Another Festivus Miracle! The RIAA Pledges to Stop Suing its Customers

[photo courtesy of Flickr user Toshi Hoo]

The slow death rattle for the major record labels continues. After 10 years, the geniuses at the RIAA finally decided that it's probably not smart for business to continually sue your own customers. I know, it's a revolutionary concept.

Much like their unceremonious retreat from DRM-laden digital music, the brain trust at the RIAA realized their customers aren't necessarily "criminals" for downloading music for free and that maybe they don't shop at iTunes or Rhapsody because they want a little more control over the music they buy. Of course, rather than focus their energy on harnessing the powerful marketing power of free digital distribution, the RIAA instead plans to redirect their lawyers towards Internet service providers.

I suppose the silver lining in all of this is that from now on the worst that can happen for downloading copyrighted music is your ISP cutting you off completely. It's still a stupid penalty, but at least it's preferable to spending thousands of dollars defending yourself against a rigged judicial process. So, for now I will rejoice in the end of this sordid chapter in music history and crack a beer in celebration that I managed to escape the clutches of the RIAA over all these years and have TONS of music to show for it.

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Surprise! MySpace Music is Every Bit as Lame as You Would Expect it to be

The much hyped, and often delayed, MySpace Music finally made its big debut to the public this week and the response has been tepid around the blogosphere. Now, I will admit that I don't particularly like MySpace very much. I find their interface very annoying (I'm a facebook user) and think too much of their core audience is obsessed with showcasing how beautiful they think they are instead of actually connecting with people in any way that isn't completely vapid. Still, I recognize the important role MySpace has played in music discovery over the past five years (honestly, remember how hard it was to sample new music for free before MySpace was around?) and was somewhat intrigued to see if MySpace Music could deliver on its promise to unseat iTunes as the premier destination to discover and purchase music. So far, I see little chance of that happening anytime soon.

For those of you who may not know, MySpace music is a joint venture between News Corp. (parent company of Fox Interactive, who owns MySpace) and the four major record labels who comprise the RIAA. See, the majors were upset digital downloads took off in popularity sooner than expected (thanks to the iPod and iTunes) and that their existing revenue-sharing contracts with Apple didn't give them a large enough share of download profits. Their answer was to create a music ecosystem that provided both revenue from music streaming (in the form of advertising) and download purchases. All the content would be controlled by them and the profit sharing would be setup more in their favor, thus finally creating a long term business model for digital music (in theory). The only problem is the people who designed MySpace music don't really understand how their target demographic prefers to consume this content.

I find it very ironic that MySpace Music launched the same week that Muxtape finally returned from its brief RIAA-mandated purgatory as a shell of its former self. MySpace Music includes much of the same features that Muxtape used to provide. You can create playlists and share them with friends (though only with other MySpace users, who must also be in the US, and only if you call embedding the playlist on your profile "sharing"), as well as purchase songs on your playlists from Amazon (though Muxtape actually allowed you to purchase from iTunes as well as Amazon, and it still did this part better than MySpace Music). Of course, the key difference between the two services was that Muxtape allowed users to upload whatever content they wanted to share, whereas MySpace users can only consume songs the RIAA allows artists to upload. Nevermind that the only way to download a track found on Muxtape to your computer was to buy it on Amazon or iTunes, the RIAA views all unsanctioned streaming as "stealing." Therefore, one of the most useful and simple music sharing services was killed and in its place the RIAA gives us this shit.

Obviously a major selling point of MySpace Music is the built-in user base of their flagship social network. But as News Corp., Google, Facebook, and advertisers across the Internet have learned, a large audience doesn't always translate to desirable consumers. Also, do you really want the same people who made Tila Tequila and Katy Perry household names shaping the future of the music industry? Me neither.

What's more, there are already many places where people can discover, share, and buy music (Last.fm, iLike, imeem, and Mog are a few examples) that do it way better than MySpace Music does. In each and every one of those examples the RIAA had nothing to do with their creation, which means they served the interests of music fans above the interests of faceless corporations. Until the powers behind MySpace Music understand how to do that effectively, I don't imagine it will be as successful of a business model as they hoped.

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The Radiohead Revolution?

So, I just finished downloading my copy of In Rainbows (which is awesome, btw) and was thinking to myself that years from now I might look back on this day as the beginning of the end for the music industry as we know it. Granted, there are still many unknowns that need to be answered before we can judge the success of Radiohead's DIY business model as a sea change for the industry or merely a modest success for an already wildly popular band. What we do know is that Radiohead's trail-blazing (at least, for a band of their stature) ways have already inspired several big name artists to flip the bird to the major record labels.

Just yesterday the blogosphere was abuzz with the news that Trent Reznor, the man behind Nine Inch Nails, is leaving Interscope now that his contract has expired and intends to stay a "free agent" for the foreseeable future. And in Wednesday's edition of the Daily Telegraph comes news that Oasis and Jamiroquai have plans to release their next albums for free via digital download. Also in the same article is word that The Charlatans (or Charlatans UK as they are known in the States) plan to do the same.

