Finnish Indie Record Label Says It Won't Sign Any New Bands Unless The Gov't Stops Piracy
from the yeah,-that'll-work dept
If you want to see the ultimate in the "entitlement" mentality of the old record labels, check out this report of a Finnish indie label posted an angry rant to its website threatening that it won't sign any new artists until the government somehow stops piracy. Good luck with that plan. Let's see if anyone actually cares. You basically have a business, that refuses to adapt, insisting that it will now go out of business unless the government somehow does the impossible and stops market forces from doing what they do. The proper response is to just let the label go out of business. If it can't adapt, then it should die. Simple as that.What's really unfortunate, of course, is that I just got back from Norway a couple months ago, and was so impressed with the optimism and enthusiasm from various folks in the music industry around the Nordic countries (including quite a few from Finland). Apparently, the folks from Lion Music didn't attend that event.
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Filed Under: finland, piracy, record labels
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Is there coffee and donuts? Otherwise, I'm leaving....
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If this label cannot find a way to use the net to help its artists find fans and vice versa, you're right Mike, it should go out of business. It's an epic failure.
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Heh
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This sounds familiar
This sounded really familiar to me, but at first I couldn't remember where I had seen this tactic before. Then I remembered...It was at the grocery store, where a five year old who wanted Frosted Flakes threw a temper tantrum and flopped around on the ground, refusing to move with his mother until he got his way.
As I recall, all the kid got for his trouble was a tired body and a slap across the face. Oh, and he also ended up going along with what his mother (i.e. the market) wanted anyway, because after all, her rules win out eventually. I anticipate the same here....
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Re: This sounds familiar
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Piracy?
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I'd not heard of the label before, although I had come across some of their acts. Now that I have, I'm making sure I don't inadvertently give them any money. Sucks for the acts themselves,
I'm also downloading the free legal torrent of Canadian artists mentioned at the bottom of the article. If the acts there are any good, they may get my business instead.
Keep these coming... there's so much new music being produced that I can't possibly buy it all. Best to have stories like this to weed out those who haven't got a clue, and would rather violate civil and fair use rights than actually try to do business in the 21st century.
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Anti-competitive practices
ttyl
Farrell
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Geesh
http://www.lionmusic.com/murderofmusic.html
Quick sample from (a wall of text written by) Edward Vox who appears to be quite intelligent and well-educated on the subject:
...
In the meantime someone invented the internet and the foolish record companies failed to see what was coming. The artists were much quicker on the uptake but by then it was all too late and the by product known as downloading was created or in simple terms taking a heavily compressed file that is probably around 10% of the quality of the actual music created and loading it into your computer and listening to it thorough crappy PC speakers. Down loads are shit, they are shit quality, sound shit and look shit because where is your Derek Riggs artwork in download? There you go, downloads shit I and especially if they are illegal. If you love music then buy the fucking CD like I do.
There ya go. That seems to sum it up perfectly.
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Re: Geesh
Yeah, but he's not right. He might subjectivity like the sound of CDs more. But his mere opinion means nothing to the rest of us. Studies show that young people actually prefer the sound of MP3s.
He might love paying for useless artwork, but the rest of the world clearly does not. If we did, we would buy artwork. When was the last time you bought artwork? I never have.
And he seems so utterly ignorant about how to even use MP3s. The quote "thorough crappy PC speakers" is telling. First, PC speakers have improved a fricken lot since the 90s. Second, plenty of people access their MP3 collection through their receivers, surround sound systems, and the like.
Overall he has a very small view of the world. He accepts his view as "the "truth" despite it being purely subjective at best, and completely erroneous at worst.
If Edward Vox was the most "intelligent and well-educated on the subject" person you could find at Lion Music, I don't think the label stands a fricken snowball's chance in hell to survive the tremendous benefits the net has to offer.
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Re: Re: Geesh
Well, what you have to do is you have to have him close his eyes and listen to one and the listen to the other and see if he can tell the difference.
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Re: Geesh
Somebody needs to buy 10,000 copies of this guy's CD IMMEDIATELY. I mean, the poor guy can't even afford a moderately priced set of computer speakers. He obviously has to buy the Big Lots computer speakers for $4.99 because of music piracy. How is he going to make music if he can't afford to buy computer speakers made in the past 15 years?!? Oh the humanity.
But seriously, computer speakers made after 1998 are pretty good compared to full-size home stereo speakers from the '80s & early '90s. My Logitech speakers & subwoofer sound far better than my stereos back in high school did.
Not to mention this bit of error in logic: "10% of the quality of the actual music created" ... um, MP3s are 10% of the file size of uncompressed versions (typically), that does NOT mean they are 10% of audio quality ... not to mention the artistic quality of the music has nothing to do with the compression. I'm sure his music would qualify as 0% quality no matter how much or how little you compressed it.
Seriously, that Edward Vox is an idiot. CDs suck, they always have.
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Re: Re: Geesh
I bow before you Alan Gerow, King of the Sarcasm!
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dont think so
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In a related story...
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Re: In a related story...
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Idiot!
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In my time...
GOOD RIDDANCE.
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Boo-Hoo-Hoo
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Still not understanding why anyone even deals with record lables anymore.
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Re: Still not understanding why anyone even deals with record lables anymore.
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"Fairly intelligent and well-versed".....riiiiiigh.
2. "Downloads are shit" -- except, of course, for FLAC, which are totally lossless, and by definition have the same sound quality as the uncompressed CD version.
3. "You don't have the artwork" -- uhh...okay, then. So it's *not* about the music, then? Album "artowk" has always basically been a come-on for the real "content" -- the music (hence the tendency for decades to just absically have a picture of the group, or soloist or whatever, on the cover.) Ony a very few instances of cover-art have actually been clever enough to be interesting in their own right -- and, pardon me for saying the obvious -- even THEN I still wouldn't buy an empty CD jewel-box or record sleeve *just* for the cover-art.
Like I said in the other thread, somebody should really check if this label is a member of the local equivalent of the RIAA. If they *are*, then they're not "independent" by any stretch of the imagination -- even if they're not *directly* some kind of sub-unit owned by one of the major labels, they are STILL in bed with the major-label lobbying arm.
Less idiotic, tuneless poseurs, I say.
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Right on!
Finally, somebody has enough guts to stop catering to all these thieves who steal music.
Eventually, piracy will cause the entire music and film industries to collapse. It is already happening. Every single Major Retailer in the U.S. is dramatically reducing floorspace dedicated to Music Sales.
We at Brandt Morain Studios also refuse to cater to thieves.
We will not release Free MP3's. We will not give away our hard work. We will not sell easy-to-steal MP3 downloads.
We will wait until all these thieves are brought to justice. Impossible, you say?? Governments can never keep track of all piracy, you say?? Well, there was a time when the IRS didn't exist.
Jared Brandt
Brandt Morain Studios
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