cough for half the sticker price, so it could be 'ours'.

when that copy got swiped at a party one night,
i bought another copy, which worked until that got scratched up too bad at a house party in second year, which led me spend nearly 50 bucks for a half-speed Japanese virgin vinyl copy.

i probably listened to that a thousand times
before making the tragic mistake of loaning it
to the coke-head younger brother of another friend for a weekend. when it finally came back a month later, there was a scratch on side one.

a few years later, some friends got me a CD player when such things were all gee whiz and shiny new.

Exiles was the only album exempted from my resolution not to buy the CD of an album
i already owned.

hey, it was Exiles, and my devotion was rewarded
a few months later when one night listening to it on headphones, i heard a glass bottle get knocked over during one of the tracks.

i've went to hear Andrew Loog Oldham speak in Belfast, at the screening of old documentary of young Stones touring Ireland, made after the Beatles did "A Hard Day's Night".

i will never forget his answer to a sincere young man embarking on a career in music...

"Darling, if you're not prepared to get fucked,
find another business"

***

as i write this, there is a hard cover copy of Keef's new autobiography on my coffee table, that i'm saving for the next time i get on a train somewhere.

***


the point? i've spent a lot of money
on the Rolling Stones over the years,
and i'm still spending money on them.

why?
because the things i've found
online have kept my interest alive.

it is my fondness for the Rolling Stones
and a certain era of their musical evolution
that has led me deeper and deeper
into the Land of the Pirates.

***

i have sought, and i have found amazing
stuff out there...

i have found more rough takes, out-takes,
re-takes, unused takes and alt-mixed versions from their rankest early days to more recently than i care to hear.


my main focus is from '67 to '79 or so, and even with those parameters, what's out there dwarfs
even my curiousity.

***

i have my own copy of the "Cocksucker Blues",
the film Robert Frank made about the '72 tour...

the film so frickin' true the Stones organization
did everything in it's legal power to keep people from seeing.

next: I Downloader 4 - People's Exhibit A



 

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the MPAA - how wrong can you be?

given both the vehemence and certainty or Mr. Valenti's assertions, and the enormous financial investment by the Motion Picture Association in lobbying governments to protect them from the evolution of communication technology over the years, a brief review of their concerns seems in order...

THE MPAA ON CABLE TELEVISION

"A huge parasite in the marketplace, feeding and fattening itself off of local television stations and copyright owners of copyrighted material."


alas, despite their best efforts, cable television's evil tentacles spread across North America...the result?


Turner Classic Movies TCM
Sundance Channel
Documentary Channel
Independent Film Channel IFC
Movieola
MovieTime
DUSK
Showcase Action
Showcase Diva
Silver Screen Classics
Encore Avenue 1
HBO Canada
HBO Canada HD
Movie Central 1, 2, 3
Movie Central HD 1
Super Channel 1, 2, 3, 4
Super Channel HD 1
Super Channel HD 2
The Movie Network
The Movie Network HD
Morepix
MExcess
MFest
Mpix

...in addition to the movies that are shown on traditional 'mixed" entertainment channels, these are the 24 dedicated movie channels available where i live (not counting adult movie channels and one that shows movies in Mandarin).

the Verdict?

WRONG!

THE MPAA ON VIDEO CASSETTE RECORDERS

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone".

"We are going to bleed and bleed and hemorrhage, unless this Congress..."

Despite Valenti's apocalyptic visions of blood,
the home video market ultimately came to be
the mainstay of movie studio revenues throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, until the DVD.

At it's peak, the industry would sell about 70 million cassettes for rentals and 600 million cassettes for home viewing each year.

VCRs and their power pellets, the videotapes, did not destroy the movie industry. In reality, they probably saved it.

the Verdict?

WRONG!

THE MPAA ON INTERNET 'PIRACY'

Q: Can Internet piracy be contained?

A: It costs us $3.5 billion a year, but it's not going to go unchecked. We have the best brains working on this. I'm optimistic that in the next eight months to two years, we'll have this thing under control.
Jack Valenti, USA Today June 2004


well, as of 2010, they don't seem to have this one licked...so once again...

the Verdict?

WRONG!

THE MPAA ON INTERNET 'PIRACY' 2

“We’re fighting our own terrorist war
against people who would pirate movies online.”



...clearly, the war on people 'pirating' continues- but based on the industry's attitude and tactics in the past, the odds are better than 50/50 that they might be

WRONG!

...again.

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the MPAA - been wrong so long...

