P2P needs the RIAA

[evilmegaman]

I just did some thinking and I came across this in one of my thoughts: "why the hell would P2P need the RIAA?" and then I came up with; The RIAA is needed for music Artists to sell their CD's and become popular... and we need CD's to rip to have mp3's or ogg's but without the RIAA there will be almost nothing to rip so just make sure they keep trying to sell CD's.:fire just a thought.. what is your opinion?

[BlueLieu]

I don't think that P2P needs the RIAA. If they went away tomorrow, people would still try to make a living off of their musical/film making abilities. They would just find other avenues to deliver it.

[Theinfamousone]

Ha, well, that's definately not any profound statement. But I agree, in a capitalist society, whatever people will pay good money for, there will be people to make money off of it. ie there is billions to be made selling CDs, there will be artists. Also there's that one thing that I can't remember what it's called where all the garage bands are going to try out and...yeah. It's kind of an opensource RIAA if you will. I can't remember what it's called, does anyone?

[Koffee Bean]

I agree. Theoretically if we keep sharing the way we are then pretty soon the artists will just stop making music all together and then there will be no CD’s to rip so we wont have anything to share anymore.

[zebi]

P2P doesn't need the RIAA at all.
There are still millions of people buying cd's.

[paidzero2004]

Originally posted by Koffee Bean
I agree. Theoretically if we keep sharing the way we are then pretty soon the artists will just stop making music all together and then there will be no CD’s to rip so we wont have anything to share anymore.


Artists will stop making music because ppl dl their songs off the web???? You know, Dr. Dre came out once and bitched about how "net pirates" were taking away their livelyhood and that every musician would starve. well, I just saw an episode of MTV cribs, a show notorious for flashing the wealth of entertainment ppl in the face of those who have none, where even the most unpopular band member of an unpopular band was still rolling around in a multi million dollar house driving around in 2 German cars and a bus! P. diddy is worth a quarter billion dollars! Missy Elliot just bought a Lime green Lamborghini! Tommy Lee had Starbucks install a coffee maker in his house!

The DMCA is a joke. I can't believe there aren't lawsuits attacking it. So let me get this straight, if I lend a friend a CD that I bought I am guilty of pirating?? Once I buy the CD, doesn't it become MY property in which I have the right to use in any way I please? I thought that when I "bought" the CD I was owning it and not "renting" it.

Another thing that makes me sick is how the RIAA is contributing file sharing to lower sales over the past few years. Hello??? Is it me or is the country, matter in fact the whole world in a slumping economy??? If I got bills to pay I doubt that buying P. Diddy's next album for $15 is a top priority. Not only that but the quality of music has gone way down. How many times do we have to hear/see Eminem on some music chart?

A true musician/artist is and should be more worried about the quality of their work and that it gets appreciated rather than if they can get yet another Ferrari. My 2 cents

[Theinfamousone]

Originally posted by paidzero2004
[B
Another thing that makes me sick is how the RIAA is contributing file sharing to lower sales over the past few years. Hello??? Is it me or is the country, matter in fact the whole world in a slumping economy??? If I got bills to pay I doubt that buying P. Diddy's next album for $15 is a top priority. Not only that but the quality of music has gone way down. How many times do we have to hear/see Eminem on some music chart?

A true musician/artist is and should be more worried about the quality of their work and that it gets appreciated rather than if they can get yet another Ferrari. My 2 cents [/B]

Word yo, there's only a handful of companies that have been doing as WELL as the RIAA

[Sockfulloflove]

i don't need no RIAA.

[NDGAARONDI]

we dont need the RIAA - they're only american ppl so they're gonna be English ppl similar to them - so answer is NO!

[isus]

i agree with bluelieu... everybody wants to make money. a baseball player who makes $10 million a year wouldn't wanna start working at mcdonalds for minimum wage. rich ppl are weird like that.

