All...
My recent question about artists and mp3s may have been seen as
moralizing, but that wasn't the point. I was curious about other artists
who had weighed in against mp3s because it doesn't seem to me that many
artists are making their voices heard. If the artistic community really
cares, why haven't we heard more? All I see on this list (aside from
what I mentioned last time) is overeager fans ready to spill their
morality onto the rest of us. My question is this: if the artists don't
care enough to make their own voices heard, why should we care?
The truth is this: mp3s are not going away. They may not take off like
some think they will, but no one is going to ban mp3s forever. If record
companies find a way to make money from mp3s, they'll cement their place
forever in modern music.
Copyright law is fine and dandy, and I respect the artists' rights to
their own work, but very little of this seems to be about copyright law.
Either it's about someone pushing their morality down your throat or
it's about money. I fully respect the Ninjas stance on this, but they're
not going out of business because of this. Ninja Tune fans are going to
buy records and support the label...have no fear. Smaller labels like
Ninja Tune should be concerned, but not really worried...very few of us
are going to wait for MMM's next album to be show up on napster; no,
we'll be in the store shelling out hard currency.
The difference between mp3s today and the radio (and bootlegs) twenty
years ago is minimal. Think of mp3s as airtime (on the net, rather than
the radio) which can be heard AND recorded, just like the radio twenty
years ago. The difference, of course, is the technology and the ability
to have a more perfect copy (i.e. mp3) than was available twenty years
ago. But, consider this...our ears are more finely tuned these days. I
would have been happy with a radio copy of a live show then...today, I
want CD-quality sound...which, as we all know, doesn't happen as often
as you would like with mp3s. Just look at the number of people
complaining about mp3 sound quality and you will see that even as
technology bridges the gaps, so too do our ears adapt and find new
flaws.
One last thing concerning mp3s and the record industry. It's high time
this happened! As long as record companies continue to sell a 48-minute
cd for $16.99 after they've only spent $1-2 on production costs, then
expect us to buy the entire CD for one hit single, I don't feel guilt
about pulling an mp3 off the net. If they want to play the game of
greed, I'll play, too.
This isn't about the artists getting their due and it never was...if it
was, labels would be more concerned about the artists actually GETTING
their due and less about taking as much from the consumer as they can
get. Perhaps this happens with smaller labels (Does Warp or Skam or
Ninja Tune give a higher % to the artist than, say, Capitol?), though I
wouldn't know.
I respect those dissenting opinions in this argument, but mp3s are not
going away. Napster might be hit hard, but something else will come
along. Instead of complaining and playing morality police, those artists
and record companies who don't like losing out on money should find a
way to use mp3s to their own advantage. If you want to make it about
money, fine...let's make it about money. But don't play morality police
and begin talking about 'poor, starving artists' who need that
money...if they're poor and starving, it's because their record
contracts aren't paying them enough. See, if you want to make it about
money, we can play that way, too.
---brian
p.s. anyone else hear about LucasArts suing Dr. Dre over copyright
infringement? Interesting timing now that Dr. Dre has come out against
Napster...I wonder where LucasArts stands on this napster discussion...
--
And then the evil hurdy-gurdy came tumbling down.
And all that remained
was the purple alien
and his bodhisatva friend
who salivated too much
to have his own friends.
Brian Gause
Technical Writer
Applications Division
Oracle Corporation
(650) 506-1311
bgause@us.oracle.com
The statements and opinions expressed here are my own and do not
necessarily represent those of Oracle Corporation.
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