The RIAA made a huge mistake when Napster became a major distribution channel: instead of embracing the technology and working with Shawn Fanning to create the world’s first major digital sales and distribution network, the RIAA filed suit.

The shutdown of Napster caused the open-source programmers to revolt and create decentralized Peer-To-Peer  networks to share music, knowing that without a central server, there would be no central server the RIAA could sue and shut down.
 
And they were right: almost all the RIAA suits against individuals have been dropped, or are viewed by the general public as blatant corporate greed.

The RIAA also attempted to change the laws protecting a user’s right to copy their purchased CD’s to another medium. Since efforts to stop people from distributing music legally were fruitless (it could be argued that the RIAA is the single largest catalyst that contributed to the technology and networks in use today to distribute music via P2P networks!) they thought that by outlawing the ability to make copies of CD’s, they would be able to prevent MP3’s from making it to the web.

Wrong again.

The Performance Rights Tax is another piece of legislation being pushed by the RIAA with the sole intent of collecting money due to declining sales. Basically stated, this means that every radio station will be required to pay a fee to the labels for every song they play.

Let’s stop and think about that for a second…

Historically, radio was THE promotional tool for the labels. Radio was where most people heard a new artist for the very first time.

Radio stations already pay a  hefty fee to BMI and ASCAP to play commercial music, and this tax would go on top of that fee. Stations are also seeing their listener base shrink drastically as many listeners are turning to satellite services and their own MP3 collections instead of listening to the same 50 songs every day.

Radio relies on advertising to pay the bills, and that income is dropping as advertisers realize that radio is not reaching their target audience anymore. Today, most radio stations are only marginally profitable.

So what will happen if the tax is approved? Stations will be forced to either make cuts elsewhere in their budgets, or stop playing music.

This means some stations may decide to lay off air personalities so the station can just play music and ads. I expect many smaller stations will decide to not play major label artists at all, and either embrace unknown or independent artists, or move to a talk-radio format.

Either way, the RIAA has slammed the final nail in the coffin: they will effectively kill the biggest promotional tool they had.

While this may be a sad day for many of the old-school generation, perhaps freeing radio from the same repetitive corporate playlists and embracing local and unknown artists might just be the beginning of something great.

We might just start to see independent radio stations on the air again since the smaller stations cannot afford to be part of the corporate world.

What do you think?

Musicians and music fans across the country are all witnessing a historic event: the slow, agonizing death spiral of the traditional recording industry.

To understand where we are today, we need to understand history. Record labels came into existence because they could provide valuable services that individual artists could not afford. Namely:

1. Recording equipment and engineers that could successfully transform a live performance into a recording,
2. A distribution network that enables a single artist’s work to be heard all around the world, and
3.The ability to market and promote an unknown artist.

Of course, there is no such thing as a free ride. The record labels do take the risk in investing the recording, pressing, distribution, and marketing of a new artist, but they take the lion’s share of the profits: typically, artists get between 6% and 10%. (After everyone else gets their cut of the pie, of course. Basically, the artist gets about 4 or 5 cents per song after it’s all said and done.)

This has been the standard operating mode of the major labels for decades, and it was fine until the PC and the internet came along.

The real killer of the major labels is NOT people sharing MP3’s, it is simply due to artists and listeners realizing they do not NEED the major labels anymore. Why?

1. Anyone can build a decent home studio for a couple thousand dollars, and rival (and sometimes surpass!) what can be done in a million dollar studio.
2. We have internet distribution. iTunes. Amazon. CD Baby. BitTorrent. Personal websites. Anyone can make their music available to the world with a couple clicks, and a few seconds of their time.
3. Marketing and promotion? YouTube. Facebook. MySpace. Be unique and you will reach far more people than would ~ever~ have heard of you via traditional marketing and promotion.

This is where the RIAA comes into play. The Recording Industry Association of America represents major labels and music distributors in the United States in their struggle to stay profitable.

Unfortunately for them, business is dying.

As more and more music lovers turn to the computer to find, listen, and buy new music, revenue is down. So in order to keep profits up, the major labels are looking at new ways to make money.

If you’ve ever wondered why concert tickets got so expensive in the last 10 years, record sales are the answer. There is more money to be made via live performances than there is via album sales today, so ticket prices for major acts have gone up accordingly.

What do you think?

Lonnie R. West is a freelance writer, musician, and software engineer.
www.qwikchord.com

This post is going to be short and sweet, and ever so slightly of topic. I want to send you over to Felsenmusick to read Daniels latest post on the wonders of Peter Greenaway

I Just want to add a few words of my own before I send you to somebody elses blog.

Peter Greenaway was really the first person to touch me with art. I am not sure if that would be the right wording, but I saw His very powerful movie The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover when I was about 20.  It was the first time I realize how far art could go and how encompassing and powerful it could be. the wholeness, or perfection of this movie, the fact that beauty and ugliness are in the end the same and the attention to every single minute detail was life changing for me.

I have seen all his movies, but have lost track of what he has been doing for years. Daniel pretty much reaquainted me with him, and for this I am grateful.

Anything that brings art and culture to the masses is a really good thing, I think.

Happily, I am not alone in this thought S.F. Opera simulcast sets ballpark record. Apparently, the SF Orchestra has been streaming its performances from the War Memorial Opera House to AT&T Park.

I think that is great ( I know that I have said that already, but culture for the masses is a must. I loved watching Shakespeare in Central Park, and listening to open air free concerts, and I know for a fact, that this opens up this seemingly exclusive market for a lot of people who wouldn’t other wise attend concerts like this.

Via Sandow

via Intermezzo

What more can I say! I am jealous - both of South Africa and of Renee Flemming