CD sales have declined in recent years, and the RIAA is trying to find new ways to make money; such as shutting down Napster, trying to ban mp3 players, taxing blank cds and mp3 players in Canada, and getting lists of customers from internet providers and universities and extorting money from mp3 downloaders.
The RIAA don't seem to acknowledge or address their other problems, namely that the music they've been promoting stinks. Their marketing tool (radio) is stale. After downloading mp3s, people don't want to buy a full album of filler to hear the 1 or 2 hits, and they don't need a shiny plastic disc to listen to music. With the tactics the RIAA is using, in the end they wind up punching themselves in the face by alienating and attacking the biggest music fans.
This week, with the help of US regulators, they will begin charging more money in royalties from internet radio stations than from broadcast radio stations. I don't think anyone is making much money from internet radio, and if this change is enforced, it will force public radio, not-for-profit hobby stations, as well as the legal, for-profit stations, off of the internet. Goodbye internet radio! Too bad for music fans! No new music for you. Im glad the NPR is fighting the good fight to stop these tyrants from destroying music completely.
I've made a personal decision to not purchase any music from RIAA labels this year. I've spent thousands of dollars on music, but I've decided not to support the music mafia any more. That's why I've made Tuesdays at Linkjockey about music; it's to help you find new music and to convince you that good music still exists. End of rant.
A Linkjockey shout out to Vancouver's Spirit of the West for putting on a spectacular St. Patrick's day show at Vancouver's best concert venue, the Commodore Ballroom. They're a Celt-rock and folk-rock institution in this city.
