After it was announced that these two senators will attempt a compromise bill, so-called "artist rights advocates" (as a trans woman, I despise that stupid name; artist is a JOB, a job which anyone can just quit at any moment) not only continued to refuse to listen to those concerned about the CASE Act, but even kept insisting that the senators were paid by Google. This shows that the music industry will NEVER be interested in open debate or compromise, and thus the only way we can stop these draconian copyright laws is through boycotts and disruptive protest against musicians who support them.
I saw a chart on that today. Out of the top nine lobbyists for/against Article 13, 8/9 were SUPPORTERS of the law, and Google only placed at 6th. (not that I need to tell you specifically that, just thought it needed to be said here)
When they say the law is about "paying artists fairly", what they mean is that by penalizing the websites, people will not have the option to pirate, and will be forced to pay whatever the services demand. But that is bullshit. Pirate sites don't care about the law, so they aren't going to comply with Article 13 regulations, and will keep popping up as usual. Only the legal websites will comply.
John, when pro-label rats like you start talking about how "music is dying" because of piracy and streaming rates, I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about.
"In the last 5 years the number of working musicians has dropped to less than 50%. Over half the major studios have closed, to be torn down for condos." Well, there's hundreds of thousands of artists on BandCamp, YouTube, and SoundCloud who self-release their work.
Not only that, you used to only see strong music scenes in places traditionally known for music. However, since technology has made it possible to record and release music from anywhere, you can now see thriving indie music scenes in non-traditional music towns like Detroit, Milwaukee, and Indianapolis, where I live. In the Circle City, at the start of the decade, we only had 4 local music venues, no festivals, 1 label, 1 local record store, and the small scene we did have was very centered around punk rock (not that punk is bad). However, we now have 17 venues, 6 festivals, 3 labels, 7 record stores, and a ton of artists of all genres. So clearly music is not "dying" because of piracy.
Sure, most of us are so-called "hobbyists" (I despise that word, as it often implies the musician is unserious), but that was the case with 99.9999% of all musicians who have ever lived, just because there are so many talented musicians in the world, yet the average person only needs so much new music. The only differences now are that recording is much simpler and a day job is no longer mutually exclusive with playing/writing music.
And if you're one of those people who thinks all "hobbyist" music is "low-quality", Eric Pedigo, The Trees, Ross Hollow, and tons of others I could mention prove that claim to be nothing more than an extremely dehumanizing overgeneralization towards us "hobbyists" and our great art.
However, the only reason we can distribute our work is because of such websites accepting submissions from anyone. Websites like YouTube and Bandcamp receive way too many submissions to monitor for infringement, so the only way they could possibly comply with Article 13 would be if they stopped accepting everyone's submissions completely, and limited their platforms to large companies.
If you understand that more music is being released than ever before, and it is NOT all "low-quality", but want laws like Article 13 anyway "because those poor people are losing their jobs!", you sound no different than a Trump-supporting coal miner or auto plant worker. There are a lot of jobs you can learn to do instead.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Natalie Hill.
(untitled comment)
After it was announced that these two senators will attempt a compromise bill, so-called "artist rights advocates" (as a trans woman, I despise that stupid name; artist is a JOB, a job which anyone can just quit at any moment) not only continued to refuse to listen to those concerned about the CASE Act, but even kept insisting that the senators were paid by Google. This shows that the music industry will NEVER be interested in open debate or compromise, and thus the only way we can stop these draconian copyright laws is through boycotts and disruptive protest against musicians who support them.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Re: Re: Re: Article 13.
When they say the law is about "paying artists fairly", what they mean is that by penalizing the websites, people will not have the option to pirate, and will be forced to pay whatever the services demand. But that is bullshit. Pirate sites don't care about the law, so they aren't going to comply with Article 13 regulations, and will keep popping up as usual. Only the legal websites will comply.
Re: Re: Article 13.
"In the last 5 years the number of working musicians has dropped to less than 50%. Over half the major studios have closed, to be torn down for condos." Well, there's hundreds of thousands of artists on BandCamp, YouTube, and SoundCloud who self-release their work.
Not only that, you used to only see strong music scenes in places traditionally known for music. However, since technology has made it possible to record and release music from anywhere, you can now see thriving indie music scenes in non-traditional music towns like Detroit, Milwaukee, and Indianapolis, where I live. In the Circle City, at the start of the decade, we only had 4 local music venues, no festivals, 1 label, 1 local record store, and the small scene we did have was very centered around punk rock (not that punk is bad). However, we now have 17 venues, 6 festivals, 3 labels, 7 record stores, and a ton of artists of all genres. So clearly music is not "dying" because of piracy.
Sure, most of us are so-called "hobbyists" (I despise that word, as it often implies the musician is unserious), but that was the case with 99.9999% of all musicians who have ever lived, just because there are so many talented musicians in the world, yet the average person only needs so much new music. The only differences now are that recording is much simpler and a day job is no longer mutually exclusive with playing/writing music.
And if you're one of those people who thinks all "hobbyist" music is "low-quality", Eric Pedigo, The Trees, Ross Hollow, and tons of others I could mention prove that claim to be nothing more than an extremely dehumanizing overgeneralization towards us "hobbyists" and our great art.
However, the only reason we can distribute our work is because of such websites accepting submissions from anyone. Websites like YouTube and Bandcamp receive way too many submissions to monitor for infringement, so the only way they could possibly comply with Article 13 would be if they stopped accepting everyone's submissions completely, and limited their platforms to large companies.
If you understand that more music is being released than ever before, and it is NOT all "low-quality", but want laws like Article 13 anyway "because those poor people are losing their jobs!", you sound no different than a Trump-supporting coal miner or auto plant worker. There are a lot of jobs you can learn to do instead.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Natalie Hill.
Submit a story now.
Tools & Services
TwitterFacebook
RSS
Podcast
Research & Reports
Company
About UsAdvertising Policies
Privacy
Contact
Help & FeedbackMedia Kit
Sponsor/Advertise
Submit a Story
More
Copia InstituteInsider Shop
Support Techdirt