Musea E-mail Club #476 Suing Your Best Cusomers (music biz)

[Tom Hendricks]

Readers,
I want you to compare these two news articles:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Jury-rules-against-Minn-woman-apf-510228957.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=

The first "Jury Rules Against Minn. Woman in Download Case" tells about how one woman was fined $1.92 million for file sharing. She 'willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs' and is fined $80,000 per song! This award is an outrage. Can you imagine anyone doing less harm, paying more? The Big Four, Warner, Universal, EMI, and Sony, were all involved in the lawsuit. They control 80% of the music business. I think this tactic of suing customers makes them look even more greedy and out of touch, then most think they are now.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2347258,00.asp


Then compare that with this article, "The RIAA Has Got to Stop". It shows that file sharing has been the main reason why customers buy recordings! "Those who freely download music from file-sharing sites and elsewhere buy ten times more music... than people who do not participate in file-sharing systems."



Comments welcome
Tom Hendricks
(editor of the 16 year old zine Musea)

[Tom Hendricks]

Yes, I agree. Then too CD's cost about a quarter to make, so why the high markup. Lola I also want to tell all about my list of the best music from all over the world. I certainly agree that there is a lot of great music out there - here is the wor'd's best IMO.

FIRST WORLD TOP 40 LIST!
BEST MUSIC LIST in the WORLD!!!
(And hardest to get on!)

Week after week Musea, my 16 year old art and media zine scours myspace and youtube for the very best in music from every corner of the world for the world's first list of new great music. Culled from thousands, here are the world's best. (Anyone can send me your music. That includes any kind of music!)

Musea's Worldwide Favorite Music LIST
"100 Plus Favorite Music from Youtube and Myspace"
http://musea.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/100-plus-best-music-from-youtube-and-myspace/

In a world of misses, here are 100+ hits!
The internet is the world's first worldwide JUKEBOX
And this is the first worldwide best music list from that jukebox. This list is NOT approved by any corporation!

From Dallas home of the art and media revolution including Post-Bands music,

[Lola]

Like you, I was outraged when I read of the lady who was fined $1.9M.... I don't care how many overpriced lawyers with ivy league degrees the record companies employ, they can't argue against the fact that the music industry landscape is changing... no amount of a judge's "example making" of people who download music is going to change the fact that traditional music distribution, i.e., major record labels, is slowly being replaced by file sharing, streaming radio and so on.

I've read for years that downloading music actually leads to more buying by listeners... when are record companies going to change their business models to be more in line with this new paradigm of music distribution?

As far as artists go, I'm certain that thousands and thousands of musicians and bands would give their left nuts/ovaries to get people to listen to their work, from "illegal" file downloads or otherwise. It's not always about the almighty buck, but about exposing people to your art, whether it's paid for or not.

And let's face it, the money that is supposedly left on the table by "illegal" downloading isn't money that the artists themselves would have seen anyway. It's not like we're taking money out of the artists' pockets.... they see a very small percentage of record revenues. I've read a statistic somewhere that roughly $1 or less goes directly to the artist from an average $16.99 CD price.