Music Industry Still Stuffing Genies Back In Bottles

No offense to our fave Lady at the Bar, Sara, but what planet do lawyers come from? This record label attorney says we're "stealing" when we copy our own music, because that cuts them outta the loop one more time again. I guess record labels will be asking the government to bail them out next too. Especially given the new Radiohead business model just unleashed this week. Take a number. (Or in the Radiohead case, pick a number.)

Pariser (attorney for Sony BMG) noted that music labels make no money on touring, radio, or merchandise, which leaves the company particularly exposed to the negative effects of file-sharing. "It's my personal belief that Sony BMG is half the size now as it was in 2000," she said, thanks to piracy. In Pariser's view, "when people steal, when they take music without compensation, we are harmed."

Pariser has a very broad definition of "stealing." When questioned by Richard Gabriel, lead counsel for the record labels, Pariser suggested that what millions of music fans do is actually theft. The dirty deed? Ripping your own CDs or downloading songs you already own.

That full article here. As always, Ugly Bobby weighs in with the straight-up-and-in-yo-face analysis:

Oh, you know that Cupertino company. The one that RUINED THE BUSINESS! Yes, everybody wanted CDs and they developed this iPod contraption and now everybody wants files. Is this really Apple's fault? Or did they just seize an opportunity? More to the point, have the majors constantly SQUANDERED opportunities?

Is the Internet the end, or the beginning? Is it really true that no one can get paid online? Or do we just need a better business model? Do bands have to survive on tours? What about composers, non-touring artists...are they FUCKED? The majors would say so.

And the dead-tree news people think they've got it bad. Ha. So after reading Bobby's blog, where he writes about how great it was to hear Pete Townsend/The Who's song, Pure and Easy, again (he heard it via satellite radio I believe), the power of INTERNET-RELATED SUGGESTION works its many charms on me, again, and I'm off to download that very song. I too haven't heard it, also a fave of mine, in so many years.

Who profits from this particular action? You? Me? Us? Pete's kids? A monk in Burma? Just comment here and I'll burn you a copy too. Come to think about it, where's Pete when you need him the most? Downloading kiddie porn? And where's the Dali Lama? Hanging out at Emory? Jeez...

UPDATE: Realizing I still only have Who's Next on LP, I ended-up downloading the entire album. Let the snowballing begin. It sounds so fucking great again! Once was a note - listen...

And He Can Remember?

Hands down, the haziest years of my life were 1983-1987. And this dude, of all things a drummer for the Ramones for that time frame, claims he recalls being there. Ha! I'd toss out the lawsuit immediately on the grounds that it's impossible to verify what anyone operating in rock-n-roll from '83-'87 really did or did not do.

A punk-rock drummer who did a four-year stint with the Ramones in the 1980s filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against Wal-Mart, Apple and the estate of the band’s lead guitarist, claiming that they violated his copyrights by making and distributing digital downloads of songs he wrote while with the band.

Richard Reinhardt — professionally known, in the band’s standard practice, as Richie Ramone — was with the band the Velveteens when, according to the Ramones’ official Web site, he “kept the beat” from 1983 to 1987 while the Ramones’ regular drummer, Marky Ramone, was “on hiatus.” Mr. Reinhardt claims that the rights to his songs were taken without his permission by Ramones Production Inc. and by the estate of John Cummings, better known as Johnny Ramone, the band’s lead guitarist, who died in 2004.

Click here for a great headline to this NYTimes article.

Things Change

Let me recount a little story a dear friend of mine told me about when she was a reporter for the AJC and used to cover technology, back when they actually cared about technology...

Friend said she had "sent herself", late nineties I assume, to a biggy music industry conference, just as the music industry was starting to have some serious shifts in their tectonic plates. Napster was running loose through the industry, and the industry was fighting back hard... in all the wrong places. At some point in the Biggy Conference, the head of the RIAA stated that the industry would go digital and drive themselves totally off the industry farm via the MP3, and I paraphrase here, over her dead body.

At that point, a young indie music techno type stood up and yelled towards the titans at the front of the room, "You're a fucking dinosaur, lady." Others took up the chant. All hell broke loose, and my friend, always the intrepid reporter, ran off to call the AJC desk in excitement to say things were just completely in chaos in, gee, of all things... the little 'ole recording industry, and that she needed a LOT of room, like maybe the front page even, to tell this kind of story the way it should be told.

