One of the blogs that I subscribe to is the J-Walk blog. I usually look at it every day. I have left several comments there and I find the site to be witty, entertaining and insightful despite the preponderance of banjo posts.
This afternoon, I saw that there was a post entitled, “Anti-Piracy Voice-Overs”. Here’s a quote.
The latest dumb idea from the music business: Anti-Piracy Voice-Overs to Prevent CDs from Leaking.
Recently, more and more CDs are being protected by voice-overs to prevent these albums from leaking to the public before the official release date. The voice-overs are pretty effective, but there is a downside, they start to annoy reviewers and even start to affect album ratings.
I started to leave a comment but, I decided not to. I didn’t want to take up a lot of comment space. I didn’t want to seem like I was slamming the guy.
I have commented about illegal downloading, the music industry, and copyright issues at several spots on the web. Usually when I do, it sets off a flurry of negative responses and I didn’t want to saddle J-Walk with that. So I will rant here instead.
First off, people hate the music industry. They have utter disdain for anything that smacks of the music business. So, when J-Walk calls anti-piracy voice overs; “The latest dumb idea from the music business” he isn’t alone in the sentiment and the sentiment is not particular to this issue. In just the last couple of weeks, with Sony finally going DRM free and the mis-reported Washington Post story claiming that the RIAA said that it is illegal to rip songs off of a purchased CD, I have seen a ton of sites that are of the opinion that the music industry is “dumb” or “stupid”.
I am often accused of being a defender of the music industry or being part of it. If I am part of the music business, it is in the most peripheral sense. Every record I have ever worked on has been a truly independent release. I say “truly” because most music that is touted as “indie” is really not. Most indie music, that comes to the attention of the average consumer, has some major label or big time distributing connection. This isn’t true of all indie music, of course. But, labeling it “indie” is just another way to sell product.
Back on track here, calling the music industry “dumb” and “stupid” is pointless. It’s like beating up a handicapped kid on the playground.
Here’s the deal-You have already won the fight children-You have already got your way children.
Music is free, nobody has to pay for music. We all know that. You know that, I know that and believe me, the evil, demonic music industry knows that. It’s always going to be that way and there isn’t going to be some magic formula or device that is going to change it.
I know that Radiohead has the number 1 selling CD after their “experiment” of giving it away for free over the internet. Radiohead is a great example of an act that sells themselves as not being part of the industry. It’s like a politician talking about “change” or saying “outside the beltway”. It doesn’t exist. If a politician is “outside the beltway”, he isn’t on the ballot. Radiohead is as mainstream as you can get; doesn’t matter if they are on a major label or not. They have big league distribution. Not to take anything away from what they did here. They received more publicity than any major label act has, and therefore, more promotion than any label act in recent memory. What Radiohead did, offering the album on the honor system, isn’t going to work for a truly independent artist. They won’t garner the publicity and, fact is, people aren’t honorable. A lot of smaller acts have done the same thing as Radiohead. I keep an eye on these things and generally, the figures I’ve been able to find fall in the range of 10-20 percent of the people who download actually end up paying anything for the music. So goes the honor system.
Anyway, the music industry tries again and again to come up with schemes that will save pennies, so what. The notion of putting voice-overs on CDs that are sent to reviewers is pretty silly. It isn’t as silly as thinking that sending CDs to reviewers is going to make a record a hit. Critical acclaim does not sell merchandise.
Putting a pre-release in the hands of a bunch of overweight guys who live with their parents (reviewers and DJs) will however, guarantee that your record will be pirated. It will be available for download somewhere for free. Also, there is nothing quite like seeing an album that you have put a lot of work into being sold on eBay for five bucks before it has even been released to the public. Who is doing this stuff when the only people who have received copies are reviewers and DJs?
See, I have seen this stuff happen countless times with indie releases. I can only surmise that this kind of activity is a hundred times worse with artists that appear on the consumer’s radar.
The point of all of this is, picking on the music industry is getting old. They lost and you won. They are looking for new employment in service industries daily and you have an iPod loaded with 8,000 songs.
So, why not be a good sport about it? Why not graciously accept the win? Why keep picking on the red headed stepchild like a schoolyard bully? Why not just put in your little ear buds and listen to some Josh Groban or Black Eyed Peas, that you got for free, and keep quiet?
Is a guilty conscience possibly the source of all of this rage?
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Tags: anti piracy, music industry
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