RIAA Radar - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

SecretMethod70 · 03-28-2004, 10:51 PM

http://www.riaaradar.com

Quote:

Why Should I Use It?

Just as people can currently find out where some products come from and who made them (Is this banana organic? Does this milk contain growth hormones? Were these clothes made in a sweatshop?), it is important to have that knowledge for as many consumer goods as possible. Knowledge is power, and knowing where the product came from can (and should) influence what you buy.

The RIAA is a group of several hundred record labels. The <a href="http://www.riaa.com/about/members/">roster of members</a> changes constantly (major labels create new subsidiary labels, popular artists are given their own labels, artists or labels leave the RIAA due to creative or political differences, etc.) and it is almost impossible to keep track. Aside from memorizing the entire list, or having the list available and checking it while shopping, it is hard to know who is a member and who is not.

Why is it important to know if an album was released by an RIAA member or not?

That's possibly a fairly long answer, but just the highlights of the RIAA's practices involve price-fixing, blaming its poor financial state on unfounded digital piracy claims (and in turn, blaming and suing its own consumers), lobbying for changes that hinder technological innovation and change copyright laws, underpaying the artists it represents, invading personal privacy to enforce copyrights, and dismantling entire computer networks just because of their ability (of their users) to share copyrighted files. (Feel free to visit the RIAA and Boycott-RIAA.com to learn more!)

In order to successfully and efficiently support who you like (or not support who you don't like), you need to have information immediately available to know who is who. The RIAA Radar works in two ways: if you're looking to stop buying RIAA releases, it will help tell you what albums to avoid (or purchase secondhand); if you are looking for new music or new alternatives, it works to promote non-RIAA releases by providing similar RIAA-free albums to almost any RIAA release, and RIAA-free popularity charts for several genres in order to showcase viable alternatives.

Thought some (hopefully a lot) of you might be interested in this. It's nice to see a tool that can be used to be sure my money is going to people I want it to go to when I buy things.

SecretMethod70 · 03-28-2004, 11:28 PM

Something related and interesting for our Australian brethren.....

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...412234274.html

Quote:

Music industry way off track with song and dance about falling sales

Figures show that we're buying albums in record numbers, despite the internet 'freeloaders', writes Steve Cannane.

The Australian record industry has just had its best year ever. But it doesn't want you to know about it. This month ARIA announced its sales figures for last year. In its press release, it talked about Delta, it talked about falling CD singles sales, it talked about the rise in DVD sales, but at no stage did it tell us it was the industry's best year ever. Why bury the good news?

Record industry types aren't usually shy about success. But this time their success is a little embarrassing. For the past few years the industry has argued that file-sharing and CD burning is having a negative impact on sales. But, unfortunately, their own sales figures don't back up their arguments.

ARIA's press release was slugged with a bizarre headline: "Music DVD continues its rise whilst CD singles slide further". A mixed year, you might think. Not so. It took a canny finance reporter, SBS's Peter Martin, to decode the spin. He had access to ARIA sales figures going back to the early 1980s. He worked out what ARIA knew but decided not to share: when sales cracked 50 million albums for the year it was the first time this had happened. And combined sales of all formats for last year climbed to more than 65 million for the first time.

But that's just one year, I hear the record companies say. OK, let's go back to 1998. The year before an 18-year-old college dropout named Shawn Fanning wrote a file-sharing program called Napster, the software that kick-started the downloading boom. In that year Australian record companies sold 39.6 million CD albums. Five years later the figure had gone up to 50.5 million. That makes it hard to argue that downloading and CD copying has been killing sales.

But what about the sales of singles, I hear the record companies cry. Singles sales did fall last year by a significant amount. While album sales increased by 7.85 per cent, singles sales went down by 16.5 per cent. But what would you rather? We know which format makes the most money. ARIA wants to stress the drop in singles sales because it suits its argument.

