Music industry news for this week

[aaron]

In the ongoing saga between you and your music, much is happening.

Jay-Z is reportedly going into a deal with Apple to start a new record label. He recently stepped down from Death Row Records.

http//www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/01/02/jay-z-launching-record-label-with-apple/

RadioHead continues to speak out again record labels saying they often screw artists by giving them $0 for each digital download of their songs.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080102-radiohead-artists-often-screwed-by-digital-downloads.html

The Washington Post reports that the RIAA is now going after people that just want to rip their CD's to their own computer, saying it's illegal. I read a followup article on another site though that stated that their actual case is against the user because he put the songs in his shared folder, thus intending to share them. Kind of scary that just the intent to share may be against the law, even though no actual sharing has taken place.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.html

[fuzzis]

I think the idea of record labels is interesting in this day and age. I understand the promotional machine behind them, but...with the technology today, they're almost unnecessary. Viral videos, places like myspace, distribution resellers like CDBaby...if artists want to, they can completely subvert the major labels.

[aaron]

I think the idea of record labels is interesting in this day and age. I understand the promotional machine behind them, but...with the technology today, they're almost unnecessary. Viral videos, places like myspace, distribution resellers like CDBaby...if artists want to, they can completely subvert the major labels.

To me, it's really not the artists (or at least not totally). It's the fans. In the Web 2.0 news age, people make the news. So, if an artist releases a new record, the fans will start downloading it getting it on top 100 lists, the fans will start blogging about it, and the fans will make media outlets take notice. Record labels own a lot of distribution channels though, so getting a CD in a store is a bit harder. That will change though.

[Dixie Tree Slayer]

In the ongoing saga between you and your music, much is happening.

Jay-Z is reportedly going into a deal with Apple to start a new record label. He recently stepped down from Death Row Records.
http://http//www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/01/02/jay-z-launching-record-label-with-apple/ (http://http//www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/01/02/jay-z-launching-record-label-with-apple/)

RadioHead continues to speak out again record labels saying they often screw artists by giving them $0 for each digital download of their songs.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080102-radiohead-artists-often-screwed-by-digital-downloads.html

The Washington Post reports that the RIAA is now going after people that just want to rip their CD's to their own computer, saying it's illegal. I read a followup article on another site though that stated that their actual case is against the user because he put the songs in his shared folder, thus intending to share them. Kind of scary that just the intent to share may be against the law, even though no actual sharing has taken place.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122800693.html
Aaron, your first link has two http://s in it...

[aaron]

oops, sorry about that.

[hendrixfreak70]

Kudos to Radiohead for telling the record labels to go to hell.

As far as Jay-Z goes who cares?? Just playing but seriously?

[aaron]

Kudos to Radiohead for telling the record labels to go to hell.

As far as Jay-Z goes who cares?? Just playing but seriously?

He has more influence than you think. It's not his music, it's the artists under him that he helped create. Jay-Z is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million.

[Blockhead]

The RIAA reminds me of the DEA in a lot of ways. They're engaged in a war they can't win. But, hey. The industry got crabby when folks were copying cassette tapes. Yet, somehow, they survived.

[ComputerDude]

The RIAA reminds me of the DEA in a lot of ways. They're engaged in a war they can't win. But, hey. The industry got crabby when folks were copying cassette tapes. Yet, somehow, they survived.
Copying a cassette was a task that required somebody to sit there and wait while the tapes copied from one to the other. You had to buy the blanks for a few dollars and at best you were giving copies to just a friend or two.
Digital versions of a CD can be copied in seconds and distributed to millions with little effort.
There's a big difference.

