Flashbulb accuses iTunes of Piracy
p2pnet news | Music:- “All it takes is a week of mainstream publicity to start seeing results,” posted Benn Jordan on his blog yesterday.
The Flashbulb, aka Benn Jordan, “became so outraged when he discovered that iTunes was effectively pirating his music, that he uploaded copies of his latest album to BitTorrent,”says TorrentFreak in a Q&A.
“An established, but outraged musician has decided to shun conventional distribution methods by following other recent initiatives (such as Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ promotion) by making his latest album available for free download,” says the story, going on:
“It’s available on BitTorrent on sites like The Pirate Bay, with so-called ‘OiNK replacement’ site, What.cd, providing the album on ‘free leech’ to encourage more downloads.”
iTunes owns Sublight Recordsand now, “all Sublight releases have been removed from iTunes, and Apple wants to work things out without legal action,” Jordan posted.
He says on TorrentFreak:
“Luckily, my record contracts were always negotiated well. Once things started moving with small labels I was approached by some larger ones, but there was always some seedy stipulation that prevented me from ever signing.
“Still, with a 50/50 contract, I’d be selling 2,000 albums and would get $250 for it somehow. Many people that i’d meet at my shows would say that they bought my music on iTunes, yet I’ve never signed any sort of agreement allowing iTunes to host my music, and I’ve certainly never seen a dime of money for my albums hosted there.
“So I started investigating the numbers from the label, which led me to some shocking revelations about how little the artist and label was getting in comparison to the retailers. When I got around to asking about iTunes, the owner of Sublight Records pleaded with me to ‘leave it be’. Everyone else made an extraordinary effort to ignore my calls and emails.
‘When I finally got a hold of the digital distributor (I must note that ‘digital distributor’ is the most pathetic job title I’ve ever heard), I was told that once the files are in the iTunes system, it literally couldn’t be removed or taken down for a year. So, either Apple has created a self-aware doomsday machine that cannot be stopped or reasoned with, or everyone involved is just enjoying the gravy train of ripping off artists like myself and using Apple’s backbone of attorneys as an intimidation factor.
“Even after having a lawyer working for me on this matter, this is the one and only response we’ve EVER been able to get from Apple:
Dear Benn,
I understand that you are writing to the iTunes Store because you are upset about finding your own album ‘The Flashlight’ and some of your other album as well on the iTunes Store, and that you feel that you are owned royalties for this music that his being purchased. I am sorry that you have to found this upsetting. My name is Wendy, and I would be happy to link you to right people to talk to about this issue.
So, wonders Jordan, is the pirate he should go after? —- “A kid who downloads my album because it isn’t available in non-DRM format and costs $30 on Amazon? Or a huge multi-billion dollar corporation that has been selling thousands of dollars worth of my music and not even acknowledging it?”
TorrentFreak quotes him as saying he’s not disillusioned, he’s “outraged, and anyone who ever spent a dime on buying music through these distribution methods should be outraged too. Here we are pleading with people to not steal music, and then we hand them dog shit when they go out of their way to buy it.”
On his blog, “Obviously there’s a lot more to tell,” says Jordan, “but I’ll wait until all the dust settles before saying anything…since every word of mine is being spun into personalized-opinion-campaigns.
“In the last 12 hours I have learned the following facts about myself from the internet:
1. I am a Scientologist, and the reason I’m getting publicity on this issue is because the Church of Scientology is commanding it’s minions to push my career forward.
2. Not only do I not own the rights to my own music, I’m also bound by a complex major label record contract in which I do not understand.
3. I was hired by Microsoft as a pawn in a huge viral PR campaign.
4. I’ve posted bulletins on Myspace asking users to bring methamphetamines to my shows.
Stay tuned. It gets worse (funnier) before it gets better (boring).
So Yeh, definitely stay tuned.
Meanwhile, Benn Lee Jordan (born October 28, 1978) is an American electronica musician operating under many pseudonyms,” says the Wikipedia, going on:
“Since 1999 his most widely distributed and eclectic music has been released under the name of The Flashbulb. Other names Benn operates under are Acidwolf, CHR15TPUNCH3R, DJ ASCII, Dr. Lefty, Dysrythmia, Flexe, Human Action Network, Lucid32, rnd16, Sixty Six Ex, and Q-Bit.”
Also See:
TorrentFreak – Pirated by iTunes, Artist Turns to BitTorrent, February 6, 2008
blogs Jordan – There we go…, February 6, 2008
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February 7th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
I gotta admire your courage to say so. Good luck!
February 7th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
I got his album on what.cd and I hope to see more artist going to this type of distribution. All albums will be “pirated” so why not promote it yourself?! I can’t wait to see how this type of distribution works out for flashbulb, I’m sure the donations will total more than what he would of made of itunes.