But it's not telling the whole truth. It neglects to mention the record companies are not releasing as many singles as they used to. Sales of singles do not make much money. Singles are these days pretty much released for promotional purposes - to get radio play and drum up interest in an album. In the US, singles have virtually disappeared from sale.

But what about our research, I hear the record companies scream. ARIA paid a research company to survey music consumers. The survey results suggest there's been a 12 per cent decrease in CD purchases by people who are into file-sharing. The greatest percentage is with the under-17s - people who don't have much money. But the research suggests those with the money, the 45 and overs, are buying more CDs after file-sharing. Now that's a statistic we never hear quoted.

According to Stephen Peach, CEO of ARIA, "The free ride simply can't continue indefinitely at the expense of the owners and creators of music."

If we ignore the rhetoric of record companies caring about artists for a moment, let's think about this. Maybe it's the record industry that's getting a free ride from file-sharing - a massive marketing system that allows music lovers to get exposed to all kinds of music without the record industry having to pay a cent.

I'll tell you what the record companies are paying for now, and it's not scholarships for the struggling artists they say they're trying to protect. It's lawsuits. ARIA is taking on Kazaa and suing university students. American record companies have sued nearly 2000 file-sharers in the past six months. Even the FBI has become involved. It says music piracy has become its third priority behind terrorism and counter-intelligence. A number of US Congress members who rely on the entertainment industry for campaign funds lobbied the FBI to spend more money hunting file-sharers and CD burners. So now CDs in the US carry FBI stickers warning of fines of $250,000 or five years in prison.

There's been no similar push by Australia's Federal Police. But keep your eyes on the figures - next year could be another record year for album sales and for prosecutions.

Steve Cannane is a Triple J broadcaster.

Aletheia · 03-28-2004, 11:47 PM

I refuse to buy music until the RIAA is broken up. Nice post Secret.

punx1325 · 03-29-2004, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Aletheia
I refuse to buy music until the RIAA is broken up. Nice post Secret.

Ditto. Actually by downloading Mp3's I have found a lot of bands I never would have heard in my life. Recently, I have been listening to entire CD's, some which I would buy. But until the RIAA is gone, they aren't getting a fucking dime!

SecretMethod70 · 03-29-2004, 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by punx1325
Ditto. Actually by downloading Mp3's I have found a lot of bands I never would have heard in my life. Recently, I have been listening to entire CD's, some which I would buy. But until the RIAA is gone, they aren't getting a fucking dime!

Run them by the RIAA radar! Maybe their labels aren't members

Or, if they are, get the CDs used from eBay or something similar. If you get them second-hand the RIAA won't get any money for it, AND you'll legally own it.

analog · 03-29-2004, 01:06 AM

how do you know that this program wasn't created by the RIAA, and isn't a backdoor trojan to gain access to your files?

[/devil's advocate][/tinfoil hat]

SecretMethod70 · 03-29-2004, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by analog
how do you know that this program wasn't created by the RIAA, and isn't a backdoor trojan to gain access to your files?
[/devil's advocate][/tinfoil hat]

um...cause it's a website

sailor · 03-29-2004, 11:29 AM

Yeah, thats a nice site. I had been using boycottriaa.com to find label names, but I like that site a lot better.

I havent bought a CD on an RIAA label in about 2 years now.

The_wall · 03-29-2004, 02:05 PM

Hmm well I've bought cd's that I' m sure are RIAA labels. However if it weren't for kazaa lite and other similar programs I wouldn't have bought the cd's.

I don't listen to radio much because lets face it, its 90% shitty music. However I discovered the wonder that is classic rock through the internet.

Kaos · 03-29-2004, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SecretMethod70
Run them by the RIAA radar! Maybe their labels aren't members

I ran 2 long standing artists into the search engine. Both have been around over 15 years, well before all this shit started.

The two groups? Overkill and Alice Cooper. (My 2 favourite of all time)

If you think I won't buy another album from Alice Cooper, your crazy. I hate the RIAA as much as the next guy, but I'm not gonna burn bridges with Artists that have created music for the masses long before the RIAA started in with suing people.

