Why the Record Industry Doesn't Stand a Chance

Newhouse News Service ^ | Aug. 19, 2003 | JAMES LILEKS

[discostu]

Doesn't matter if anybody actually does. We're giving them the tool.

I've already got the cigar, the courts have decided.

[Revolting cat!]

You're starting to hit too close to home talking about people "who can do absolutely nothing for themselves"! "What to do?" was actually a rhetorical question I was asking myself, and the "tragedy" I was speaking of above was my own as well, I'm afraid. Frankly, I don't know anyone who's immune to the art consumerist disease. Maybe that white blues guitar player I met last weekend at a farmer's market is. I looked at him with so much envy. Be that as it may, I thank you for taking the old MP3 downloading discussion to another level in more ways than one.

[discostu]

There is no art consumerist tragedy. Not everybody can create art, not everybody EVER could. The difference is now people who can't create it can still enjoy it. There's no evidence what-so-ever that fewer people are creating art, if anything more are because it can be mass produced and sold. It's a lot easier to make a living on art now than it ever was before. Adding consumers to the mix has made it easier to create full time, though whether or not one has what it takes to be a creator is uneffected.

[George W. Bush]

I've already got the cigar, the courts have decided.

No, they decided only one round. If you look at the RIAA tactics against servers and server operators and IP logs, you might want to reconsider that.

You can call it 'fair use' if you like. I still think we're news pirates and breaking down the copyright wall before DMCA succeeds in criminalizing and controlling everything. And there's no reason to believe that the LAT/WP case has granted some immunity to FR. No legal precedent was set. FR is still a potential target. They're just leaving us alone. Either they want to pile up more incriminating evidence against FR and all its users or they're actually satisfied to have a window to seeing what ordinary readers think. I think its the latter. We're more valuable (and possibly more entertaining) to them as a marketing and feedback tool than we would be as a litigation target. But then, they can pursue the litigation angle a decade from now just as well and probably more profitably as more people cyle through FR, leaving their IPs in the logs which provides the basis for identifying them and suing them, much like they are doing with the DTV pirates and staring in on the Kazaa pirates right now. For both purposes, the bigger FR is, the better for those whose copyrighted materials we republish without permission or compensation.

[Revolting cat!]

I disagree. Instead of "create art", let's call it "reproduce art". Before the advent of the recording industry, most or many middle class people played a musical instrument and purchased sheet music. Sheet music publishing was big business until perhaps WWII. How are sheet music publishers doing nowadays?

[discostu]

Totally different battle. We're already living well outside how the RIAA is pushing the copyright for music and that's been decided in our favor INSPITE of the fact that the RIAA is prevailing in that front with the music.

[George W. Bush]

You're starting to hit too close to home talking about people "who can do absolutely nothing for themselves"! "What to do?" was actually a rhetorical question I was asking myself, and the "tragedy" I was speaking of above was my own as well, I'm afraid.

Nonsense. I personally have almost no talent. But I refuse to give up!

That alone is all that separates those who can from those who can't. Sheer stubbornness, a refusal to quit, to be beaten.

There is no mystical divine spirit, no genius of music in any but a few people in any generation, people like Mozart or Chopin. The rest learned it by persistance. It's a little easier for some than others. But if you give some thought to how much time you spend listening to music, for instance, that makes a lot of practice time. If you instead spent that time for a few years being very serious about an instrument (or painting or elegant handcraft, etc.), you'd be amazed at what you can learn. Amazed! I promise you.

I'm 45 and ignored the piano for over a decade. But in just the last few years I've been astonished at what my hands have learned to do. After acquiring a very fine used Yahama U3 piano, it got even better. But then, this is entirely the fault of Frederic Chopin. He was one of those rare ones who are brilliant on an almost inhuman scale. And yet, he was humble and didn't hold that high an opinion of his own work. And only played a formal public appearance about thirty times in his life.

