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Ignorance Was Blissby George Ziemann The disillusionment is probably similar to what some children experience when confronted with the facts about Santa. These sort of illuminatory moments are always following by the plaguing feeling, or sometimes the direct question, "What else have they lied to me about?" From a creative viewpoint, I find the antagonism which I feel toward the industry right now to be a stifling force. Everything I have ever been led to believe about the business does, in fact, appear to be wrong. It becomes harder and harder to step aside from that and enter into the mysterious realm required for the creative process. This is not the end of the world, but it does require an adjustment in strategy for every musician, especially those of us who have been listening to the agents, promoters, A&R people and PR types for far too long. The current landscape does not help matters much. It is inevitable, however, as this is has been the industry's only response the technological change for more than 80 years. This period in time (beginning with the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act and the DMCA) may be the first time the industry has managed to gain quite so much leverage in Congress, at the same time as its ownership has ironically become completely foreign. So what are those of us who are still actually more concerned about the "useful arts and sciences" than money supposed to do while we wait for the greed train to fall off of the tracks? Where are those of us who are more interested in writing good, meaningful songs (as opposed to writing "hit" songs) to turn while we wait for the industry to implode and rebuild? Because it's going to take a few more years, judging by the pace of things. The RIAA is not going to change its current path until one of the "piracy" cases hits the Supreme Court. Mitch Bainwol told us a few months ago that the RIAA was down to "the last arrow in the quiver." The truth is that they never had more than one. Certainly this entire business of suing people in the name of the artists for the crime of listening to their music is ludicrous at best and seriously counter-productive at the extreme. If the labels have not yet recognized this, they are fools; if they have realized it and are relying on the short memory of the American public, we have yet to see who the real fools are. Moving Ahead At this point in time, the best suggestion for artists is to adopt Creative Commons licensing to let people know that it is legal to download and listen to your music without the fear of being sued. Of all the ideas that have been floated around in the past three years, it is the single one which has the best chance of turning into a symbol of rejection of the industry, as well as becoming a road sign for consumers. There are zealots at both ends of the spectrum. Some would seek to jail you for sending your Aunt Maude a copy of "My Way," while others will give away the farm in order to buck the system. The average artist wants you to listen to their music -- otherwise, they have no career. Just don't try to profit from it without giving the artist their proper cut. We can get that treatment from the record labels. No Easy Answers Artists must face the fact that this entire worthless drama over greed and copyright has not yet played itself out. It has been going on for too many decades to just land on a happy ending this week. Sooner or later, it will come to its inevitable conclusion and the industry will be forced to adapt to the way the independents have been doing business since mp3s and the Internet were first created. All along, they have been telling us that we're wrong, that we're illegitimate, that we are the "toxic waste" of music. But it's the RIAA "property" that has an FBI warning label. |
 Hayden's Wall
 Hank Tomlin
 Jenn Hartmann
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