RIAA observations

Just read an interesting observation at the BBC on the whole RIAA,suing file sharers debacle.

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3092714.stm]

Sony, one of the big five who are behind the RIAA in their crusade against the illegal sharing of mp3s actually make, sell and market mp3 players… what are you suppose to play on them? Yer legal downloads from mp3.com? Can’t play yer own bought music as you aren’t supposed to copy it anymore. Well you can, but new copy protected CDs will make this impossible won’t it? Well actually I bought a copy protected CD a few weeks ago and I turned out to have no problems backing it up… what a waste of fucking time and money… they passed the costs for the copy protection onto the consumers too as it’s our fault or something.

What a joke. And this thing about artists having to give up their craft because they can’t make money… ARTISTS HAVE BEEN WORKING BELOW THE FUCKING BREAD LINE SINCE PREHISTORIC TIMES!!! You are bloody lucky if you see profit from your art in your own lifetime. It’s a fairly new concept. For hundreds of years really famous artists have struggled and not seen a fucking penny from their work. Did they care? No! Art is something you DO, it’s not a job. If you manage to make a living from it then it’s a bonus. When Mozart was being ripped off did he say “Fuck this, I’m going to get a proper job mending shoes”? NO, HE DIDN’T! He ate badly, he scribbled his music down on used toilet paper and got sick and died. Because he was an artist. It’s what he felt born for.

Yeah it hurts to work and have people take your work for nothing, but for many people they are glad that their work is heard and appreciated and a TRUE artist would go on making it… hell tough times would make them produce more heartfelt works. Maybe they’ll keep it to themselves but they wouldn’t give it up.

Recession in the music biz should sort out the wheat from the chaff. I download loads of music but by god I’ve recently bought the most expensive CD I’ve paid for in a long time. Why? Because I felt it was worth it to pay £16.99 for an import I’d already heard. This is what the music biz fears. Sales are down partially because people are lazy, downloading music and not buying it even when they could admit to themselves that sometimes it’s worth it, but partially sales are down because sometimes it’s not. In fact very often the stuff that’s being pushed the most isn’t worth the plastic it’s printed on (12p last time I checked).

File sharing brings the power of choice to the consumer. It’s then the duty of the fans to reward that which deserves it. If this was happening then morally the music business wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. At the moment It’s all about the major labels and promoters panicking over their steady loss of control of the power over what people buy that they’ve had for years. Their arguments are justified due to the laziness and decadence that the anonymity of the internet brings to downloaders. People should learn that if this new way of distribution is to survive in the world it needs to be respected and not taken for granted.

Something to say?