Now that is ridiculous even for struggling Music Industry People | The Coffeehouse

xgamer
Two Sides to Everything

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/8317952.stm

I can try to understand need for DRM/Restricted Licensing(WGA) etc especially with the digital products like Music, Computer programs which can be easily duplicated / transferable unlike Physical products. Software and Music industry is trying to still trying find a perfect balance between control and freedom for user.

However, the above incident is really ridiculous where UK PRS ( Perfromance Rights Society - similar institution exists in each country which collect payments on behalf of copyright holders for public performance of their members content) threatened to fine a lady for singing in her shop

Thought matter has been resolved now (may be due to public outcry) ... it shows the ridiculous lengths these soft-media products companies going to control their content...

Maddus Mattus
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

Our native "Performance Right Society" wants us to pay for every youtube music clip we embed on out blogs.

It's rediculous. Musicians should start their own labels.

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

In reply to Maddus Mattus

#Oct 23rd @ 12:29 AM

As far as I know a lot of musicians are perfectly fine with that idea. I only hear a very small minority of them speak out against it, anyway.

figuerres
???

In reply to Bas

#Oct 23rd @ 2:11 AM

well most of them want to get a check from the huge recording co that sell thier music .... kinda hard to go on strike *and* expect the boss to like you. so it's not easy for most musicians to take a stand, unless they can get a whole lot of them to all do it as a group and even then some companes might keep going for a long time and out last most of the muscians in the legal costs etc...

ManipUni
Proving QQ for 5 years!

In reply to figuerres

#Oct 23rd @ 4:48 AM

Musicians are just as much a victim of the music monopoly as the general public. Many have tried to start their own labels but often struggle since the industry owns everything downstream or have exclusive tie-ins.

Plus nobody wants to sign with a small guy when they could sell it to a big guy who can almost ensure them large popularity just by the virtue of their size. So I guess even if musicians do get "screwed" they at least get famous which they can then exploit to make big $$$ when they do a tour.

Maddus Mattus
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

In reply to Bas

#Oct 23rd @ 2:11 AM

Yeah Kanye West needs a new Ferrari,.

It's sad I know Smiley

Sabot
My name is Dave Oliver. I'm a Technical Architect.

This is how it is people.

Music isn't as popular as it once was.

Sales are on the decline and companies are doing anything to protect their dwindling revenues.

The simple fact is that music companies are going to have to shrink and they can't face up to that so the fight is going to get nastier before they realise that.

The PRS need to help their members transition to the new world order rather than hounding individuals.

Musicians are just that, they aren't business people, you can't expect them to run successful music companies.

We need to encourage our children that they can be successful in a myriad of different ways.

TV shows like the X-factor are popular but for how long? and how many previous winners of the shows albums are on your iPod?

Dr Herbie
Horses for courses

In reply to Sabot

#Oct 23rd @ 6:36 AM

X-Factor? iPod? What are these things you speak of?

Herbie (now feeling very old and out of touch with society) Tongue Out

Maddus Mattus
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

In reply to Sabot

#Oct 23rd @ 6:36 AM

I am not a business person myself, but in the grown up world you sometimes have to be,..

No excuses,..

The music that comes out now, is total crap. I am not paying top euro for that. It's just recycled rubbish from the 70's sung by some pretty girl with big knockers and a short skirt.

Music industry should leap into the internet. Selling songs for $0.10 and DRM free. Downloads would be a thing of the past, because it's a better product. Instead they cling to their 1.0 business model, trying to milk it for every dollar. And then spend more to keep the business model up.

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

In reply to Sabot

#Oct 23rd @ 6:36 AM

Not sure if music isn't as popular as it used to be. I think we've all made it worth a lot less than it used to be by expecting that we can just get anything we want for free anytime we want it.

ManipUni
Proving QQ for 5 years!

In reply to Bas

#Oct 23rd @ 7:02 AM

I think *new* music is less popular. Back in the 80's people listened to 80s music and it was BIG business. Now in the 2000s we all want to listen to music from the last 50 years and don't have time for much of the new junk.

Frankly music has gone from an art to a science and people can tell.... You have plastic super-model people who are digitally touched up, and you have touched up voices with digitally perfect music in the background.

I listen to a lot of music from the 80s through to 50s. It just feels more "real." The people are freaks with odd voices who would never win an X-Factor or heck even make it past the first round, but yet still it just feels like they have something to sing about themselves instead of being handed music that they have no emotional stake in.

Sven Groot
My name has 9 letters. Coincidence? I think not...

In reply to Bas

#Oct 23rd @ 7:02 AM

I recently saw an article that said that the problem is that record labels nowadays sell songs, rather than acts. They'll produce a single hit song, put it on an album with 10 other songs which are crap, and then are surprised when people don't buy them. Furthermore, these bands rarely last longer than one album.

In the past, you'd have bands like Pink Floyd or U2 or the Rolling Stones where you were a fan of the band, not a particular song. You could invest in them, build a collection. You'd buy every album not because you liked every single song, but you just wanted to have the complete collection. Bands like those are still selling huge numbers even today.

Bands nowadays don't have any staying power, and as such you don't get invested in them. You don't want to build up a catalog and visit shows etc. for a band that has only one or two good songs.

I think there's a lot of truth to that. It might not be the only reason the music industry is facing dwindling sales, but I can certainly believe it could be one of the reasons.

brian.shapiro
things go on as always

In reply to ManipUni

#Oct 23rd @ 7:23 AM

I think the culture is changing a bit actually... music hasn't always been the largest part of our culture, visual art--painting, sculpture--has been more important, so has theater and poetry and literature.

Music became really big when our culture became dominated by mass media like radio, television, movies--it became so you wanted to listen to the songs everyone else was listening to, and wait for the release of some new music from a band that everyone else was waiting for. Most of the music from the 80s was bad also. It may not have been as overproduced as music today, but it was bubble gum crap.

The Internet has changed things around again, now anybody can be a musician--the rock stars is dead--and you can download as music as you like--people are bored of it.