A Very Bad and Desperate Idea

Music industry fools run around around like headless chickens
or something like that...

If the record companies receive this tithe from the ISPs there is little hope of it ever reaching the artists (as recently proven by the news that the millions in damages won by the RIAA have not been disbursed to artists in any significant amounts). This is yet another desperate bid by the big 4 to shore up their failing profits and to forestall the collapse of their antiquated business model. As I've said before, the record companies need to break apart their various departments and go independent if they wish to survive in business.

To be remotely fair, the record companies would need to agree to some kind of no contest clause - so that regardless of what music content is shared online they would not attempt to interfere in any way with the natural order of P2P file sharing. They should be legally required to take the undeserved pound of flesh and shut the hell up.

Judging by this report and several others in the recent past, these talking heads know very little about anything and their primary role is to protect failing businesses by curbing progress and creativity. The welfare of the artists is not a significant consideration in any of these discussions or proposals.

It is reassuring to know how desperate they really are and that it is now and ever will be safe to download freely with roughly a 0.000488% chance of being shaken down by the so called 'content providers'. One day, we will all look back at this time and laugh, grimly, because there is little chance that human stupidity is on the wane...

Amen

ACEtone ALLstars go commercial (sort of)

The number of downloads of such tracks as the Dub Canon was sufficient for me to ask myself if I should not be charging money for it and the others: Fine loose jammed dubby tracks recorded live at 6/8 Studio and mixed at ACEtone Studio to a point of DUB righteousness. Why not? But then I thought - maybe the downloads will dry up. They serve promotional purposes don't they? He says weakly...

So I just offered the choice. Either download for free or pay for it.
Here

Go on, buy a track and tip the balance...buy me a cup of coffee...for spending hours on the beautiful things...

I'm already owed $104 by the original mp3.com and the current one wants to know nothing about it. Can you imagine that multiplied by 100,000 artists? er, um...so maybe that was 10 million virtual dollars debt that Vivendi bought (or was it they who were bought out? Can't remember) and no artist ever saw a penny. I'm just hoping the 'new way' is more responsible.