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eor"There is unrest in the forest,
there is trouble with the trees.
The maples want more sunlight,
and the oaks ignore their pleas."
Rush "Trees"
Hey, boys and girls lets talk about music for a moment. Not making of music, but selling of music. A few weeks ago Elton John, that utterly successful music icon, announced he wasn't going to release another album. He said he liked playing music for people, but basically the industry sucked so bad he couldn't stand it anymore. Think about this, Elton John! If anyone has clout and power with the record companies you'd think the Pinball Wizard would be able to write his own ticket. Remember, we're talking about a guy who can easily fill Wembley.
I guess after raping artists and ripping off fans for years the record industry might just start getting it from both ends now.
On one side, fans with Napster and recordable CD's. Yes, Napster is dead, but the technology is marching much faster than the large companies can crawl. The DVD encryption standard was broken by a couple of students before it was officially released. Don't think the next scheme won't be turned to swiss cheese by smart people and distributed systems. In the digital age redistribution is a piece of cake.
On the other side are artists. These folks do the work, play bars, and starve for years. Then someone has them sign a contract, makes them famous, and gives them $.02 per CD sold. The artists then get to go out and tour (which with merchandising is where they actually make their money) and promote the album so the big company makes more on sales. But the times they are a changing. Now artists can and are releasing songs without the record company. They can stick an mp3 on their web page and give it away for free. It doesn't cost them much, because people will still show up at the concerts to see them.
Oh, but if you're an artist don't yell too loud. Michele Shocked made the mistake of taking on her label and ended up after many years in court suing them for slavery. She won. Of course, after that none of the music outlets could find her name in their databases. I had the poor bewildered 19 year old at Tower searching for about 10 minutes. Funny, Tower has everything, but they had no history of a woman with 5 albums out.
Now there is a copyright law. There are also laws against monopoly, unfair trade practicies, and deceptive advertising. The moral high ground is mighty hard to find in this one. Start looking at who owns what in the entertainment industry, who's publishing reviews of who, etc. There's more competition in my Friday night date slot than there is in the music industry and that's not a positive statement of my social prowess.
Oh, one final bit. Didn't Metallica have an album "Master of Puppets"? Funny really that Metallica went after Napster. Afterall they don't make much off CD's. They're actually better off if a new fan buys a concert ticket or a T-shirt as a result of an mp3 download. Can you say, "Puppets?" I knew you could.
there is trouble with the trees.
The maples want more sunlight,
and the oaks ignore their pleas."
Rush "Trees"
Hey, boys and girls lets talk about music for a moment. Not making of music, but selling of music. A few weeks ago Elton John, that utterly successful music icon, announced he wasn't going to release another album. He said he liked playing music for people, but basically the industry sucked so bad he couldn't stand it anymore. Think about this, Elton John! If anyone has clout and power with the record companies you'd think the Pinball Wizard would be able to write his own ticket. Remember, we're talking about a guy who can easily fill Wembley.
I guess after raping artists and ripping off fans for years the record industry might just start getting it from both ends now.
On one side, fans with Napster and recordable CD's. Yes, Napster is dead, but the technology is marching much faster than the large companies can crawl. The DVD encryption standard was broken by a couple of students before it was officially released. Don't think the next scheme won't be turned to swiss cheese by smart people and distributed systems. In the digital age redistribution is a piece of cake.
On the other side are artists. These folks do the work, play bars, and starve for years. Then someone has them sign a contract, makes them famous, and gives them $.02 per CD sold. The artists then get to go out and tour (which with merchandising is where they actually make their money) and promote the album so the big company makes more on sales. But the times they are a changing. Now artists can and are releasing songs without the record company. They can stick an mp3 on their web page and give it away for free. It doesn't cost them much, because people will still show up at the concerts to see them.
Oh, but if you're an artist don't yell too loud. Michele Shocked made the mistake of taking on her label and ended up after many years in court suing them for slavery. She won. Of course, after that none of the music outlets could find her name in their databases. I had the poor bewildered 19 year old at Tower searching for about 10 minutes. Funny, Tower has everything, but they had no history of a woman with 5 albums out.
Now there is a copyright law. There are also laws against monopoly, unfair trade practicies, and deceptive advertising. The moral high ground is mighty hard to find in this one. Start looking at who owns what in the entertainment industry, who's publishing reviews of who, etc. There's more competition in my Friday night date slot than there is in the music industry and that's not a positive statement of my social prowess.
Oh, one final bit. Didn't Metallica have an album "Master of Puppets"? Funny really that Metallica went after Napster. Afterall they don't make much off CD's. They're actually better off if a new fan buys a concert ticket or a T-shirt as a result of an mp3 download. Can you say, "Puppets?" I knew you could.