The utterly disinterested (editor) voice on the other end of the phone told her, "You can have 10 inches."

I recount this tale only to warn of times here in a town long run by Cox Plantation Enterprises, and one other alt publication, that the music industry fought and raged against the new, digital machine, and they lost. Their entire industry is in turmoil. And as we move towards what the APC so quaintly calls "New Media" here in the news biz, don't be surprised if we too experience a few You're a fucking dinosaur moments of our own. It's not so much "New Media" as it is an industry-smashing tsunami.

As I mention over at Radical Georgia Moderate, it is a sorry day in hell when journalists like Doug Monroe, who at this point in a fine career should be running papers, are run out of town, and the papers are left to be run into the ground by the likes of Ken Edelstein and Julia Wallace.

Then again, with arrogant, clueless jerks in charge of papers, we have nothing to fear. They’ll only help steer an entire industry right into the ground… just like a lot of aging dinos did with the music industry. As if all the people watching ‘em crash and burn, here on the ground going digital, could care less.

I hope they don’t ask us to come and haul their derisive, dismissive, divisive, arrogant butts out of the wreckage either… we’ve got new media product to keep on cranking.

BumRush The Charts On March 22

The animals are now running the circus, folks.

While I hardly believe for a moment that "college students are among the most misunderstood and underestimated groups of people by big media" (that would really be bloggers), this IS just the coolest viral marketing, social media concept going. I got a perfect thrill thinking about participating:

"On March 22nd, the podcasting community is going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street.

The track we've chosen is "Mine Again" by the band Black Lab. A band, mind you, that was just dropped from not one, but two major record labels (Geffen and Sony/Epic), and in the process forced them to fight to get their own music back.

We picked them because making them number one, even for just one day, will remind the RIAA record labels of what they turned their backs on - and who they ignore at their peril."

So mark your calendars to download, donate to a good cause, own a very good pop song, and help change world economic order -- all in about 2 minutes on March 22. This CAN be done!


HT: AR via del.icio.us. This post put together to (Big Media) Madonna's Ray of Light (Twilo Mix), "Zephyr in the sky at night, do tears at morning sink beneath the sun? With a little ray of light, I'm flying."

Clap Your Hands Say Do It Yourself

While I'm not a massive Clap Your Hands Say Yeah music fan, I am a HUGE fan of their business model -- which is based entirely on the (savvy) use of social media. Recently, Ugly Bobby said something dumb about their sales (see #47) because the CYHSY manager, Nick Stern, sent Bobby Lestat this email message below, which kinda sums up just who's going to define success from here on out. Hint: we are!

Hi Bob,
As usual, I'm shocked by your attitude towards Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I'm convinced you haven't listened to their new record, and I'm saddened that the model created with this band isn't given more recognition by the one person who has called for all the changes we've actually put into practice. To call what we're doing "IRRELEVANT" undermines every single email you send out.

"There's no buzz here, nobody cares."
I don't know what world you're living in, but I think selling 19,000 records in a week means lots of people care. Maybe you're talking about that traditional buzz you're used to, the barrage of radio and video, snipes and singles, playing the game. This is a band that's never made a video, never played with Nickelback at a radio show, never done all those things every other band is forced to do.

The marketing/publicity/radio/video budget for this record is under $15,000. They made a record, they put it out. And they live much better than 95% of all bands I've worked with, including the vast majority of acts I worked with during my time at a major - all this while owning their masters and publishing, touring in a bus, and not being forced to do anything they don't want to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUIsP23LTk0

You're so fond of using Pollstar numbers to prove people don't care about bands - go check out ours, from around the world. You'll see the band has been headlining shows for a year now, and maybe 5 or so haven't sold out. Check the numbers from last time they were in LA, two sold out nights at the Fonda. Check out the numbers in Tokyo, London, Paris, Hamburg, Minneapolis, Boston, Chicago, Seattle....go look Bob, you'll see that people do actually care ALOT about this band.