...that it looks like right to me.

music is a big thing in my life. it has been for a long time, which is why i tend to focus on that aspect of the discussion of copyright and copywrong...

but for every dumb idea about 'intellectual property in the digital age' in the Music Industry, there's 2  or 3 people in the Movie Industry reading
from the same script*.

One of the biggest mouths in movies about all
this was the late Jack Valenti. Valenti was a war hero and a Beltway insider before Lew Wasserman brought him out to LA in '66 to head the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a not-for-profit trade organization.

What are the key functions of the MPAA? 

We are the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries, domestically and, through our subsidiaries and affiliates, internationally.

from the MPAA website

***

The organization is funded by the “big six” studios: Paramount, Disney, Fox, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros.

When Valenti retired in 2004, after 38 years
as president, the MPAA's annual budget was estimated at more than $100 million a year.

 

Valenti was 82 years old when he retired.
His term as the industry's spokesman spanned nearly four decades of unprecedented technical
and social change.

When he began in 1966, the "new thing"
was the audio cassette.

It would be 10 years before the great Videotape Format war and 10 again until VHS finally
achieved total global domination.

As that fight was raging, more cool new
tech toys were hitting the street every year.

Personal computers really caught on, and so did compact disc players. Modern life was taking
a turn to the digital. The genie was out of the bottle, and getting ready to  leave the building .

The 90s brought the rise of the DVD and worse,
oh yes much worse by far - the world wide web. 

***

"His personal passion and extreme comfort
around politicians gave him credibility that
others ... would lack.
Mr Valenti was a consummate salesman, who
like all great salesmen ... worked himself up into believing the truth of his clients' message."

William Patry - copyright attorney for the Clinton administration

***

THE MPAA ON CABLE TELEVISION

A huge parasite in the marketplace, feeding and fattening itself off of local television stations and copyright owners of copyrighted material. We do not like it because we think it wrong and unfair.

Comments on the Cable television industry,
in testimony to Congress (June 1974)

Satan's little helper

THE MPAA ON VIDEO CASSETTE RECORDERS

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston Strangler is to the woman home alone".

"We are going to bleed and bleed and hemorrhage, unless this Congress at least protects one industry that is able to retrieve a surplus balance of trade and whose total future depends on its protection from the savagery and the ravages of this machine."

THE MPAA ON BLANK TAPE

We are facing a very new and a very troubling assault on our fiscal security, on our very economic life... it is like a great tidal wave just off the shore.
This video cassette recorder and the blank tape threaten profoundly the life-sustaining protection, I guess you would call it, on which copyright owners depend..."

THE MPAA ON IT'S COPYRIGHT PREFERENCES

“Forever plus one day.”

Valenti's suggestion for Sonny Bono's Copyright Extension Act.
Passed in 1998, the act only extended an additional 20 years^ .

THE MPAA ON BACKING UP YOUR DVD

You've already got a DVD. It lasts forever.
It never wears out. In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless.

Valenti responds to a question on breaking encryption to make a back-up copy of a DVD.
Harvard Political Review (2002)

THE MPAA ON INTERNET 'PIRACY'

Q: Can Internet piracy be contained?

A: It costs us $3.5 billion a year, but it's not going to go unchecked. We have the best brains working on this. I'm optimistic that in the next eight months to two years, we'll have this thing under control.
Jack Valenti, USA Today June 2004

“We’re fighting our own terrorist war
against people who would pirate movies online.”

***

Lions and tigers and bears!
Oh my!



Click here for part 2!

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^ Since the Copyright Act of 1976, copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship. The Act extended these terms to life of the author plus 70 years and for works of corporate authorship to 120 years after creation or 95 years after publication, whichever endpoint is earlier.^[1]

***

* Disclosure...
i like movies. i'm not like some of my friends, who think  their annual film festival program book is a kind of foreplay, but i've seen a few.

i also studied movies for a while in university, i've made films, helped friends make films and when i lived in Vancouver, working on film sets paid the bills for a lot of my friends.

there was a time when news of a Fellini retrospective or a new Herzog film would set my heart a flutter, but it's been a while. i actually don't remember the last film i saw in a theatre.

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the RIAA and their evil ways

My memories of Cracked as a magazine
back in the old days are not so good,
but as a web site, I often find myself
surprised and impressed.

One of their recent reader contests
was about the RIAA.

    "Regardless of what else the Recording Industry Association of America has done, most of us know them for fighting illegal music downloads by suing college students and sometimes grandmothers
into bankruptcy.

That made us wonder what the world would be like
if other industries cared as much about money, and as little about horrifically bad PR."



Here's a sample 's of what their readers
have to say...

 

... to see what the other contestant winners
have to say about the RIAA and their ways,
click Cracked!

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