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media

Bill Evans (the original creator of boycott-riaa.com) was getting a number of media inquiries, and I sure it became difficult to answer all of the questions and hold down a full time job as well.

I resurrected the site since it seems the Hilary Rosen and friends at the RIAA still don't get it.

I personally don't care if you have deadlines that you must meet. Be thankful you have a job to do. A lot of hard working people do not (and I am very close to those people). Do not send an e-mail requesting that I call you back within an hour or two as it will NOT happen. The RIAA doesn't cooperate; why should I (very similar to the California approach of what's in it for me)? I don't care about FAME or I'd be a STAR. 

The best method is to send an email with your questions and I will do my best to answer within the next 72 hours. This site is being run by one individual, not an organization, group or company, please keep that in mind. 

If I had to classify the site; I would call it a fan site or concerned consumer site. I like music, and since MP3 came along I've had the chance to hear artists that I never would have heard if I was depending on the RIAA membership to get it to market (such as Dido, Gregorian and Anggun). The RIAA is losing control over the distribution channels; they don't like it. For years, the major labels have done everything they can to discourage new artists, for the RIAA to claim they are protecting the artists, is like the fox guarding the hen house. They raise issues to cloud the debate, about licensing etc. Granted licensing will be the outcome eventually, but the RIAA membership wants to control the licensing which hurts any artist: established or new (just look at TLC: Behind The Music on VH-1). That is the situation we have now' it wouldn't be a change. It would be an expansion of their control over what you are allowed to listen to (sounds like communism to me).

I feel an independent agency needs to do the licensing, and tracking along the lines of BMI or ASCAP, with tracking of the number of downloads, streaming broadcasts, with artists and songwriters getting paid for play, along the lines of MP3s "Payback for Playback" . I don't want to be limited to buying a CD that has 12 songs on it, if I want just one cut from the CD. Singles are virtually non-existent any more and the ones that are, are over priced. Downloads are the answer there. I personally would buy a lot more music if the "every song ever recorded" was available say for 99 cents per download sush as emusic.com (but, my personal experience with them is that they spam your email address) and I be spending a lot more money on music, than I currently do.

In 1999, the Big 5 released 2600 CDs; yet Napster in the first few months of this year signed up over 17,000 new bands that release their music in MP3 format. These bands have either not had access to the "traditional" distribution networks (which are controlled by the major labels) or chose not to sign contracts that stripped them of their rights. The MP3 format has given these "new" artists  a channel for distribution they have never had before. MP3 has given the music fan choices they never had before. I think that scares the major labels to death. They have gone after new technologies that have the potential to change the situation with the zeal of a rabid dog that has been cornered, just as they did when cassette tapes came on the market, when CD recorders came on the market.
Rather than embracing that market, the RIAA members have actively worked to totally maintain control over the distribution networks, to limit the amount of music and artists available. If Microsoft did that to the extent that the RIAA membership has done (and Microsoft comes really close and we know the result of the Justice Department), Bill Gates would be under the jail. Stop and think about for a minute. Time Warner and AOL merge, that's a major distribution channel. Bertelsmann (BMG's parent company) buys CDNow,  that's a major distribution channel.  Time Warner owns CNN,  so that even the mainstream news reporting on the issue is owned by the very people involved in the issue. The "spin" put on the story by them will undoubtedly be in favor of the boss. It's the old story about "don't bite the hand that feeds you..

The music fan has little voice in the issue (and it is us that keeps these people rich and employed), most musicians in America have little voice as well.

That is what this website is all about, giving a place and a method to provide our input to the debate.