RIAA starts whining about digital radio
Read the article then please help me understand why the RIAA thinks that it’s business model should be designed, built, and enforced by Federal Government.
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Read the article then please help me understand why the RIAA thinks that it’s business model should be designed, built, and enforced by Federal Government.
January 18th, 2006
Let me crack my knuckles in preparation for banging out an old monologue I’ve developed over the years in reference to the RIAA and the recording industry in general, and their response to any new development or delivery method for commercial music.
It is my view that the interests represented by RIAA are on the road to extinction as they are currently configured. Many musicians and musical groups have chosen to distribute their own recordings thanks to cheap CD pressing and cheap bandwidth for the World Wide Web. As a result, they no longer need submit to the sometimes horrific contracts the record companies have used to control their talent and earnings. Each innovation in recording technology for public use has caused much wringing of hands and attempts to limit or deny use of these technologies. I’m old enough to remember the hue & cry that resulted when audio cassettes hit the market. The record industry and recording artists are doomed, is what we were told. Didn’t happen. When CDs came out, we were told prices would drop because in a short time the production cost would be so much less than for LPs. Didn’t happen as they discovered that people were willing to shell out the same bucks for the exotic new format, often times buying a CD copy of favorite LPs. When blank CD media became available and devices for writing them, more hand wringing accompanied them. As technology becomes more accessible, usually via lower costs, those who enjoyed a monopoly using the old technology either change or wither. The RIAA members have chosen to wither. There is a historical precedent relevant to this in the form of sheet music producers.
Printing techniques in the 19th century were expensive and an industry rose as the production of sheet music became viable. As time passed, control of this industry was in the hands of relatively few who exerted great power over composers in much the same way the record industry has the past several decades. Toward the close of the 19th century, printing technology had improved and become much less expensive. Some composers tried distributing their own printed sheet music, and other entrepeneurs entered the business, competing with the big companies. The big companies engaged in activities not unlike those seen the past 15 years by RIAA and its members. In the case of sheet music, those companies withered or changed their business. The successor to the sheet music companies was the record companies. Now it is their time to pass into history, and like most things that have been around for a long time, it will only go kicking and screaming. Its death throes will not be pretty.
January 18th, 2006
I would be appreciative if the RIAA friendly Federal Government did not provide legislative amplification of their death throes. ;-)
January 18th, 2006
I am reminded of an old cartoon from, I believe, an Italian magazine. I saw it in “World Press Review”, a magazine that collected articles from all over representing a wide range of views. They would pick a list of current events and then sort articles that way. They also had a section of editorial cartoons. Sadly, the magazine has ceased publication. It was a publication of The Stanley Foundation, which also puts shows on public radio and television.
The cartoon showed Uncle Sam, with a “poor person” on his back. He was obviously straining to maintain his load. A “rich person” who was drawn to resemble the man from the old Monopoly board game, whispers into Sam’s ear that he should put down his burden as his help only hinders it from becoming self-sufficient. In the next frame, the “rich person” has assumed the perch as the “poor person” was dropped and the “rich person” is whispering, “Now I’ll tell you what to do next.”
It always fascinates me to hear “free market/capitalism regulates itself” rhetoric from business people until they find it in their interest to seek government assistance. Suddenly, government help ain’t so bad, so long as it is what they want, when they want it.