The Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) has quietly ended its campaign to sue illicit digital music sharing into oblivion, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The first R.I.A.A. lawsuits were filed in September 2003, against individuals allegedly caught sharing music illegally online. By the time R.I.A.A. halted its legal campaign this past fall, they’d managed to issue 35,000 suits, win none of them, spend more money on legal fees than they recovered in settlements, and plunge the industry into a public relations quagmire — all the while failing to stop either music piracy or the continuing decline of CD sales.
Meanwhile, innovations in legal distribution of digital music, especially music-based video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, have fueled a major rise in legitimate purchases of digital music, outside the music industry’s traditional business model.
To get a sense of the marketing power of these games, consider this: after Aerosmith’s song “Same Old Song and Dance” (released in 1974) was released for Guitar Hero, online sales of the old song surged, up 446 percent on iTunes and other legal sites for the two months after the Guitar Hero release.
Independent record labels are coming into their own, eating away at the market share of the four major music conglomerates. Musicians, from Radiohead to Jonathan Coulton and many others, are striking out on their own, distributing music themselves online, without having to give up any of their earnings to a label.
With these innovations changing the way we listen to music, and with more on the way, what is the likelihood that major record labels become as superfluous as full-fee real-estate agents, whose commissions rarely add value for homesellers?
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Having worked with independent artists in the late 90s early 00s I have to say yes. Very few of them wanted record contracts in spite of fans asking them to get them.
Share and let the music play! The majors have continually shot themselves in the foot. Good riddance.
While it’s true that the RIAA is no longer suing indivduals, they have not, as it turns out, abandoned their campaign to end music piracy. They’ve just changed tactics; instead of suing any “pirates” they detect, they will instead order the user’s ISP to block them. They’re also renewing efforts to get ISPs to collect royalties from users who have access to free music (between $5 and 10 per month per user had once been the target amount). Basically this means every broadband customer in the US would see their Internet bills go up by $5 to 10 per month.
Some ISPs have publicly balked at becoming RIAA’s enforcers, but at least one, Cox, has signed on to the plan. It’s not unreasonable to expect other major ISPs to become RIAA cops.
Oh, and although the RIAA has announced that they’ve stopped suing individuals, they are still filing suits anyway! How’s that for blatant disingenuity?
The RIAA is perhaps one of the only businesses in the world that treats its paying customers as if they were already criminals. So the fact that they are still suing people — even though they said they would stop doing so — shouldn’t come as a surprise. Their approach to their own customers is no longer rational, so rationality cannot be expected of them.
There is a new piece to this puzzle now too. All of the major online distributors, iTunes, amazon etc., now sell music DRM free. That’s actually really good for consumers.
The major labels have not tried to change their business to match current market dynamics, instead they tried to force the market to match their archaic business model. It reminds me of another troubled industry…big three of the auto manufacturers, they just haven’t asked for a bailout yet.
Give the music away for free and, eliminate Ticketmaster and charge out the ears for concert seats with coupons for reductions to people who do buy cds, downloads, shirts, posters, etc…
Come on now, isn’t that being a little unfair to the realtors?
gone are the days when everyone would go to someone’s house and actually sit down listen to the record player together. nowadays when you like a song, someone can email it to you. you listen to it while driving, working out, etc… it’s no longer a shared experience