I suggest you go to http://www.janisian.com, click on Articles, and read “The Internet Debacle – An Alternative View “. Maybe then you’ll understand why what Mr. Evans has said here is try, and your tired phrase that “the pirates are stealing our stuff is false.” Hopefully hearing some of the arguments from one of your peers may make you rething your point of view. Right now, you come off as nothing more than a spokesperson for the RIAA, your record label. Try treating your fans (customers) like the true fans many of them are, instead of like THEIVES, and you might even sell a few more CD’s.

Until you do, you have lost a customer for good now. ME!

just because she has a few gold or platinum records (which, like all awards based on sales – YES! SALES! – means nothing), it doesn’t make her an expert on the internet, online sales, or p2p.

if she really wants to take a moral or legal stand on this issue, she should look into the facts and do the research herself before paying lip service to the RIAA. then she’ll see that these lawsuits and bullying tactics by her bosses are doing far more financial, legal and moral damage than any single filesharer can do.

she has no idea what drives a market and what drives a consumer to buy – or not buy – a product and turn to p2p. it’s not just that most “art” is crap or unoriginal, it’s also the price as well as the availability of the crap.

because of people like her and the RIAA, the unsigned musicians and indies have found that p2p is the best – and sometimes only – way of introducing themselves to the public. and this scares her and the RIAA. artists taking the initiative and using the medium that the consumers use to their advantage. omigod! we must stop this craziness! it’s illegal! it’s immoral! it’s taking money away from ms. crow!

no it’s not.

many people would often prefer to be able to buy music online, but there are availability and technical problems.

paypal – not secure enough.

credit cards – many people don’t have one.

checks – many countries don’t use them, or online services won’t accept foreign checks or payments.

e-banking/direct debit – not widely used in USA, but the rest of the worls uses it and prefers it. so these people are also barred from buying online from US firms.

potal savings/billing accounts – non-existamt in USA but common everywhere else.

international money orders – often not available or not accepted by online firms

i might want to buy and download a song or album (DRM-less only) but i can’t: i have no credit acrds. i don’t like in USA. i don’t use checks because checks and money orders are not used where i live.

i pay all my bills with e-banking or standing payment orders through my bank. if i could do the same for online music or movie download services, i might be tempted to try one. but only if it was at a fair price and there were no restrictions attached to it, telling me what i can or cannot do with my purchase.

these online services need to recognise that there are other ways of paying bills besides using US credit cards. if they could reform the billing system and get rid of illegal/immoral DRM, they would have a lot more customers.

Tell the people at your label, and every artist you know to tell their label, to license the damn music. You and I both know that an MP3 is not the same quality as a CD track. Its a heavily compressed, version that loses a fair amount of quality in the conversion. The sooner artists like yourself, Don Henley, and other realize that the public isn’t going to pay CD prices for inferior downloads and that the best way to get paid to some sort of blanket license, (like BMI or ASCAP) so that as recording artists, you get paid as well.

1) a download is not a lost sale.

2) the downloader stole nothing from you. You still have your music. every store that has your cds still have them.

3) the internet is about interactivity, don’t stifle it. (check out the restrictions for streaming your labels reps (RIAA) got written into law.Utilize the internet for what is is designed for, not some 50 year old business model. Utilize it. The internet is not radio, its better. Don’t restrict it like radio has been hamstrung and you will be pleasantly surprised at the results.

4) The sooner you wake up and start telling your label your desires, the sooner a solution can be reached and you and every other artist can get paid.

5) I like your music, the second you either go indie, or come out and start pressuring your label to get their head out of their collective anal cavity I will lift my self imposed boycott of major label artists (RIAA members) and go out and buy you lastest CD. until then I’ll just have to listen for the bits I catch on the radio.

Bill Evans
founder boycott-riaa.com
(no longer associated)

Good morning, Chairman Coble and members of the subcommittee. My name is Sheryl Crow and I am a recording artist. On behalf of my fellow artists, I wish to thank you, Mr. Chairman, for calling this hearing today so that we may express our concerns with the work for hire amendment.

I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge those artists who have come to Washington to attend this hearing? I am also accompanied by letters from artists unable to attend the hearing today but who would like to have their voices heard.

I am here today to ask the subcommittee to repeal the work for hire amendment and to restore to recording artists our rights as authors of our work. As you are aware, the designation of a sound recording as a work made for hire has severe implications for recording artists. The most serious consequence is that featured artists are no longer considered the author of the sound recording and thus are denied the right of termination under the Copyright Act, a right granted to other authors. This surely can’t be what Congress intended.

If any of you sat in on a recording session, you would see that the artist featured on a sound recording functions as the author of the work. Without the creative contribution of the featured artist, there would be no sound recording. To legislate that the record label should be recognized and credited as the “author” of the sound recording undermines the framers’ intent of the Constitution and goes against my good Midwestern common sense. I am the author and creator of my work.

I am extremely grateful to be in the position of being in a line of work I so love. As the committee deliberates this important issue, I think it might be helpful if I describe the process by which I and other music artists author our sound recordings, for the journey begins long before the recording contract is signed.

Music has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I grew up in a small town called Kennett, Missouri, about a hundred miles from Memphis. My mother, who still teaches piano and my father, a lawyer and trumpet player, raised me to appreciate all kinds of music and to never fear the challenge of pursuing my dreams of becoming a musician. I went on to study music at the University of Missouri, where I received my degree in piano performance and music education.

While teaching music in the St. Louis school system, I began playing in local bands. I also began working in a local studio as a jingle singer for commercials. Before I obtained my recording contract, I worked as a background singer, side musician, and wrote songs that were recorded by other artists. After many years of writing my own songs and playing any place that would have me, I finally was offered a recording contract. As you can see, the creative work that goes into making a first album begins long before the record contract is ever obtained.

