RIAA Wants Songwriter Royalty Lowered 343
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Lest there be anyone left who believes the RIAA's propaganda that its litigation campaign is intended to benefit the 'creators' of the music, Hollywood Reporter reports that the RIAA is asking the Copyright Royalty Board to lower songwriter royalties on song file downloads, from the present rate of 9 cents per song — about 13% of the wholesale price — down to 8% of wholesale. Meanwhile, the big digital music companies, such as Apple, want the royalty rate lowered even more, to something like 4% of wholesale. So any representations by any of these companies that they are concerned for the 'creators' of the music must henceforth be taken with a boxcar-load of salt."
Wither Lars? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet another reason for artists to go it alone (Score:4, Insightful)
The RIAA has come a long way... (Score:3, Insightful)
LAWL (Score:5, Insightful)
Royalty or Loyalty? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow. (Score:2, Insightful)
A little nugget of FUD to mask the fact that digital downloads are going to render obsolete their entire middleman operation.
Re:You're assuming... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seen same with H1B issue (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yet another reason for artists to go it alone (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, just not the artist you thought. They are really on the side of the con artists (I.E. the corp backers).
Re:You're assuming... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wither Lars? (Score:5, Insightful)
On second thoughts, perhaps we should
But no lower prices (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Yet another reason for artists to go it alone (Score:5, Insightful)
Trust me: the industry can find a thousand people to write crap like this [azlyrics.com]:
Oh baby, baby
Oh baby, baby
How was I supposed to know
That something wasn't right here
Oh baby baby
For the record, one of my all time fav artists does this. Ayria [ayria.com]. She's cute, too!
What?! Should we try Communism ONE MORE TIME because THIS TIME we'll "do it right"? Ha. Come on.
Re:Yet another reason for artists to go it alone (Score:5, Insightful)
That's it... (Score:4, Insightful)
The digital shift. (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure the RIAA and MPAA would be quite happy if the "artists" would do as they're told, the "consumers" would buy whatever's being sold at the price offered, the internet would go away and everyone would simply shut the hell.
I'm sure they would enjoy their huge salaries and bonuses much more without all the whining.
8/13 = 62% (Score:5, Insightful)
So everyone else's cut is going up, even though the songwriter's costs and work are the same. But the rest of the "value" chain to the consumer (which now is composed mostly of the consumer, recommending and trying to share the content) is drastically reduced in cost and increased in availability of inventory (which was typically paid off according to plan many years ago).
An Explanation of The Issues (Score:5, Insightful)
For This Reason, New Media Players (Apple, Yahoo, Napster, etc) argue that the "mechanical royalty for copyright" should be lowered significantly on digital downloads (specifically, to 4%).
RIAA etc argue the fee should be dropped only slightly (specifically, only to 8%).
RIAA are arguing to maintain profits for their (arguably, exceedingly dinosaur-like) "distribution model".
The New Media crew are arguing the way of sanity and intelligence. (ie trying to push the 'downloads are effectively performances, because there's no way to differentiate' argument)
Every time you hear something new from the RIAA it boils down to "someone needs to shovel more money into our bank accounts, without any additional effort or contribution on our part. Our business model dictates an infinitely increasing profit margin, for infinitely decreasing effort, ad-infinitum."
And the same can be said of those ISPs who intend to violate the concept of "net-neutrality". ("someone's making money , and the bits cross our network. Ignore the fact we already billed someone for those bits, I want to directly bill BOTH the producer AND the consumer of those bits, even though they have NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with me").
That's not a business-model, that's a fantasy.
Re:Yet another reason for artists to go it alone (Score:3, Insightful)
Wait, hold on! You KNOW that has happened in the past and you want to repeat it?!
So do you support banning all legal fictions in business or do you believe that only one side should enjoy collective bargaining and the peons should eat cake?
In other words if it's fair enough for corporations to form and use the bargaining power that comes from vast resources beyond those of any individual worker, then you should also find it perfectly fair that the workers do the same.
Meanwhile, even if you DO believe that all legal fictions should be dissolved, you must acknowledge that it hasn't happened and shows no sign of happening. Unless or until it does, labor has little option besides organize, become the subjects of a new corporatocracy, or start chopping people's heads off. I would argue that option 2 leads inevitably to option 3 at some point.
What?! Should we try Communism ONE MORE TIME because THIS TIME we'll "do it right"? Ha. Come on. ;)
That might be a lot more cutting if capitalism had a better track record.
I would suggest that all things considered, capitalism is the lesser of the two evils but is still evil. The right solution (whatever that may be) is none of the above.
Re:Yet another reason for artists to go it alone (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wither Lars? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You're assuming... (Score:1, Insightful)
You'll notice it's not the "Songwriting Industry Association of America", nor the "Music Publishing Industry Association of America"?
Re:Why the RIAA? (Score:2, Insightful)
You are correct. My mistake.
Re:Yet another reason for artists to go it alone (Score:5, Insightful)
So let me get this straight (Score:2, Insightful)
The artist(s),engineers and producers had to sit down, write/plagirise the lyrics figure out the chords, make the musical arrangements record the song.
The industry had to take care of the printing of the actual cd's its physical distribution to certain stores etc etc etc..in short it had to do a decent amount of work
After the revolution of digital distribution
The artist(s),engineers and producers had to sit down, write/plagirise the lyrics figure out the chords, make the musical arrangements record the song. Basically do the same amount of work.
The industry has less cd's to distribute and print, and most of the distribution can be done via websites. Which once created and designed, require a relatively simple upload of a certain album/song which can be done by well trained cat and dog tandem.
So the artist does the same amount of work as before, the recording industry less work then before....and the artist gets paaaaid less....hmm makes sense.
Re:Why the RIAA? (Score:4, Insightful)
Get some fucking perspective. Yes the RIAA act like idiots and have questionable morals, but this adolescent whining that compares them to real violent criminals who kill, torture and maim people just totally discredits the entire argument, and makes people opposed to the RIAA look like dorks.
I genuinely believe that geeky kids get more upset these days by having to pay for mp3s than they do if their president lies to them in order to start a war for his self interest.
get some perspective.
Re:Yet another reason for artists to go it alone (Score:2, Insightful)
They want a reduction of the percentage paid out. 8 cents versus 13 cents. This is from the dollar already made.
Will Apple drop the price 5 cents to
Will the music companies drop the wholesale cost to Apple by 5 cents?
(per $, for those thinking it's bad math.. but my point is..)
Reduce costs, maintain prices, profit. Good for the industry, bad for the creative process.
But those songs are already written, so things like the Writer's strike would be ineffective in bringing about equity.
Re:Why the RIAA? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why the RIAA? (Score:4, Insightful)
Hmm
Al Capone: Provided a quality product against the government's objections.
RIAA: Provides crap with the government's assistance.
Al Capone: Kills competitors (either himself or through his direct subordinates)
RIAA: Kills competition (collusion, price-fixing), bankrupts people through the legal system, gets laws passed to put geeks in pound-me-in-the-ass Federal Prison for writing software.
Their eagerness to get criminal laws passed to accomplish their objectives means that the difference between them and Capone is that they use more intermediaries.