new CD labeling activism campaign

[mosc]

I'm not advocating going into stores and sticking lables on CDs, but I thought this might be of interest since most of us are independents.

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Hello from the fertile pastures of Downhill Battle,

We are very excited about our new CD labeling activism campaign that we're
announcing today. Take a look: www.downhillbattle.org/riaa/

We've teamed up with RIAA Radar to make CD labels that say "WARNING: Buying
this CD Funds Lawsuits Against Families and Children" and "WARNING: This
Record Label Pays Radio Stations to Keep Independent Music Off the Air".

You can order some stickers and head down to CD stores near you (we're
focusing on big stores like Walmart and Best Buy). The web site also has a
photo diary of our trip to a bunch of stores on the day after Thanksgiving.

And please help us spread the word!

-Nick and Holmes
www.downhillbattle.org/riaa/

[Cyxeris]

The sad thing is that, as an independent, I don't even know what to think or how to feel about such tactics.

Cyx

[nothing happens]

as a Libertarian, I say it's clever and it looks like fun, and if they think it will help their cause, let them do it... but the store owners have every right to remove them from the premises if they catch them and have a problem with it... though that probably won't really stop them anyway. Besides, they can't possibly stick those things on every single CD in the store (without drawing attention to themselves or running out of stickers or time), apparently just the ones on the front of the racks... the store could just return or pull the "damaged" items quick as a wink and it probably wouldn't make much difference. But if folks are persistent enough with tactics like this, it's bound to have some effect on some of the people who see the stickers and thus, eventually, public opinion of the music business, which is what I gather they're after. I think it's kinda neat, and the statements on the stickers are, after all, pretty much true.

[elektro80]

I cannot quite see the point. The only ones who will suffer will be shop owners, the poor bastards trying to put those stickers onto the CDs and the poor artists ( that are fucked bigtime by the major labels and the biz anyway ).

What we need is a slightly different business structure.. and for ordinary analog shops to be able to stock a reasonable number of titles. Maybe this is our fault? We are still too ignorant to be able to take responsibility and do something sensible about this?

[elektro80]

OK.. this is how I look at it:

Just a very few artists are able to get something substanially great out of the current system. This leaves the bulk of current artists on contract with the major labels as shiteating slaves. Poor guys. And we knwo that even many of the major pop stars are pretty much fucked by the labels too..

The real victims here are the artists. And if the best the global community of music lovers can do is to expect a free lunch, .. then I guess art as we know it is fucked too.

[nothing happens]

I think at least part of the problem at least in the US is that our free market basically isn't free enough. The system as it stands favors large-scale collective (corporate) economic activity over that of the individual, above and beyond the inherent advantages large companies would already have naturally. The game is weighted far too heavily in favor of giant corporations and against the small independent businessman, and hence, independent labels. If the American ideal is of the individual in control of their own destiny, our economic policy certainly doesn't reflect that.

We bury our small businesses in exhorbitant taxes and overrregulation until many of them, especially those dealing in art and media, are barely a blip on the average citizen's radar. The indie record label in your own hometown putting out interesting, quality music, despite being located practically just around the corner, is squeezed out of the everyday experience of all but the most dedicated hipster music fans, due to the total domination of our lives and experience by ever-larger corporations.

Anyway, I think in a way corporations are a form of communism that now transcends national borders. A vibrant, interesting culture for our future depends on the independent smalltime guy with ideas of his own, people like us, and we should be able to profitably take the reigns of our own distribution and promotion, without all the road blocks government insists on throwing in front of the individual. Which is why I particularly like the sticker that says "this label pays radio stations to keep independent music off the air." It might pique some interest in independent music, or at least raise awareness among everyday shmoes that such a thing actually exists: "'independent' music? What's that?"

Or, at least, that's how it seems to me lately.

[elektro80]

Good points. I reckon the US is just another capitalist nation. This means that big business rules. In small nations like Norway, there is not really any big business of a scale like what you find in the US, or the UK or wherever. Here.. and pin laces like Iceland and Denmark etc. a lot of the political system is about resource management. On the other hand.. we buy whatever we are told. One of the many things guys like us needs.. is a global international agreement on rights management and copyright. I reckon we also need global deal that removes all tax on music when sold on its own in the form of a CD or a concert ticket or whatever. Hmm.. what about putting together an extensive proposal for such an international agreement? Then get musicians from all over the world to sign this one. The agreement could also overrule certain aspects of deals musicians have made with labels.

Hmm.. all the musicians on this globe could demand a new way to handle music? No tax. Free trade, certain basic rules of rights management.. etc etc

[Cyxeris]

[elektro80]

[Cyxeris]

What concerns me is that it seems, and again I could be wrong, but it seems that they are using independent artists (me, you) as pawns (like politicians using the poor) to leverage their agenda of free free free against those clamping down on it, the RIAA. Kinda makes you feel like a human shield in principle, doesn't it. Or like being caught between the Germans and the Russians circa 1943 or so.

Are these kids even artists themselves? What is their story, anyway? I'm curious.

Cyx

[elektro80]

[elektro80]

What bothers me is that this "clueless" crew is participating in the diffusion of the real issues.

[Cyxeris]

And defacing us, and our credibility, in the process. I don't want them speaking for me.

Cyx