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Please
note that most dates on this page link to articles in the Boycott-RIAA
news archives or other publications.
The date shown is when the article was posted and not necessarily
the day the events described took place.
March 03 -- Excerpts
from speech by NARM President Pam Horovitz
- NARM, after a period of carefully
thinking about all the various statistics, and the reactions
of the various industry segments to what's happening in the marketplace,
has started to draw some conclusions of our own, and we have
started to advocate more aggressively for what we think needs
to be happening in both the marketplace and the law. I'd like
to share some of our conclusions and recommendations for the
music marketplace with you today, and how we reached the decisions
we have.
- The record companies have
a chance to sell direct and they're running with it. I've even
heard the view from Capitol Hill that without the cost of middlemen,
the consumer can benefit from lower prices...
- The valuable role that retailers
play in offering the consumer choice in the marketplace has been
lost in the roll out of the subscription services, and it will
need to be restored before either service has a chance of succeeding.
Because the record company internet divisions seem not to recognize
this, NARM is supporting the Music Online Competition Act which
would require companies that license their music content via
the joint venture subscription services to offer the same terms
and conditions in license agreements to other non-owned competitors.
- This lack of understanding
of consumer needs is playing out in other strategic decisions
as well. For example, we have been in a song driven marketplace
for a number of years and yet the availability of singles
continues to decline in what retailers believe is a frequently
misguided attempt to drive CD sales. When there is no way
for the consumer to purchase just the one song they want, why
are we all surprised that they take advantage of the widely available
alternative which is a free copy from one of the various
file sharing services?
- From NARM's perspective, we
think this industry should be thinking long and hard about the
viability of any approach that treats all our customers like
criminals.
- Many retailers just shook
their heads in wonder over the fact that just as "Oh Brother
Where Art Thou" took off after the Grammies, the label chose
to raise the price. We understand the one side of the decision,
but over the long haul, is this a smart move?
- I think pre-recorded music
products will certainly benefit from an increased exploitation
of additional material in much the way that DVD's have benefited
from the addition of celebrity interviews, storyboards, and out-takes.
While music formats have been playing with this idea for over
a decade, we have yet to get the same traction as DVD's. Though,
of course, DVD is the first digital configuration for movies
to really get traction.
- It might also be time to move
on from cassettes, quite frankly.
- With singles and cassettes
disappearing quickly, and that space being given to DVD's or
to other non-music product lines, like Sponge-Bob Square Pants
dolls, fewer sales becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because
you simply have fewer offerings available and therefore sales
decline, so you cut back some more, and so on. It's not that
retailers want to get out of music, but when your choice is music
or survival, it's not hard to guess which one to choose.
- In fact, it may well be time
to start analyzing file sharing in the context of radio play
instead of CD sales. Retailers have had to compete with free
music from the record clubs, or from the promotional copies given
to press and radio for years. How many billions of free tracks
do you think those represent?
- At any rate, the consumer
press uniformly responded to the assertion that millions of Americans
are "thieves" with a vengeance. The weeks after the
Grammy's were filled with articles like the one in Newsweek
titled, "The Customer is Always Wrong." That in a nutshell
is the challenge we've got. We've all spent the last year listening
to copyright lawyers, while copyright lawyers haven't spent any
time listening to customers.
July 8 -- Hilary Rosen, speaking at Plug In event
in New York City, tries to blame everyone but the record
labels...
- "We are all at a critical
juncture in our relationship with music fans and now is our opportunity
to put their interests first. Not ours. I firmly believe that
when the music consumer is well served, so will we all be as
well."
- "Rather than encourage
record companies to spend money to get more customers and grow
the business, retailers have been busy coming up with new schemes
to get record companies to give them more money directly on things...
that do nothing to bring more customers into the stores."
- "Publishers have been
reluctant to move away from their 'pennies' model to adapt to
the new realities of on-line pricing."
- "Every time an artist
attacks a record company, it gives a music fan a rationale for
stealing their music."
- "As a prominent artist
lawyer friend of mine has said, if an artist client of his ever
gets a royalty check, then he hasn't done his job."
- "All the things music
fans want to do, record companies have had an extremely difficult
time persuading their major artists to allow."
- "Record companies are
also rethinking the way they contract with artists. Transparency
in contracts is important."
- "We will not allow protection
to come at the expense of our customers' enjoyment of their music."
- "We have tried to be
thoughtful at the RIAA in our enforcement strategies..."
September 18 -- Some
scoured quotes on the copyright issues and music from around
the web.
