Big Music: completely and utterly superfluous (Blog)

[DaBees-Knees]

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/26163

So I see the RIAA ‘won’ in the Tannenbaum case. I say supposedly because, unlike the corporate-owned media, and various RIAA fanbois out there, I have historical consciousness and can actually think.

For anybody who hasn’t clued in yet, here’s how it usually goes:

The RIAA (or some other propaganda-arm of the corporate media industry such as MPAA, or IFPI or BREIN), being the money-grubbing, corporate shits they are, launch yet another ill-fated campaign of propaganda/disinformation/bullying.  They do this every few years, in a more or less predictable pattern.

Some examples of their campaigns:

1970s: — Home taping is killing music
1980s — VCR = Boston Strangler
1990s — Don’t copy that floppy!
1990s — DMCA
2000s — War against p2p
Now, these campaigns have several things in commons:

1. They happen in response to technological innovations which threaten to put professional tech into the hands of mere consumers.  The ability for mere consumers to record/copy/share corporate product — or, god forbid, create their own — terrifies the corporate media cartels, because it’s a threat to their monopoly privileges. Ironically, the scare-mongering they use in these campaigns demonstrates that they realize they’re completely worthless, because they keep asking us why anybody would actually pay, if they are permitted to record it off the radio/download a cracked copy/get it off p2p networks/etc. They KNOW that the second the Great Unwashed Masses (not to mention ‘unsigned’ artists) gets access to the ability to record, copy, or distribute ‘content’, the corporate media oligarchies have no further excuse for existing at all.

2. Their intended victims (consumers, indie musicians) inevitably fail to be intimidated in the least, reacting instead with amusement, contempt, disdain, or — should the corporate media scumbags actually manage to score a win, as in the case of napster — anger, and a widespread desire to see the corporate media oligarchy completely destroyed.

Here are some wikipedia links to think about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIY_ethic
(Most especially, read the part about Punk bands cutting their own albums, creating their own distribution networks, etc.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milli_Vanilli
(Yes, I DO find the mere existence of Milli Vanilli to be particularly loathsome, in case you wondered.) 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spector
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Farian
The last thing I want to point you to is this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_2.0
Think about the possibilities of this format.  I mean, seriously: if Phil Spector was terrified of stereo because it took control away from the producer, an audio format that explicitly allows — and encourages — mere ‘listeners’ to create their own custom remixes,  has got to make the RIAA absolutely shit bricks.

Think about it: No more after-market for remastered versions.   The artificial dividing line between releases and bootlegs dissapears.  What counts as a remix, when it can be different every time you listen to it?

That’s not even the worst part from an RIAA perspective: all that customizing is bound to help mere listeners learn about audio mixing and the other arcana related to music production.

And let’s think about this, folks:  I have a home studio in an upstairs bedroom that would have made the Beatles shit bricks with envy, and it’s built out of scavenged equipment, and soon it’ll be possible for me to release entire albums in a format such that anybody AND EVERYBODY can remix at will?

The whole music industry as represented by the RIAA member-corporations is now completely and utterly superfluous, because the last thing they had to offer — producers — just went the way of buggy-whip manufacturing. 

Mass literacy pretty much killed off the professional scribe.  P2P kicked down the last few barriers to entry as regards distribution, and now a new audio format erases the distinction between source-tracks and mixdown.

I predict right now that the major-label acts are going to resist this tooth and nail.  But the first person/group to actually use this and encourage this is going to have a dedicated fan-base the likes of which the world hasn’t seen since the Grateful Dead — who, not coincidentally, were tape- and bootleg-friendly.

Just some stuff to think about, while the RIAA and their apologists are crowing about their massive win against Joel, and completely failing to realize that they already fatally and completely lost at LEAST ten years ago, and each new technical evolution just digs their grave a little deeper.

Henry Emrich - p2pnet

Something to ponder over.