Because I am a recording artist and not commissioned by a recording company to provide a specified work, (as in the case of the 18th century composer, Handel and his wonderful composition, The Messiah, which was instructed to be written by the high courts), I am basically left to my own devices when it comes to creating a work that best represents what it is I am trying to express in my work and in my life. I figure out what songs I want to record. In almost all instances, I write or co-write my own material, however, I have been known to record the odd Bob Dylan tune.

Although songwriting can be the most rewarding part of the process, it can also be extremely time consuming in what is always a demanding schedule of appearances, concerts, and other work. A song can take hours, months, sometimes years to write and the demo process, in which the basic sketch of the song is recorded, often precedes the actual recording process.

For artists who do not write their own songs, there is a similar process of collecting songs from songwriters that the artists would like to record. Artists may look at over a hundred songs before choosing the ten or fifteen that inspire them.

Continuing on with my process, next there is pre-production. After I have composed the songs that will appear on the recording, I try to define how I want the album to sound. In my own process, I envision the album as a movie, with a beginning, a middle, and an ending. I try to bring a look and a feel to the recording that will take the listener on a journey. Because I produce my own records, I am basically the captain of the ship and ultimately, the decision-maker, I must also decide what musicians I want to perform on each song, given the desired sound I want to attain, what engineering staff to implement my sonic vision, what studio will be appropriate, (in my situation, I own my recording equipment which is set up in my home studio), and how much money I want to spend. The cost is very important because I pay for the recording of my own albums and a portion of the marketing out of my royalties.

The third stage is the actual production. This part of the process is perhaps the most difficult but also the most exciting. This is where I translate my vision for my music into a quality recording. To accomplish this, I communicate with and direct the engineer and the musicians. (In the case of an artist who does not produce himself, he will have hired a producer to facilitate the process of capturing his vision, as the artists, on the recording. The producer would have been chosen with the artist’s vision in mind and follows the creative lead of the artists.) The studio schedule tends to be rigorous because the cost of record-making is high. It’s not unusual for me to work eighteen-hour days to stay within the budget.

The fourth stage of the recording process is post-production. Once the songs are recorded and mixed, I choose what songs will be included on the album and what the album will be titled. I then deliver the master tapes, completed, fully edited, and ready for manufacturing.

It has been argued that the work for hire amendment was necessary to clarify who is the author of the sound recording. There is no confusion in the record industry as to who creates the sound recording. It is the featured artists. A sound recording is the final result of the creative vision, expression and execution of one person-the featured artist. And, although the artist may respect the fine folks’ opinion at the record label and may even solicit advice from them, they are, by no means, involved in the process of defining the music. Furthermore, any claims to the authorship by producers, hired musicians, background singers, engineers would be false.

Comparisons, with regard to the work for hire amendment, have been made to motion pictures where it’s necessary to treat films as work made for hire to avoid confusion over the issue or authorship. The record business is different than the film industry in a very fundamental way: financing. In the film industry, the studio pays the production costs. The creative collaborators for a movie—the writer, director and performers—are generally not responsible for the costs of the production and receive fees from the studio for their contribution. They are hired by the film company to get the desired film made and once completed, the studio owns the film. The costs of the production are never charged back to the creative contributors.

As a recording artist, I do not receive a fee for making an album. I may receive an advance to cover the costs of the recording process, which I am responsible for paying back in full. The costs are deducted from and or recouped from my share of royalties. I do not receive a dime from the sale of my albums until I have paid for all costs incurred during production. I pay for the record—not the label.

In short, the sound recording artist is not only the author, but is also the person in charge of all facts of production, up to the point of distribution. We give the record labels our work to exploit for 35 years. Like other authors, we should be able to reclaim our work as Congress intended.

In Timothy White’s most eloquent article in the May 20 issue of Billboard magazine, Mr. White states, “It’s a small change in terms of the number of words in the statute, but it’s a very big change by potential implications when the heirs of recording artists discover they don’t have a legacy they might have enjoyed….Noah Webster, the father of American copyright, felt it was so compelling to protect his work against contemporary and future claims that he rode from state to state to plead his case for copyright.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman and distinguished committee members, I ask that you repeal the work for hire amendment and allow recording artists to negotiate with the recording industry to reach an agreement that is fair to all. Thank you.

i notice they don’t even have any type of feedback or forum sections. if, as sheryl crow states, that she and the “RAC rats” are concerned for the consumer, the underpaid factory employees, the musicians and designers, as well as the music industry as a whole, it’s more than a little strange that they wouldn’t even attempt to have online contact and discussions with people inside and outside of the industry.

they don’t care for anything except their wallets. but they won’t expose themselves by actually taking part in a message board community. that would mean they’d have to openly acknowledge they’re wrong.

lol, I’m a graphic designer and have done CD covers for indie bands here in Toronto, go Crow somewhere else you hag, you don’t speak for me….

TT

“RAC is a nonprofit, non-partisan coalition formed to represent the interests of recording artists with regards to legislative issues in which corporate and artists’ interests conflict…”

Took a look at the RAC website. IMHO it’s nothing but a few overexposed, overpaid recording artists with the music industry’s hand shoved way up their butts and operating their mouths. Pretty pathetic.

Oh, and also…

Make sure to buy a copy (For god’s sake DON’T YOU DARE download it from iTunes! Get that lazy ass in the SUV and drive to a Tower Records store. We… I mean they need the Money! And it couldn’t hurt the price of our energy stocks either…) of Sheryl Crow’s new CD “Shilling For The Man”. Full of heartfelt paeans exalting the warmth, benevolence, and generosity of her owners… er, I mean Record Label. Featuring a special duet with Don Henley exposing the dark evils of P2P! Get yours today (or we’ll sue you)!!!