Does pirated music affect the Grammys?

posted by soulxtc in file sharing // 664 days 4 hours 4 minutes ago

Do artists who have their music pirated and released on P2P networks gain from the increased FREE exposure, and does this help lead to their nomination for the famed Grammy music award?.

With the famed Grammy Awards fast approaching, the usual question on many people's minds will of course be piracy and the future of the music business. The fact that it's still unaddressed some 8 years after Napster's birth speaks volumes about the music industry's commitment to really solving it outside of a courtroom.

On February 11th the show will showcase artists selected by members of the National Academy of the Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), each of whom are urged not to look at sales or charts when voting for a winner. They are supposed to vote based upon the quality of the work that has been submitted.

What I'd like to know is how much their normal music listening habits influence their selections, and how many of these NARAS members have music content that either hasn't been obtained using the stringent copyright "standards" of the RIAA, or from legal digital download services that the RIAA seems so reluctant to embrace.

For if you take a look at how digital downloads, legal, and illegal, stack up against plain old CD purchases (People still buy these?), who's "hot" is relatively the same. So again, it makes me wonder just how many of these guys toiling in production, engineering, mixing, and maybe even singing, aspects of the music biz actually listen to or purchase physical CDs.

If I hate toting around clunky CDs, then surely the guys and gals who listen to it for a living don't want to hassle with CDs and CD "wallets"(remember those?).

So could it be that the people who literally ARE the music biz know something that the execs in the ivory towers do not? Who knows but, it seems as usual that the "boots on the ground" are the ones who know what's really going on while "armchair generals" oversee their battalions of lawyers.

NPD Techworld compiled a list that stacks up the physical and the digital, the legal and the illegal, methods of obtaining music content, and the results are pretty interesting.

Based on consumer surveys of CD purchases, the most popular artists for 2006 were as follows -- with the Grammy nominees denoted with an asterisk ():

1. Rascal Flatts

2. Nickelback

3. Beyonce*

4. Carrie Underwood*

5. Mary J. Blige*

6. Eminem*

7. Johnny Cash

8. Toby Keith

9. Red Hot Chili Peppers*

10. Jamie Foxx*

In 2006, the most popular artists judged by the number of digital downloads via paid digital music services were as follows -- with the Grammy nominees denoted with an asterisk ():

1. The Fray

2. Nickelback

3. George Carlin*

4. Justin Timberlake*

5. Rascal Flatts*

6. Linkin Park

7. Johnny Cash

8. Creedence Clearwater Revival

9. Pink*

10. The White Stripes

The most popular artists, judged by the number of song tracks downloaded via peer-to-peer (P2P) services by U.S. consumers in 2006 were as follows -- with the Grammy nominees denoted with an asterisk ():

1. Eminem

2. Ludacris*

3. Nickelback

4. 2Pac

5. The Beatles

6. Justin Timberlake*

7. 50 Cent

8. Red Hot Chili Peppers*

9. Beyonce*

10. Rascal Flatts*

If artists can still succeed and gain popularity by being digitally distributed, then why is the RIAA still so reluctant to embrace the new medium? Is it the same reason that Steve Jobs mused about yesterday, that it's becuase "...there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands" who love to crack music DRM "...and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music?" Yet, even he points out that DRM doesn't work, "...and may never work, to halt music piracy."

Clearly the recording industry still has tough, painful choices to make but, there's no better time to think about the future of your industry than when you showcase and celebrate the music artists that comprise it.

Tune in February 11th I guess to see if the artists on the illegal P2P downloading list win a Grammy, and wonder, just as I will, what effect it had on them winning their award.