[matstao]

There are lots of labels producing great music that have nothing to do with the RIAA. Many smaller labels choose to remain 'independent' of the RIAA collective and therefore can make up their own minds regarding issues such as p2p trading. If the RIAA ceased to exist, that wouldn't mean that record companies &/or labels would disappear, & it certainly wouldn't mean that true musical artists would stop playing & recording music.

[SnakeAnarchy]

Originally posted by matstao
There are lots of labels producing great music that have nothing to do with the RIAA. Many smaller labels choose to remain 'independent' of the RIAA collective and therefore can make up their own minds regarding issues such as p2p trading. If the RIAA ceased to exist, that wouldn't mean that record companies &/or labels would disappear, & it certainly wouldn't mean that true musical artists would stop playing & recording music.

True, theres many music labes and record companies that have no link to the RIAA. Those are the artist i support, i download their music to see whast i like then i get the cd's i like. Those are real artist with real talent unlike pop-culture computer made music and voices that are on MTV everyday making money and couldnt careless about us or the quality of their music.

[ronniebravo]

Who needs the RIAA --not me in fact they make me nervous.

[evilmegaman]

Think about stocks. if the riaa goes so does a lotta people's jobs and the music artists supported ONLY by them will not be able to make anymore CD's because they become bankrupt from dept they owe to the riaa.. I am not making any sense besides to myself but if you read correctly you may regretably agree

[Siskabush]

Originally posted by evilmegaman
Think about stocks. if the riaa goes so does a lotta people's jobs and the music artists supported ONLY by them will not be able to make anymore CD's because they become bankrupt from dept they owe to the riaa.. I am not making any sense besides to myself but if you read correctly you may regretably agree

Big deal. Those greedy bastards are probably set for life anyway.

As for debt, that is the price you pay for making the blind choice of making music for money instead of making music for the love of it.

If the RIAA crumbled tomorrow, it would be like shattering a vase into many pieces. With the cheap affordability of CD burners these days, artists would start thier own independent recording and distribution services, hire thier friends, etc.

But there will be too many, and new artists will want to join already existing "Independent lables" seeing as they cant afford 100 CD burners or the cost to hire people for help. These Independent labels grow as musicians sign on with them, and the weaker labels finally give up or go bankrupt, and dissapeer from the neo-mainstream of music making.

The remaining labels will then most likely create a Neo-RIAA type thing, therefore taking over the industry, and ruining music once again by raising CD prices, making sure they and the artist has millions and millions of dollars, and pissing off the customer.

Well, of course this would take quite sometime if the RIAA fell today, but it seems that is what would happen in the end. Something for your kids to think about if the RIAA does fall.

And if that didnt happen, the only other thing that could would be this.
The music would stop forever.

That is my 2 cents (And longest post ever :P)

[snowborder74]

Yes these artists sicken me too...if they used their money wisely they would have enought money to comfortably live til they're like 150-200yrs old and that doesnt include money they will make soon....as for whiny ass metallica i think they need to lay off...we need that money that we would spend on a cd more then they do and since they really dont see much of the money.....why should the RIAA get all of my $$? i dont mind supporting the artists...especially new artists that are good and deserve some credit for thier work.

[Power Penguin]

It fools artists into continuing to produce CDs, which we then rip off. False sense of security.

They are mildly effective. They have brought down two cover site recently.

I'm no closer to an actual purchase though.

[sbiasi]

The only result should the RIAA disintegrate tomorrow would be that CDs would instantly become cheaper. Their profits in selling CDs are completely absurd. The big labels just joined and decided that they would all charge similar prices and people would have to pay them because they control all music and all artists. This is no "conspiracy theory"; in fact, they have been recently found guilty in justice for doing exactly that and ordered to pay compensations to customers.

