Hispanic
Business has put up an amazing article courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle. The story publishes the thoughts of some major muscians letting off some superheated steam. Not long ago, the "King of Pop" Michael Jackson lamblasted the labels for biting the hands that feed them, quite a contraversial statement at the time. Now it seems many more artists are coming forward with the same lament, saying basically it's time for the Labels to lead, follow or get out of the way. Or go broke. Here are some quotes from artists we all know that are letting it be known that they are not satisfied with the way things are going at all.
| "They're protecting an archaic industry," said the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir. "They should turn their attention to new models." "This is not rocket science," said David Draiman of Disturbed, a hard-rock band with a platinum debut album on the charts. "Instead of spending all this money litigating against kids who are the people they're trying to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn how to effectively use the Internet." "File sharing is a reality, and it would seem that the labels would do well to learn how to incorporate it into their business models somehow," said genre-busting DJ Moby in a post on his Web site. "Record companies suing 12-year-old girls for file sharing is kind of like horse-and-buggy operators suing Henry Ford." "Who doesn't want to get paid for their work?" said Wayne Coyne of the indie-rock band Flaming Lips. "But I think it works to musicians' benefit for people to be able to occasionally listen to their music and, if they really like it, go out and buy it." All agree that the Internet is here to stay and that downloading files will be an increasingly important delivery system for music, regardless of the music industry's lawsuits. "The focus of the industry needs to shift from Soundscan numbers to downloads," said Draiman. "It's the way of the future. You can smell it coming. Stop fighting it, because you can't." |
Many artists painted the record industry as a bloated, overstuffed giant with too many mouths to feed and too many middlemen to pay, selling an overpriced, often mediocre product.
"They have all these abnormal practices that keep driving the price up," said Gregg Rollie, founding member of Santana and Journey. "People think musicians make all that money, but it's not true. We make the smallest amount."
The RIAA did not initiate these lawsuits to defend artists' rights, the musicians say, but to protect corporate profits.
"For the artists, my ass," said Disturbed's Draiman. "I didn't ask them to protect me, and I don't want their protection."
Many of the musicians pointed to the iTunes Store recently opened by Apple Computers that sells individual songs for 99 cents apiece to downloaders. As diverse a cross-section as Disturbed's Draiman, the Dead's Weir, Moby and the Flaming Lips' Coyne all endorsed the officially licensed site - run, significantly, by a computer company, not a record label.
Wow, don't candy coat it guys, tell us how you feel! Makes you want to sign up for iTunes don't it?
Source: hispanicbusiness.com