If this trend continues then the industry will truly be turned completely on its head. It makes sense, since basic economic principles dictate that the cost of producing music will continue to fall until it eventually approaches zero, so what are the major labels going to do when that happens? One would think the RIAA and its members have some sort of strategy, but my guess is they are too busy suing consumers to really be bothered with such menial tasks. Which is actually a good thing since they are hardly the type of people who would embrace innovation anyway. The sooner they get eliminated from the equation the better it will be for music artists and consumers alike. >>>Continue reading "The Radiohead Revolution?"

Radiohead to RIAA: F@#K YOU!

Just when it looked like Radiohead's street cred among the indie rock masses couldn't get any stronger, comes this morning's news that their new album is being self-released online in 10 days! Why it was only yesterday when it was revealed that the mysterious website RadioheadLP7.com, which launched on Wednesday and included a cryptic message that was thought to be a countdown, was actually a hoax perpetrated by an overzealous fan and had nothing to do with the band whatsoever (or so we were told). Furthermore, the band's management went on to say there was no fresh news concerning the latest as-yet-titled Radiohead album. Then, in a matter of hours, the band completely catches everyone off guard and announces not only does the album have a title (In Rainbows), but it is also being released for digital download exclusively on Radiohead.com in a scant 10 days.

But that isn't even the good part. In order for the privilege of downloading the album (sans DRM, of course) directly from the band and without the need for a record label (their deal with Capitol expired months ago and currently they are "free agents") fans can pay WHATEVER THEY WANT for it. Yes, add the pre-order to your shopping cart and the price field is blank with a box for you to enter your own price. Essentially, Radiohead is leaking their new album in an official capacity and asking fans to make a donation for their troubles. I paid £4 ($8.15), but you can pay less or more if you'd like. And if you are an uber-fan then you can also pre-order a special "discbox" edition of In Rainbows, which comes complete with the 10-track album in CD, vinyl and digital formats, a bonus disc with eight additional tracks, photos and artwork, an additional vinyl with the bonus tracks plus a lyrics booklet for the low pre-order price of £40 ($81). The discbox package will be released on December 3rd, while a good 'ol fashioned CD version will be released sometime next year. Presumably, whenever Radiohead secures distribution and/or a record deal.

My guess is that swarms of fans will not only purchase the digital version of In Rainbows, but most will elect to pay a fair price for it, simply because the band has shown a tremendous amount of respect for their fans by giving them exactly what they have been clamoring for; music that is theirs to own to do whatever they want with. Conversely, Radiohead has shown a complete lack of respect for the major label apparatus that has slowly been killing the music industry. Instead of securing a record deal and national/international distribution, releasing a teaser single to commercial radio, and embarking on a contrived press tour, the band is actually punishing those people who choose to purchase the album in a conventional record store (ie. the instrument that feeds the RIAA beast) by giving it a release date that is much later than the digital version. Why go through a middle man and aide the major record labels' greed when you can buy the album at a fair price directly from the people who poured their efforts into creating it in the first place? If you truly support musicians then you will give the RIAA the finger and head over to Radiohead.com to purchase the album now.

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The RIAA is Like the Mob. Only Less Endearing and With More Money

For the last several years the Recording Industry Association of America (or RIAA), which is the lobbying arm of the World's four largest music labels, has engaged in a strategy to combat online music piracy that boils down to suing alleged copyright violators into oblivion in hopes that they settle out of court. The RIAA's tactics for bringing a lawsuit against a music 'pirate' are as shady as they come; including filing cases as civil actions (where the burden of proof is far lower than a criminal proceeding), and filing motions in the state where the defendant's ISP is based (and most likely doesn't reside. Making it difficult for he/she to even know they have been sued) . As if this wasn't deplorable enough, the RIAA is now being accused of outright intimidation and coercion by one defendant who was interviewed on Public Radio International's Marketplace.

Listen to the interview and you will hear stories about threatening phone calls, invasions of privacy and scare tactics employed by the RIAA's legal minions in order to coerce their victims. . .er, I mean defendants. . .into settling out of court. It all sounds like something the mob would do to collect on a debt and I was half expecting to hear the interviewee say an RIAA lawyer threatened to make her "sleep with the fishes" unless she cooperated.

But all kidding aside, it seems like the RIAA is losing touch with reality more and more as each day passes. The recording industry so desperately wants to hold on to their outdated revenue model (the one that gouged consumers with high CD prices and music artists with unfair royalty splits) that they will stoop to unprecedented legal shenanigans rather than innovate and adapt to the new era of music distribution. While they were sitting on their asses living off the fat of the land (which was largely aided by the slow transition from cassette tapes to CD's) the world changed and technology gave some of the power back to the people. Innovative people across the world have learned that you can distribute music to a wide audience without the need for a large corporate middle man and many people have even enjoyed worldwide fame without the help of a major label, commercial radio or MTV. The more the RIAA antagonizes its consumers with harassing lawsuits the more backlash they risk and the more likely it becomes that even less people will stop buying their products. As this continues, more and more artists will flock away from the major labels and see that self-promotion and self-distribution is a more viable option, thus rendering the major labels irrelevant. For mine and every other music lover's sake I hope that day comes very soon. >>>Continue reading "The RIAA is Like the Mob. Only Less Endearing and With More Money"