RIAA Statistics

RIAA The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) was formed in 1952 to oversee the RIAA equalization curve. The RIAA equalization curve is a straight line. In 1958, the RIAA began issuing gold record awards to artists having sold more than 500,000 copies. Suspecting that a gold record that was presented to him by Motown Records wasn't really gold, Marvin Gaye took the disc out of its frame and placed it on a turn table. It not only turned out to be just a vinyl platter painted gold, it was actually a record by The Supremes. (source) Note: The RIAA certified very few of Motown's best selling records, as Berry Gordy refused to allow them access to his accounting records. When Roberta Flack was awarded a gold record for her 1973, number one hit, "Killing Me Softly With His Song", she wanted to listen to her song etched in gold. She removed the disc from its frame and placed it on a turntable, only to hear "Come Softly to Me" by The Fleetwoods. Flack worked for Atlantic, not Motown, so we don't know what their excuse was. Currently, the RIAA seems to have four basic functions other than painting records: Annual Statistics -- Each year the RIAA releases the official statistics for the prior year along with an accompanying press release which consistently and intentionally misrepresents the data which it purports to explain. Product quantities in the RIAA statistics reflect product shipped by the record labels. They do not show actual sales. The "value" of the RIAA shipments as reported reflects what the value of those products would have been if every item was sold at manufacturer's suggested retail price. A comparison of suggested retail price vs. actual retail price (Amazon.com) indicates that the industry consistently overstates its value by somewhere between 30 and 40 percent. Public Relations -- The RIAA site offers various topics. Among them is their explanation of "The Value of a CD" which points out that had CDs followed the Consumer Price Index since their introduction in 1982, the average CD retail price would now be approximately $36. Although not mentioned, this line of reasoning would currently price blank CDs at about $16 each and single-speed CD burners would now be in the $250,000 range. Lobbying -- An ongoing effort to criminalize listening to their product. Community Outreach -- Beginning in 2003, the RIAA has reached out directly to at least 40,000 music fans, giving each a subpoena for copyright infringement. Only two cases have gone to trial. Ireland is First European Country to Kiss RIAA Ass May 24, 2010 -- Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing reports that "Eircom, Ireland's largest ISP, has decided to snuffle up to the entertainment industry's hindquarters and become the first European ISP to actively practice '3 strikes': if you are accused (without proof) of three acts of copyright infringement, they will take away Internet access from your entire household for a year." No proof required, just an accusation. So, unlike the U.S., where we can at least publicly humiliate them for trying to sue dead people, children and the homeless, if IRMA (the Irish RIAA) decides your dead grandma is downloading rap music, you lose the internet and there's nothing you can do about it. Bonus features -- Without annoying legal procedures, the response of the accused does not become public record. Plus, they've been taken off the net, so no one on it will hear them complain. ROTFLMAO -- RIAA Lawsuit Campaign Was PR Effort May 18, 2010 -- David Kravetz at Wired has a nice little chart and a few interesting factoids which illustrate just how badly the RIAA was abusing the court system as it played "Hunt the Pirate." Too bad he didn't overlay sales (or shipments). And this: "The RIAA - representing the world's big four music companies, Sony BMG, Universal Music, EMI and Warner Music - has said its lawsuits were largely a public relations effort, aimed at striking fear into the hearts of would-be downloaders." A public relations effort? That's funny as hell. If you think about the meeting where they came up with this genius plan, the jokes write themselves. "Striking fear into the hearts..."? Of who? Seven-year-olds? Dead people and college kids? The true hardcore "pirates" -- the ones they should be looking for -- are exactly the type of people most likely to laugh in their face than be stricken with fear. Just a little less successful than the "war on drugs," the attempt to litigate peer-to-peer out of existence missed the target completely by chasing kids not even old enough to vote instead of hunting for the roots. I thought the RIAA was running a misguided legal attempt to extend and enforce copyright protection. If it was a PR effort, the RIAA intentionally overtaxed the court system for the purpose of publicity. Just another in a long, long list of lies. There's a commonly held belief that the reason musicians need a big record label is for the marketing and PR. The legal "shotgun and sledgehammer" approach was their idea of an effective public relations campaign. They liked it so much they kept it going for years. Just think what they can do for you. Irresponsible Music Industry Creates Anarchy January, 2007 -- Critics of the major players in the industry argue that they have been distracted