Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Music as we know it is dying, and it will not be going gentle into that good night.
It’s been a long time coming, but the industry has one foot in death’s door, and the other shoved up some innocent listener’s ass.
The Internet has revolutionized the way listeners get music. The age of record shops has passed, and the higher-ups in the biz have their knickers in a twist about it.
The problem is that the creation of peer-to-peer file sharing networks and bit-torrent sites has separated two sides of the industry that have been joined at the hip since the very beginning: the art and the product.
A band doesn’t need a fragile jewel case and a disc anymore to get its music heard.
As a response to its impending doom, the Recording Industry Association of America has decided to do the only thing it knows how to do: squeeze every last cent out of its loyal listeners.
It claims to be doing this on behalf of artists who say they are suffering dearly from the illegal music sharing.
According to music mogul Steve Albini on the music activism site downhillbattle.org, the record industry has been bilking its artists out of cash from the cradle to the casket.
I am not surprised to find this sharp rise in concern for artist’s pocketbooks now that the executive’s slice of the pie is also shrinking.
Still, the situation has left students in some dangerous water.
Most of us have illegally downloaded at least a song or two from the Internet, and others have furnished their iTunes libraries with a plethora of plundered tunes that freckle the web on par with porn.
Breaking the law has been a foundation of collegiate life since the dawn of time, and for those of us who consider it to be a nightly pastime, the invisible threat of the big bad record companies is hardly enough to slow our clicking fingers.
But as music lovers are finding out, the RIAA has many more resources than the Lawrence Police Department and one huge incentive: those all-important greenbacks.
Imagine how many more M.I.Ps would be dealt out nightly if Lawrence cops were paid on commission.
This savage truth has caused people all over the world to seek a solution. Our neighbors to the north have come up with one I find to be the most promising. In a recent article published in the Chicago Tribune it was said that, “The Songwriters Association of Canada is proposing a $5 a month licensing fee on every wireless and Internet account in the country, in exchange for unlimited access to all music.”
For hardly the price of a McDonald’s Value Meal, we could listen to downloaded music without having the constant threat of legal action hanging over our heads.
The new system would put “$1 billion annually in the pockets of musicians, publishers and record labels,” and the cash would be divvied up among artists based on “how frequently their music is swapped.”
Instead of being told what music to like by old suits who don’t understand quality, this new system would allow the public to listen to their hearts desire and let popularity go to those who deserve it.
The record companies that once smiled at us from the center of vinyl discs have taken on a beastly nature.
In their twilight, they’ve become addicts, and it’s up to us to intervene and take the industry in the right direction.
Lerman is a Highland Park, Ill., sophomore in journalism.
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