[mythtv-users] It's over, the RIAA is toast

[Brad DerManouelian]

On Mar 5, 2008, at 9:00 AM, Brian Phillips wrote:

> Well, this is true now, but I see this going away as well.  I agree  
> there
> will always need to be a source where listeners can find up and coming
> artists.  New artists will need to go somewhere to get widespread
> listenership.  If they appeal to a few they will gain a widespread  
> audience
> by a "viral" marketing system.  If they stink it up, they'll run out  
> of cash
> and end up nowhere near being able to offer a "pay what you want"  
> download
> site dedicated to them.
>
> Basically, I see an evolution coming through.  The governing body  
> will be
> removed from the RIAA, a system that is a hybrid of wikipedia and  
> Ubuntu's
> brainstorm will be set up similar to Yahoo or AOL music sites  
> (without the
> fact that you need to be a "discovered" band to post your music and  
> videos).
> It will be maintained by website ad revenue to encourage even the  
> poorest
> (as in money) of artists to try their luck at the system.  A rating  
> system
> conducted by the listeners will then decide if the band has what it  
> needs to
> become their own entity.

That sounds about right to me, too.

> So in short, yeah, there needs to be a governing body...a  
> "marketplace" of
> music where consumers and new creators can meet.  I just don't think  
> the
> RIAA will be that marketplace for long.  They won't be able to  
> compete with
> a wikipedia/brainstorm idea of charging little to no money to new  
> artists
> wanting to be discovered by the masses.  There (currently) isn't a law
> requiring new artists to use the RIAA as their marketing/distributor.

The RIAA isn't a marketing or distribution company. It's a legal  
organization that was started to protect music artists' rights (and  
eventually only cater to major music label rights since they pay the  
bills). Then they got scared about losing so much money due to how  
easy the internet made it for artists to find out if someone else was  
using their music without paying for it and got overzealous with their  
"protection" of their artists' rights. That coupled with the fact that  
record labels can't pay the RIAA as much any more since people are  
purchasing much less music than they used to has led to a panic in  
"how are we going to make money if people aren't buying music?" which  
has led to lawsuits in their "we'll get it out of them one way or  
another" approach.