Take a chance on yourself. Before it's too late. Discard your ideas about 'talent'. Much like 'romance', the very idea is poisonous to human creativity and happiness.

Just don't ask me about my love life...

[discostu]

No we'll call it CREATE art because that is EXACTLY what is going on. Thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of new original pieces of art (music, movies, books, short fiction, paintings, drawings, etc etc) are being CREATED every month in this country. AFTER the creation process much of it is repoduced for mass distribution, but that doesn'tchange the fact that new 100% original art was created.

No most people didn't play a musical instrument, some people played a musical instrument, most people had someone in their family or close friends that played. And that's still how it is today.

Sheet music publishing is still doing very well. Compared to listenable musical forms it's a minor market but it's still quite lucrative and a significant section of many music stores and bookstores. It doesn't get the press it used to because there's more ways to enjoy music now but the number of people playing their favorite songs is still up. Here's a couple of links to show you:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-keywords=sheet%20music&search-type=ss&bq=1/103-2333324-5585409
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=tablature&spell=1
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22sheet+music%22&btnG=Google+Search

[George W. Bush]

We're already living well outside how the RIAA is pushing the copyright for music and that's been decided in our favor INSPITE of the fact that the RIAA is prevailing in that front with the music.

No, a single case was settled. Our policy was modified to come closer to 'fair use' with regard to that family of publications. They are a very small minority of all the articles on FR.

The actual victory was that, as long as we excerpt, they apparently are willing to consider us a 'fair use' case. That is a victory in and of itself and something of a precedent but it hardly redefined the application of copyright law and it provided no insurance against new suits from them and certainly not from other syndicators/publishers whose full stories are reprinted here without authorization or compensation.

[discostu]

No our policy was changed to keep certain organizations happy. the simple fact that Gannett News Service, AP, UPI and Reuters (the big dogs of news, the equivalent to the RIAA) haven't gone after us tells us everything we need to know. We're in good on fair use.

[Jim Cane]

I haven't seen too many Boosey & Hawks offerings on the shelves lately, but URTEXT and Schirmers are still doing well. Dover has published most of the public domain music and enjoys a pretty good share of sales and shelf space at places like Borders, Barnes, etc.

Warner Bros seems to pump out a lot of sheet music.

I have mixed feelings on this. If the recording industry dies, how difficult will it then be to acquire new recordings of the bigger numbers like Brucker's 9th, or Mahlers 8th? Naxos is selling some fair to middling recordings in the 5 to 5 dollar range.

Perhaps the death of the record industry will mark a return to less dumbed down, mass marketed music in favour of local talent played live.

Imagine a world of filled concert halls. There is so much talent in this world and it can be heard simply by getting off the couch and venturing into some of the local clubs and smaller venues. There are probably 100 sax players performing around in this country right now who are better than Charlie Parker, and hardly anyone's heard of them.

MTV killed music. feh!

America, turn off your effing tv and try something new for a change!

[Revolting cat!]

I have mixed feelings on this. If the recording industry dies, how difficult will it then be to acquire new recordings of the bigger numbers like Brucker's 9th, or Mahlers 8th?

It already seems to be dying as far as classical music is concerned from what I can see in my local record stores. Certainly, you can't blame teenagers for downloading Bruckner! (Although I see my daughter has downloaded Moonlight Sonata from somehwere.) Is all the business going to Amazon? I don't think so. From what I've read there are fewer classical music recordings being issued. The market is dying in this case.

[George W. Bush]

Instead of "create art", let's call it "reproduce art".

Your remark here reminded me. Since these MP3's are distributed at a much lower bitrate, no one is actually 'reproducing' any identical copies. If the bitrate is high enough, it's close. But more often, a good stereo will reveal that an MP3 isn't the same thing as a CD audio track (and a CD still isn't as good as a good vinyl record and player).

So, if we say that the average MP3 on Kazaa is only 70%-80% as good as the original CD from which it was ripped, then we're talking about a form of the music, not the exact music product.