SecretMethod70 · 03-29-2004, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kaos
If you think I won't buy another album from Alice Cooper, your crazy. I hate the RIAA as much as the next guy, but I'm not gonna burn bridges with Artists that have created music for the masses long before the RIAA started in with suing people.

....

Quote:

Or, if they are, get the CDs used from eBay or something similar. If you get them second-hand the RIAA won't get any money for it, AND you'll legally own it.

There are plenty of artists I definitely want CDs of whose labels are RIAA members. So, instead, I'll buy them second-hand. I get the CDs of my favorite artists, the RIAA doesn't get any money.

Skettios · 03-29-2004, 03:16 PM

The Postal Service was released by Sub Pop, and they aren't RIAA. Think it's time I bought their cd.

kutulu · 03-29-2004, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by SecretMethod70
There are plenty of artists I definitely want CDs of whose labels are RIAA members. So, instead, I'll buy them second-hand. I get the CDs of my favorite artists, the RIAA doesn't get any money.

Neither does the band. I'm pissed at the RIAA, but I'm not going to screw my favorite bands over just to spite the RIAA.

What exactly is the RIAA? I never thought of them as a for-profit group. I thought they were just an association that works to make things as good as possible for the labels. I didn't think the labels actually gave them any significant money.

billege · 09-18-2005, 09:39 AM

I came accross a nice breakdown, that maybe some of you have seen already, in plain terms how RIAA treats it's artits. I'm sure it's true, obviously, that big bands can get rich making records. I'm not disputing such an obvious fact. However, I think this article makes it clear where RIAA is coming from. Their main interest is to make absolutely sure they control every aspect of the music. They tie the bands down before they know better, and they keep them penned in. The very last person on RIAA's list is the customer, who only provides the cash they use to keep bands prisoner. I think 2nd to the bottom is the band, who exists only to follow orders, and make more albums to make more money to ensnare more bands. Everyone in RIAA gets rich, but no one else does unless they allow it. After reading this, I'm pretty sure making music is so expensive because they want it to be. They NEED it to be, so they can keep doing what they do.

I'm not posting this to justify piracy, but to highlight the system RIAA keeps in place, simply to keep its execs flying private jets.

Original Article

Quote:

the problem with music
by steve albini
excerpted from Baffler No. 5

Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end, holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed.

Nobody can see what's printed on the contract. It's too far away, and besides, the shit stench is making everybody's eyes water. The lackey shouts to everybody that the first one to swim the trench gets to sign the contract. Everybody dives in the trench and they struggle furiously to get to the other end. Two people arrive simultaneously and begin wrestling furiously, clawing each other and dunking each other under the shit. Eventually, one of them capitulates, and there's only one contestant left. He reaches for the pen, but the Lackey says, "Actually, I think you need a little more development. Swim it again, please. Backstroke."

And he does, of course.

I. A&R Scouts

Every major label involved in the hunt for new bands now has on staff a high-profile point man, an "A&R" rep who can present a comfortable face to any prospective band. The initials stand for "Artist and Repertoire," because historically, the A&R staff would select artists to record music that they had also selected, out of an available pool of each. This is still the case, though not openly.

These guys are universally young [about the same age as the bands being wooed], and nowadays they always have some obvious underground rock credibility flag they can wave. Lyle Preslar, former guitarist for Minor Threat, is one of them. Terry Tolkin, former NY independent booking agent and assistant manager at Touch and Go is one of them. Al Smith, former soundman at CBGB is one of them. Mike Gitter, former editor of XXX fanzine and contributor to Rip, Kerrang and other lowbrow rags is one of them. Many of the annoying turds who used to staff college radio stations are in their ranks as well.

There are several reasons A&R scouts are always young. The explanation usually copped-to is that the scout will be "hip" to the current musical "scene." A more important reason is that the bands will intuitively trust someone they think is a peer, and who speaks fondly of the same formative rock and roll experiences.

