The Scene

MusicDetour.com’s commentary on music, performances, and the DC metro area music scene

Are you interested in the ability for the independent musician to take-on the Big Four record labels? Then check-out the up-coming panels on Soul City Radio. During the month of February, Soul City Radio will be bringing you a series of panel discussions. The panels will be discussing various issues pertinent to the independent music industry and the artists that make up it’s ranks. Keep your mind open in order to

Each week will bring you a different panel and a different discussion. The following is a list of topics and panelists: (more…)

Do people still listen to music? I raise this question rhetorically because I just read another article about how music industry profits have declined over the past decade. While I don’t expect much from CNN Money, the content of that article seems as irrelevant as ever and does not touch on any of the implications of what the RIAA is saying (maybe the RIAA shouldn’t have sued its consumers). In fact, the article just made me think: “so what?”. The article never mentions that the RIAA’s data is only about major (and their subsidiary) record label sales and it is only discussing revenue – how much profit are the Big Four Record Labels making? Is that more or less than what they made a decade ago?

Furthermore, the article makes me wonder about other reasons the RIAA’s revenue could be down and other ways people listen to music. It could be the case (more…)

It’s about time that someone finally addressed the constitutionality of the RIAA’s lawsuits. While it has been about a year since the RIAA quit pursuing individual file-sharers and successfully began pressuring internet service providers to end file-sharers’ internet service, but there are plenty of cases still in the courts. Part of the problem has been the willingness of those sued to “settle” for a couple thousand dollars instead of paying the 6-7 figures that juries have been rewarding the RIAA or spend the money that it takes to appeal (and possibly lose). That is until now, Jammie Thomas-Rasset was told that she had to pay 1.5million dollars for sharing 24 songs, the judge then lowered the amount that the jury rewarded the RIAA to $54k (because the judge that 1.5million was ridiculous and 54k was still harsh). (more…)

Whenever some new use of the internet to download music comes along, the Recording Industry Association of America tries to shut the action down through litigation . . . unless of course the action was created by iTunes. This time around Apple is interested in cloud computing where iTunes users can access their music database via streaming technology from anywhere there’s the internet. Users would upload their (legally purchased) music onto an Apple server and always have access to their music. Sounds good, only this idea is not new nor has the RIAA been approving of this structure in the past. (more…)

There is a lot at stake with the development of digital music and the ability to download it over the internet. One of the biggest confusions occurs when the Recording Industry Association of America discusses file-sharing as something that will end recorded music as we know it. If you listen to the RIAA, you are liable to believe that there will no longer be recorded music if file-sharers keep “pirating” music, but this is not close to the truth. Yes, major record labels could lose their dominance in the market place, but does that mean that music is dead? The RIAA has been claiming that the disintermediation provided by the internet will lead to the decline and ultimately the failure of the recording industry. The decline of the recording industry, however, is not the end of music. While the recording industry cannot exist without music, music can exist without the recording industry (even the music industry can exist without the recording industry).

Here’s a broad overview of how the “recording industry” has developed in the United States. (more…)

Previously, I mentioned that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) won its first lawsuit against people sharing music via the internet. As long as there has been copyright legislation, there has been “piracy” – I’m sure that someone was bootlegging copies of Beethoven’s symphonies. However, no one had before been charged for pirating something where they were in turn not profiting from its sale. Sharing music online is not the same thing as selling illegally reproduced music. Furthermore, all of this is being done in the name of the musicians – the RIAA argues that when people download music on file-sharing programs, they are stealing from musicians. But where is the money going from the RIAA’s litigation? Typically the money from lawsuits (not just about file-sharing) goes back to the RIAA and the major record labels. What follows is a brief explanation of why the RIAA and the major record labels are more exploitative of musicians than file-sharers. Future blog posts will further elucidate the erroneous nature of the music industry’s arguments about file-sharing. (more…)

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been filing lawsuits against “pirates” (aka music file-sharers) since 2003, but few people have tried to fight them. They sue users for an absurd amount of money for each song that they upload and these people usually have uploaded songs in the 1000s. In fact no case has gone to trial . . . until now. A jury of your “peers” found Jammie Thomas-Rasset guilty of willfully violating copyright law – cost: $1.92 million! You read that right, $1,920,000 or $80,000 per song and they convicted her of sharing 24 songs. (more…)

For years, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been suing people for sharing files. One of the main problems is that the RIAA has never been remotely transparent about who they are suing. Now I’m no legal scholar, but it occurred to me two years ago that this seems to violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Unfortunately, the RIAA’s tactics for suing file-sharers have been so egregious that no one has had the financial power to fight their lawsuits. They sue for as much as thousands of dollars per song with total lawsuits in the frequently in the millions. If the plaintiff wants to fight the lawsuit, the RIAA’s lawyers make it clear that it is going to cost more to fight than they have in assets. Then, plaintiffs are usually given the option to settle for the amount of their total life savings. This is certainly a criminal action by the RIAA, but no one has had the courage to fight back until now. Enter Joel Tenenbaum. (more…)

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is charged with the task of creating a legal/political atmosphere so that record labels can generate massive profits. While it professes to be representative of the entire recording industry, the members of its board are primarily from the “Big Four” record labels (Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner). These four companies control the vast majority of the music industry (including so-called “indie” labels).

(more…)