We're talking about cheap low-quality copies. In particular, ones that aren't really satisfying on good playback equipment. So it is not theft of an original, it is the theft of a low-quality substandard copy of the original work.

Sheet music publishing was big business until perhaps WWII. How are sheet music publishers doing nowadays?

They've declined some, shifted around some. Some have gone into electronic accompaniments, like Yamaha does in providing orchestrated soundtracks that you can play along with on a Clavinova keyboard (no external stereo used). I'm sure they're quite nice but I require a true piano.

When I do buy printed music, I go for the expensive German hardbacks with the durable blue or gray linen covers. The kind of stuff to last a lifetime or more. Ahhh, G. Henle Verlag, I covet your fine papers and bindings...

[George W. Bush]

We're in good on fair use.

No, we're not. They have other reasons for ignoring us. But if you want to feel more invulnerable than Superman, it's no skin off my butt. But it still isn't true.

[discostu]

Classical music wound up hosing itself. The classical music "crowd" tends to be rather old and frowns on new classical music. Even when you can get younger people to listen to long lyricless music they tend to want someone they can identify with, somebody that's been dead for 300 years doesn't cut it. These two effects have seriously limited the audience for classical. Add to that the fact that there's not much variation in conductors any more, there are good conductors and bad conductors but the concept of the interesting conductor seems to have died, and there's not much reason for people to get more than one version of a particular piece of classical music, and you've got a genre on the ropes.

But that happens, sub-sections of any industry rise and fall. I talked earlier about how funk had made a strong comeback but was now pretty much DOA. Gangsta rap is actually fading (finally). Country is more popular than ever. Classic rock is holding together very nicely with many bands you probably thought were retired braving the dinosaur label and making new music (generally on minor labels, the bigs have gotten very stupid lately). There's only a certain number of people in this world that are into music and a certain number of hours they can spend on it, how those hours get chopped up defines the industry.

[George W. Bush]

I haven't seen too many Boosey & Hawks offerings on the shelves lately, but URTEXT and Schirmers are still doing well.

And I thought that the mention of the G. Henle Verlag was too snobbish!

God bless you for knowing URTEXT.

[discostu]

I don't feel like an invulnerable superman, I just know Gannett. If they felt they could make money sueing FR they'd do it. They aren't, that means they don't think they'd win. I'll believe Gannett's lawyers over you, no offense but they've got a proven track record.

[mo]

When I can load a chunk of "cash" on a 3.5" floppy and cruise mp3 sites and leave some change in 2 mouse clicks-they will be paid for. Presently to churn a credit card transaction through a secure web site over 3-5 minutes and then have to worry about whether or not a script-kiddy has managed to diddle with your plastic just frankly isn't worth it. Plus they'll then capture revenue from the 13 yr old who does'nt have plastic.

[discostu]

Photocopies aren't as good as the original either. Doesn't change the law.

My grandmother has about 100 pounds of those German sheet music books, they're the source of much family consternation in the eventuality of her demise (none of us want them, the only family member that inherited any of her talent is estranged from the family). Maybe I'll look you up.

[WOSG]

"Recording theft will kill music, not just music companies.'

Music to RIAA's ears, but hardly true.

1. Most artists get a significant share of income from live performances

2. Most artists are "undiscovered" precisely because it takes a huge marketing engine to drive the sales which makes the profits. The internet changes that dynamic completely.

3. Artists like Madonna in the old system got about $2 billion worth in sales, for mostly dreck. Popular dreck but dreck nonetheless.

4. pareto analysis - only a tiny fraction of artists make most of the sales. this means that killing the 'big marketing engine' RIAA-type industry will not much impact most artists (see #1).

More live performances driving sales may be the rule... heck what about a freebie CD with a concert ticket???? $20 for a live performance *and* a memory of it may be a good deal. bottom line, music will live even if the recording 'industry' goes the way of whalers and buggy whips.