Big 4 record labels ‘ripe for government bailout’
p2pnet news view Music:- With the US already authorising billions of dollars in taxpayer money for American banks, the four major labels (and Merlin) are similarly, “ripe for a government bailout,” says Tommy Silverman in an A2IM (American Association of Independent Music) post.
The Big 4 are:
- Vivendi Universal (France)
- Sony BMG (Japan and Germany)
- EMI (Britain
- Warner Music (US, but controlled by a Canadian)
“The U.S. recording industry, worth $14 billion in retail value when George W. Bush took office, has fallen to $9 billion today,” says Silverman in a “modest proposal for government intervention”.
“Rock & Roll did more to bring about the fall of the Soviet Union than the CIA,”" he says. “A strong music business is a matter of national security.”"
Just as the government, “prevented a Dubai company from safeguarding American ports,” it should, “take steps to stop rock & roll from slipping away to foreign control,” he states. “At the very least, they should fund the purchase of the Elvis Presley catalog back from the Japanese.”
If the Big 4 had spent as much time and money establishing themselves as major users of P2P technology in the 21st digital century, instead of launching bizarre campaigns to sue their own customers into becoming compliant consumers of corporate ‘product,’ and trying to gain exclusive control of how, and by whom, music is distributed online, they’d now be sitting pretty.
But, “Like the auto industry, the music business needs loan guarantees to retool to adapt to new technology,” says Silverman, adding »»»
The government should fund a five-year, $25 billion loan package industry to pay for artist development and marketing and retooling for and adaptation to new technologies during the transition period. As a condition, it would limit salaries and bonuses and temporarily eliminate golden parachutes for top executives.
The labels could also benefit from FCC rules requiring all radio stations to play at least 50% American content, at least 50% developing artists and at least 30% independent acts. The budget of Voice of America should be increased, from $160 million to $300 million a year, and Scott Shannon and Barry Mayo should be appointed to run the organization. Their mission would be to increase audience from 94 million to 2 billion while using American music to influence foreign culture.
Between 2000 and last year, the number of new releases rose from 35,515 to 79,695, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This increase in production has created an album glut, which the government could reduce by paying labels not to release albums, as it has done for agricultural commodities. It should also establish a fund to buy back 20% of all U.S. artist CD returns, which it could then distribute to developing nations to further spread American influence.
What remains perfectly clear is that the recording industry is ripe for a government bailout, long overdue for the support that almost all other countries recording industries get. The industry is worthy of that investment as benefits accrue not only to the companies but also through trickle down to publishers, radio, venues, artist managers, booking agents, merch companies, CD and component manufacturing facilities, recording studios and their employees. Through a strong American music business and strong American music, we bolster consumer confidence which, at its core, drives the financial markets and America`s standard of living.
The U.S. spends around $695 billion a year on defense so it would be a bargain to support the American music industry and stabilize National and global security. Now, more than ever, America needs the recording industry`s creative musical genius to infect the world with the sound and soul of America.
Stay tuned.
A2IM – Commentary: Save the Music, November 4, 2008
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November 8th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
It won’t be the first government-mandated bailout of the recording industry. The ‘private-copying’ levies on blank tapes and CDs (and Canadian iPods) already did that, and the idea of an ISP “tax” keeps being floated.
November 8th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
I thought one of the tenants of capitalism was that companies remained free of interference from governments? Yet now we seem to be promoting socialism for big business while simultanously rewarding greed and bumper bonuses. It seems certain businesses can’t fail… even if they bankrupt states in the process.
November 8th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
This clown can’t be serious, can he? We should never have bailed out the banks, and we shouldn’t bail out the auto industry. Bailing them out is tantamount to rewarding bad behavior and severe mismanagement. This is absolutely insane that someone would actually float this idea as reasonable
November 8th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
“national security” HA you just lost all credibility. 9 billion? jeez the power of the people really is winding them down.
whoever this silverman guy is, hes seriously delusional if he thinks hes going to see a penny.
So if all the people in the US claim to be artists, such as mr silverman or the people he claims to represent; can they all get in on the bailout?
November 8th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Great, sue your customers, then get hand outs from government, f**king brilliant idea. HaHaHaHa
November 8th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
This is one of the reasons I have been against the bail out from the start when it was first brought up.