- Piracy could be reduced to
a nuisance, according to Microsoft's Brad Brunell, if
the studios increased the flow of "legitimate" on-line
content from a trickle to a flood. "Yes, the Internet is
a source of leakage. But there is no legitimate content source,"
said Brunell.
- Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association:
"The entire theme of the copyright community is that downloading
off the Web is both illegal and immoral," "It is neither."
- Keith Richards: "We're on the threshold of a
whole new system... The time where accountants decide what music
people hear is coming to an end. Accountants may be good at numbers,
but they have terrible taste in music. I don't know how I'm going
to get paid, but I'd rather go out into the brave new world than
live with dinosaurs that are far too big for their boots."
- On label fears of financial
ruin, Don Henley: "When the record companies make
$5 for every $1 the artist makes, I don't see where they get
off making those remarks. It's another spin tactic."
- Simon Renshaw, RAC board member and manager of the
Dixie Chicks: "Once people have a true understanding of
what's involved, the labels will be forced to reform," he
says. "The RIAA has positioned this as a bunch of rich old
rock stars seeking revenge and better deals. The truth is, this
system would not be suffered in any other business. You have
record companies bought and sold on the strength of copyrights
created by artists who sign away all rights in perpetuity to
a faceless corporation.
- Simon Renshaw: "In the past 20 years, an industry
that was led by visionaries and music lovers has become dominated
by accountants, financial analysts and people who can't think
ahead more than 90 days."
- Wayne Kramer, founder of punk's seminal MC5: "...Artists
know the score. Since the business started, record companies
have been getting away with murder. Almost none of the musicians
I know have health insurance. Every record executive I know has
health insurance, a nice house in the hills and a golden parachute."
- Tom Waits: "The record companies are like
cartels, like countries, for God's sake," "It's a nightmare
to be trapped in one. I'm on a good label (Epitaph) now that's
not part of the plantation system. But all the old records I
did for Island have been swallowed up and spit out in whatever
form they choose. These corporations don't have feelings, and
they don't see themselves as the stewards of the work. They are
making shoes, and then they want to go to the Bahamas and get
a suntan."
- Tom Waits: "Artists really do need to communicate
and organize," he says. "Don Henley is willing to get
a haircut and go to Washington. I'm all for that."
September 25
- Don Henley of the Eagles speaking of the label
accounting practices said, ""We all need record companies
to manufacture and distribute and promote our work. But we also
need fairness. This is a practice in the industry that has become
arcane and has become institutionalized over the past 60 years."
- Clint Black said he recently learned that he still
owed RCA Records money, despite having sold 20 million albums
and having generated "as much as $150 million" for
the label.
- Lola Chambers, wife of Lester Chambers, testified
that the Chambers Brothers' signature song, "Time Has Come
Today," has earned the group $247 in the European markets
in the last 16 years.
- The Eagles' Glen Frey
explained how his band has been in "perpetual audit"
with Geffen and Elektra Records over the accuracy of royalty
payments, while Backstreet's Kevin Richardson offered,
"Our record company, after selling 70 million albums, still
tells us we are un-recouped."
- Kathryn Crosby, Bing Crosby's widow, explained how
MCA quietly cut the royalty to the Crosby Estate from 15 to seven
percent.
- Ruben Blades, speaking on behalf of the Latin music
community, pointed out that industry practices were a "bilingual
rip-off."
October 23 -- Main
points of article by Janis Ian
- Attacking your own customers
because they want to learn more about your products is a bizarre
business strategy, one the music industry cannot afford to continue.
Yet the RIAA effectively destroyed Napster on such grounds, and
now it is using the same crazy logic to take on Internet service
providers and even privacy rights.
- The RIAA's claim that the
industry and artists are hurt by free downloading is nonsense.
- On the first day I posted
downloadable music, my merchandise sales tripled, and they have
stayed that way ever since. I'm not about to become a zillionaire
as a result, but I am making more money. At a time when radio
playlists are tighter and any kind of exposure is hard to come
by, 365,000 copies of my work now will be heard. Even if only
3% of those people come to concerts or buy my CDs, I've gained
about 10,000 new fans this year.
- That's how artists become
successful: exposure. Without exposure, no one comes to shows,
and no one buys CDs. After 37 years as a recording artist, when
people write to tell me that they came to my concert because
they downloaded a song and got curious, I am thrilled.
- Many artists now benefit greatly
from the free-download systems the RIAA seeks to destroy. These
musicians, especially those without a major-label contract, can
reach millions of new listeners with a downloadable song, enticing
music fans to buy a CD or come to a concert of an artist they
would have otherwise missed.
