RIAA Repeating Edisions' mistakes...

[MKSheppard]

http://azoz.com/riaa/news/compelled.html

RIAA Sequentially Repeating Edison's Mistakes

by George Ziemann (Oct. 8, 2003)

There is something that I find incredibly mystifying about the entire chain of events from Napster to the present. This entire scenario has played out before.

Which makes it all the more curious why the RIAA is following it step by step. In today's news, we learn that the RIAA has now advanced to using strongarm, mob-style tactics by conducting warrantless search-and-seize missions against independent music stores who dare to sell music that the RIAA doesn't own.

On September 23, Berry's Music in Indianapolis, Indiana, was raided:

"According to proprietor Alan Berry, police confiscated $10,000 worth of mix discs by the likes of DJ World and DJ Paul Bunyan. 'The record labels want the independent record stores out of the business,' Berry says. 'They'd rather deal with Target, Best Buy, Circuit City -- it's consolidation, just like any other industry. The RIAA knows that mixes are an integral part of urban stores' culture and profit margin. By eliminating them, they can eliminate a lot of indie stores'."

City Music, also in Indianapolis, was raided on October 1, with manager Jerome Avery quoted as saying, "They came in and took anything that was on a recordable CD. The only DJ mixes I had were behind the counter for personal listening, and they confiscated them. How can it be illegal if the artist is making them for the street? They came without a notice - no warrant, no nothing. They're making up their own laws, if you ask me."

The City Music raid happened the day Universal's new prices went into effect - "more bad news for small, independent record stores. Universal's widely publicized $9.09 wholesale prices only apply to the largest retail chains, and only to stores that are willing to buy 30 copies of a disc at one time. Most smaller stores, though, deal with 'one-stop' sub- distributors that can fill orders for a disc or two quickly, and take a markup of their own. And many retailers are frustrated that customers have been coming in for weeks, asking where their $9 CDs are.

Eric Haight of Record World in Petoskey, Michigan, notes that a new Sting album before the price drop cost the store $12.69, with a suggested retail price of $18.98. Now it costs them $10.79, with a retail price of $12.98 - the profit margin has been slashed by almost two-thirds, and Universal will no longer help them out with advertising costs.

After watching the RIAA's public Dance of Death closely for only about a year, everything they do is so predictable that I'm beginning to wonder if they even have any control over their own destiny. For some inexplicable reason, they seem compelled to follow through until the final scene, perhaps unaware that there's been a rewrite in the ending over the last 90 years.

While suggested reading is the series I did earlier on Thomas Edison, here is a synopsis of how Edison's approach to running an entertainment industry so closely parallels what the RIAA is trying to do. After all, the goal is the same -- to maintain a monopoly.

Step 1 -- Acquire the rights. All of them.

In Edison's case, patents were the prize possession. His realm was the movie industry. Edison, or those who worked for him, had basically invented the entire movie industry, along with all the pieces and parts that made it happen. The RIAA uses copyrights in the same manner by gathering all the industry's top players, thus creating a collective ownership base to wield the same power.

Step 2 -- Define the standards

Once you own all of the rights, you have to find a way to make competing prohibitively expensive. This requires defining the standard to include some proprietary part, method, equipment, etc. Edison's means of achieving this goal was with the film size and even the spacing of the little holes along the edges, still Kodak's standard.

For decades, the vinyl record served this purpose for the music industry. It was a capability that required special equipment, preventing your average person on the street from being able to replicate the product or compete with it. For this very reason, the electronics industry owns a great deal of the recording industry today. Sony is the best example.

Step 3 -- Dominate the market

The easiest way to dominate the market is by being the only game in town. The second easiest way is to get together with the top competitors and come up with a market strategy that everyone can play by. Both methods carry the likelihood of being looked at as anti-competitive, depending how the parties involved act. The public and the government will actually tolerate a benevolent monopoly for quite some time if no one complains about it. Major league baseball is a perfect example -- there's no such thing as an independent major league baseball team, at least not that I've ever heard of. Even if there are, they're certainly not going to make it into the World Series. The public doesn't complain because all the teams are apparently subject to the same rules. No team "wins" just because they have the richest owner.