Last year you made some list of 25 things that band's should or shouldn't do. CYHSY had followed 24 of them, the one exception being that they played Letterman. I can never fault a band for wanting to play that show. It's fun playing on the same stage the Beatles played on. But seeing as how we're pretty much your poster children, I'm amazed you don't show us more respect. And go listen to their music. You might actually like it.

Nick Stern
Manager, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Makes Tony Soprano Seem Impotent

Quote du jour: "All Meech did was walk in the spot and panties got moist."

Wow! Know who Big Meech is, white ATL? You will now. Here's the kinda throwdown, hardcore, local reporting work we've been waiting for: exposing the moguls and the scenes behind the scenes of Atlanta's music industry, and veering into something very sinister called the Black Mafia Family.

Wanna know more? Mara Shaloup has a crack investigative piece, a year in the making, in three parts, the first part being in this week's Creative Loafing. This is some serious dirt folks, appropriately titled: Hip-hop's shadowy empire. Get reading. You can thank me (and PS) later.

(Why don't I ever get invited to these kinda parties? I adore champagne. And if you're a real writer, here's your New South material just waiting there in the gutter for you to reach down and pick-up.)

Amateurs

So bands that don't like the way the music site Pitchfork writes about their "music" make cute little videos of double entendre disgust and put 'em on YouTube? What a darling love letter compared to the cracked skulls that used to be administered to smart-ass music critics in Atlanta back in the day.

Try as they might, those gumming wannabees at Pitchfork will likely never achieve full-bite DTL status. Ahhhh... the good 'ole days of genuine music industry abuse.

Shut Up and Change The World

Finally went to see Shut Up & Sing, a film I've had an ad for here on the SGR for a while. It is absolutely amazing to watch Natalie Maines not only give the finger to country-fuck rednecks everywhere and the radio industry (as we knew it), but to change the entire music industry in front of our faces, all the while making a complete artistic and emotional shift from within.

Natalie Maines is my freakin' hero. She sings like a dream, and her Dixie Chicks posse can play the holy crap outta their instruments. Plus, you gotta love the hair and makeup. Talk about getting your $8.50's worth. All in all, a righteous ticket to a righteous place in time.

Kobb Kounty Krowes

Hey Cobb County -- Chris Robinson's back on the market! Talk about your dubious achievements. Now that Robinson's served papers (scroll down) on his hoochie-coochie, double-dipping young wife, Kate Hudson, and asked for joint custody, that puts him back in the universal dating pool.

Ah... the White Dot days in the ATLanta when Robinson of Mayretta, Jawja was just a total bum in Mr. Crowes Garden, a band that was not very cool, but they sure liked to party. I confess to digging Chris' clothes, particularly those tight yum-yum pants. Yeah, I'd go on a playdate, kids in tow, with him. And why not.

Rick Rubin once wanted to change the name of the band to the Kobb Kounty Krowes, according to the always-dubious Wikipedia. Stupidity knows no boundaries in the music industry. The fact alone that Chris, etc. refused to go along with such idiocy is reason enough to date him.

Someone Is More Pissed Off Funny Than You

And I found him! The dude, Bob Lefsetz, is an aging, ugly and angry music biz attorney who truly answers to no one. In other words, one of the last great pompous shagger types, full of shit and full of themselves, the kinda guys who were just crazy-great in bed -- before the years of getoverself-medication took their best parts away and left them to, at last, overwork their mighty fine brains instead. Whether with prescriptions or booze, it seems to happen to the best of 'em. But I diverge.

Bobby "Lestat's" caustic honesty is wicked, hilarious and unflinching -- unrivaled by any, except for the great DTL. (Oh, don't you too wish that boy would blog?? Think of the chick-fans who would line-up to do his, uh, bidding! Some of 'em might be a little matronly and grey at this point, but the feminine vital skills get nothing but better with age. That's the rub isn't it? And you dumb fucks out there chasing young trim are so missing out on the good stuff, besides being laughed at royally behind your backs.) Anyways, I diverge again...

Here's an excerpt from Ugly Bobby -- the best blogger out there. Full blog here:

Oh, don’t you LAUGH when baby boomers start railing against MySpace? These same personages who hitchhiked all over America are fearful that Little Benjamin and Madison are too fucking dumb to ferret out true from false online and some bogeyman is going to knock on the front door, since the kids proferred their address and cell number, and whisk them away into slavery, if not DEATH!

