p2pnet.net News:- In April, Brickley Paste made his first appearance in p2pnet with A near miss for Mankind in which he expressed the interesting idea that there’s has never been a better time to be an unaffiliated artist in the music industry.

This time, he lists industry battles highlighted in his last piece, together with ideas on how they might be resolved.

Now read on >>>>>>>>>>

Thoughts on the music wars
By Brickley Paste

In April Audiofile, I discussed the effects of file sharing and the tumultuous state of the music industry as a result of several escalating battles. This issue, I’m faced with a far greater task: outlining a solution. There are a number of organizations deeply engrossed in these issues, each with its own vision. Future of Music (futureofmusic.org), Webcaster Alliance (webcasteralliance.org), Reclaim the Media (reclaimthemedia.org) CDD (democraticmedia.org) and Downhill Battle (downhillbattle.org) are some of the more prominent voices. Some focus on just one of the battles and some, like FOM and Webcaster Alliance have positions on multiple issues. The truth is that it’s a massive issue. Few artists are untouched by its tentacles.

In order to offer a proper solution, it is important to know what my objectives are. The only side that matters, in my humble opinion, is the artist’s. I don’t care how hip the A&R guy is. I don’t care how many pairs of denim pants he has, how many bands he used to play guitar with or snort coke with. I don’t care how bleached his tips are. I don’t care how instrumental the promoter is in a good turnout. I don’t care how many towels she puts in the dressing room. If you are not the one creating the music, then you are expendable. Welcome to capitalism.

Even I’m a leach of sorts, because I’m fulfilling a role only made possible by musicians. When I opt to get paid more than they do for my parasitic role, I deserve the ax, because I’ve forgotten who put me here in the first place.

This is a list of the industry battles from April (explanations have been removed to save space) with my suggestion for their respective solutions. This is meant to initiate discussion, not end it.

So what’s your take?

