The RIAA Armageddon has begun

Think this news item fits here pretty nicely:

Metallica keep touring due to royalty cuts

my heart bleeds for millionaire rockers leading millionaire lifestyles

Yeah, I mean...it pretty much sounds like he's saying they're "forced" to tour now because the days when they could piss away millions of dollars between albums are over. Let me switch on my violin-playing nanomachine for ya, brohams.

yeah i mean if releasing THE BIGGEST SELLING ALBUM OF THE SOUNDSCAN ERA doesn't pay your bills then i don't know what

Did Lulu really sell that much?

No, it was S&M.

isn't this story like a year old?

maybe its a constant bane on these rich rockstars lives

can you believe this shit, having to play to sold out stadium audiences every goddamn summer like some kind of pathetic animal

never used limewire nor have i ever met anyone who has

LimeWire's the only P2P I've ever used, tbh.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/29/google_copyright_takedown_requests/

Google now gets 250k copyright takedown requests EACH WEEK
More than all requests made during all of 2009

Von Lohmann said that Google tries to make the notice and takedown process as quick and efficient as possible and had last week been able to process requests on average within 11 hours. However, he said the company also attempts to "catch erroneous or abusive removal requests".

"We recently rejected two requests from an organization representing a major entertainment company, asking us to remove a search result that linked to a major newspaper’s review of a TV show," he said. "The requests mistakenly claimed copyright violations of the show, even though there was no infringing content."

"We’ve also seen baseless copyright removal requests being used for anticompetitive purposes, or to remove content unfavorable to a particular person or company from our search results. We try to catch these ourselves, but we also notify webmasters in our Webmaster Tools when pages on their website have been targeted by a copyright removal request, so that they can submit a counter-notice if they believe the removal request was inaccurate."

slow clap

this could be embarrassing for some people hahah
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18281187

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/05/riaa-wants-to-issue-unlimited-takedowns-to-google/

& this is more about software than music, but a good indicator of the real game that's being played. RIAA wish they were playing chess at this level.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/05/microsoft-requests-takedowns-from-google-but-content-remains-on-bing/

Here you’ll find requests from companies that have asked Google to take down URLs for copyright infringement. Who’s the most prolific takedown requester? It’s Microsoft, which has requested that more than 2.5 million URLs be removed. But here’s the kicker: Microsoft has asked Google to remove URLs from its search results, while leaving some of those very same URLs active on its own search engine, Bing.

haha, wow.

hahaha

"Bing, the filesharing-friendly search engine, pwning GOOG since 2012"

Ben Dover Productions says the pornographic industry has been "decimated" by piracy

Tragic.

pouring one out in honor of Peter North ;_;

"pouring"

I am not touching fkin Bing even for free stuff.

just caught that metallica quote and holy shit sure hope they don't end up as wal-mart greeters someday

xp lol otm

David Lowery responds to NPR intern who downloaded lots of stuff.

Stephen Street in the comments!

I agree with his overall message, if not all of his points.

Like this part best:

"I also find this all this sort of sad. Many in your generation are willing to pay a little extra to buy “fair trade” coffee that insures the workers that harvested the coffee were paid fairly. Many in your generation will pay a little more to buy clothing and shoes from manufacturers that certify they don’t use sweatshops. Many in your generation pressured Apple to examine working conditions at Foxconn in China. Your generation is largely responsible for the recent cultural changes that has given more equality to same sex couples. On nearly every count your generation is much more ethical and fair than my generation. Except for one thing. Artist rights."

ugh these people are giant pus stains

Your generation is almost as hypocritical as mine.

What generation is this guy from, where artists had 100% control over their works and there were no evil record companies?

Thats what im saying. "Many of your generation..." blow it up your ass u waste of flesh and die from it

I'm just glad we can forgive ethical oversights such as drones/government-sanctioned torture/war on terror/etc. because we buy Seventh Generation toilet paper.

I can't really fathom the mindset that tries to draw comparisons between the activities of artists/musicians and the labor of sweatshop workers.

Our intention is not to embarrass or shame her.

Then why not send this essay as an email rather than posting it in public.

I might have agreed with what he wrote but it was so patronising I could only get through the first few sentences.

"modestmickey"

And guess who weighs in!

