Hi everyone...
... well, I knew this list was good, and that some famous people
occassionally pop in, but I had no idea that we had *Prince* as a
subscriber, masquerading as "Steve Catanzaro"!!! At first I wasn't sure,
maybe "Steve" was just thinking similar things to P about the state of the
music business. But when he gave props to Chuck D (who appears on his
latest LP), and then said that thing about artists being "SLAVES", I knew
it had to be the man himself. Cool.... :-)
.kboi out.
np: tribes of da underground v5. some nice stuff on here, as others have
mentioned. what's the story with amalgamation of soundz? that's a lovely
track....
"Steve" wrote:
>****RANT WARNING*******RANT WARNING*****RANT WARNING***
>
>
>Well, with respect to all fellow musicians out there, I don't think the
>problem is with Napster / MP3 type technology.
>
>The problem is with the original thieves of the music business... the record
>companies. Let's take the Backstreet Boys as an example. Do you think that
>10 years from now, they're going to feel they were ripped off by the record
>company? Of course. Everyone does.
>
>1. Record companies steal half of an artist's broadcast royalties in
>"publishing," an anachronistic term since they only "publish" the music of
>people they have under recording contracts, and then, only in recorded form.
>(They farm out the odd piece of sheet music to subpublishers, which costs
>the artists even more money.) This practice should be CRIMINALIZED!
>
>2. Record companies don't even make records anymore, but they still take 10%
>right off the top in gross units sold to cover "breakeages." Well, CD's
>break a lot less than LP's, right? At least, that's what the record
>companies told us when they wanted us to replace our LP's with CD's (perfect
>sound forever.)
>
>3. Even the TOP recording artists, the GENIUS level worldwide treasures of
>art and culture, feel happy with a return of 15 cents on the dollar for
>THEIR work. And, all these young musicians are trying so hard to get a
>recording contract so they can GIVE the record company 92 cents on every
>dollar. Why? Because without paying 92% of their money to the record
>company, the record companies will not relinquish their ILLEGAL hold on
>radio stations, to say nothing of MTV, VH1, etc...
>
>Many radio stations will not play records unless they are bribed by record
>companies. Some companies were CONVICTED of payola by the Feds under Rico
>statutes (invented for mobsters), but does payola still exist? What do you
>think? Heard any big stations loosening up their playlists lately? And what
>is radio, anyway, but free advertising for the record companies? (Gotta love
>net radio y'all, Mark Turner, Gilles P., rock on!)
>
>4. Sure, the government went after Microsoft. But look at the dwindling
>number of record companies. Capitalism may be cool but it's turned out to be
>a giant game of Monopoly, and the great majority of us are a few dice rolls
>away from total (economic) annihilation. (Thank God for the Net... a get out
>of jail free card!)
>
>So, I'm sure Metallica and others like them get upset by watching money
>leaking out under the door, but they should really be throwing their mighty
>muscle at the RECORD COMPANIES....
>
>Now that the net is here, we need some defectors from the record
>companies... Chuck D. is so hip to this all, but we need MORE. We need
>Metallica to do NET ONLY releases. We need gigantic acts like Santana and
>N'Sync to forego record companies altogether.
>
>Musicians, you are SLAVES to the record company. Let the world Napster
>away... record companies are already superfluous, and they're about 5 years
>from extinction.
>
>I for one will not miss them, and I will always LOVE to pay good artists for
>their music, direct from their own SITES!!!
>
>-"All musicians, remember, we all work for tips."
> ---- Duke Ellington
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 18 2000 - 03:35:14 MET DST