Since I do not believe in miracles, and the person that claims that there is transparency is unknown (a music publisher? , a songwriter? ) and does not identify itself, this claim must be treated as plain propaganda which is not true, unti lthe transparency is proven by a tranparent person or organization.

BTW, the crooked American music publishers also operate in a big way in Britain. Will anyone believe that they are honest over there.

The days of naiveness are over, thanks to the Internet.

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com

Since the cartels aren’t releasing stuff with the frequency they used to, it means that everyone has to pay more to keep those fat CEO bonuses rolling in. So far they have managed to eliminate most of the middle men. Mom and pop stores are gone because they couldn’t compete with the price slashing granted the chain stores. Since they are planning as much as possible to go to digital, there will in the future be no need of pressing copies, no need of warehouses to hold them, no need of artists to paint, design, or photo covers, no need to move items from one part of the country to another; all that money now goes to the cartels in one form or another. Naturally piracy provides a ready whipping boy to blame.

Maybe they aren’t making enough profit because of how expensive it is to buy laws in so many countries at once. Then again, part of it could be the insistance that DRM be in all their releases and they aren’t charging so much for that license and now plan to. Then again it could be just that they are greedy boogers and nothing else needs to be said.

Or there could be one other reason. Since they are caught in this payolla scheme and 2 of the big four have been busted, it is very possible that playlists are being altered in such a manner that favorites for wannabees that the cartels would like to make aren’t as easy to scheme and bring about without the pay for play. Does this mean that custom made entertainers without knowledge of how to play music might be on the wane?

Another poster to this theme wonders if DRM is necessary. No it isn’t. This is a scheme to do several things. One is to limit your making backups. One is to try and make you repeat buy, something missing from the labels income since cds.

Lastly, Sony who was busted by New York Attorney General Spitzer for payolla has laterally transferred two high positioned employees to other jobs that Spitzer’s report named as high placed individuals who actively encouraged and knew of the payolla scheme and most likely approved it. Of course the informers were not identified fearing repercussions and the two individuals lawyer;s are saying their clients are innocent and the faceless ones should be man enough to say their names and surface for retorts and rebuttal. You just know that a corporation with Sony’s reputation would never stoop to retaliation.

What is needed is some easy software which creates a simple shoping site to sell tracks. Also if *DRM* has to be use it will also help them artises pay DRM technologies for the systems.

PS I dont much like beates stuff also I think idea of DRM is wrong but if it is need at least common joe the ablity to do it right in the first place.

I’m starting to feel like I have an idea what it would have been like to watch the dinosaurs after the comet struck.

This statement is wrong. Who hit back are organizations that allege to represent songwriters and composers but in reality are publisher dominated organizations. In Britain I am not certain if songwriters are properly paid by the publishers and if the accounting is transparent.

The subject is taboo here in my country, Puerto Rico. It is also taboo in the USA. It is taboo here because songwriter think that if the speak up, the little money they receive will be further reduced or because they feel helpless.

In th USA the accounting for Puerto Rico songwriters is totally worthless and hidden and as a result most songwriters and composers hardly get any of the money their songs have earned. Our composer Pedro Flores was one of the more succesful composers, world wide. He died broke and no one (well, I know) knows where the millions of dollars his songs earned wound up

The American government doesn’t give a damn about this accounting even though that same accounting is used to (not) pay taxes.

The Puerto Rico government also fears looking into the music publisher business because as a colonial government it is scared to question whatever is American.

As a son of a deceased songwriter was a victimm of the shenanigan of music publishers I know what Iam talking about. Hundreds of my father’s songs have been exploited by publishers who mostly stole the songs and record companies that got licenses from the publishers that stole the songs and many record companies, Sony, with over 16 records, simply and unlawfuly included the songs, without licenses, in their recordings and never paid us (heirs) a single cent since my father died 12 years ago. And the legal system has been totally incapable of doing anything about it.

Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com