Subj : Should EMulation.... To : D.Jaye From : Amcleod Date : Mon Jan 01 2001 07:54 am RE: Should EMulation.... BY: D.Jaye to Amcleod on Mon Jan 01 2001 03:03 pm > BY: Amcleod to Tinman on Thu Jun 08 2000 08:06 pm H. G. Wells Time Machine: ACTIVATED! > Heres a principle fact: Musicians dont make much of anything off record > sales... their producers do. Their 'label' does. sure.. they make a few > bucks.. their _real_ gain in capitol occures when they tour to promote their > records and their endorsements.. the clinics they do for the products they > endorse.. > > RIIA, who brought the case against napster.. They get rich off robbing > artists. You pop a buck in the juke-box at the local bar to play a few tunes > half of 1 penny doesnt even make it back to the artists. > > Musicians create inspiring ( to some and dreadful to others ) and creative > musical scores.... so sony and jet can send it to press and make millions... > while the artists have to cart their bottom ends all over the world to make > ends meet. I am _quite_ well aware that the producers and distributors are double-wristed thieves and that when I pay fifteen bucks for a CD the artist is lucky to see a single dollar. I have said repeatedly that if I could buy the CD direct from the artist, so that THEY get the bulk of the $15 I would be overjoyed to do so. And if they want to reduce the price to $7 so I pay half as much as before and they get seven times as much, then wow, I'm all for it. But if not, well hey, I was paying the fifteen bucks anyway, and I'd just as soon see the artists get the lion's share of that money. The fact that the RIAA and the big five (is it still five?) still make the majority of the money and - perhaps worse - they influence the content AWAY from what thew artist has to say and TOWARD what they wish to publish, is not in question. I recognise the internet as a great boon for the "non-famous" artist (to coin a phrase) as well as the recognised artists. You can market your own CD's on the net and hopefully make more money than marketing via the big distributors. CDnow offered to manufacture 1,000 CD's including jewel-case, four-color double-fold insert and a single-colour screen on the actual CD for a total of $1,250.00 or a buck and a quarter a CD. If you sell it for seven bucks you are making over five bucks per disk, and I doubt _anybody_ does that well off a Sony or BMG contract! Shipping extra of course! But also the internet allows the non-famous band to get exposure. And napster is a great way for that to happen, I'm sure. If your music is any good, the public might visit your web-site and buy your CD. Or maybe they are stupid enough to pay to download your MPEG files - but _I_ won't be paying unless I get a CD in my hand! No, the problem isn't that Metallica are idiots or that Napster is intrinsically bad. Exchanging files is a _good_ way for an artist to get public exposure. The problem is that if Prometheus of Buffalo decides to put six tracks from their latest album on the net for download, they should be able to do so at will, and hopefully, attract enough attention as to get filthy rich and start wearing scarlet velvet cod-pieces in public (or whatever they wanna do) because the music is THEIRS and no big production company should be able to tell them not to. But on the other hand, if Prometheus of Buffalo decide NOT to put the remaining six tracks on the net, for whatever their reason, whether it is a smart idea or a dumb idea, whether they would get more or less famous or rich or layed as a result, doesn't matter. If THEY decide NOT to put certain tracks on the net, then nobody ELSE should come along after the fact, rip the tracks from their CD and stick it on the net against their wishes. All the rubbish talk about "information wants to be free" and "if they are doing it for the money instead of the art, then they can't be very talanted" and "I'm not robbing them, I'm robbing the RIAA who make too much money anyhow" is all just a smokescreen. It just is a cover for "I want to do it, even though it is unethical, and since you can't stop me I'm going to go ahead". YOUR music (unless you've sold the rights) is YOUR music, and no excuses can justify the distribution of your music AGAINST YOUR WILL by any means. It might be smarter or better for you to distribute it in accordance to my wishes, but if you choose not to heed my suggestion, I have NO RIGHT to go ahead and distribute it anyway. .