The A&R person is the first person to make contact with the band, and as such is the first person to promise them the moon. Who better to promise them the moon than an idealistic young turk who expects to be calling the shots in a few years, and who has had no previous experience with a big record company. Hell, he's as naive as the band he's duping. When he tells them no one will interfere in their creative process, he probably even believes it.

When he sits down with the band for the first time, over a plate of angel hair pasta, he can tell them with all sincerity that when they sign with company X, they're really signing with him and he's on their side. Remember that great, gig I saw you at in '85? Didn't we have a blast.

By now all rock bands are wise enough to be suspicious of music industry scum. There is a pervasive caricature in popular culture of a portly, middle aged ex-hipster talking a mile-a-minute, using outdated jargon and calling everybody "baby." After meeting "their" A&R guy, the band will say to themselves and everyone else, "He's not like a record company guy at all! He's like one of us." And they will be right. That's one of the reasons he was hired.

These A&R guys are not allowed to write contracts. What they do is present the band with a letter of intent, or "deal memo," which loosely states some terms, and affirms that the band will sign with the label once a contract has been agreed on.

The spookiest thing about this harmless sounding little "memo," is that it is, for all legal purposes, a binding document. That is, once the band sign it, they are under obligation to conclude a deal with the label. If the label presents them with a contract that the band don't want to sign, all the label has to do is wait. There are a hundred other bands willing to sign the exact same contract, so the label is in a position of strength.

These letters never have any term of expiration, so the band remain bound by the deal memo until a contract is signed, no matter how long that takes. The band cannot sign to another label or even put out its own material unless they are released from their agreement, which never happens. Make no mistake about it: once a band has signed a letter of intent, they will either eventually sign a contract that suits the label or they will be destroyed.

One of my favorite bands was held hostage for the better part of two years by a slick young "He's not like a label guy at all,' A&R rep, on the basis of such a deal memo. He had failed to come through on any of his promises (something he did with similar effect to another well-known band), and so the band wanted out. Another label expressed interest, but when the A&R man was asked to release the band, he said he would need money or points, or possibly both, before he would consider it.

The new label was afraid the price would be too dear, and they said no thanks. On the cusp of making their signature album, an excellent band, humiliated, broke up from the stress and the many months of inactivity.

II. There's This Band

There's this band. They're pretty ordinary, but they're also pretty good, so they've attracted some attention. They're signed to a moderate-sized "independent" label owned by a distribution company, and they have another two albums owed to the label.

They're a little ambitious. They'd like to get signed by a major label so they can have some security—you know, get some good equipment, tour in a proper tour bus—nothing fancy, just a little reward for all the hard work.

To that end, they got a manager. He knows some of the label guys, and he can shop their next project to all the right people. He takes his cut, sure, but it's only 15%, and if he can get them signed then it's money well spent. Anyway, it doesn't cost them any thing if it doesn't work. 15% of nothing isn't much!

One day an A&R scout calls them, says he's "been following them for a while now," and when their manager mentioned them to him, it just "clicked." Would they like to meet with him about the possibility of working out a deal with his label? Wow. Big Break time.

They meet the guy, and y'know what—he's not what they expected from a label guy. He's young and dresses pretty much like the band does. He knows all their favorite bands. He's like one of them. He tells them he wants to go to bat for them, to try to get them everything they want. He says anything is possible with the right attitude. They conclude the evening by taking home a copy of a deal memo they wrote out and signed on the spot.

The A&R guy was full of great ideas, even talked about using a name producer. Butch Vig is out of the question—he wants 100 g's and three points, but they can get Don Fleming for $30,000 plus three points. Even that's a little steep, so maybe they'll go with that guy who used to be in David Letterman's band. He only wants three points. Or they can have just anybody record it [like Warton Tiers, maybe—cost you 5 or 10 grand] and have Andy Wallace remix it for 4 grand a track plus 2 points. It was a lot to think about.