By the way, the artists and authors would earn MUCH more money if they could sell their work directly to the public, or at least working for better, less greedy publishers. They would be even better if they could choose to work WITH the publishers instead of FOR them. Which is what usually happens - copyright laws are a joke nowadays. They don't protect the artists at all, they protect the publishers. The very FIRST thing a publisher asks authors is that they surrender all the copyrights to their works. Even the authors can't share their work on the internet.

This is not theory also; it's how it works. There have been cases of people being sued for exactly that like the famous one where CRC Press sued the author of a Mathematics Encyclopedia.

What happened? Well, a man started a site containing all kinds of information about mathematics. Then people started sending questions to him. Then he started collecting the questions, but he could not answer all of them, so he asked the readers for help. Then he started adding new entries to his site with the questions and the answers. He created graphics to go with them. After a while, he had a REALLY big site with lots of information on mathematics, all well organized and indexed. This was always changing and growing, and it was based on the work of a comunity.

Then CRC Press became interested in publishing it in book form. They did. After some time, the author received a letter from the CRC lawyers : now that we have our book, you can take the site off the internet.

The author said that it was absurd, that it was a work in progress, that the book was merely a snapshot of it, that it was his life's work and he wanted it to go on and continue growing and helping people.

CRC Press lawyers laughed at him and sued him. The judge decided that he was violating CRC's copyright by keeping the site online and ordered the site to be closed. Well, the story is long and in the end the author was forced into a HUMILIATING deal (in my opinion).

The whole story can be read at this site :
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/erics_commentary.html

I recommend that everyone interested in copyright laws read it.
It's very educational on how copyright works and how publishers use it.

[555]

I make music to bring people happiness!

If I also could make money out of it, it would be good, but the chances are very small that I will get a contract with a major record company. Many musicians will never get those "dream-contracts", so why even bother thinking of selling the music that way!

If the "music-industry" goes down, so what?
I think that people who are making music only for money, and not for the pleasure really doesn't get the whole idea about music creation! Music is a source of pleasure! When the time is right I will realise a lot of my songs on internet.

Read my notes:
Musicians will not stop making music because of an eventually breakdown in the music-industry! Most of us enjoy what we're doing! (Though a few multi-millionares will loose a dollar or two ;-)

/John

[Theinfamousone]

every artist should have a web site where people can donate money with paypal or by the mail, and then they can have all their music there for download for free. And when people like it, they will support it. That's what The Ataris do, it's pretty nice. And I would support them.

[Siskabush]

Yuppers.

Me and my friends are making a Jackass type Video, as well as rap/techno music.

When its all completed, we are releasing it on Kazaa, and whatever other file sharing networks i use.

Download it for free!

And we got a little deal with a CD store in town who want to buy some of our stuff.

It will be a nifty package. 2 VCD's + the Audio CD, for a reasonable price. (10-15 bucks canadian)

And yes, if you do buy it, you can rip it, share it, make copies for your friends, just as long as you dont sell for profit.

Time to aid the revolution. This is how it should be done :D
Give the consumer the option.

[ThePillarOfAutumn]

who the hell is RIAA ?:hole

[Wolfie]

very funny dude.

[PatientSaint]

To be blunt...had the RIAA saw the possibity of online digital music distribution they'd be rolling in money. Instead they sat back and relied on the CD as they had other forms cassette, LP,etc. Instead Consumers got a hold of the technology and we've capitalized on it. Honestly we as listeners are sick of big labels letting us hear good new music. They've tailored alot of what we're allowed to listen to especially mainstream pop.

After making the business of music very wealthy over the ninties as CD sales hit all time peaks. Who took the hit for thier pockets? We did. We absorded the 15+ dollar Cds prices. Half the time for Artists who are one hit wonders. We worked hard doing chores and some of us who were lucky to have wealthier familes forked over the cash for cds. After Everything we wanted simply fair online dsitribution. they didn't give it to us so we took it upon ourselves. Right now we're getting reimbursed for every shitty CD that came off the shelf that had two good songs on it ...and for labels refusing to sell singles. After all we as consumers have afforded the Labels they turn around and call us theives and pirates. What are we guilty of? being addicted to music? Trying to find the next tune that reflects our state of mind. Music that reflects our inner spirit. Music that can tell loved ones how we feel becasue sometimes we can't express it ourselves. They are the ones who hijacked us and kept us from good bands and still do as they argue over contracts. Artists (some of them u can truely use the word artist) simply want afair cut of what they are out earning.

