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The corporate music industry comprising Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but only just) is as good as dead, having slowly, deliberately and irretrievably alienated the people who once kept it alive.Mitch Bainwol heads up the RIAA, the Big 4’s American mouthpiece-cum-extortion-unit.Since 2003, he and his team of spinsters and truth reconstruction specialists have been lying about the allegedly deleterious effect file sharing is having on music sales, and how the labels are being devastated by file sharing criminals and thieves, including dead grandmothers and 12-year-old children.In a fruitless bid to convince the world the multi-billion-dollar corporate music industry is on its last legs, Bainwol and his team use the wholly specious claim that files shared equal sales lost as justification for using the civil law system to terrorise families across America.But the attacks have absolutely nothing to do with earnings. Rather, they’re elements in the music industry campaign to gain exclusive control of internet as the primary marketing and distribution vehicle of the 21st digital century.The Wrap.com recently ran 5 Ways to Save the Music Industry, but now says, “a few of the recommendations slightly missed the mark, or were unnecessarily pessimistic” so, “in the spirit of the column and a friendly debate, here are five reasons for optimism” —-—- with Bainwol supplying them.First time around, make it free, or almost free, Wrap.com posted as suggestion # 1, going on »»»It’s hard to tell people — even if you try to appeal to their law-abiding tendencies — to pay for something they can easily get for free. The Recording Industry Association of America may be trying to scare consumers by pursing them in the courts for sharing songs online, with defendants like Jammie Thomas Rasset of Minnesota being ordered to pay $1.92 million for getting 24 songs off the Kazaa site … but that genie is just not getting back in the bottle anytime soon. So, if you can’t beat ‘em or catch ‘em, seduce ‘em.In other words, as p2pnet has been saying since the RIAA launched its vicious attacks against Big 4 customers on the half of the Big 4, woo ‘em, don’t sue ‘em.As item # 2, under THE WHITE GUY, “Feeding a ravenous low-fi appetite among an ever growing legion of fans who want to rock DIY style, [Jack] White seems effortless modern, timeless — and all at the same time,” says the aricle. “Like he often does musically, White is playing by his own rules, keeping things close to his chest — and the audience. Maybe others need to start following?”Suggestion # 3 opts for NO-LABEL LABELS, pointing out, “Punk rock bands like Fuguzi were doing it decades ago, and that lean and mean mentality might turn to green in an industry where selling records has become less a revenue stream than a marketing strategy.”VIDEOGAMES is the header for # 4, which states, “For years, getting a song on a videogame soundtrack like “Grand Theft Auto” or one of the “Madden NFL” releases has been a nice source of income for both new and older bands. But with the hugely successful “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” franchises, the medium has taken off faster and higher in terms of cold hard cash than a Hellfire missile.”And finally, as # 5, “EARN TO PLAY AN INSTRUMENT »»»Some say that a recession is the best time to invest, since things will only get better –partially because of your investment. The same logic could apply to the music industry. So make an investment. Pick up a guitar, sit down at the piano or behind the drums and make your own music. Put it up online, pass it around to friends and family, play live. You might not be the next Neil Young, Taylor Swift, Whitney Houston or Jack White, but you just might be the next Metric, Miranda Lee Richards, Busdriver or Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. That’s far from a bad thing, because besides being great musicians, they are the type of savvy artists that are the best chance the music biz has. Nothing beats the human voice, a couple of six strings and the ragged fun of belting out a tune with friends. And you can never download that.Bainwol’s response in Wrap.com?Same old same old.For # 1, “Our product, music, remains as popular as ever,” he says.Yeh, really. YadayadayadayadaUnder # 2, “The album’s demise is exaggerated,” he says. And, “CD sales may continue to decline … but so far in 2009, growth in digital album sales is again outpacing digital singles (17.5 percent vs. 11.7 percent).”But, but, isn’t file sharing ruining the music industry, forcing the labels to fire support staff, leaving them destitute in the streets?3. YadayadayadayadaUnder 4, “A handful of well-known bands have elected to distribute their latest albums without the help of a record label,” Bainwol admits, but, “more often than not, it is the music label that can uniquely help the artist cross the bridge between anonymity and artistic and commercial success …”Yeh, really. And ripping them off at every step along the way.For 5 “This is yet another encouraging sign of a music business that is energized, vital, relevant and here to stay.”Yeh, really. And if you believe that, you also believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden. WTF have the Big 4 got to do with people putting it up online and passing it around to friends and family? Absolutely nothing. In fact, their anti-consumer, anti-P2P, anti-filesharing sue ‘em all campaign can be summed up in five words:Our Way or No Way.