Well, they like this guy and they trust him. Besides, they already signed the deal memo. He must have been serious about wanting them to sign. They break the news to their current label, and the label manager says he wants them to succeed, so they have his blessing. He will need to be compensated, of course, for the remaining albums left on their contract, but he'll work it out with the label himself. Sub Pop made millions from selling off Nirvana, and Twin Tone hasn't done bad either: 50 grand for the Babes and 60 grand for the Poster Children—without having to sell a single additional record. It'll be something modest. The new label doesn't mind, so long as it's recoupable out of royalties.

Well, they get the final contract, and it's not quite what they expected. They figure it's better to be safe than sorry and they turn it over to a lawyer—one who says he's experienced in entertainment law—and he hammers out a few bugs. They're still not sure about it, but the lawyer says he's seen a lot of contracts, and theirs is pretty good. They'll be getting a great royalty: 13% [less a 10% packaging deduction]. Wasn't it Buffalo Tom that were only getting 12% less 10? Whatever.

The old label only wants 50 grand, and no points. Hell, Sub Pop got 3 points when they let Nirvana go. They're signed for four years, with options on each year, for a total of over a million dollars! That's a lot of money in any man's English. The first year's advance alone is $250,000. Just think about it, a quarter-million, just for being in a rock band!

Their manager thinks it's a great deal, especially the large advance. Besides, he knows a publishing company that will take the band on if they get signed, and even give them an advance of 20 grand, so they'll be making that money too. The manager says publishing is pretty mysterious, and nobody really knows where all the money comes from, but the lawyer can look that contract over too. Hell, it's free money.

Their booking agent is excited about the band signing to a major. He says they can maybe average $1,000 or $2,000 a night from now on. That's enough to justify a five week tour, and with tour support, they can use a proper crew, buy some good equipment and even get a tour bus! Buses are pretty expensive, but if you figure in the price of a hotel room for everybody in the band and crew, they're actually about the same cost. Some bands (like Therapy? and Sloan and Stereolab) use buses on their tours even when they're getting paid only a couple hundred bucks a night, and this tour should earn at least a grand or two every night. It'll be worth it. The band will be more comfortable and will play better.

The agent says a band on a major label can get a merchandising company to pay them an advance on t-shirt sales! Ridiculous! There's a gold mine here! The lawyer should look over the merchandising contract, just to be safe.

They get drunk at the signing party. Polaroids are taken and everybody looks thrilled. The label picked them up in a limo.

They decided to go with the producer who used to be in Letterman's band. He had these technicians come in and tune the drums for them and tweak their amps and guitars. He had a guy bring in a slew of expensive old vintage microphones. Boy, were they "warm." He even had a guy come in and check the phase of all the equipment in the control room! Boy, was he professional. He used a bunch of equipment on them and by the end of it, they all agreed that it sounded very "punchy," yet "warm."

All that hard work paid off. With the help of a video, the album went like hotcakes! They sold a quarter million copies!

Here is the math that will explain just how fucked they are:

These figures are representative of amounts that appear in record contracts daily. There's no need to skew the figures to make the scenario look bad, since real-life examples more than abound. Income is underlined, expenses are not.

Advance: $250,000
Manager's cut: $37,500
Legal fees: $10,000

Recording Budget: $150,000
Producer's advance: $50,000
Studio fee: $52,500
Drum, Amp, Mic and Phase "Doctors": $3,000
Recording tape: $8,000
Equipment rental: $5,000
Cartage and Transportation: $5,000
Lodgings while in studio: $10,000
Catering: $3,000
Mastering: $10,000
Tape copies, reference CDs, shipping tapes, misc expenses: $2,000

Video budget: $30,000
Cameras: $8,000
Crew: $5,000
Processing and transfers: $3,000
Offline: $2,000
Online editing: $3,000
Catering: $1,000
Stage and construction: $3,000
Copies, couriers, transportation: $2,000
Director's fee: $3,000