There has been a failure in this rush to do something in first formulating the rules to go by and couple to the money. Just like the Iraqi war, this was put into effect. With little thought out plans, a whole bunch of drum beating to stir up emotions to sell the idea, and jumping in head over heels.
Now you have every corporation looking for that free hand out. Hey, the US government is giving money away to those that ask. You don’t even have to be part of the US to get it. Stupid and dumb with the taxpayer left holding the bag. If you think the economy was going to tank before with all the deficits because it is driven by consumer spending, wait till the tax bill comes in for this one on top of the two wars fought on credit. This is another nail in the coffin, ensuring the economy is going to gutter. It’s feel good, not doing good and is a direct example of why the American people have given Bush and company such a low confidence rating. Not to mention what the American people think of the Congresscritters that all jumped on the bandwagon, without much thought.
Supposedly, Bush has been in the planning stages for some time over the situtation to have a plan to deal with it. What I distinctly notice in all this, was a lack of involving anyone else till it was in dire circumstances. It gives me the definate impression he was hoping to walk out without having to deal with it, leaving it as a time bomb for the new president to deal with. Thus making a very bad impression on the public with the new president as no matter how it is dealt with, the economy is a major producer of public sentiment.
Again, playing politics is more important than doing what is good for the country. It is amply demonstrated in this emotional, no time for considering so do it now, little thought out plan. It is the same way he has gotten passed so many bills that if there were time to reason and consider, no one in their right mind would have supported.
November 8th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
There is so much wrong with this idea.
“while using American music to influence foreign culture”
Myself personally dont want to see any more “Gangsta” or “Ghetto” influenced culture
November 8th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
I thought one of the tenants of capitalism was that companies remained free of interference from governments?
Hahahaha! Corporations are ABOUT “interference from Government”:
1. “Limited liability” means that Government creates a “veil” between the “personal assets” of corporate CEOs and shareholders and the assets of the corporation itself. How this doesn’t encourage “bad behavior” on the part of stockholders and corporate boards is beyond me. People – particularly CEOs with muliti-billion dollar salaries — know that their “personal” property and assets are completely insulated from the consequences of what the corporation does. With a vanishingly few exceptions, if corporations are liquidated, the CEOS and board members’ never have to deal with the possibility of losing their ten houses or their fleet of cars.
Incorporation is ABOUT the State “interfering” to insulate people from the consequences of their own business decisions.
Sole proprietorships/partnerships don’t provide “limited liability” — the proprietors of the business enterprise retail full liability for what their business does. Interesting how most “mon and pop” outits retain a sense of ethics, no? Corporate drones and the scumbags-in-chief at the top know full well that nothing they do will have any “consequences” to them, financial or otherwise.
The employees who can — and often are — terminated on a whim, however, aren’t so lucky.
“Capitalism” may be a lot of things, but it sure as fuck isn’t “free enterprise”
November 8th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Ermich, you didn’t describe Capitalism…you described one of the many terrible perversions of Capitalism known as Fascism…
Capitalism is great in theory. I’d just like to see it happen in practice.
(Off topic, but socialism is about equal results for everybody)
November 9th, 2008 at 5:21 am
“Rock & Roll did more to bring about the fall of the Soviet Union than the CIA,â” he says. âA strong music business is a matter of national security.â
Here’s an idea.
Allow rock n roll on P2P and it will lead to the fall of china and Korea.
Fuckin morons.
November 9th, 2008 at 5:23 am
I wouldn’t mind so much if they didn’t trumpet capitalism and freedom and such while clearly advancing towards what can most easily be described as a lesser fascism.
November 9th, 2008 at 6:00 am
You’re nearly a laugh; but you’re really a cry!
November 9th, 2008 at 9:04 am
So, in a nutshell, the American music industry is a useful propaganda tool?
I just thought they were useless tools.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:57 am
^^ Satires / lampoons / parodies are among the most powerful weapons we have against the people who try to run our lives and over the past six years, I’ve published several of my own, my favourite being the one featuring Apple and SunnComm, a tacky DRM company.
I thought it couldn’t have been more obvious that in it, I was mocking both Apple and SunnComm. But I was wrong. So many people took it seriously SunnComm ended up issuing a passionate denial in a national, and even perhaps international, press release.
