Day 2 of Song Summit – Would you bittorrent your mate?
“Feeling better?” Ready to take on the hard music industry?” Lee, my manager says as he chucks a coffee in my sleep deprived direction. It is day 2 of Song Summit and I’ve been trying to put my new site up…just in case we speak to anyone interesting.
First panel up “Would you bittorrent your mate?” Curious and curiouser, I am interested, I’m nursing a vague hope that the industry has stopped trying to police pirating efforts by now and has moved on to more constructive approaches that involve working with the technological environment and not against it.
Nope. Nooo such luck. Here goes a summary/ thought piece
“Would you bittorrent your mate?”
Basically they’ve got MIPI (Music Industry Piracy Investigations) talking about possible ways to deter this from happening.
Then there’s the explanation that there is misinformation that musicians are making money from gigs and hence don’t need album sales because they are rolling in it. I agree. Of course, only the top layer of the gig industry can command fees that make for comfortable living…I get that, but policing data is not the way to go. But you know…I’m still listening.
There was some mention of France’s Data Protection agency and how Australia isn’t catching up and how dissapointed we all are etc etc because the government is not protecting the musicians and France is.
Then there are complaints about lost album sales because 485000 people downloaded a certain artist and only 8000 people bought the album.
I’m sorry, but in the world of file sharing, we covet because we can, not because we want. You’ve got to know the difference. Those figures you listed mean nothing. They don’t mean 400000+ lost sales, they mean that 485000 people were curious enough to check out the album, 8000 people of the lot..valued it enough to buy it. There, end of story. Get over it.
Gosh I’m bored and dissapointed — after all these years we haven’t moved beyond these very boring and ineffective thoughts on data policing?!
I would have liked to hear more about the following:
1) what you are going to do with Russian websites that are illegally selling mp3s for 1 cent. – namely allofmp3s and their replacement sites
– I think it’s all well and good that MP3s are being shared for free between friends and over the net, because I do know from personal experience that when people like something enough, they’d buy it. I know my minions do. My minions also spread the word by giving my music away for free for other listeners who sometimes become fans too. Not all bad there. Sites like allofmp3s are different.
They make nothing, and when money is earned, give nothing back to the industry. The arbitrary price they set on music is not discussed with neither the label or the artist, yet they profit from it. They must be annhilated, like all other parasite industries. But no…no discussion there, no way, we’re too concerned with killing bittorrent.
2) I would have liked to hear how they might work with ISPs on possibly profiting from the bittorrent technology somehow. Maybe through clever subscription models possibly inbuilt into our monthly broadband bill, or working out a plan where they have a slice of bittorrent’s advertorial profits. Possibly, hopefully, fostering the belief that we can all make money together and paying money for lawsuits and lawyers get us nowhere. Nope…no such thing, we’re WAY too concerned with killing bittorrent.
3) I would have liked to hear what we are going to do about the ongoing trend that itunes is pretty much the monopolising platform for all digital media and if this trend is healthy for the economy in the long run because Monopoly sucks and Absolute Monopoly sucks absolutely. Nope, we’re too concerned with killing bittorrent.
This was made worse when the forum was put to the floor and some songwriter comes up to suggest that viruses be placed in songs…so that you, my dears, your iphones will blow up if you share music.
In the real world, your royal madness has no ninjas, but if she could, she’d very much like to nuke the panel for gross lack of insight and for encouraging it with a nice shiny mix of nunchucks and sais. No your Royal madness did not go up to the panel to speak her mind because…she knows a lost cause when she sees one. And these people, who are still sprouting stuff like that at THIS time…are a lost cause.
Panel Conclusion: Pirates are bad, they must be neutered, we must strive to be better internet nuns, and yes minions if you tell your friends about my music by letting them have it for free:
1) I’m supposed to tell you that you have been bad
2) I must spank you and educate you on the value on my music because by sharing it around for you have been naughty minions.
What absolute horseshit.
Moving along. Next up: my song review. – where I squirm in a very public / microscope and realise that being analysed isn’t going to kill me.