Album Artwork: $5,000
Promotional photo shoot and duplication: $2,000

Band fund: $15,000
New fancy professional drum kit: $5,000
New fancy professional guitars (2): $3,000
New fancy professional guitar amp rigs (2): $4,000
New fancy potato-shaped bass guitar: $1,000
New fancy rack of lights bass amp: $1,000
Rehearsal space rental: $500
Big blowout party for their friends: $500

Tour expense (5 weeks): $50,875
Bus: $25,000
Crew (3): $7,500
Food and per diems: $7,875

Fuel: $3,000
Consumable supplies: $3,500
Wardrobe: $1,000
Promotion: $3,000

Tour gross income: $50,000
Agent s cut: $7,500
Manager's cut: $7,500

Merchandising advance: $20,000
Manager's cut: $3,000
Lawyer's fee: $1,000

Publishing advance: $20,000
Manager's cut: $3,000
Lawyer's fee: $1,000

Record sales: 250,000 @ $12 = $3,000,000 gross retail revenue Royalty (13% of 90% of retail): $351,000
Less advance: $250,000
Producer's points: (3% less $50,000 advance) $40,000
Promotional budget: $25,000
Recoupable buyout from previous label: $50,000
Net royalty: (-$14,000)

Record company income:
Record wholesale price $6.50 x 250,000 = $1,625,000 gross income
Artist Royalties: $351,000
Deficit from royalties: $14,000
Manufacturing, packaging and distribution @ $2.20 per record: $550,000
Gross profit: $710,000

The Balance Sheet: This is how much each player got paid at the end of the game.

Record company: $710,000
Producer: $90,000
Manager: $51,000
Studio: $52,500
Previous label: $50,000
Agent: $7,500
Lawyer: $12,000
Band member net income each: $4,031.25

The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 millon dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties. The band members have each earned about 1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month.

The next album will be about the same, except that the record company will insist they spend more time and money on it. Since the previous one never "recouped," the band will have no leverage, and will oblige.

The next tour will be about the same, except the merchandising advance will have already been paid, and the band, strangely enough, won't have earned any royalties from their t-shirts yet. Maybe the t-shirt guys have figured out how to count money like record company guys.

Some of your friends are probably already this fucked.

Gary_the_Rat · 09-18-2005, 12:25 PM

I've written many papers on this topic, and I'm still thoroughly disgusted with the RIAA's stance and tactics. I just wish these guys would grow up and accept the new medium. Filesharing isnt a bane to music sales, it's a boost.

Xazy · 09-18-2005, 03:13 PM

I am disgusted as well by the RIAA. I feel the record industry had a great ability to use the peer to peer network; instead they dropped the ball, and pissed off their fan base. I do not think that record sales are being dropped (especially to the degree they claim), more that a lot of new music is crap.

There is a great program called peerguardian 2. You can find it at http://methlabs.org/projects/ this program is designed to block the RIAA and the companies they hire to connect to your computer while using a P2P program. While I cannot say it is perfect I think this would remove a good portion of any danger of being caught by the RIAA.

Slavakion · 09-18-2005, 06:21 PM

The only thing with MethLabs is that there's some sketchy stuff going on right now. Apparently the team member that was managing the finances engineered a hostile takeover and has sole control over the methlabs site. So... the peerguardian definitions might not be safe right now.

Slashdot
Digg

SourceForge website explaining the ordeal and how to secure your copy of peerguardian.

gal · 09-19-2005, 12:00 PM

Hey, cool site. I've been browsing my favorites there, and quite a few are on RIAA labels. I won't stop buying their music though. The only way I'll contribute is to check out the other artist from the small non-RIAA labels who seem to sign good bands.

Bacchanal · 09-19-2005, 03:01 PM

It sucks that Relapse is on there. I've been buying music almost exclusively from their website for about a year now.

OOPS!

I'll have to add that site to my favorites when I get home.

