[sdiy] The RIAA Blows.... (fwd)

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow Mark.

At 05:33 PM 6/23/02 -0400, MRATX at aol.com wrote:
>There is a large hole in your logic. Firstly, stations have to pay the 
>fees retroactively, which means many of them may just stop webcasting 
>rather than pay up. Secondly, many that do survive are unlikely to want to 
>go on if the only way they can continue to webcast is by limiting their 
>playlist to only those few artists who have agreed to waive the fees. 
>Thirdly, even if they do continue in this way, the severely limited 
>playlist will assuredly lead to a dramatic drop in listeners, which will 
>kill ad revenue, and eventually the webcast.

Yup. Absolutely true. And you know what? Bad fuckin' luck!

Like I even care about commercial enterprises who's only thought is their 
advertising revenue and no thought what so ever to the actual music. If 
they subsisted by sucking on the teet of the RIAA and they've had their 
head in the sand for the past 5 years and never noticed what was going on 
until now, then they disserve all they get.

Anyone who was even half awake over the past 2 years could have seen this 
coming. 5 years ago the majors were signing up any half assed 
electronic/techno/dance act they could. Then flooding the market with 
compilation albums that looked and sounded like the main stay of the 
independents. I posed the question then... Why, if the Indies have about 2% 
of the total market were the majors interested in trying to kill them off?"

They want it all!

And thanks to the lack of support, even by the very independents who were 
trying to make a name for themselves, the bastards might just get it!

I've spoken to many people on this list who often agree on the same point. 
We don't listen to this commercial pap anyway. There's better stuff feeding 
on the bottom on MP3.COM than spews out of the open sewers of the Major's 
endless marketing machine. So why don't people listen to this stuff? 
Because the Majors don't want you to. The only stuff they want you to 
listen to is their's. They don't even want you to know that there's an 
alternative music market out there. So much so that they appropriated the 
terms "Indy" and "Alternative" for themselves. Have you ever heard this 
stuff? Alternative to what?

Look. I'm sorry if I'm passionate about this stuff. I'm out of the loop. I 
can sit back and laugh till the cows re-enter after their moon shot.  But 
it's fair to say that every time someone get's real upset about losing the 
majors, it's probably because in the back of their mind, they still dream 
of becoming some kind of puppet rock star. We all complain about them and 
then go right on grabbing for that brass ring as usual. And it isn't even 
there any more.

The majors are still spreading the myth that if a band or product is out 
there and prominent, it is so because they are good. The people who buy 
this line are also the same people who think that television networks show 
adds because they think you should know about a product because it's 
"Good!" Yeah. The majors pump out the latest jams because of their 
overwhelming philanthropic tendencies. And anyone who's sucking that line 
as an internet broadcaster or even a community FM radio station, probably 
needs to pull their snouts out of the troth for a moment and take a bit of 
a look round. Coz the same farmer that's been fattening them up is now 
sharpening the knives.

And this is just typical record company behavior that should come as no 
surprise. The independents brought us techno and dance and trance and all 
that shit. Then 5 years later after we'd all moved on, the Majors suddenly 
discovered they could make a buck from it and started pumping mediocre 
versions of it like as if it was the latest, most fantastic thing. And 
they've done that every time.

I've said it before but I'll say it again for the cheap seats. The whole 
commercial music industry can go belly up tomorrow for all I care. I'll 
still be here. My music will still be here. The little record company I'm 
signed to will still be here. And all the other little "REAL" indies 
outside the grasp of the major industry will still be here.  Of course I 
know that's not going to happen but who cares if it does?

And this irony perhaps shouldn't be lost on you. The very people who rely 
on the indies for a leg up to stardom are the very same people who don't 
support it.

But just so this doesn't get completely misinterpreted I'll restate that I 
don't like the RIAA, it's motives or it's modes operandi any more than you 
do. But it should be seen in context. That it is just the mouth piece for 
an industry that missed the boat 5 years ago and is so huge and bloated 
that it can no longer maneuver. So instead of changing with the times, it's 
trying to change the environment to suit it's self.

We shall see what happens.

Be absolutely Icebox.

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