VINCE VS. THE RIAA

You know, I've not given my fans what they just thrive on.... A good old fashion Vince Wylde rant, so here you go....

As some of you know, Sound Exchange, a shadow company of the RIAA that collects royalty payments for any sort of broadcast of an artist's music, recently targeted Internet radio. They demanded royalty payments from people using companies like Live365 to further their passion for music - and who make nill on this hobby - saying it wasn't fair to simply not pay the artists. Here's the problem:

Live365 openly advertises paying royalties and even advertises in music streams that it's better to stream with them because of the fact that, unlike file sharing, the artist gets a cut of the "sharing" of his or her music. So in the end everyone wins. Claims by Sound Exchange that the artist isn't duly compensated is not only irresponsible, but it's an out-and-out lie.

Further, anyone like myself who has worked in radio professionally knows the RIAA doesn't give a damn about the artists they supposedly represent. They rip off the consumer at the record store and the artist they claim to collect royalties for through sound exchange.

WASHINGTON POST - New York state Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer, best known for his efforts to clean up Wall Street, tighten anti-pollution laws and protect low-wage employees, went to bat Tuesday for a new constituency: shortchanged musicians.

Spitzer announced a settlement in which the nation's five largest recording companies promised to do a better job of tracking down and paying $50 million in unclaimed royalties to thousands of performers. The beneficiaries include country singer Dolly Parton, rock stars David Bowie and Dave Matthews, conductor Zubin Mehta and thousands of lesser-known musicians.

As you can see from the clip from the above article, the RIAA has been simply uninterested in helping actually make payments out to artists who have money collected on their behalf by Sound Exchange, the very company that handles these royalty rates and collections. Proving further that this isn't about so-called "royalties", it's about media manipulation.

The RIAA's real interest is total market manipulation and control. This enables them to focus what charts and how many CDs are sold. If they can manufacture more 17 times platinum sales like the first Britney Spears CD on a more consistent basis, they can ensure profitability. If they have to constantly contend with free thinking base of broadcasters who could give a crap about the latest Britney CD, they can never truly control the medium. Eliminate the "options", increase the profits.

A death of Streamcasting is a step closer to Communism because it suggests that we shouldn't have access to everything we want. It also shows "what happens" when the capitalist formula runs amok and big companies are allowed a free hand. Either way, it's a bad scenario and the only people who lose in the end are music fans