With the RIAA suing illegal filesharers (read: their customers) right and left, it has been also discussed how people should react to it. Boycott of RIAA products is the first idea that comes to mind, though you might think this would be hard to coordinate. Well, now's your chance. You will never find out whether or not a boycott could have any effect or would even be noticed in sales if you don't try it.
StopRIAAlawsuits.com now takes charge. A (growing) number of websites asks their users to boycott CDs from major labels for a weeks time beginning today. Instead, why not try out independents and explore new music?
On their press release they say:
The site stopRIAAlawsuits.com will feature information about the lawsuits, a list of coalition members, places to buy used CDs online, and, most importantly, resources for finding the best independent music. "Independent labels give their musicians a much bigger cut of CD sales," said Andrew Ross, who's band's site joined the coalition, "and they're not hiring expensive lawyers to bully families with reckless and unwarranted lawsuits." [via mixburnrip.de]
So far, 122 websites are on the support list. How about Blogcritics joining after all the interesting discussion we had on the RIAA subject?
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Natalie Davis
Oooh, this is great! Thank you for sharing this information.
2 - BB
Ok Michelle ... count me in.
3 - Pete Nelson
Natalie,
Another thing we agree on!
Although I cannot and don't support theft of copyrighted materials (and as a professional software developer, it's an issue close to my heart), the RIAA's tactics don't make any sense to me. Rather than wasting time and money terrorizing children and seniors with lawsuits, RIAA, artists and the public would be much better served if RIAA backed development of and promoted legal music download sites that enabled artists to get paid for their work and allowed listeners appropriate fair use of the music. The RIAA lawsuits are counterproductive.
4 - Michelle
I'm getting the impression that a boycott of major labels is way easier in the US. For instance - I bought the album "Some kind of strange" by Collide. The riaaradar.com says their label "Noise Plus" is RIAA safe. Great, I think! But I'm sitting in Germany and have to buy the CD somewhere around here. But here the CD was released by EFA, which is a member of IFPI (the German equivalent of RIAA). So far, every CD I checked was released by an IFPI label. So here the boycott unfortunately has to be ultimate, which is sad. I hope the US boycott goes well. Perhaps the sales don't matter that much if there's only enough press coverage on this.
5 - Eric Olsen
My concern about a boycott is its effect on artists and innocent label employees, most of whom are underpaid hard-working stiffs like the rest of us. Universal just announced the layoff of hundreds more. A boycott would give labels an excuse to dump even more. However, I certainly support the cause behind the boycott, the RIAA's campaign of fear and loathing against its customers. I will ponder this a bit more, thanks Michelle.
6 - Tom Johnson
This boycott is ridiculous. It isn't going to hurt anyone but the artists - remember, people, the labels don't care. If they aren't making the money, like Eric says, the labels will just have an even better excuse to drop them.
How about this? Instead of boycotting the RIAA (who I do agree is despicable,) how about people boycott file-sharing, which doesn't help anyone, good or bad, in the industry? From what I've seen, the problem all along is that people have "boycotted the RIAA" by file-sharing in the first place. How well has this worked? Not so well, huh?
Personally, I'll be out today to buy the new Rush live CDs and DVD. I'm there to support the band - like I always do when I buy music.
7 - Natalie Davis
But mostly you're supporting people other than the band, which doesn't get most of the revenue.
I understand what you're syaing, and can agree to a point. Ultimately, though, when I boycott, it's done for my own well-being and peace of mind. It offers me the assurance that I am not financing scoundrels.
8 - Mark Saleski
i don't know if i can agree that file-sharing doesn't help anyone in the industry.
most reports in the mainstream media discount (read: completely leave out) the fact that people who download tend to buy more cd's than those who don't.
also, there's the case where somebody is looking for new music, samples some via mp3, and those goes on to buy more.
this happened to me a lot back in the cassette tape days. remember those things...the industry said the same thing about them: that it was stealing music and hurting artists.
well, i own about 450 cassettes...but i went on to buy well over a thousand lps and over two thousand cds.
those cassette copies did nothing but help increase sales.
the people who do nothing but download probably wouldn't have bought the physical media in the first place.
9 - Tom Johnson
You're right, Mark - there are people who use mp3s to sample new music. I'm one of them. However, I have never come across someone, in person, who actually does this - they may download to sample the artist, but they then keep those and buy nothing of theirs in compensation.
Natalie: Ultimately, though, when I boycott, it's done for my own well-being and peace of mind.
That's the problem - it's only done for you. This boycott is meaningless in the long run, or even the short run. But it makes you feel like you've done something, even when you haven't.
Justify it all you want, but a one-week boycott isn't going to affect the industry one bit. The only people who are doing it are ones who were likely to not buy many RIAA-supported CDs in the first place. The only people it will wind up hurting is the artists themselves. I can't bring myself to be responsible for that.
I think everyone should get out and buy music, period. If you care about music, buy it. Boycotting it doesn't send the message that you care about the music.