And we know the players get paid.

So it has been with radio airplay, the preferred method of choice for selling music for decades. The hypothesis is that a person must hear a song several times in order to entice them to buy the record. Pretty simple. Very effective. The barrier to entry is very high, basically keeping competition limited to the major labels.

We now know that the players in this game are not being paid.

Step 4 -- Assume the creative community is expendable

Edison's mistake was that he felt that it did not matter who the performers were. It was the movie, the finished product, that was important, not the people in it. The general public was unfortunately not aware of this importance, preferring to follow their favorite stars. Edison underestimated the value of his performers and they abandoned him.

The recording industry has always been a bit more blatant in their cold-hearted willingness to discard performers. Edison simply was wrong in his assessment; the music industry is intentionally bent to minimize an artist's financial benefit, while constantly portraying themselves as acting in the best interests of the artists.

At least Edison was honest.

Step 5 -- Eliminate independent competition

In both cases, had Step Four not taken place, there would be no Step 5. As in the case of baseball, benevolent market domination can be tolerated by the public for extended periods of time.

The recording industry had a lock on the business until the advent of the CD, followed by the recordable CD. Expensive at first, but now significantly dwindled in price, the recordable CD and computerized audio mastering tools like Sonar, ProTools and Cakewalk have put professional audio capability into the hands of almost anyone. The kid down the street now has the capability of making a CD that sounds as good as one from Warner Music. Whether he succeeds or not is another issue. The fact is that he's got the capability.

If he puts a few mp3 files on the Internet, it's entirely possible that he can sell some CDs of his own music at a reasonable price. So, to make this scenario as difficult as possible to achieve, the industry has systematically painted recordable media, the Internet and mp3 files as contraband, its users as thieves and any artist not signed with a major label as illegitimate.

Add to this the strong-arm tactics now raised by the Village Voice, and the pattern of systematically elimination independent competition is almost identical to those methods used by the Motion Picture Patents Company 95 years ago.

Step 6 -- Alienate the public

Edison did his best to squash his competitors, but he never stooped so low as to try suing moviegoers for attending "unlicensed" movies. Step 6 is an RIAA original, I believe. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend why anyone ever thought this was a good idea on any level.

Now we see that they had intended to combat falling sales by a $4 price hike.

Step 7 -- Government intervention

The government allowed the Motion Picture Patents Company, which had been formed in December, 1908, to get away with their anti-competitive control over the industry for less than four years. The U.S. government brought an antitrust suit against the MPPC in 1912 and declared it illegal in 1915.

Considering that the government has a) been trying to diffuse the voice of the music industry for a half century, if not silence it altogether and b) four of the five major labels are foreign-owned, sooner or later someone at the top end of government is going to possess the lucidity to wonder why the government should even care what happens to the record industry.

The only real issue is how long we have to wait. Step 8 should be worth waiting for -- the same independent renaissance that filmmakers enjoyed in the 1920s and 30s when Edison's movie empire fell apart. But the indie filmmakers didn't even wait for the government. They simply walked away and started over.

Kind of like what's happening now.

[Companion Cube]

Yes, the RIAA are scum.

City Music, also in Indianapolis, was raided on October 1, with manager Jerome Avery quoted as saying, "They came in and took anything that was on a recordable CD. The only DJ mixes I had were behind the counter for personal listening, and they confiscated them. How can it be illegal if the artist is making them for the street? They came without a notice - no warrant, no nothing. They're making up their own laws, if you ask me."

And that annoys the hell out of me.

[Embracer Of Darkness]

When my band takes off, we're planning to find a way of releasing our music locally for absoloutely free. The only issue will be recording onto CD's, but online distribution will be really easy.