Next. Label practices. They've been ripping off artists for decades. Elder Statesmen of music are coming out and saying that contracts have been unfair for ages. How Many artists in news paper do u see trying to break contract? Incubus is the latest i saw trying to get out of thier current deal with Sony. Of Which they owe 4 more albums. Most of these bands are douped into Signing grossly unfair one sided contracts becasue it's their only option to get their music out to listeners or to get better euipment or afford studio time where real creativty can take place. Piracy isn't the biggest issue for a band it's really anominity. If no one hears your music then how can u get any fan support? I could go lenghtier into label practices but i'll go along with had they changed business models and adpated to the new online consumer they'd be fine. As for the RIAA they control about 90% of the market. The Rest are indie labels and real bands out there on the street busting their asses to sell CD-Rs. They're out there Living the music dream overcoming odds and absucurity. I don't think a few suits who've sat on thier asses all day should have much a say.

I'd also go along with what is said before. I could've sworn when u buy something it's yours and what you do to see fit. This is kinda like Car manufactuers saying ok we let u buy the car but u can only drive it and only when we say. It's absurd really.

We want music that's all we've ever really demanded. Music on artist terms and ours. We want the music that inspires us. If the RIAA needs to learn to stop biting the hand that feeds it. CD sales this past year are reflecting that. We aren't just doing this for free...it'sa form of protest. We're sick of Absorbant prices. We're sick of fabricated bands with a shelf life of 6 months. We want fair online distribution(I know all u labels say u wantthat..but have u REALLy looked at the practicality of pressplay or any other of ur sites? it's bullshit and you know it). What labels shoud lreally be asking right now is forgiveness and trying to win back consumers instead of laying out more lawsuits,calling us names, giving us another American or Canidan Idol or any of ur anti piracy commercials. Stop the DMCA from passing now.

In closing education of consumers is what's the right agenda...Zp does that for some.. it is a soap opera for others. Fear us RIAA for when ur dam might be have been long stablished from generations past. The flood waters of a new generation are coming. Cracks are already showing. How long can you hold us all off? Let it rain..let it rain...

[Theinfamousone]

Wow, this guy really has some bottled up anger, so in honor of that, I'll post something that I wrote a few weeks ago.

"Well, the RIAA needs to change their whole mindset. Who is going to drive down to the mall and pay $14-20 for a CD? RIAA: "Oh you bad bad people, what you are doing is wrong"
Us: "Where is the morality in charging $16 for a 2 cent piece of plastic?"

How gay is it that my friend bought the soundtrack for Lord of the Rings for $17, and you can get the whole fricken DVD with the sound AND video for less than that!?! Has anyone realized that if the average Joe can make a CD for 30 cents or less, imagine how cheap it is for the recording industry to make each CD when they are mass producing these things.

Gone are the days that people with (dare we say) talent sacrifice years and years for their art that they have devoted their life to, and make album after album that fans enjoy. I'm not really sure of the reason for this, but I do know that 90% of the music that comes out these days is from pop tart sex-puppets or just plain scum, like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguiellera, any "rappers" such as Jay-Z and Ja Rule, I can go on. It just makes me sick. Out of all 500+ of my mp3s I have, only about 7 have come out in the last 2 years (and even those I can live without). Translation for you RIAA morons - get a new job, or atleast a second job! Between the sour economy, horrible new releases, and all the needlessly spent millions in courts trying to stop the only thing you can see to blame your losses on, doomsday HAS come. Maybe now we can cut the crap and get some real artists again that make music for the enjoyment, and the fans."

