is killing music?
as the corporate powers-that-be grind out their successful litigation against napster, and as echoes of the old "home taping is killing music" campaign sing thru the air, i cannot help but weigh in.
i, personally, have spent some major money on purchasing recordings after hearing them a time or two via downloaded mp3 files. i find it hard to understand how some of these issues are being blurred. first, the artists themselves are not being robbed by mom, pop, sis & bro stocking up a collection of mp3s. if they are being robbed, and i believe they are, it is by carny-talking suits with law practices working for megalithic record companies. "intellectual property rights" is a phrase anti-art enough to remove the recording artist from the calculations at the git-go.
next, how can you get the experiential mileage ya need to get that feeling that you want to make that purchase without having a test drive or two around the ear-blocks? unless you think that corporate radio formats are going to feed you what you need to hear, the audience needs as much access to whatever is out there being played in order to find their own audio wisdom.
lastly, how much does it cost to make a cd? and how on earth can the prices of 20 bucks a disk be considered defensible. cds are cheaper to make than vinyl. a hell of a lot of cds are from old recordings, from the archives, the vaults, and the costs involved making the recordings have been covered long long ago. cds should be 5-10 dollars, and any prices over that are being sucked up by some fella who wants to put more hotels on his mental boardwalk.
the good news is, optimistically, that any attempts to restrict the flow of data, information, programs, music, etc, will be defeated by the insatiable desire of people to get around said roadblocks. make no mistake: if it was up to omniplex media conglomeration, you would pay for every time you listen to, or watch, or read, or use...anything. sound, air, water, tools...they want to rack up that needle drop fee per play, folks, and those of you who are pirating what you need to, are fighting the good fight.
good night...
a x e l c r u i c k s h a n k
...information, updates and corrections to this article can be sent to...
email: b.wildered@white-rose.net
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