[Dixie Tree Slayer]

In this day and age times and technology had changed. Gone are those days of copying cassettes. But if the RIAA and the MPAA had their way they would still have the cassette copying rights thrown out even though time has proven it has not hurt the industry. What is hurting the industry is the CDs selling abroad in other countries that are copies. The industry nor the artist get a penny of the proceeds. MP3.com out of Russia for instance. The riaa has placed considerable pressure on the State department of our country to put pressure on their government to have the site shut down... Then there is thepiratebay.org based in Sweden I believe and their country has totally different laws concerning piracy. Pirate Bay has a search engine of sorts that will point you to where the torrent files you are looking for. The torrent files are not stored on the servers of pirate bay. According to Sweden's laws as long as you are not in possession of the actual copyrighted material then you are not in violation of copyrighted material. Well apparently the RIAA and the MPAA have enough influence with the state department to have our government to police the other countries for them. A year or three back Pirate Bays offices were raided by the Swedes and interestingly enough by representatives of our Government. The mpaa crowed like a banty rooster. Their victory was short lived however and the pirate bay was back and got even bigger... TPB even got so bold as to place on their site their inamous logo of a pirates ship firing cannons and holes appearing in the mpaa's logo... And they now have backup servers in other countries in preparation or the next volley...
For some interesting reading go to http://thepiratebay.org/legal.
I am not one to engage in illegal activities and do not recommend any one go this route... A few years ago I used my place at a school to be able to buy Adobe Premiere to be able to edit videos. It cost me somewhere around 300 bucks... If you look you can find just about any software through the torrent sites. Me? If I engaged in this activity I would be the one that would get caught.... I neither want the attention nor the hassle of trying to "beat" the recording industry or the movie picture industry.
What does need to change is the way they do business. I would be happy to buy music off the net at a buck a song. Provided I can put it on my mp3 player. Or I can burn as many cds as I would like from it... Blank CDs are cheap and I often build two or three MP3 Cds for the stereo in wife's car and my truck... 200 to 300 songs per CD and I do not need a cd changer. Christmas came and went. I burned a CD with Christmas songs on it. By now my wife hs tossed it out of her car into the garbage. Next year we will repeat the process. It doesn't matter if it is digital or brick and mortar. Every industry has theft to be concerned with...
As it is I just go out and buy the Cds and then life is good...

[Conveyor Belt]

It's gonna have to change sometime.

[Blockhead]

Copying a cassette was a task that required somebody to sit there and wait while the tapes copied from one to the other. You had to buy the blanks for a few dollars and at best you were giving copies to just a friend or two.
Digital versions of a CD can be copied in seconds and distributed to millions with little effort.
There's a big difference.

Not really.

You didn't have to buy blanks to copy tapes. You just had to put some tape over, or some wads of paper in, the little holes on the top edge of any cassette. You could record Ozzy over your sister's Madonna album as easy as that.

As for the number of copies shared, well, there used to be more than 2 good songs on an album. It all evens out.

Also, it was a lot faster to copy a tape (hi-speed dubbing was great) than it is now to download an album. Unless you just have some really great DSL, which most people do not. Either way, neither method required/requires anyone to sit there and wait for anything.

[Blockhead]

What is hurting the industry is the CDs selling abroad in other countries that are copies. DTS, I would argue that the quality of their product is what's hurting the industry more than anything. Used to, buying a single gave you a pretty good indication of how good the album was. Now? That single is probably the only decent song on the album. I honestly have a hard time feeling sorry for thieves who are being stolen from. Seems more like poetic justice.

[Dixie Tree Slayer]

DTS, I would argue that the quality of their product is what's hurting the industry more than anything. Used to, buying a single gave you a pretty good indication of how good the album was. Now? That single is probably the only decent song on the album. I honestly have a hard time feeling sorry for thieves who are being stolen from. Seems more like poetic justice.
You could try to argue that point but you would not get one here... Have to agree with you. If it isn't the biggest it is certainly in the top two... I am sure you have noticed that in order to have a good voice a singer only has to look good...
VVVVV...Here is something interesting that is in China...VVVVV

雅虎音乐搜索 (http://mp3.yahoo.com.cn/)

[Blockhead]

Dubbed voice, ghost writers, special lighting and makeup.

"Just smile and shake your ass, honey. We'll make a million dollars a year."