Yeah, I couldn't have said it better myself, oh wait, I did. Or did I? I guess I'll be plagerising Arthur C. Clarke when I say, "If an author can't plagerise himself, who can he?"

[PatientSaint]

Not really so much pent up anger as it is someone whose been watching too many anti-piracy commercials(sorry Evil). In the next 5-10 years I think we are going to see business models of labels changing. They'll be more Public relation people for bands then mass CD producers.

Not really that Courtney Love is anyone special. But here's a speech she made regaurding the music industry.

http://www.cdbaby.net/articles/courtney_love.html

[Foreverboard]

Originally posted by PatientSaint
In the next 5-10 years I think we are going to see business models of labels changing.

Agreed, the RIAA will have to change with the times. Every business has to change with the people, the people wont change for the business.

[Monyak]

"I just got to thinking that the P2P needs the RIAA"

DONT THINK - YOUR DANGEROUS!

I suppose your one of those idiots who think we need cops to give out jaywalking tickets to raise more money for more cops!

[Infomouse]

PatientSaint - thanks for the link to the Courtney Love speech. I'm catching up with this thread and it was an interesting read.

Plus, following through the same site, I got to the sales part of the organisation, http://www.cdbaby.com/.
Here I found one of my current favourite CDs (though I have never owned a copy), Jack Johnson - Brushfire Fairytales. I've ordered it and this is why:
[i]From their 'About' page[i]
When selling through CD Baby, musicians make $6-$12 per CD, and get paid weekly.
Ok, the CD is only $11.99 so the artist won't get $12 and I have to pay a lot in p+p to get it to the UK ($4 or $6) but if it is delivered with no problems I will just place a bigger order next time.

Well worth supporting, cheaper than Amazon (~$20 inc p+p) and _way_ cheaper than ordering through Johnson's own website!.

No one needs the RIAA.

[eclectica]

The p2p community needs the RIAA and MPAA the same way the body needs to be routinely exposed to harmful agents on a small level. Do you know that your immune system will have trouble if you are in too sterile of an environment? In such a case the body's immune system will start attacking itself.

We need the forces of greed to make our community stronger and to give us a common enemy to unite against. Adversity promotes resourcefulness, so the progeny of Napster, today's p2p, has shown even more fortitude and durability.

Another great thing about the twin forces of greed is that they will knock out the weak and lame elements amongst us. People with lame ISPs and feeble hearts will be stopped, and the strongest amongst us will survive.

[Winphuk]

P2P needs RIAA.
That's the most fucked up logic I have ever heard!

[aqlo]

The p2p community needs the RIAA and MPAA the same way the body needs to be routinely exposed to harmful agents on a small level. Do you know that your immune system will have trouble if you are in too sterile of an environment? In such a case the body's

That seems to make sense at first, but no, I think we need an enemy more worthy of our efforts.

Keep in mind that, at least in America racketeering requires making a financial gain. This is why Napster died and FastTrack is in trouble. The verizon user is part of a widestream attack that is directed at the companies, not really at the user. Heaven help that guy if he's a FastTrack franchise owner though.

[Smoker616]

Everyone forgets that its practiacally a moot point because the artists DONT GET PAID JACK. I read a recent article on how a gold selling album would make a band less then 200k . And thats for an album that 500,000 + people bought. All cd's do is promote the artist for their concerts(which make them the bulk of their money). I think that the file sharing community would gladly shell out 200k for a good artist to release an album. those 500 thousand people would only have to pay 50 cents to get the same amount of money to the artists. except it wouldnt be 500 thousand people it would be several million because the price is so low. And because its on a filesharing network the distribution cost is 0. The record industrys distribution cost is like 8.4 million. Thats why their shakin in their boots.

[UBER-RAT]

You fools - you're all wrong.

I'm right.