We live in a land of rampant falsehoods perpetrated by baby boomers all proffered in the name of keeping those uttering them in CONTROL! You doubt me? Just look at the President.

WARNING: I don't recommend subscribing to his stuff though, as he's totally manic and your Inbox will get flooded with ranting. Then again, maybe that's your kinda thing. Just more advice you didn't ask for.

HA-HA NOTE: I may be the last person in America to have seen these, but Gawd, they will crack you the fuck up! Thanks Tania, for the clue-in. I can't stop watching! Hilarious. It's good stuff, especially if you loathe Fundies. (Oh jeez, it just gets worse and worse as it plays out.)

This post put together by DrivinNCryin: "Playing records, Patti Smith and Howlin' Wolf." A special prize to the first person who can name the song & LP that line is from.

Technorati tags: Great blogs, Culture meltdown, music

Shut Up And Blog

The Dixie Chicks, bless their pretty, righteous hearts, were well received in NYC this week. Big surprise there. They play Phillips Arena here in Atlanta in Oct. I am so fond of this new record, Taking The Long Way Home, that I might even brave arena rock to see them. Pay for the sins of my fellow southerners. Out the ass no doubt.

The same people who went into a frenzy over Natalie Maines' anti-Bush remarks in 2003 remind me so of the South Carolinians who handed Bush his victory over McCain in the primary there in 2000; thus paving the road to White House gold. They went into the same sheep-like, rabid frenzy over Rove's Atwater-inspired whisper campaign, or push poll, over McCain's "black baby." Seems like McCain's other (white) baby is now tougher than the rest, and has joined the Marines - something no southern patriotism-droolers nor Yale frat boys seem to be doing in droves about right now.

But what I'm really looking forward to is the Barbara Koppel documentary about the Dixie Chicks. Somehow, I don't think the South's going to get off looking very pretty in this one. At least the Chicks can escape to the big Culture Refuge Center whenever they need to - Manhattan, of course.

Sometimes I despise southerners.

In other new... CBS News recently did a feature about the virtual community, Second Life. The replay of the package that aired is on this list. Scroll down to the one called Living In The Virtual World.

One of my oldest, dearest friends is featured in this package, Catherine Smith. She's head of marketing now for Second Life/Linden Lab, and originally from Atlanta. Dig that pirate ship across the bay! Gotta go get me one of those, fer sure. Or maybe that rock star wedding... Hell, I could even get a date in Second Life.

tags: Dixie Chicks, South, Cool moms, Easily led, Sheep-like behavior, Stupid southerners, John McCain, Second Life

Get Back Loretta

The CMA's annual awards show moves to NYC tonight. Why this has to be is beyond me. I can't think of a single New Yorker who listens to or appreciates country music. Then again, they probably can't get over Brooks and Dunn shouting cliche-ridden jingles from their rooftops. Neither can I.

On the way to a real job interview today, I had a few minutes to spare and picked up an actual hard-copy version of the AJC. Glad I did, otherwise I might have missed the bricks-and-mortar-bashing guest editorial by Atlanta blogger, Leonard Witt, the Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication at Kennesaw State University, a member of Atlanta Media Bloggers and chief blogger at the excellent PJNET.

Witt is trying hard to keep the faith in Ye 'Olde AJC. Why this too really needs to happen is also beyond me, but he goes way out on a limb and says:

Thanks to inexpensive digital publishing tools, the public has found its voice and is demanding to be heard. If the AJC integrates its journalism expertise and vast resources into this new bottom-up model, it will thrive, while improving the reach, depth and quality of journalism it cooperatively produces with its audience.

The movement toward community journalism has begun, and every day the Journal-Constitution waits, the further it falls behind the curve.

Full editorial here.

Such reasoning assumes that the AJC is not quite to the critical, Terry Schiavo/pull-the-plug NOW state of utter vegetation, and can (should?) be resuscitated. The clock is ticking though - loudly. At what point will newspapers/Big Media have to pull-in Congressional assistance in a last-gasp effort to save their own dinosaur-ass? Believe me, droves of droning lawyers are likely hard at work already.

And here's your Moment Of Real Deal, lovies...