Janis Ian On Music Downloads
from the a-voice-of-reason dept
It looks like this article has been around for a bit, and I did just find it on Slashdot (which I know seems to annoy one or two people), but it's well written, interesting, and completely worth posting. It's an article written by Grammy award winning (though, she points out it's unlikely the Grammys will ever nominate her for anything again) singer-songwriter Janis Ian pointing out just how wrong the music industry has been in presenting their side of the debate on downloading music. She clearly explains why, for most artists, file sharing and music downloads help them much more than hurt them. The most interesting thing, to me, is at the beginning of the article she added a section talking about how Hilary Rosen and others in the music industry immediately contacted her following the publication of the article and tried to refute her points. She goes through all of their arguments, one by one, and disproves them (often with a bit of sarcasm). Absolutely worth reading. My favorite quote: "If you think about it, the music industry should be rejoicing at this new technological advance! Here's a fool-proof way to deliver music to millions who might otherwise would never purchase a CD in a store. The cross-marketing opportunities are unbelievable. It's instantaneous, costs are minimal, shipping non-existant... a staggering vehicle for higher earnings and lower costs. Instead, they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off, bleeding on everyone and making no sense."
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Record Industry Woes
I think this article is so well written that it is almost impeachable. The author did such a good job formulating their opinion with undeniable facts that it is difficult to understand why anyone would try to argue with them (beyond the normal reason of FUD.) The Recording Industry is trying so hard to cloud the issues right now, to attempt to push the blame off of them for bad management and uncontrolled corporate greed and on to the "pirate" that it is all becoming blurry even for those of us aware of the true issues.
With all these artists coming forward to fight the Record Industry, I am confused why anyone is even listening to the Record Industry any more. Obviously politicians will continue to listen, because they only care about campaign contributions, but I wonder how much of the average consumer population still listens to and believes anything the Recording Industry says. Certainly nobody I know...I've heard everyone from 6 year-olds to 90 year-olds badmouth the Recording Industry and their close-minded attack on anything that stands in their "preceived" way of making trillions off us poor, criminal consumers.
Well, except Anonymous Coward, who still seems to think I am an evil hacker pirate just because I have something contrary to say about the Recording Industry...even though I have never downloaded a single copyrighted song off (Nap|Aim|Grek|Fluk|Puke|Pop|Kill|Orc|*)ster.
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Excellent article!
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