That's all well and good, but who brings these bands to market? There are plenty of talented groups toilling away doing small gigs because they don't have the money or experience to garner national exposure. How do you suggest record labels be compensated for investing in new artists? Buying a concert ticket while bootlegging copyright music does no service to an artist, save those very few already at the top of the financial and celebrity heap. It's a simple equation... No CD sales = No money for A & R (Artists and Repertoire)
Damir: >and anybody who belongs to Columbia House >and bitches about downloading is a hypocrite, >plain and simply. Uhhh...no they aren't. Here is a simple but comparatively flawed analogy using the corner grocer..."any customer who takes advantage of the loss leaders provided by the grocer and bitches about shoplifting is a hypocrite, plain and simple". While you can legitimately bitch about the lopsided contracts between the labels/publishing-houses and the majority of the artists, you can't deny that these artists voluntarily signed those contracts giving said entities these various rights. If that contract allows the label to consider Columbia house chargeable promotion then it is the artist to blame (if only through ignorance) or the label (by preying on said ignorance) not the private member of Columbia House who simply accepts what is legally offered. JB PS: I know of which I speak. I am both a small time published musician and a decade long partner of a intellectual property attorney who specializes in copyright issues and who before opening her own practice was employed both by the record companies (MCA, Rhino) and the artists/publishing (ASCAP/BMI).
Damir: >i have songs on iTMS ( the major online music >store, run by Apple). i didn't put them there, my >label did. and my label gets the proceeds of the >sales - i and my buddies who created the music - >we get nothing - and will never ever get anything. A: Any applicable rights were voluntarily signed away to allow this to happen. B: You have a legitimate case for legal action. I'm betting on "A" and sour grapes. JB
Hawker: >The publishing deal is the one that filters the >artist copyrights disregarding the channels of >distribution, physical or electronic ! Depending on your definition of "filters", this sentence may make sense or may not. It *is* the publishing rights that usually end up garnering the most $$ for the smart artist, but unless said artist is also a songwriter, publishing rights are not a typical option. The wise writer/artist will negotiate anything with the label except for publishing rights which they will keep for themselves. Unfortunately, the lure of the artist lifestyle is too much for many and they will give up these potentially lucrative rights for their shot at the big time. Later they then complain about not getting paid when their works play on the radio, are used in a movie or advert, or are covered by another artist. We makes our choices. JB
I don't give a flying rats ass if a mega-miliionaire teenager loses a few bucks because some impoverished grad student or 60 hour-per-week carpenter or minimum wage walmart employee takes what is given on a p2p network. The kid will make more money by doing one 30 second commercial that took 4 hours to make that most people earn in a year. This country is totally bass akwards in it's priorities. Cops, firemen, teachers, and scientists struggle while sports, movie, and music practitioners consume the wealth. Whose fault is it? It is the fault of the cops, firemen, teachers and scientist who are willing to pay the bloated ticket or cd prices. In this pirates opinion, a little civil disobedience isn't a bad thing. 99 percent of what I download I wouldn't have bought, so they didn't miss out on an opportunity cost loss anyway. Steam
http://www.allofmp3.com/ is a very very cheap Russian site that has probably the best library of all and it got good reviews on The Screensavers TV show by Kevin Rose. Full review at: http://www.g4techtv.com/feature.aspx?article_key=779 They charge 1c/megabyte which works out to about 4 cents for a typical song. I think they take PayPal so no worry about a Ruskie getting your CC info and it gets some rave reviews on various web forums. The one catch: It is legal in Russia but is it legal here??? DS
Interesting - thanks for the info. I am tempted, but here is their disclaimer: "Users are responsible for any usage and distribution of all materials received from AllOFMP3.com. This responsibility depends on the local legislation of each user's country of residence. AllOFMP3.com's Administration does not keep up with the laws of different countries and is not responsible the actions of non-Russian users."