• The Decency War: This battle can never be finished, because it has shifting parameters. As long as old folks and young folks inhabit the same space, there will be this divergence of perception. As far as I can tell, the Decency War is only relevant to musicians in that it draws attention to the FCC. This is a good thing. The Superbowl Nipple Show couldn’t have come at a better time. Six days after the S.B.N.S., Comcast offered to buy Disney for $54 billion. That same day a federal appeals court in Philadelphia was hearing oral arguments in a case aimed at overturning the new FCC deregulations (also on that day, Congress was holding hearings on indecency and The Breast). Two months later, facing loud opposition from citizen groups, unions, cable subscribers, and most importantly, Wall Street, Comcast and Disney decided to chill on their mega-merger. Solution? Get over the nipple, worry about those deciding whether or not it’s scary to see.
• The Consolidation/Deregulation War: The mighty FCC, supposed media watchdog, has been quite instrumental in aiding the marriage of mega-monopolies. It has done wonders for consolidating media, causing many small public radio stations and news outlets to wonder if they’ve really got the public’s best interest in mind. If the hearings in Philadelphia were any indication, the best solution (assuming you don’t own a multi-billion dollar corporation) is a letter to your congressman (and hope that he’s a democrat). As far as I know, Congress appears to be the only one that can put the FCC in check. And if you follow the FCC expense reports and their subsequent billing to various FCC-favored HUGE corporations, that’s far overdue.
• The Copyright War: It appears that copyright laws are just way too archaic. The reason they have remained so has something to do with Congressmen campaign contributions and expense accounts. The music industry has been remarkably slow in adapting to new formats of distribution. Legislation has simply not made way for things like Danger Mouse’s Gray Album. As musicians sign fewer and fewer major label contracts (and/or major labels disappear), they will have more and more control of their own publishing/copyrights. With this shift, we may also see much more leniency in sample usage and free distribution, since legitimate artists are usually less about the ‘bottom line,’ sometimes tragically so. The terms of copyright may be shortened, making more and more information public domain. What will be interesting is whether or not other industry copyrights (like say pharmaceuticals) will also be made public property in shorter time-spans.
• The Payola War: On January 30th, 2003 Don Henley testified in front of a Senate Committee for a hearing on Media Ownership and the Radio Industry. He explained that, though declared illegal in 1960, the practice of paying for airplay was still very much in place. Presently, labels pay ‘independent promoters’ to guarantee airplay. The independent promoters pay radio stations (or let’s just say Clear Channel) hundreds of thousands of dollars to ‘represent’ them to labels. They then invoice the labels weekly for any songs added. Wow. Wicked smot. No wonder it’s taken so long for Congress to figure it out. Kraig Kitchin, president of Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks, was quoted by The Wall Street Journal as saying (without a hint of sarcasm), ‘The day [labels] choose to discontinue to pay the indies is the day [pay-for-play] stops.’ Since payola contributes tens of millions of dollars to CC’s yearly revenue, it is not likely they would abandon the system so easily. Solution? Internet radio (at least until Payola gets its grip on that) and a letter to your Congressman regarding FCC’s love of deregulation.
• The Property/Piracy War: What’s beautiful about this war is that it’s basically 5 HUGE companies against the world. At the heart of it, it’s a matter of economics clashing with ethics, and in most cases, adjusting them. The cost of CDs has gone up an average of $1 every year. The production cost of those same CDs has gone down considerably. In the case of paid mp3 downloads (like through iTunes) the cost of duplication is null. With the advent of the ‘bedroom studio,’ the cost of producing music is decreasing immensely. Depending on whether you’re a democrat or a republican, the unemployment rate may have gone up. Consumers aren’t stupid. They’re scornful of the way the music industry has treated them; smothering them with the worst kind of Nickleback garbage possible, charging them $16.99 for a CD with one good song on it, making them apologize in Pepsi advertisements for making a ‘free market’ a free market. The solution? Record labels: go to hell. Musicians: rethink the definition of ‘property.’ Perhaps recorded music can no longer be an avenue for revenue. It happens all the time in business. You have to find another angle - live performances, DVDs (at least for a little while) etc’ the artists blowing up right now (Atmosphere, Lightening Bolt, for instance) are the ones touring their asses off.
• The Bad Contract War: The best way to win a contractual battle is to strike. For musicians, victory in this war will mean one of two things: (1) that musicians have waged a successful strike on the major labels or (2) that the major labels’ reign of the media has been toppled. Of the two, the latter is much more likely than the former. As long as there are 30,000 artists for every 1 record deal (that is not an accurate figure, but you get my point), it will be impossible to forge solidarity amongst the starving. Artists simply cannot be expected to be that selfless. The internet is crucial in accomplishing scenario #2. Label deals are basically $40-500,000 bank loans with a 60% interest rate (that estimate is based on updated figures from Steve Albini’s famous article The Problem with Music). The only reason anyone would take a loan with that outrageous of a rate is because they are (a) starving or (b) unable to gain access to the crucial facilities wielded by a major label ? distribution, promotion, tour support, booking (out-sourced), and airplay. Well, thanks to the internet, distribution, promotion, and airplay can cost as little as $12 a month. That knocks out a good portion of what labels are good for. So chances are good that they ‘ be able to have such an iron grip on the channels of success while the internet is in its current state.
• The Artistic Diversity War: The outcome of this war is directly related to the outcome of the Consolidation/Deregulation War. The internet has already worked wonders for widening the tunnel vision of American music consumers. Most people know the incredible diversity is out there, they just don’t know how to find it. Artists need to fight tooth and nail for the freedom they currently have, as a result of the internet. They need to promote websites that introduce new music, and speak up to balance out the pro-RIAA babble from Major Label artists desperate to maintain Top 40 status for another few weeks. Things fall apart. The internet will become a crappy mall. The idea should be to convince the owners of the mall that diversity is extremely marketable.
  

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