Even if we ever make it big, the music is going to be fucking free. Bands make more than enough money on tours and merchandise.

Vivé la revolution!

[phongn]

When my band takes off, we're planning to find a way of releasing our music locally for absoloutely free. The only issue will be recording onto CD's, but online distribution will be really easy.

I'd argue that you should charge a minimal amount to cover your costs, though

[DPDarkPrimus]

City Music, also in Indianapolis, was raided on October 1, with manager Jerome Avery quoted as saying, "They came in and took anything that was on a recordable CD. The only DJ mixes I had were behind the counter for personal listening, and they confiscated them. How can it be illegal if the artist is making them for the street? They came without a notice - no warrant, no nothing. They're making up their own laws, if you ask me."

They CANNOT do that. Period. If they didn't have a warrent, they couldn't have even went behind the counter, much less TAKEN anything. Fuckers!

[Durandal]

When my band takes off, we're planning to find a way of releasing our music locally for absoloutely free. The only issue will be recording onto CD's, but online distribution will be really easy.

Even if we ever make it big, the music is going to be fucking free. Bands make more than enough money on tours and merchandise.

Vivé la revolution!

If I were you, I'd focus on online distribution. Most people have their own CD burners, so you could just provide them with playlists of the songs you think should go together. For those with CD labelers, you could also provide CD art. Just distribute your stuff in MP3 (preferably LAME-encoded) or AAC (preferably QuickTime encoded) and not WMA. The latter two options make your music available to people on all platforms, not just Windows.

[phongn]

If I were you, I'd focus on online distribution. Most people have their own CD burners, so you could just provide them with playlists of the songs you think should go together. For those with CD labelers, you could also provide CD art. Just distribute your stuff in MP3 (preferably LAME-encoded) or AAC (preferably QuickTime encoded) and not WMA. The latter two options make your music available to people on all platforms, not just Windows.

/men in white coats drags Phong away as he screams "FLAC" over and over again.

There's always CD Baby - which publishes music but the band/person retains copyright. They also work with iTMS and Listen.com.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I suppose they would want to take away the CD-R that a local band put together and I paid $5 for, hmm? Fuckers.

[Embracer Of Darkness]

When my band takes off, we're planning to find a way of releasing our music locally for absoloutely free. The only issue will be recording onto CD's, but online distribution will be really easy.

Even if we ever make it big, the music is going to be fucking free. Bands make more than enough money on tours and merchandise.

Vivé la revolution!

If I were you, I'd focus on online distribution. Most people have their own CD burners, so you could just provide them with playlists of the songs you think should go together. For those with CD labelers, you could also provide CD art. Just distribute your stuff in MP3 (preferably LAME-encoded) or AAC (preferably QuickTime encoded) and not WMA. The latter two options make your music available to people on all platforms, not just Windows.

Yeah, that was the main plan as distribution is just a pain in the ass for local bands around here. There are some local small-time labels that would gladly print and burn us proffessional quality CD's, but that's costly. Online distribution would indeed be a better idea, and alot easier to keep our music (keyword here) free.

I hope more bands in the future develop this philosophy and fuck the RIAA and similar companies right in the ass.

[Soulman]

City Music, also in Indianapolis, was raided on October 1, with manager Jerome Avery quoted as saying, "They came in and took anything that was on a recordable CD. The only DJ mixes I had were behind the counter for personal listening, and they confiscated them. How can it be illegal if the artist is making them for the street? They came without a notice - no warrant, no nothing. They're making up their own laws, if you ask me."

They CANNOT do that. Period. If they didn't have a warrent, they couldn't have even went behind the counter, much less TAKEN anything. Fuckers!

They could threaten not to let the record store sell any RIAA stuff which would mean that they quickly go out of business.