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2012/06/18/the-david-lowery-screed/

Be the new Curt Flood

Flood sat out the entire 1970 season. The Cardinals sent two minor leaguers to the Phillies in compensation for Flood's refusal to report. One of them—centerfielder Willie Montañez—went on to a 14-year major league career. In November 1970 the Phillies traded Flood and four other players to the Washington Senators. He signed a $110,000 contract with Washington but played only 13 games of the 1971 season, with a .200 batting average and lackluster play in center field. Former teammate Gibson later wrote that Flood once returned to his locker to find a funeral wreath on it. Despite manager Ted Williams's vote of confidence, Flood retired.

as someone who still feels guilty about the time i was really glib in front of a musician I admire about ripping their music, I had no problem with David Lowery guilt-tripping someone who was glib about getting the benefits of being a music lover without having to spend a dime.

Yes, in context, lowery's article isn't condescending at all. I felt bad for the 21 year old intern a few times when he really got going, but overall, given the last sentence of her post, everyone clearly needed a lecture

And that Lefsetz post. Good lord, that guy, for all his 'straight talk'. He's wrong about everything it means to be human, and singlehandedly justifies every momentary bit of excess in David's article:

You start first with a killer product. And then you leverage this for change. Knowing that economics are more powerful than emotions.

...The problem is the artists.

Our intention is not to embarrass or shame her.

Then why not send this essay as an email rather than posting it in public.

I might have agreed with what he wrote but it was so patronising I could only get through the first few sentences.

― badg

OTM

Lefsetz is also bang on the money, especially this:

To be fighting file-sharing is akin to protesting dot matrix printers. File-trading is on its way out. Because it takes too much time to do it. And you don’t fight piracy with laws, but economic solutions. It doesn’t pay to steal if you can listen instantly on Spotify and its ilk.

(no disrespect intended to you, Milton, as obviously there are two sides to this)

Hardly, only if you're dumb like Lefsetz. As Lowery points out, Spotify and it ilk's business model is based on the threat of piracy. Even if streaming was to completely take over it would be reliant on the (now) hidden threat of downloading. So downloading still utterly relevant whether you agree with Lowery or Lefsetz's prescriptions.

I had no problem with David Lowery guilt-tripping someone who was glib about getting the benefits of being a music lover without having to spend a dime.

This being NPR, no doubt dude has PLENTY of experience guilt-tripping people about free music. LOL

Steve Albini, who has had problems with Lowery's recent stances anyway:

The two examples Lowery uses, Chestnutt and Sparklehorse, are prime examples of bands induced into living above their means and ending up in sharecropper status. Sure they had a money tit for a while, but when it becomes obvious to the money people your band's sales can't pay for quarter-million dollar recording budgets, then those budgets go away along with the other slush money those bands get to take advantage of.

It's not the fault of the audience that they were in a game rigged to induce wild, unsustainable expectations.

the 'picking on an intern' aspect of this is kind of silly imo -- she's an adult that wrote and published a piece in a high profile outlet, maybe she did or didn't get paid for it, but people should get to respond to what she wrote however they wish without it becoming about them beating up on a poor college kid. her byline prob shouldn't have had the word 'intern' in it just because it's kind of diminishing to begin with. lots of writers start as interns, it's no biggie.

I'll believe downloading is on its way out when I can no longer find things I want to download. Which, granted, may be happening, with the megaupload meltdown; it definitely is harder to find certain things. But I would be happy to live in a world when rips of old vinyl and true obscurities abound, and most other stuff is pay-to-play. The issue right now is one of temptation, not convenience. It's the equivalent of leaving an unattended bowl of candy on your porch on Halloween and expecting the honor system to surmount something so appealing and free.

I don't think streaming is the solution, just the medium, and I don't even need to read Lefsetz to know whatever he has to say is dumb. And the OTM Lowery thing - fuck thinking he sounded patronizing, boo hoo - seemed very much the tonal twin of nearly everything I have ever seen him write, from Camper Van Beethoven liner notes to similar essays in recent months, and I have no problem with it all. The guy has seen it from every side, as an artist, producer, label guy, academic, and he does a great, very effective job personalizing the effects of downloading by highlighting the fates of Linkous and Chesnutt, even honestly underscoring mitigating factors (drugs, depression) while still explaining the effect loss of income had on them. Lost amidst the debate is his concrete suggestion that if people profess to care yet still steal, they donate to one of his recommended music charities.

Unless he's privy to something none of us know, Albini is a complete dick for claiming Chesnutt, a paraplegic with a billion medical bills, and Linkous, a depressive with drug issues, were somehow "living above their means." In today's America, their means would likely have bought them a park bench for the night.

he seems to be pretty obviously talking about them as musical projects rather than the individuals' personal finances

Well, I'm not saying that you personally killed Mark Linkous, but...