Not the Music Industry/ This Guy Smokes Crack

A few things to rant about here.
1. Sheet music was the first sellable product in the music industry. It's the first record. It's the original CD. On behalf of at least 5 other people in this business, i can easily say that we all love and respect the integrity of sheet music and, more importantly, the artist(s) from whence it came.

2. I can't wait for crackpipe language equating the RIAA, MPA, Warner Chappell and the like with the general term "The Music Industry" to go away. They aren't the music industry. They are not the music industry. The RIAA, MPA and friends - they are not the music industry. They are not the music industry. repeat it to yourself three more times if you must and please, please, please tell your friends.

3. Like Rob Glaser, this idiot (read below), the one who smokes crack and wants people who share lyrics online to face jail time, is misrepresenting artists and pissing on the entire creative space of music. While I doubt Glaser smokes crack, I am reinvoking his name from an old post to make a point about marketing, strategy, survivability and how frakking lame it is to pick the wrong enemy solely b/c you think they are bigger than you, instead of opting for innovation and realistic competition. Glaser picks on apple, and wastes his employees hard work by botching the company image rather than relying on branding their value against their, uh, real competitors. Apple isn't really their competitor. We all know it's yahoo. Glaser is attempting to convert a marketplace rather than shift with it. It's like really really bad sex, when there's a change of tempo and the other person just doesn't change with it, keeps doing that lame thing they were doing before. but that's another post. Moving along, the RIAA and these sheet music companies are targeting online content creators without acknowledging that the same creators of web content are also the consumers. The marketplace has changed. In fact, hopefully we will soon be able to eliminate that generic word "marketplace" from our lingo all together. (To digress, i hope terms like "turn-key solution" and "at the end of the day" go with it.) My point here is that the sheet music companies, and cock smoking fuckhole crack addicts like this Lauren Kaiser dude are killing the value of their product rather than adapting to the new state of consumer affairs. Imagine the marketing possibilities for sheet music if indeed some of these companies shifted their monies from bullying college students and software innovators over to working with the technology and finding new creative ways to sell sheet music. And then i guess we'd have to all hold hands and light candles. A girl (in the business) can dream. Wait, no, a woman in the music business will DO. And thanks to corporate ignorance and reliance on the legal system rather than considering adaptability as an option, my job in the indie world just got lucrative (in the same way that glaser gave free publicity to apple on the same day they announced an nbc deal). tis the season of the indie label. The majors, yeah those suits who piss on artists and want jail time for "piracy" can look to december for high numbers, ours will spike in january, and we're ready. So here's the article that has me all fired up:


Song sites face legal crackdown
By Ian Youngs
BBC News entertainment reporter

Unauthorised guitar tabs and other musical scores are widely available
The music industry is to extend its copyright war by taking legal action against websites offering unlicensed song scores and lyrics.

The Music Publishers' Association (MPA), which represents US sheet music companies, will launch its first campaign against such sites in 2006.

MPA president Lauren Keiser said he wanted site owners to be jailed.

He said unlicensed guitar tabs and song scores were widely available on the internet but were "completely illegal".

Mr Keiser said he did not just want to shut websites and impose fines, saying if authorities can "throw in some jail time I think we'll be a little more effective".

Bitter battles

The move comes after several years of bitter legal battles against unauthorised services allowing users to download recordings for free.

Publishing companies have taken action against websites in the past, but this will be the first co-ordinated legal campaign by the MPA.

The MPA would target "very big sites that people would think are legitimate and very, very popular", Mr Keiser said.

"The Xerox machine was the big usurper of our potential income," he said. "But now the internet is taking more of a bite out of sheet music and printed music sales so we're taking a more proactive stance."


Music publishers and songwriters will consider all tools under the law to stop this illegal behaviour
David Israelite
National Music Publishers' Association
David Israelite, president of the National Music Publishers' Association, added his concerns.

"Unauthorised use of lyrics and tablature deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living, and is no different than stealing," he said.

"Music publishers and songwriters will consider all tools under the law to stop this illegal behaviour."

Sandro del Greco, who runs Tabhall.co.uk, said the issue was not serious enough to warrant jail time and sites like his were not necessarily depriving publishers of income.

Learn

"I play the drums mainly but I play the guitar as well. I run the website and I still buy the [tab] books," he said.

"The tabs online aren't deadly accurate so if someone really wants to know it they'll buy the book.

"But most of the bands I listen to don't have tab books to buy so if you get them online, that's the only way you can really learn it unless you work it out yourself."

The campaign comes after lyric-finding software PearLyrics was forced off the internet by a leading music publishing company, Warner Chappell.