OPINION
INTERNET RADIO IN JEOPARDY
Posted on saveinternetradio.org
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By Greg Forest on Thursday, June 27, 2002 - 01:45 pm:
The RIAA is trying to hang on to a monopoly. THEY are the only entity entitled to screw recording artists out of money. We saw this coming years ago. Down sample Hillary Rosen about 3 semitones and she sounds an awful lot like Ken Lay.

The RIAA claims that the internet royalty will be paid to them and then the money will travel from there to the artist. Bull. I seriously doubt that the RIAA is going to pay one dollar to any artist who is not on an RIAA affiliate label. If indeed the RIAA IS going to pay royalties to non-member labels, it is their Achilles heel. It would only take a couple days to create an accounting nightmare for them. They may have trouble FINDING the garage label that they owe money to - much less the artist.

As a writer/producer I think it would be great to sue the RIAA for the big bucks that they would owe me from say... five downloads.

"RIAA - you guys owe me royalties in the amount of $0.0684! You better pay up now! The cost of postage to mail your royalty check would far outweigh the royalties collected by RIAA. Like they are going to do that?

They will do the same thing to recording artists that happens to songwriters on radio - if you don't generate enough airplay to show up on THEIR sweeps (based on THEIR demographics/THEIR chosen stations and markets) or on national charts, you don't exist. I know plenty of artists who get airplay and never see a dime. Why? Because they don't get ENOUGH airplay. You are only compensated by the majors for being totally successful - not partially successful.

I would hazard a guess that what is really happening here - where the corporate Labelmasters really want to go with this is that in the near future, only RIAA members will have the right to broadcast music on the internet. I've had a record label since 1969 and have never nor will ever be a member of the RIAA. They do absolutely nothing for the artists except bend them over. Perhaps at one time they were the voice of a larger segment of the music industry (when indie labels were flourishing) but now they are here to protect the rights of the majors in their quest to turn musical art into a corporate commodity owned by them exclusively and in perpetuity.   Any indie label who is a member is a turncoat or coward - in essence abetting the enemy of music as an art form rather than commodity.

We need alternative music business models much more than alternative music.

The bottom line to create change is in the power of the consumer dollar. As long as blow up music dolls like Brittany and N-Sync rule the charts, the RIAA will have a huge war chest to use for lobbying Congress (we used to call it payola - except now instead of paying the DJ you pay your elected officials). As long as the RIAA wants to act like some musical Gestapo, I can see why "ripping" is so popular.

Do I support music piracy? Absolutely not. Musicians and writers need to be compensated fairly. It is my premise that the majors aren't doing this. You are MUCH better off financially selling 20,000 units off your website than selling ten times that amount via your major label.

If you want to be famous - you will have to play with RIAA types, put a ring in your belly, get a troupe of backup dancers (used to be singers) and start doing the dancing bear routine - and die broke.

If you want to make money, and have enough talent to sell regionally - YOU DON'T NEED THEM. Even if you DON'T have talent, don't give up - remember that the majors pick 9 losers out of every ten acts they sign - the next could be you!

Again the bottom line - since Napster, ripping and the Internet, the profits of the major labels have gone nowhere but up. They claim they have to screw artists so that they can make a profit. They will tell you that 9 of 10 bands they sign don't make money. Why? Because they wouldn't know good music if they heard it. And WE have to pay for their A&R departments only getting it right less than 10% of the time. The Internet is booming and so are their profits. Even if they were losing money - why is that MY fault? All artists on an RIAA label foot the costs of their failures - even the winners. Ask some of the platinum selling artists that have been filling stadiums for years and still OWE THEIR LABELS MONEY.

As long as art is a commodity, there will be issues like this. We are a record label. It is our job to exploit the talent of our artists. And exploit we do - we pay ANY artist on our label at least three times the per unit royalty paid to Madonna announced by her label. We pay from the first unit sold with no recoupment clause. We only license the recordings for no more than 25 years when the masters and all rights in them revert to the artist. We make money. Why? We have none of the costly infrastructure that the majors need to hold up their regime. Our products are not in Wal-Mart. Who do we answer to? The artists and their buying fans - not shareholders.  

If RIAA members had any sense they would be the ones putting up the MP3s and driving sales to their websites with the added value that a brick and mortar CD has over a sonically inferior MP3.  The demographics collected in user registrations alone would be well worth the price of letting folks download a file.  Instead of using the technology - again they fight it.  The RIAA cries wolf with every new widget that allows consumers power over their entertainment experience. Some of us are old enough to remember how cassettes ruined record sales and destroyed the industry.

Write your Congressman and Senators about this issue if you want but until you include a huge check to help with their next campaign, you will get a form letter thanking you for your concern and be assured your elected officials are watching the issue closely. Bull.

We are living in the time of the global corporate takeover - we voted it in - we deserve what we get.

Alternative music? How about alternative Congress.

To all the unknown musicians, writers, producers and programmers trying to use the Internet as an outlet, like the gladiators saluting, - we at The Music Office salute you. Hang in there.

-Greg Forest, The Music Office *

* Trying to appear literate, I fixed a few typos from the original post.