Dammit, dammit, dammit. Yes, it makes total fucking horribly perfect sense that once the Powers That Be (in this case, the Copyright Royalty Board, rather than the RIAA, but they're all heads of the same terrible beast) took down Muxtape, they'd go after dear, sweet, kind Pandora. And yes, they are. Crap, crap, crap, with an extra side helping of crap.

Man, this frustrates me. It's starting to smell like there's some kind of Vast Bad-Music Conspiracy dedicated to forcing you, me, my little brother, and all our coworkers from ever listening to anything other than horrible, awful mainstream radio stations ever again. Can somebody please explain to me why, exactly, places like Pandora are forced to pay insanely-expensive per-song fees, when plain-old radio stations (the satellite stations apparently pay fees, too, but they're smaller) have to pay squat?

"Want to hear some new music, based on stuff you already know you like? Whoops! Not any more, sorry...here, listen to some Nickelback -- you'll love it, trust me. You went out and downloaded that obscure-as-hell album by Grammar Debate!, and now you'd like to create a virtual mixtape so you can share it with your friends? Uh, no, that's not actually allowed, either. What was that? You're fed up and want to start your own radio station, so you can let other people listen to the cool music you like? Well, heck -- good luck with that! No law against it, of course, but I hope you've got some friends with deep, deep pockets, 'cause we Americans don't hand over our airwaves to just anybody, y'know..."

One final interesting wrinkle: it turns out that the Powers That Be don't really like radio all that much, after all. Back in June, the recording industry group musicFIRST laid the smackdown on broadcasters nationwide, claiming that they were themselves pretty much pirates because they didn't pay for the songs they play. Hoo-ah. So, not only do the labels & their cohorts want to kill The Little Guy, but they want to hurt The Big Boys, too. (I wouldn't be fooled by the fact that actual musicians/bands are signed up w/musicFIRST, by the by; when the RIAA is involved in anything these days, that makes me question the group's overall motives.)

Now, the thought of The Buzz & its ilk getting shot down by their pals in the record industry makes me snicker a little, it's true, but I'm totally mystified as to what the hell they think they're really going to accomplish with all this. What's the end goal of this whole mess, anyway? To destroy any outlet for music other than Wal-Mart?

(Thanks to Hear Ya for the link...)

Labels: Entertainobabble, Musical Crap, Public Service Announcements, Random Rambling

gaijin || Link || E-mail || 4 comments