RIAA verses the world, and a return to Music Guilds?

This post was originally published at sinewalker.blogspot.com.au on 31 August 2005


In reference to this Slashdot article about RIAA lawsuits


Seems that RIAA are intent on sueing more 12-year old girls for sharing music... it sickens me.


I am not sure what to do to protest (beyond what seems to be happening already — consumers aren't buying today's crap, and RIAA/ARIA/MPAA etc are just blaming it on the Net anyway). I am considering what would happen if lots of fans started writing directly to their favourite artists and asking them these questions:


  • why do you have this deal with your distributor EMI? I can't play your
  • why don't you consider putting sample tracks on your web site? For that matter, why don't you deal directly with Apple, or start your own pay-per-download site for your songs? I'm sure heaps of fans like me will buy them, and you could get a much larger cut per track than Warner Bros is giving you

Of course, there are costs to running a web site also. But I wonder if what may happen eventually is a return to music guilds, where a guild runs the site, member groups contribute content and all proffit goes to the members. It would probably be a good business to start, atracting new groups like the “Idol” TV shows do now. Shame I have hopeless business sense though.