If you notice something, I rarely complain about the cost of music. $15 spent on something I will listen to countless times for countless years is not a badly invested $15. And I buy a LOT of music. I'd love to see lower prices - it means I can buy more with the amount I try to budget for every week.
The argument that we're mostly supporting people other than the band is meaningless. Find me a product in any store where that isn't the case. We've seen the breakdown many times before on Blogcritics and elsewhere. The bands could always use more money, but everyone else involved also has to get paid. The band gets paid, the engineers get paid, the producer gets paid, the studio gets paid, suppliers for instruments/strings/etc. get paid, admins get paid, executives get paid, the pressing plants get paid (for all the supplies they must pay for,) graphic artists get paid, printers get paid, advertisers get paid . . . the list goes on and on. How low would you like the price to go if you were any one of those people? When it starts cutting into your pay, are you still comfortable demanding that it's okay to boycott the musicians who bring in the money for your pay? Sure, there's a lot of unfair things going on in the industry that need to be fixed, but boycotting the artists isn't going to do a thing to help fix that.
If you want to send a message, what you should be doing is buying CDs at the prices you think you should pay for them. I've got a flexible rule - I won't pay more than $15.99 for a single domestically released CD (imports may cost more) - which means I will pay more than that for double and more CD sets. I will generally go out of my way to pay $12.99, even if the closer store has it for $13.99. The message I want to send is that I want to pay a low price. The only way to send that message is by DOING IT. If people would stop buying CDs at Sam Goody and other places known to gouge regularly, the message will trickle down to everyone - stores, artists, and labels.
10 - BB
Tom, the point of the boycott is to hurt the 'major' RIAA labels. The smaller independent labels pay their respective employees more and we are not targeting them. The RIAA has become too powerful and arrogant. That is why they formed an association in the first place. I myself have never participated in a boycott, and perhaps because I was once in the biz my beefs are all the more real and closer to home. It will take a long time before the trickle-down effect of a boycott reaches the employee at the bottom of the ladder. We need not worry because they will not wait until that point. Once they see the falling figures they won’t hesitate to change their policy. As always with big biz â€" it is the bottom line that dictates policy and they have to be hurt in the pocket book before they will take notice. It is time to break up the industry cartel and share the wealth.
11 - andy
Am I just not supposed to buy music? Do you expect me to just download? I don't want to download(56K right here) plus tons of "indie" labels are distributed by major labels anyway. The ones who aren't are probably shitty little hardcore/emo labels, and who cares about that crap? Even if I buy used CDs I'm still giving money to the RIAA in an indirect way. How can it possibly work? Like Eric said, the people it'll hurt will be people who work at labels(no the execs, the ones who care about music), the artists, the retail stores, people who are under the RIAA not by choice. I'll still buy my CDs at a good price at Circuit City. If you're paying $18.98 for a CD, you're a sucker. Why not boycott music chains like FYE instead?
12 - Jessie
No pain no gain.
13 - Natalie Davis
Indeed, no pain, no gain. I listen to radio and to what exists in my personal collection, including *legal* downloads. Down with the RIAA!
14 - Natalie Davis
Tom: "That's the problem - it's only done for you. This boycott is meaningless in the long run, or even the short run. But it makes you feel like you've done something, even when you haven't."
It isn't meaningless to me. The voices being raised, including this activist's, will be heard by someone, in any event. And my boycott lasts until the situation is rectified.
15 - Andy
I'm sorry. I love music too much to stop buying it.
16 - Craig Lyndall
I am with you Andy, the smell of the booklet on a new cd is like crack to me. I will not be able to stop buying cd's even when I can legally download entire albums on the internet. I am too much of a collector.
17 - JR
Wow, I thought I was bad.
Like my mom always says, "Can't you just listen to the music you already have?"
18 - Andy
yeah for maybe a week or 2. Then what? Some of us need new blood constantly. We're like musical vampires.
19 - Craig Lyndall
Hey JR, set your mom straight. An addict is an addict. The music you already have is the past. Ask her if she would like to spend her life living in the past. :-)
I am truly sick, and I know it.
20 - BB
hmmmm, I love the smell of shrink-wrap in the morning. Smells like ...
21 - The Theory
hmm. I like the Vampire annalogy. tasty.
22 - Michelle
I like the vampire annology, too. I'm a vampire freak, anyway. And I'm a bookworm. I couldn't say whether I could stand to not buy books for given period of time. But music, though I like it, - I can live with what I have for some time. I haven't bought a new cds in months which is for personal problems I had with the German RIAA. Like the quoted women in another article said: If she has to pay 2000$ to the RIAA - that's money she can't invest in music anymore.
23 - Natalie Davis
I have never gotten into CDs like that. Now, vinyl albums... they are my crack.
24 - Andy
I definately buy more vinyl than discs, either way I crave new tunes for my ears.
25 - Michelle
I'm a bit too young to by a vinyl crack. I only bought five or so LPs myself. The CDs came into being pretty soon after I became interested in music.