[DPDarkPrimus]

City Music, also in Indianapolis, was raided on October 1, with manager Jerome Avery quoted as saying, "They came in and took anything that was on a recordable CD. The only DJ mixes I had were behind the counter for personal listening, and they confiscated them. How can it be illegal if the artist is making them for the street? They came without a notice - no warrant, no nothing. They're making up their own laws, if you ask me."

They CANNOT do that. Period. If they didn't have a warrent, they couldn't have even went behind the counter, much less TAKEN anything. Fuckers!

They could threaten not to let the record store sell any RIAA stuff which would mean that they quickly go out of business.

They can't, though. They were police, not RIAA officials. You can tell them to fuck off until they have a warrent.

[Tribun]

This make me really wonder, if companies with a long-year quasi-monopoly are even capable of learning of the fall of thier predecessors...

[Anarchist Bunny]

God damn it, we have all these psycho's wasting their lives shooting up a school or bombing an abortion clinic or raiding animal testing clinics when they could be targeting companies like this.


Genius in work here. Now, here what we need to do, some how turn PETA against RIAA and hopefully the conflict will shatter both organizations and the rest can be cleaned up with a few handguns.

[McNum]

RIAA vs. PETA? Could be doable... Of course, you'd have to bend the truth a bit but...

CDs are made from dead animals!

Think about it... CDs are made of plastic, plastic can be made from oil, and oil is the remains of... dead animals!

Now if only we could plant that message in some PETA nutcase we might soon see banners with "CDs are MURDER!"

[Vertigo1]

City Music, also in Indianapolis, was raided on October 1, with manager Jerome Avery quoted as saying, "They came in and took anything that was on a recordable CD. The only DJ mixes I had were behind the counter for personal listening, and they confiscated them. How can it be illegal if the artist is making them for the street? They came without a notice - no warrant, no nothing. They're making up their own laws, if you ask me."

They CANNOT do that. Period. If they didn't have a warrent, they couldn't have even went behind the counter, much less TAKEN anything. Fuckers!

I guess the assholes never heard of the little thing called "Illegal search and seizure"....

[DPDarkPrimus]

I suppose if they aren't aware of such a basic civil right, they deserve for it to be violated.

[Vertigo1]

I suppose if they aren't aware of such a basic civil right, they deserve for it to be violated.

You know....I think turnabout is fair play.

[Stormbringer]

I suppose if they aren't aware of such a basic civil right, they deserve for it to be violated.

Assuming they're telling the truth about the cops not having a warrant. I think it's far more likely they did have a warrant and he's just playing to the crowd. Certainly he could have pressed a suit against the cops for what they did.

[EmperorMing]

When my band takes off, we're planning to find a way of releasing our music locally for absoloutely free. The only issue will be recording onto CD's, but online distribution will be really easy.

Even if we ever make it big, the music is going to be fucking free. Bands make more than enough money on tours and merchandise.

Vivé la revolution!

This has been my thought on the whole matter. The only thing needed is exposure, and one good way to get that is by radio. And we know who has that currently locked up at this time...

[Vertigo1]

This has been my thought on the whole matter. The only thing needed is exposure, and one good way to get that is by radio. And we know who has that currently locked up at this time...

Have you talked to the local radio stations? I know of several here in the Memphis, TN area that play local bands.

[Slartibartfast]

http://www.deviantart.com/view/486631/

[EmperorMing]

This has been my thought on the whole matter. The only thing needed is exposure, and one good way to get that is by radio. And we know who has that currently locked up at this time...

Have you talked to the local radio stations? I know of several here in the Memphis, TN area that play local bands.

Down here in Houston the only way to get local exposure is by college radio or by listner sponsored 90.1 KPFT, and they do a pretty good job on their own as it is.

For example, 104 KRBE has its head so far up RIAA ass (in my opinion as they play top 40 drivel) that they would miss the local stuff. 94.5 is BUZZ, and you know where that comes from. Same goes for the other popular stations.

I don't know of too many people who listen to non-local stations as some of them can be difficult to pick up. Oh well...

90.1 is really the only way to go locally.