Why the RIAA Really Hates Downloads 289
wtansill recommends the saga of Jeff Price, who traveled from successful small record label owner to successful Internet-era music distributor. His piece describes clearly what the major record labels used to be good for and why they are now good for nothing but getting in the way. "Allowing all music creators 'in' is both exciting and frightening. Some argue that we need subjective gatekeepers as filters. No matter which way you feel about it, there are a few indisputable facts -- control has been taken away from the 'four major labels' and the traditional media outlets. We, the 'masses,' now have access to create, distribute, discover, promote, share and listen to any music. Hopefully access to all of this new music will inspire us, make us think and open doors and minds to new experiences we choose, not what a corporation or media outlet decides we should want."
RIAA doesn't hate downloads! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:D'uh from these quarters too. (Score:5, Funny)
From the tomes of Slashdot's quote at the bottom of the article on this one:
I thought it was quite accurate.
The recording industry are just a bunch of puffed out suits beating their own chests in response to the threat of something surpassing them. They'll get bored eventually.
Dear RIAA, (Score:3, Funny)
Re:D'uh from these quarters too. (Score:5, Funny)
I think you're missing the subtle distinction between "evolve and grow feathers" and "get tarred and feathered".
Re:once upon a time (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Uhhh.... Duhhh..... What???? (Score:5, Funny)
Reports of the labels' death have been greatly... (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah yeah, I know, we've all by now heard a one-hit wonder who was NOT signed by a label. (Like the "Chocolate Rain" guy, who probably will go down for the most overplayed 3 notes in history. Choc-late Raaaaaain...) The thing is, when we buy (or listen to, ya dirty scallywags) music, who do we overwhelmingly choose? The same old Britstreet Boy , the same old Sir 50 Snoopenem, the same-old Avrilguilera. For every play, download, or purchase that the long tail Code Monkey type songs get, the #1 (and, for that number, the #40) pick up tens of thousands. That is taken *in aggregate*.
The labels didn't just get a lock on the market because they control distribution. They've got a lock because they realize that music is an experience people want to share, music is a status symbol, and thus people want to listen to the music that other people are listening to. This has the same network effects that a Facebook or AIM or Microsoft Office does. The core music consumer is a high school or college student, and God forbid you listen to something nobody else in your circle of friends does at that age.
(Look at the P2P networks, too -- people are not downloading the Collected Traditional Swahili Spirituals Remixed To The Tune of "Waterworks" Compilation. The top downloads almost invariably track, in lockstep, the top selling songs/movies/games which appeal to teenage males.)
Re:once upon a time (Score:2, Funny)
It was more advanced than tinypox.
Re:Uhhh.... Duhhh..... What???? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:D'uh from these quarters too. (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, well, that's a relief - for a minute there I thought the gatekeepers were going to be self important blowhards with little taste and no style.
Re:D'uh from these quarters too. (Score:0, Funny)
"Organic"? You damn communist hippies are becoming like the Borg.
Thinking for myself is too hard. (Score:3, Funny)
Unfortunately, when I look for someone to tell me what to do I find... a vast array of products and services that will do so. How do I know which one to listen to? I really need one large entity that answers all my questions with certainty and finality. Freedom is highly over-rated. Give me the security of being a nameless, faceless member of the herd. Give me the warm, fuzzy feeling of having a benevolent daddy figure watching over me and telling me what to do and what not to.
Re:Uhhh.... Duhhh..... What???? (Score:3, Funny)
andy