by the fight against piracy and in doing so, hindered the growth of the legal business. In response, the accused argue that they had little choice. "Many people around the world tell me that we've handled our problems in an incorrect manner but no one tells me what we should have done," John Kennedy, the head of the International Federation of Piracy Inquisition, told Reuters. More at CNet... What a load of horseshit. They know exactly what they should have done because "they" includes Sony. How many consumers were sued in order to solve the basic issue at the heart of the Betamax case? One. A guy named William Griffiths. From Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios The Ninth District Court summarized his [William Griffiths'] testimony as follows: "He owns approximately 100 tapes. When Griffiths bought his Betamax, he intended not only to time-shift (record, play- back and then erase) but also to build a library of cassettes. Maintaining a library, however, proved too expensive, and he is now erasing some earlier tapes and reusing them. "Griffiths copied about 20 minutes of a Universal motion picture called 'Never Give An Inch,' and two episodes from Universal television series entitled 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' and 'Holmes and Yo Yo.' He would have erased each of these but for the request of plaintiffs' counsel that it be kept. Griffiths also testified that he had copied but already erased Universal films called 'Alpha Caper' (erased before anyone saw it) and 'Amelia Earhart.' At the time of his deposition Griffiths did not intend to keep any Universal film in his library. "Griffiths has also recorded documentaries, news broadcasts, sporting events and political programs such as a rerun of the Nixon/Kennedy debate." 480 F.Supp. 429, 436-437 (1979). Four other witnesses testified to having engaged in similar activity. Wow. They caught him. Full confession. 100 tapes. That's hard evidence and a minimum $75,000 fine. Remember what happened to him? Remember how Universal and Sony's squabble over what was and was not legal bankrupted Griffiths and ruined his life? Of course you don't. "An individual VTR user, William Griffiths, was named as a defendant in the District Court, but respondents sought no relief against him." They didn't sue 20,000 or 25,000 individuals. They sued one, and then not to "teach those pirates a lesson." They did it to solve the question of whether or not it was legal in the first place. One case. Both sides gave it their best shot, took the issue all the way to the Supreme Court and by the time it got there, the only question to be answered was "whether the sale of petitioners' [Sony] copying equipment to the general public violates any of the rights conferred upon respondents [Universal] by the Copyright Act." What was it that the IFPI said...? Oh yeah. "Many people around the world tell me that we've handled our problems in an incorrect manner but no one tells me what we should have done." Those who don't know history... May, 2000 -- The Federal Trade Commission unanimously found reason to believe that the arrangements entered into by the five largest distributors of prerecorded music violated the antitrust laws in two respects. First, when considered together, the arrangements constituted practices that facilitate horizontal collusion among the distributors, in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Second, when viewed individually, each distributor's arrangement constitutes an unreasonable vertical restraint of trade under the rule of reason. May 10, 2000 -- Record Companies Settle FTC Charges of Restraining Competition in CD Music Market All Five Major Distributors Agree to Abandon Advertising Pricing Policies The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it has reached separate settlement agreements with Universal Music and Video Distribution, Sony Corp. of America, Time-Warner Inc., EMI Music Distribution and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), the five largest distributors of recorded music who sell approximately 85 percent of all compact discs (CDs) purchased in the United States to end their allegedly illegal advertising policies that affected prices for CDs. The proposed agreements would settle FTC charges that all five companies illegally modified their existing cooperative advertising programs to induce retailers into charging consumers higher prices for CDs, allowing the distributors to raise their own prices. The complaints are the culmination of an extensive industry-wide investigation by the FTC of these practices. The FTC's orders would require all the companies to discontinue their "Minimum Advertised Price" (MAP) programs in their entirety for seven years. The orders contain additional provisions to preclude the companies from maintaining the anticompetitive status quo. "The FTC estimates that U.S. consumers may have paid as much as $480 million more than they should have for CDs and other music because of these policies over the last three years. These settlements will eliminate these policies and should help restore much-needed competition to the retail music market, consisting of $15 billion in annual sales. Today's news should be sweet music to the ears of all CD purchasers," said Chairman Robert Pitofsky.