{"id":56,"date":"2005-06-20T20:11:11","date_gmt":"2005-06-21T03:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2005\/06\/20\/major-label-madness\/"},"modified":"2005-06-20T20:11:11","modified_gmt":"2005-06-21T03:11:11","slug":"major-label-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2005\/06\/20\/major-label-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Label Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re being duped.\u00c2\u00a0 The RIAA keeps saying it&#8217;s saving the MUSIC when really <br \/>all its label members are interested in is saving THEMSELVES!<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s out of control.\u00c2\u00a0 Irrelevant of the Grokster decision.\u00c2\u00a0 These billion <br \/>dollar companies with their high-priced lobbyists have infected the media and the <br \/>minds of the public to the detriment of ART!\u00c2\u00a0 What&#8217;s worse, they&#8217;ve convinced <br \/>the musicians signed to their labels of the validity of their position, which <br \/>is equivalent to slaves standing up for plantation owners.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know about you, but I believe in MUSIC, not LABELS!<\/p>\n<p>Look at what&#8217;s happening in the radio sphere.\u00c2\u00a0 Terrestrial&#8217;s tanking.\u00c2\u00a0 Both <br \/>in value and listenership.\u00c2\u00a0 But, when the station owners lobby for further <br \/>curtailing of satellite radio, when they carp and complain, we LAUGH!\u00c2\u00a0 Because <br \/>we&#8217;ve lived through Clear Channelization.\u00c2\u00a0 We&#8217;ve actually LISTENED to the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 <br \/>So, why is it that the LABELS get a pass?\u00c2\u00a0 Do we have to wait, under the <br \/>mirage of getting musicians paid, until they eviscerate all new models of music <br \/>distribution?\u00c2\u00a0 Because that&#8217;s what they&#8217;re trying to do.\u00c2\u00a0 The labels carp all <br \/>day long about P2P, about burning.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of looking at the MOTIVATION, <br \/>they&#8217;re just looking at the COST!\u00c2\u00a0 Most products in the marketplace people don&#8217;t <br \/>want AT ANY PRICE!\u00c2\u00a0 You can&#8217;t GIVE THEM AWAY!\u00c2\u00a0 But, people love music so much, <br \/>they&#8217;re willing to infect their computers with spyware, they&#8217;re willing to spend <br \/>hours, just to GET IT!\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think the only reason they want it is <br \/>because it&#8217;s free?\u00c2\u00a0 And if an appropriate price was charged demand would dry <br \/>up?\u00c2\u00a0 NO, if a fair toll was exacted, people would pay for online music, and the <br \/>market would burgeon.\u00c2\u00a0 But, concomitant with this musicians would only need <br \/>major labels if they wanted to be the new Britney, since they could get paid in <br \/>the new system, they wouldn&#8217;t need the major label as <br \/>distributor\/enforcer\/collector!!<\/p>\n<p>So, even though the majors would make a ton more if they AUTHORIZED new <br \/>distribution models, they&#8217;re stifling them.\u00c2\u00a0 For fear of losing market share.\u00c2\u00a0 And <br \/>Don Henley and the other apologists take their position, even though these <br \/>artists are being raped by the labels themselves, which don&#8217;t pay the proper <br \/>royalties on time and want to pay the same percentage for online distribution as <br \/>for physical, even though there are no manufacturing and essentially no <br \/>distribution costs.<\/p>\n<p>This is about money, not art.\u00c2\u00a0 This is about corporations bullying Americans <br \/>using tools the public can&#8217;t afford to keep the truth from becoming well <br \/>known.\u00c2\u00a0 HISTORY is contrary to the labels&#8217; position, but in this topsy-turvy world <br \/>we live in ensuring that the past reigns is somehow seen as GOOD!\u00c2\u00a0 I mean the <br \/>labels would have threatened Gutenberg into submission and labeled Eli Whitney <br \/>a traitor to cotton-pickers.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean this befits a nation that no longer <br \/>believes in science, that doesn&#8217;t believe global warming has been proven.\u00c2\u00a0 Let&#8217;s <br \/>stop all progress RIGHT NOW to benefit a handful.<\/p>\n<p>New models would pay huge dividends to old copyright holders.\u00c2\u00a0 But, their <br \/>future dominance would not be ensured.\u00c2\u00a0 They&#8217;d have to think, strategize, EXECUTE <br \/>rather than sit back and rake it in.\u00c2\u00a0 The major labels are Smith Corona, they <br \/>don&#8217;t want the personal computer to gain a toehold, for fear their typewriter <br \/>business will be EVISCERATED!<\/p>\n<p>Music is something created by PEOPLE, not corporations.\u00c2\u00a0 MUSIC will survive <br \/>whatever happens in the Supreme Court, whatever bullshit story the major labels <br \/>foist upon us.\u00c2\u00a0 But, will the populace be exposed to this music?\u00c2\u00a0 Will they <br \/>get a chance to be enriched by melodies not authorized by men in three thousand <br \/>dollar suits who are more worried about whether the &quot;singer&quot; is cute enough <br \/>to be on TV than whether the track sends the listener on a mental journey?\u00c2\u00a0 <br \/>THAT&#8217;S the question.\u00c2\u00a0 We&#8217;re not fighting over who&#8217;s getting paid, we&#8217;re fighting <br \/>over the distribution of one of life&#8217;s major forces to the broadest segment of <br \/>the public possible.<\/p>\n<p>Please take off your blinders.\u00c2\u00a0 The goal of the major labels is not to enrich <br \/>your life, is not to get the most music in the hands of the most people.\u00c2\u00a0 <br \/>Rather, the labels are just interested in making money, and controlling a future <br \/>wherein this continues to happen.<\/p>\n<p>Music has a right to exist forevermore.\u00c2\u00a0 Sony BMG, Warner, EMI and Universal <br \/>do not.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re being duped.\u00c2\u00a0 The RIAA keeps saying it&#8217;s saving the MUSIC when really all its label members are interested in is saving THEMSELVES! It&#8217;s out of control.\u00c2\u00a0 Irrelevant of the Grokster decision.\u00c2\u00a0 These billion dollar companies with their high-priced lobbyists have infected the media and the minds of the public to the detriment of ART!\u00c2\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}