Tony Silverman’s piece is in my book one of the best satires on the corporate music industry I’ve ever seen and I admit I was hoping this post would provoke one or two mainstream reactions.
I emphasised, “Rock & Roll did more to bring about the fall of the Soviet Union than the CIA. A strong music business is a matter of national security.”
Excellent, and this isn’t bad either >> “Between 2000 and last year, the number of new releases rose from 35,515 to 79,695, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This increase in production has created an album glut, which the government could reduce by paying labels not to release albums, as it has done for agricultural commodities. It should also establish a fund to buy back 20% of all U.S. artist CD returns, which it could then distribute to developing nations to further spread American influence.”
Meanwhile, I’d never heard of Swift’s A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE IN IRELAND FROM BEING A BURDEN TO THEIR PARENTS OR COUNTRY, AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC.
It’s absolutely amazing. Thanks, Alsee.
November 9th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
^^ I screwed up.
I just accidentally overwrote a comment post from Alsee, the one I refer to above, citing Jonathan Swiftâs 1729 satire, and which inspired my own comment.
Alsee expressed surprise at the fact no one appears to have picked up that Silvermanâs piece was a satire.
Alsee also believes it was significant I hadnât said âA Modest Proposalâ was part of the title to Silvermanâs post, which in full was (and still is
) Commentary: Save the Music, A Modest Proposal For Government Intervention. Actually, all Iâd meant to do was abbreviate it.
So, Alsee, Iâm really sorry for inadvertently deleting your original Readerâs Write. Please feel free to post it again.
Cheers! And thanks â¦
November 9th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
heheh, I was wondering where the referenced post was Jon.
November 9th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
go ahead bail them out too, and when your country has no more cash left
WHATCHA GONNA DO THEN MR PRESIDENT.
RAISE TAXES UNTIL EVERYONE LIVES IN A TENT?
November 9th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
If you are a CREATOR and you want to distribute your film on BLURAY:
http://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/000733.html
AACS is required on all Blu-ray discs and costs $1,585 per title plus $0.05/disc
No. Holy Jesus Muffin Baked In Hell’s Sweet Flame No.
There is no fucking way I am going to go through the pain of applying for a “license” to some asswipe centralized copy protection gestapo so that I can be issued my unique serial number, blowing $1,585 out the window for the privilege of this delicious turd which I then HAVE to use (HAVE to use, I must stress) on my disc so it “can’t be duplicated” by normal people but easily duplicated by anyone else and THEN pay another five cents PER DISC for all future copies of the disc using this key I didn’t want for copy protection I don’t want. On TOP of the royalty to the patent pool of the Blu-Ray Consortium per disc. No fucking way! I couldn’t make this clearer if I formed the words using a pile of dead offspring. This is an utter deal breaker, friends.
November 10th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Me, I am going to bail-out these parasites with pest killer.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Jon, you beat me to it, as I was reading responses I was going to ask you if that post was satire. I wish the RIAA was in a position to NEED a bailout, unfortunately they are fat and happy with cash, despite cries to the contrary. If you think about it, the sue em all policy is a GREAT money maker for them. If someone buys an mp3 or CD the RIAA has to give some(admittedly a small amount) of that money to the artist, and they(the riaa) only get $1.00 per song retail. When they sue someone, and there is a settlement, it’s usually for more than $1.00 per song, and even better for them, the artist gets NONE of that money! If I had to pick a major beef with the mainstream media’s coverage of this issue, that would be it.
November 10th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
^^ The sad thing is: I wouldn’t in the slightest be surprised to find they actually havebeen begging for taxpayer money.
Cheers!
November 10th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Henry, while I agree with most of your post I should point out that the reason #1 why corporations CAN get investments vs. sole proprietors CAN’T is the corporate veil. Corporations also provide continuity of capital even after the founders die. Reason #2 is the limited risk. You invest your money in a corporation, but you’re only liable for the amount you invested. With sole proprietorships and partnerships the banks can go after your personal property. That’s why most successful sore proprietors eventually get converted into corporations (more houses, cars etc. you have as a CEO of your sole proprietorship the more you’re afraid you can lose it).
Capitalism – as they say- is the second best system, but nobody has found the best one yet.