Gilda · 09-19-2005, 03:39 PM

I'll buy the music I like regardless of RIAA involvement.

I see no reason to deny myself the music I want and the artist the profits they're going to get merely because the RIAA also benefits in the process.

Gilda

03-29-2004, 11:29 AM	#8 (permalink)
sailor beauty in the breakdown Location: Chapel Hill, NC	Yeah, thats a nice site. I had been using boycottriaa.com to find label names, but I like that site a lot better. I havent bought a CD on an RIAA label in about 2 years now. __________________ "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." --Plato

03-29-2004, 02:05 PM	#9 (permalink)
The_wall Psycho Location: Rhode Island biatches!	Hmm well I've bought cd's that I' m sure are RIAA labels. However if it weren't for kazaa lite and other similar programs I wouldn't have bought the cd's. I don't listen to radio much because lets face it, its 90% shitty music. However I discovered the wonder that is classic rock through the internet. __________________ "We do what we like and we like what we do!"~andrew Wk Procrastinate now, don't put off to the last minute.

03-29-2004, 03:16 PM	#12 (permalink)
Skettios Condition: Stable and Improving Location: Finger on the little red button.	The Postal Service was released by Sub Pop, and they aren't RIAA. Think it's time I bought their cd. __________________ Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies. Frederich Nietzsche

09-19-2005, 03:39 PM	#20 (permalink)
Gilda 32 flavors and then some Location: Out on a wire.	I'll buy the music I like regardless of RIAA involvement. I see no reason to deny myself the music I want and the artist the profits they're going to get merely because the RIAA also benefits in the process. Gilda __________________ I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that. ~Steven Colbert

03-28-2004, 11:47 PM	#3 (permalink)
Aletheia Psycho	I refuse to buy music until the RIAA is broken up. Nice post Secret.

03-29-2004, 01:06 AM	#6 (permalink)
analog Banned	how do you know that this program wasn't created by the RIAA, and isn't a backdoor trojan to gain access to your files? [/devil's advocate][/tinfoil hat]

09-18-2005, 12:25 PM	#15 (permalink)
Gary_the_Rat Tilted Location: KY	I've written many papers on this topic, and I'm still thoroughly disgusted with the RIAA's stance and tactics. I just wish these guys would grow up and accept the new medium. Filesharing isnt a bane to music sales, it's a boost.

09-18-2005, 03:13 PM	#16 (permalink)
Xazy People in masks cannot be trusted Location: NYC	I am disgusted as well by the RIAA. I feel the record industry had a great ability to use the peer to peer network; instead they dropped the ball, and pissed off their fan base. I do not think that record sales are being dropped (especially to the degree they claim), more that a lot of new music is crap. There is a great program called peerguardian 2. You can find it at http://methlabs.org/projects/ this program is designed to block the RIAA and the companies they hire to connect to your computer while using a P2P program. While I cannot say it is perfect I think this would remove a good portion of any danger of being caught by the RIAA.

09-18-2005, 06:21 PM	#17 (permalink)
Slavakion Mjollnir Incarnate Location: Lost in thought	The only thing with MethLabs is that there's some sketchy stuff going on right now. Apparently the team member that was managing the finances engineered a hostile takeover and has sole control over the methlabs site. So... the peerguardian definitions might not be safe right now. Slashdot Digg SourceForge website explaining the ordeal and how to secure your copy of peerguardian.

09-19-2005, 12:00 PM	#18 (permalink)
gal Insane	Hey, cool site. I've been browsing my favorites there, and quite a few are on RIAA labels. I won't stop buying their music though. The only way I'll contribute is to check out the other artist from the small non-RIAA labels who seem to sign good bands.

09-19-2005, 03:01 PM	#19 (permalink)
Bacchanal Laid back Location: Jayhawkland	It sucks that Relapse is on there. I've been buying music almost exclusively from their website for about a year now. OOPS! I'll have to add that site to my favorites when I get home.