- I am not advocating indiscriminate
downloading without the artist's permission. Copyright protection
is vital. But I do object to the industry spin that it is doing
all this to protect artists. It is not protecting us; it is protecting
itself.
October 28 -- Tom
Petty In Rolling Stone
Tom Petty's determined, sometimes
defiant attitude has collided with the music business throughout
the years. For instance, in 1982 Petty recorded Hard Promises
with the Heartbreakers, only to find that his then-record company
had plans to use his name to initiate a new, higher $9.98 list
price for albums. Petty withheld the tapes and threatened to
retitle his record $8.98 in protest.
That same spirit is alive and
well on Petty's latest album, The Last DJ, which takes
a hard look at the lack of moral grounding in the music business.
The title track has kicked up considerable controversy, with
some radio stations seeing the song as a slap in the face and
banning it. But Petty is not just biting the hand that feeds
him. Music is only the beginning of what's pissing him off these
days. "The Last DJ is a story about morals more than
the music business," he says. "It's really about vanishing
personal freedoms."
- Radio is not even worth
listening to -- "I
don't really give a flying fuck about any of it. I've tuned out.
But I was elated when my song was banned... to have a song banned
that doesn't have a dirty word, doesn't advocate violence --
it's fascinating, you know. Like, what are you afraid of?
"I remember when the radio meant something. We enjoyed the
people who were on it, even if we hated them. They had personalities.
They were people of taste, who we trusted. And I see that vanishing.
I thought it was a good metaphor to start the album."
- All anyone thinks about
is money -- "Everything
-- morals, truth -- is all going out the window in favor of profit."
- It's ridiculous to make
people pay twenty dollars for a CD -- "If you brought CD prices back down
to $8.98, you would solve a lot of the industry's problems."
- Only a complete greedhead
would charge $150 for a concert ticket -- "My top price is about sixty-five dollars,
and I turn a very healthy profit on that; I make millions on
the road. I see no reason to bring the price up."
- Record labels don't care
about artists -- "These
people are looking at balance sheets, not music. Most people
involved in putting this music on the air or bringing it to us
aren't really listening to it."
- Filthy lyrics make me sick -- "When I was a young rock &
roll star, I was really fascinated and shocked at times by the
power that I had, by the power of my words, and shocked that
it can be taken wrong. I don't believe in censorship, but I do
believe that an artist has to take some moral responsibility
for what he or she is putting out there."
- Only a sick culture would
sexualize young girls
-- "It's disgusting. It's not just pop music, it's fashion,
it's TV, it's advertising, it's every element of our culture.
Young women are not being respected, children aren't being respected.
Why are we creating a nation of child molesters? Could it be
that we're dressing up nine-year-old women to look sexy? And
even if we're wrong, let's not do it anyway. I really don't put
it past these advertising people to say, 'Well, look, we made
a lot of money when we brought the nine-year-old out and made
her look like a hooker. Let's do it again.' "
- Why are we rewarding people
for being rich? --
"Getting back to the whole issue of ticket prices: We don't
do the Golden Circle/VIP thing. I don't see how carving out the
best seats and charging a lot more for them has anything to do
with rock & roll... And the poor guy who really is interested,
he's sitting way in the back."
- And TV is worse -- "I think television's become
a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever.
If you want to talk about something that is all about money,
just watch the television. It's damn dangerous. TV does not care
about you or what happens to you. It's downright bad for your
health now, and that's not a far-out concept. I think watching
the TV news is bad for you. It is bad for your physical health
and your mental health. The music business looks like, you know,
innocent schoolboys compared to the TV business. They care about
nothing but profit. They will make a movie about murdering their
kids, you know? And they'll put the guy who killed them on TV.
And before long, he might even have his own show."
- A lot of artists are as
greedy as the industry
-- "Let me say this so it's definitely in the story: I don't
think the industry is entirely to blame. Let's face it: The music
industry has always been laughably corrupt, always. It's the
artists themselves that often cause problems. Artists aren't
necessarily business people. And they aren't necessarily aware
of all the things that go on in their names. Some just want to
make some music, but there is a lot of greed among artists as
well. Whether or not we know it, we are all to blame. I think
it's time -- starting with the artist -- to try to be a little
more responsible and aware of what goes on in our name."
December 12 -- Hilary Rosen, in an RIAA Press release
-- "Within the past year, each of the major music companies
has announced a record number of online initiatives, yielding
a broad array of offerings from legitimate services. The true
winners are the music fans who want to listen to music how they
want it, where they want it and when they want it. To fans who
have said they wanted to enjoy music online, the recording industry
is listening and delivering."
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