Thursday , March 28 2024

Artists Say RIAA Doesn’t Speak For Them

Artists respnd to the RIAA’s lawsuit campaign:

    “They’re protecting an archaic industry,” said the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir.

    “They should turn their attention to new models.”

    “This is not rocket science,” said David Draiman of Disturbed, a hard-rock band with a platinum debut album on the charts. “Instead of spending all this money litigating against kids who are the people they’re trying to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn how to effectively use the Internet.”

    ….”Lawsuits on 12-year-old kids for downloading music, duping a mother into paying a $2,000 settlement for her kid?” said rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy. “Those scare tactics are pure Gestapo.”

    “File sharing is a reality, and it would seem that the labels would do well to learn how to incorporate it into their business models somehow,” said genre- busting DJ Moby in a post on his Web site. “Record companies suing 12-year-old girls for file sharing is kind of like horse-and-buggy operators suing Henry Ford.”

    ….Many artists painted the record industry as a bloated, overstuffed giant with too many mouths to feed and too many middlemen to pay, selling an overpriced, often mediocre product.

    “They have all these abnormal practices that keep driving the price up,” said Gregg Rollie, founding member of Santana and Journey. “People think musicians make all that money, but it’s not true. We make the smallest amount.”

    The RIAA did not initiate these lawsuits to defend artists’ rights, the musicians say, but to protect corporate profits.

    “For the artists, my ass,” said Draiman. “I didn’t ask them to protect me, and I don’t want their protection.”

    ….”Who doesn’t want to get paid for their work?” said Wayne Coyne of the indie-rock band Flaming Lips. “But I think it works to musicians’ benefit for people to be able to occasionally listen to their music and, if they really like it, go out and buy it.”

    ….All agree that the Internet is here to stay and that downloading files will be an increasingly important delivery system for music, regardless of the music industry’s lawsuits. “The focus of the industry needs to shift from Soundscan numbers to downloads,” said Draiman. “It’s the way of the future. You can smell it coming. Stop fighting it, because you can’t.” [SF Chronicle]

About Eric Olsen

Career media professional and serial entrepreneur Eric Olsen flung himself into the paranormal world in 2012, creating the America's Most Haunted brand and co-authoring the award-winning America's Most Haunted book, published by Berkley/Penguin in Sept, 2014. Olsen is co-host of the nationally syndicated broadcast and Internet radio talk show After Hours AM; his entertaining and informative America's Most Haunted website and social media outlets are must-reads: Twitter@amhaunted, Facebook.com/amhaunted, Pinterest America's Most Haunted. Olsen is also guitarist/singer for popular and wildly eclectic Cleveland cover band The Props.

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