Friday, May 27, 2011

Filesharing Rant 3.0

I try to see the artists' plight when they go on misinformed rants about how illegal downloading is destroying the music industry but I'm starting to see new reasons why they're wrong.

First, the claim that illegal downloading is hurting the music industry is false.  It may be hurting overall ALBUM sales but it's definitely not hurting the industry.  Buying a $.99 single on iTunes just doesn't provide the same income as an entire $12 album with 8 filler songs.  I would argue that legal sales of digital singles have done FAR more to hurt album sales than pirating ever will.  The people buying $.99 singles are the same ones who used to buy $12 albums.  The people downloading albums now are the same ones who used to copy their friends' cassettes.  And, as I've stated before, illegally downloading an album can, and does, lead to new ticket buyers, t-shirt purchasers, and, yes, even future single/album buyers.

Second, the music industry was built on impossibly inflated prices and unsustainable excess.  The old model of "release an album > sell millions(?) of copies > stop producing anything and live off the profits for years and years" sounds a little silly when you try to apply it to other professions.  I can't set-up and mail-out 20 computers in a week and then say "You know what?  I had a pretty good week.  I think I'll not come into work for a few months.  Just keep sending the royalty checks for my groundbreaking work to my home address."  That's ridiculous.

Artists should get paid for their work.  But don't expect us to make you a millionaire because you bought a thesaurus and auto-tune.  From my perspective, as a non-millionaire/aspiring professional musician, I would think that touring should make up the majority of profit for a band.

Also, let's talk about the lawsuits.

I'm going to start by saying that the RIAA is one small step away from the mafia.  They will attack 12-year-old girls and repeatedly wrongly accuse others.  They have a history of "sue first, then find actual evidence".  And now it seems that even when they win a judgement against known infringers they will be keeping the settlement money rather than sharing it with the artists they supposedly represent.

It is unfortunate that great new artists may be cut early, or not signed at all, because of lackluster album sales. But here's to hoping this will lead to a new breed of artists utilizing the very digital structure that took down the media conglomerates to start a "creation > self-distibution > self-promotion > profit" model for success.  And then maybe we can cut out the money-grubbing, exploitative loan sharks and pimps that permeate throughout the music industry.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Osama bin Laden

I don't really know how to feel about the news that Osama bin Laden is dead.  On one hand I am relieved that the search is over and organized terrorism (there's an oxymoron) might have been dealt a setback.  But on the other hand, I find it absolutely disgusting that people are joyously celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden.  Not because of who he was.  Osama was a worthless piece of shit and deserved to die.  I just think that celebrating his death in the streets with snare drums and beach balls is appalling.  Killing one human being does not magically bring others back to life.  Killing Osama will not take away the pain that the families of 9/11 victims still feel everyday.


You just don't understand.  We brought him to justice.


Justice?  Killing a 50+ year-old man with diabetes living in caves and constantly moving around to stay hidden is just punishment for that man organizing the murder of thousands of innocent humans?

Osama was evil.  He deserved to die.  But public celebrations of his death do nothing but make us look like petty, ignorant fools.  The "You kill us and we'll kill you back" mentality.  Osama didn't invent terrorism and killing him won't stop it.

You don't see ANY reason to celebrate?


I am quite happy that an evil person can no longer do evil things.  I just don't see the sense in acting like this makes everything better.  Nothing has changed.  Evil people will still do evil things and the rest of the world will either rise against them or crumble.

You're just a cynic trying to see the worst in everything.


Maybe.  I've thought that myself at times.  I'm not saying that peaceful people everywhere shouldn't be glad about this news.  Americans, Afghans, Christians, Muslims, and anyone else who hates violence as much as Osama himself hated America should all rejoice that one less evil person is among us.  But that's it.  ONE person.  A very important person in the world of terror, but one man just the same.


I just can't understand celebrating the death of a human being, no matter who that person might be.


Maybe I'm wrong.  I don't know anymore.