p2pnet news view Music:- It’s that time again.

Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industry) has come out with yet another ‘report’ to ‘prove’ the years of lawsuits against Big 4 customers, millions of dollars spent blitzing the lamescream media with spurious PR ‘marketing’ campaigns, and endless quotes from Big 4 talking heads, have yielded fruitful results.

It tries to present the corporate music industry as a viable entity against the P2P networks and increasing numbers of independent sites and services happily used by the vast, and growing, bulk of online music lovers.

In the US federal judge James P. Jones gave the major labels a sharp slap in the face with his ruling Case 2:07CR00015  that contrary to RIAA and MPAA statements, file sharing doesn’t automatically equal the loss of a sale, or sales.

Statements to that effect from Jones or anyone else won’t have a noticeable effect on the labels and their costly coteries of taxpayer-funded government, media and enforcement functionaries who act on their behalf.

They’ll continue to report the results of unsported claims as though they come from credible and reputable sources.

Section 4 of the latest equine excreta release is entitled THE BATTLE FOR HEARTS AND MINDS and reads »»»

• Public education on copyright issues is critical to the future survival and success of the music industry. The recording industry launched or was active in more than 70 programmes worldwide in 2008, including: television advertising, documentary production, letter-writing campaigns, school band tours, education packs for teachers, online advice and information to support parents.

That should, of course, be »»»

The continuing campaign to snow the public on copyright issues is critical to the future survival of the music industry. The recording industry launched or was active in more than 70 worldwide scams in 2008, including: television misrepresentations, spins dressed up as documentary production, on- and offline spam writing campaigns, school band tours, child mind-rape packs for teachers, online BS and misinformation meant to con parents into acting for, and on behalf of, the Big 4 labels.

Young People, Music and the Internet is a, “simple guide, published in partnership with the children’s online charity Childnet, advising parents on how to keep their children safe and legal while getting music online and or via a mobile,” says the IFP

However, Young People, Music and the Internet is a bald-faced example of chicanery published in partnership with the children`s online charity Childnet, a well-meaning organisation which, like too many others, now acts an unpaid propaganda machine for the record labels. YPM and I is a marketing tool designed to use parents as sales agents with the implied threat that if they don’t cooperate, their kids will end up on the wrong end of lawsuits launched by the labels.

“www.pro-music.org is a website backed by an international alliance of music sector groups that aims to raise awareness of legitimate sources of digital music,” says the report. “It offers the world`s largest listing of legal online stores, monthly digital charts from around the world, education tools and information on how to succeed in the music business.”

However, www.pro-music.org is just another industry-owned scam site backed by music sector vested interest groups with the sole purpose of falsely portraying the corporate music industry as having a significant presence online. It includes grossly exaggerated lists of online ’stores,’ meaningless digital charts   And tries to convince young hopefuls they’ll get a good deal if they sign up with the Big 4.

Click here for the full, hilarious IFPI summary, excluding section 4 cited above.

To give you a taste, we’ve excerpted two sections »»»

INTRODUCTION FROM JOHN KENNEDY

• The industry is reinventing its business model in response to the dramatic transformation in the way music is consumed. No! Really! Like others, the industry goes into 2009 under the uncertain cloud of a global downturn. However, it is no stranger to the need to reform, restructure and reinvent. Labels began this process many years ago and are better placed than many others to weather the downturn. Or so we keep trying to tell people.
• There are positive stories about the state of today`s music business, with new services offering consumers diverse ways to enjoy music. We should know. They cost us enough to plant in the media.  Labels [that's us] continue to bring to market the vast majority of acts that music fans will never enjoy.
• There is also a momentous, one-sided debate going on about the future of the environment on which not just music, but all creative industries, depend in an era where the very principle of getting paid for creative work is under threat by us. Following large bribes to political leaders, governments are now trying to brow-beat ISPs into becoming corporate cops. They know that doing nothing is not an option. We’ll make sure they’ll be in deep trouble if they don’ t co-operate, and we are determined to drive this home in 2009

SECTION ONE: MIS-SHAPING A NEW ERA IN DIGITAL MUSIC

• The music industry is determined to continue business as though it was still in the 1970s, completely ignoring consumer demand in an environment in which we’ve been able to stifle innovation and many, but not enough, new technologies which looked even vaguely like threatening our dominance.
• In 2008 the digital music business internationally was an expensive failure, but thanks relentless spamming of the corporate mainline media with endless puff pieces, we’ve  been able to paint a completely false picture in which our claims that Big 4 online sales  are growing are being repeated as though they’re genuine.
• The recorded music industry generates a greater proportion of its revenues through digital sales than the film, magazine and newspaper industries combined. So there!
• Consumer demand for corporate music product has never been lower, but thanks to tireless work by organisations such as NPD research, we been able to claim total music consumption in the US is on the rise.
• We’re still trying to convince Fans to consume music from DRM-loaded online stores and music access services supplied by us. Music companies are moving from selling products to monetising our operations.
• We’ve finally realised single track downloads, up 24% in 2008 to 1.4 billion units globally,  are where it’s at, but nonetheless, we’ll continue to try and convince people digital albums are better because we get more money out of them.

And so on.

Don’t blame us if you suffer a rupture from laughing so much while you’re reading the full text.

JN

January , 2009

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 10:37 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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