Page 29 - the NOISE May 2013

The lawyer incredulously informs us that songs are being posted with no video attached and that people can simply use YouTube like a juke- box and dial up any ditty they want, anytime.
How is that not incredible? Remember, there’s no ownership going on here. YouTube is not providing a free MP3 of the song, just the ability to listen to it. And this is a PROBLEM?
Let’s say I wanted to hear a CD that I didn’t have. My friend just bought it, so I get him to bring it over and we rock out. Can you tell me how this is any different from looking up the tracks on YouTube?
Albini came to the website’s defense. His current group, Shellac, had just returned from a tour of Eastern Europe. 300,000 concert tick- ets got sold in countries where they had never played and where their records and CDs were not available.
How was this accomplished? YouTube. By allowing their music and videos to be posted where people can watch/listen to them for free, they gained 300,000 new fans at a cost of zero dollars to the band, not a dime spent on adver- tising or marketing.
The ASCAP lawyer’s reaction was not shown, but I bet her skin was crawling. Eliminate mar- keting and advertising? Why, the serfs who toil in them fields are her brothers! Her kinfolk, the ones with high-paying jobs in the music indus- try who aren’t musicians themselves, who buzz around the gifted like flies on dogflop. Don’t those folks have a right to make a living as mar- keters and advertisers?
Here’s what it’s all leading toward: they want money every time you hear a song you don’t own. ASCAP already charges nightclubs and other public houses a monthly “entertainment tax” where the venue pays a fee for using copy- righted material (meaning CDs) to “entertain” its patrons. Think I’m exaggerating? Ask any- one who works at a bar.
Does Stephen King get a royalty every time someone reads one of his books? Does Andy Warhol’s estate hand you a bill when you look at one of his paintings? Does Martin Scorsese demand restitution each time I watch Goodfel- las? Why not? I’m being entertained, aren’t I?
“Look, people are having fun. We need to fig- ure out a way we can profit.”
When an architect submits plans for a build- ing, he gets paid ONCE, not every time some- one sees his creation. If he wants to make a living as an architect, he has to keep working. If I ever decide to make writing my vocation, I expect to do it by submitting a steady stream
White Fence; The Men
of material, not by publishing a few things and then living off the residuals for the rest of my life.
And don’t give me any steaming buffalo piles about how difficult it is to be an artist. Songwriting is one of the easiest jobs out there. You can do it at home in your underwear and you don’t have to wake up at 5 AM or deal with asshole customers all day. It barely qualifies as a job. Hell, you don’t even have to get out of bed; look at Brian Wilson.
A person who manages to make a living in music today is very very lucky. My freshman year at DePaul, I was warned by everyone, teachers included, that the job scene for musi- cians was incredibly bleak. This was during the 1980s, when the industry was thriving.
We are currently in an era of intense change and upheaval concerning the distribution of music. The old business model is dying and a new one is coming to replace it. Musicians can now reach the public directly via the internet and the need for a record label to manufacture and market product is disappearing.
All the low- and mid-level employees were fired decades ago and now it’s upper manage- ment’s turn. These are the people who make more in a year than most of us will earn in a lifetime. They are desperately clawing to keep their jobs like rabid animals.
Fortunately for us, what they are fighting against is progress, and they will lose. Record executives and ASCAP lawyers will soon be like cobblers and blacksmiths: anachronisms from a past era. It’s only a matter of time.
Once again, the music industry is in trouble, and once again, it’s our fault. We are hurting musicians and they are helping them. We are greedy and selfish, they are patrons of the arts. We are enemies of music, they are keeping it alive. They are protectors of the true spirit of rock and roll, we are the betrayers.
It’s a smokescreen that everyone can see through. They have let their guard down and exposed themselves as what they are: parasites. People with no talent, feeding off of those who do. We, as lovers and creators of music, are do- ing all we can to hasten their demise. When that great day comes, the champagne is on me.
Until then, they’ll just keep suing their cus- tomers.
To be continued...
— Tony BallZ | music@thenoise.us
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news
• MAY 2013 • 29