You might not be aware of it, but there’s this act Chamillionaire that’s got a huge hit record, "Ridin’".  I’m sure Doug Morris and the rest of the execs at Universal are thrilled, since all their marketing efforts have paid off.  Airplay on MTV and radio have generated sales of 939,316 CDs to date.  And that newfangled iTunes, and its low market share brethren?  Wow, the track’s burning up the chart there too.  Last week it sold a whopping 48,903 downloads!  Sure, a six percent drop from the previous week, but all together a total of 569,749 legal downloads have been sold.  Wow, isn’t this newfangled Internet great?  We’re replacing our physical sales with files, the transition is going smoothly, finally, we’ve got things under control.

Until you look at the BigChampagne TopSwaps chart.  Last week, 3,449,536 people had "Ridin’" on their hard drives.  To quote agents and managers, shit, look at all that money left on the table!

But Chamillionaire ain’t even at the top of the swaps chart.  That place is held by Bubba Sparxx, with "Ms. New Booty".  Let’s see, Virgin has sold 191,507 Sparxx albums to date.  Well, the CD was only released in April, but still, that number is not too good.  You ain’t gonna buy a new Aston Martin with those sales.  And "Ms. New Booty" is falling down the digital tracks chart…  It’s off eleven percent, with 17,155 downloads this week, with a whopping cume of 56,737.  Wait, there’s also another version, that’s got a cume of 28,477.  Shit, this record’s kind of a stiff.  But, now get this, 5,517,560 people had "Ms. New Booty" on their hard drives last week (well the week ending 5/29/06 anyway).

What the fuck is going on here.  Edgar Bronfman, Jr. says digital sales are ramping up, the problem is solved.  Mitch Bainwol just announced that P2P has been contained.  Yet, there appear to be ten illegal downloads for every legal one.  Is the issue really Apple’s DRM or is it monetizing P2P, where the action is?

Number 2 at BigChampagne is Dem Franchize Boyz, with "Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It".  That record’s just about over on the digital tracks chart.  There are two versions, with a whopping combined total sales of 410,969.  But 4,573,365 people had the song on their hard drives!  Hell, they didn’t take it because they didn’t want it!  Shouldn’t they pay something for this privilege?

Let’s go down all the way to number 10 on the BigChampagne chart.  Which is "So What", by the Field Mob, featuring Ciara.  It’s slipping on the legal downloads chart.  A grand total of 56,917 tracks have been sold.  But 2,344,420 people have got the track on their hard drives.  Now if you’re really paying attention, you know that the Field Mob record doesn’t even come out til next week.  Isn’t this just like the movie studios protecting their distribution windows?  For what reason are the labels holding sales back when people want it immediately upon hearing it, or of it!  The story isn’t about digital tracks’ cannibalization of album sales, it’s about a vast ignoring and possibly ignorance of the real marketplace, P2P.

What the BigChampagne chart (available to the hoi polloi on page 20 of the "Listen To This" supplement of the 6/16/06 issue of "Entertainment Weekly") demonstrates is incredible demand for recorded music.  A vast overwhelming demand.  Which instead of trying to fill, the RIAA is futilely trying to stop!  We’ve heard for years that sales are going down, giving the impression that nobody wants this stuff, yet people are clamoring for it!  Is the answer to try and decimate this demand?

Sure, maybe people don’t want to pay a buck a track, but they certainly want these songs. And since reproduction costs are nil, shouldn’t a price point be established where they can acquire them?  What if everybody had a music subscription they paid a few bucks a month for?  Imagine the quantity of material that would be consumed.  Sure, each track wouldn’t generate much, but if that scares you, I guess you think that BMG Songs should go for a song.  Whereas the few pennies business we know as music publishing is booming.

Actually, we have this system in place today.  It’s just that no one is paying for these subscriptions.  And the number trading is artificially low, because a great number who would partake have been scared off by the RIAA, fearful of being arrested, or afraid of being unable to sleep at night for committing a moral violation.

Well, it’s clear that labels are committing a moral violation.  In the name of saving their businesses, they’re preventing artists signed to them from being heard by the most people possible, and garnering live and ancillary revenue.  The labels are limiting the marketplace for reasons I still can’t fathom.

Don’t listen to the mainstream press b.s.  These are the same people who lined up behind Bush and his fabricated reasons for invading Iraq.  It’s clear that the RIAA position is inane and insane.  Unfortunately, nobody in the mainstream media will ask the tough questions and then flog the true answers.  It’s just all b.s. all the time.  You wonder why the public still shares music?  Because the brethren of the fat cats oil profiteering are spewing rationales that don’t make sense.  And if you aren’t willing to disobey a law that you believe is outrageous and wrong, you’re not an American.  As for changing that law via the system…yeah, right.  The same system that enacted a heinous bankruptcy law and is looking to eviscerate net neutrality.  People don’t believe their representatives work for them, they’re convinced they work for the corporations.  Hell, isn’t it funny that the California congresspeople are always the first to stand up for the content industries, slapping their constituents down, since Disney, et al, fund their campaigns?

You can’t argue with facts.  The acquisition of music has changed forever.  iTunes is a sideshow.  How about dealing with what’s really happening and getting more music to more people at a lower aliquot price.