{"id":1529,"date":"2008-12-19T20:48:59","date_gmt":"2008-12-20T04:48:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2008\/12\/19\/1529\/"},"modified":"2008-12-19T20:50:12","modified_gmt":"2008-12-20T04:50:12","slug":"1529","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2008\/12\/19\/1529\/","title":{"rendered":"RIAA Lawsuits"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a little too little<\/span>
It’s a little too late<\/span><\/p>\n

"Little Too Late"
Pat Benatar<\/p>\n

Am I scared of ISPs becoming rogue enforcers of the law…\u00c2\u00a0 OF COURSE!\u00c2\u00a0 But, it appears for now that the RIAA agreements with ISPs are all bluster.\u00c2\u00a0 And Cary Sherman admitted that issues of "due process" have not yet been worked out.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, that’s the record business for you, they don’t want to fight in the marketplace, they want to go all the way to the Supreme Court, they want to argue issues of constitutional law!<\/p>\n

Press scuttlebutt says that only 19% of the public is downloading.\u00c2\u00a0 If this is true, and one accepts Michael Eisner’s theory that ten percent of the audience will NEVER pay, we’re fighting here over nine percent of the population.\u00c2\u00a0 When really, we should be focusing on the other eighty one percent!\u00c2\u00a0 Most people will pay for music, if a reasonable offer is made.<\/p>\n

Today’s news that the RIAA is dropping their lawsuits just shows that the labels have no strategy, that they’re so busy playing catch-up that they’ve squandered their business.\u00c2\u00a0 ANYBODY could have told them that the lawsuits wouldn’t have worked five years ago. But these assholes had to prove something.\u00c2\u00a0 That they owned the music and you’d better consume it their way.\u00c2\u00a0 Obviously didn’t work, their revenues have tanked.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t fight the consumer, you FOLLOW the consumer.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of charging a buck a track at the iTunes Store, you realize that iPods have thousands of songs on them and you figure out how you can get paid for the installation of each and every one.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t fight consumer behavior, you embrace it.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you’re truly intelligent, you’re one step AHEAD of the consumer.\u00c2\u00a0 Pundits said that the original iPod was too expensive, 5 gigs for $400, most people didn’t even know they wanted one.\u00c2\u00a0 But now, the iPod is the de facto music player.\u00c2\u00a0 The magic connection slot is even installed in clock radios, there are hookups in cars, how come the major labels can’t stop driving us back to overpriced albums sold on physical discs and give us what we didn’t even know we wanted?<\/p>\n

What people don’t know they want is instant access to the history of recorded music.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s thrilling when you experience it, via today’s Sonos\/Rhapsody world, however imperfect that system might be.\u00c2\u00a0 Let people own tracks now, because believe me, they won’t want to in the future, convenience dictates that.<\/p>\n

So, sell buckets of tracks to people today.\u00c2\u00a0 They want a deal.\u00c2\u00a0 Entice the people not downloading P2P, not buying at the iTunes Store or buying very little there.\u00c2\u00a0 Have the equivalent of a fire sale.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe a going out of business sale.\u00c2\u00a0 Because that’s what the labels are doing.\u00c2\u00a0 Generate some excitement.\u00c2\u00a0 You know people will end up buying the same music over again in a higher quality format, and that they’ll want new music, but don’t even tell them this.\u00c2\u00a0 Just give them the greatest hits today, for a cheap price.<\/p>\n

We’ve come to an era where the major labels have been marginalized.\u00c2\u00a0 No one goes to the concert for free, but people acquire music for nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 Superstars don’t even bother with labels, they go directly to retail.\u00c2\u00a0 They make much more money.\u00c2\u00a0 What is the major label for?\u00c2\u00a0 To combine with its brethren to sue people?\u00c2\u00a0 To hold back monetization for indies?\u00c2\u00a0 To represent the past, like the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution)?<\/p>\n

If the majors want to have relevance in the future, they must focus on what they do best.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is producing music and getting people to pay for it.\u00c2\u00a0 Suing people was a sideshow.\u00c2\u00a0 Refusing to license tracks is like refusing to sell your product to Macy’s.\u00c2\u00a0 This go slow strategy has not worked.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, the business is falling off a cliff, there won’t be any place to buy a CD, and the majors will be relics selling catalog, at best.<\/p>\n

Acts need money.\u00c2\u00a0 Great creators tend to be lousy businessmen.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of seeing themselves as big kahunas, who the artists should worship, record executives should see themselves as servants, as expediters, as the link between artist and fan.\u00c2\u00a0 The conduit should be opened wide.\u00c2\u00a0 Deals and prices must be fair.\u00c2\u00a0 Accounting must be transparent.\u00c2\u00a0 There must be trust.<\/p>\n

Remember when the RIAA was the most hated organization in America?<\/p>\n

Most kids today have no idea what the RIAA is.\u00c2\u00a0 The organization squandered its capital.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, people shouldn’t know what the RIAA is, but they should love record labels, just like they love artists.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s hard to love these pompous fucks who get their music for free, or are so rich that music prices are irrelevant to them.\u00c2\u00a0 Somehow today’s surviving execs think they’re royalty.\u00c2\u00a0 That they are entitled to supreme rule over the land, forever.\u00c2\u00a0 But this is patently untrue.\u00c2\u00a0 At heart, they’re businessmen.\u00c2\u00a0 Lousy ones.\u00c2\u00a0 History will see them as out of touch despots whose power was stolen by the proletariat in a revolution that they weren’t even aware was happening while their assistants printed out their e-mail.<\/p>\n

You can live in the present, or be destined to the past.<\/p>\n

Arista just had a reunion.\u00c2\u00a0 At some point in the future, the other labels will too.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of like a summer camp get together, these convocations represent a lost era, when everything looked better.\u00c2\u00a0 But times change, people move on, and those who are locked in the past end up staying there.<\/p>\n

The customer is absolutely living in the present.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not watching commercials on TV, he’s TiVo’ing his shows.\u00c2\u00a0 Better yet, he’s watching prime time fare on Hulu.\u00c2\u00a0 People want a lot of music.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don’t sell it to them in a way they want, they won’t buy.\u00c2\u00a0 As for cutting off their service for stealing via their ISP…\u00c2\u00a0 As my mother always says, what a way to make friends and influence people.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you think you can willy-nilly cut off someone’s Internet service without a hearing, without due process, then you probably think that General Motors can suspend a person’s right to drive.\u00c2\u00a0 Internet service is a utility which all depend upon.\u00c2\u00a0 If you think the government is going to let the RIAA cut off this lifeline in order to save its decrepit business, you don’t understand the legal system. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

That’s the problem with the RIAA…\u00c2\u00a0 They just didn’t realize how small they were.\u00c2\u00a0 Silicon Valley was bigger.\u00c2\u00a0 The government moved slowly.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t fight the system, you join it.\u00c2\u00a0 Which the RIAA seems to be doing a little bit by forgoing lawsuits, but it appears the system they want to join expired years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Come on, can’t anybody with any power live in the present?<\/p>\n

\n
Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits<\/a><\/p>\n

RIAA president: No talk of blacklisting file sharers<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a little too littleIt’s a little too late "Little Too Late"Pat Benatar Am I scared of ISPs becoming rogue enforcers of the law…\u00c2\u00a0 OF COURSE!\u00c2\u00a0 But, it appears for now that the RIAA agreements with ISPs are all bluster.\u00c2\u00a0 And Cary Sherman admitted that issues of "due process" have not yet been worked out.\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-1529","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1530,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529\/revisions\/1530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}