RIAA tells students: Pay up for downloads

Jeff · Mar 10, 2007

rimrocker said:

The other thing they had going for them was planned obsolescence. The model they had going from Album to 8-track to cassette worked brilliantly. Then they stupidly thought they could keep it going with CDs and whatever came after that.

They are trying to figure out how to put the toothpaste back in the tube, but it's not going to work.
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While I agree completely that obsolescence of format was a huge benefit to major labels and I also agree completely that they are trying to find a way to, if not put the toothpaste back, at least put a cap on it, I don't think the album to 8-track to CD was necessarily planned.

There was a great article in Musician magazine back in the early 90's about how digital technology was essentially rejected by the music business because they didn't want to go through the hassle of making a significant change AND they didn't think that people would spend the money to buy CD players.

They were, as usual, behind the 8 ball rather than in front of it. I think you may be giving them more credit than they deserve.

Sishir Chang · Mar 10, 2007

Jeff said:

The entire model of the music business is changing and the RIAA, like any monolith, doesn't want to change. The same industry that used to be mostly concerned with breaking the next Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen is now worried about market share. Bean counters have replaced music fans and multi-national media conglomerates have taken the place of large independent labels.

Consider the fact that Atlantic Records and Motown Records, two relatively small independents in the 1960's, produced some of the most influential music of the era. Smaller labels like Casablanca, Arista and Island were responsible for the development of legends.

The current climate makes that impossible.

The industry is rapidly returning to the era of the indie label, but the one thing that major labels and commercial radio had going for them (still do) is the only thing missing from the new model: centralization. It used to be that the industry was governed by centralized distribution - you buy records at the record store where you get recommendations from the guy who knows what you like; you listen to your favorite DJ who spins the music he likes; you read one of a handful of major music publications.

Today, there is no one place to get music and no one local authority to help you sift through it. There are dozens of places to hear new music and thousands of new songs online every day. Radio stations have regional or even national program directors who play homogonized music. There are literally hundreds of music blogs, vlogs and podcasts making it impossible to read all of them.

Until there is a way to diffuse that information (web 2.0 is helping with RSS aggregators and blog tracking) in a location that makes it easy on the end user, the industry will stumble along halfway between the old model and the new one. The RIAA will continue to defend its copyrights and new independent bands will increasingly give things away.

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I'm not going to defend the RIAA, but keep in mind that the vast majority of bands signed to a label don't survive more than a single record. For every Metallica or Madonna, there are a thousand bands who are one and done. They are the one's that tend to be hurt most by downloading not only because of the loss of royalties, but because they are the first to be cut from label rosters when the labels suffer.

Today, it is VERY difficult for indie bands to make a living. Many are going to part-time music careers, which is never good for the music because you don't get to spend as much time on it as is needed to improve.

In addition, as a way to cut through the massive amounts of information out there, bands are resorting to gimmicks and in-your-face approaches to music that don't lend themselves to long careers. With all due respect to Panic! At the Disco, does anyone expect to hear them on the radio in 20 years?

Maybe even more importantly, the long play format is dying. Bands are increasingly focused on singles because that is what people want. You can sell one song on iTunes and save money on recording costs, BUT it costs us great music. Some of the best recordings were often the unexpected moments that happened when the artist was just goofing off. With the demand for the hit single, bands are spending less time experimenting and more time crafting singles. That makes for a very dull artform.

Just some things to consider.
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Great post!

The RIAA along with the other industry associations have to realize that the old models just don't work anymore and if they're going to stay competitive they're going to have to find a new financial model. I agree that ethically people shouldn't be illegally downloading music but this is like telling teenagers they shouldn't have pre-marital sex. The reality is that downloading music is happening and there is NO WAY it will be stopped short of denying access to the Internet.

As a part time musician myself though I see the problems that Jeff raise too about musicians not being able to make a living off of their music due to illegal downloads. Speaking for myself I would love to have people buying my music but at the sametime by offering my music for free online there is a better chance that more people will hear it and be interested in my band. So the internet works both ways. While it might make it impossible for me to make a lot of money off of record sales I might never get heard in the first place without it. At the moment as a part time musician who plays for fun beer and a few hundred bucks a year the internet doesn't affect me much.

For all those other musicians though looking to make a living off of there music though this might be a different matter. I don't think trying to sue college students though is going to work and more than likely loses money by alienating potential consumers as much as will be recovered.

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RIAA tells students: Pay up for downloads

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