The US is ...

...

I've cleared 7500 in a month, and I know people who have cleared 20k+, and that's not an exaggeration... Given, that's pretty f'ing ridiculous but, you know...

It's a text-based world now.

I have too experienced this problem, and it is not comfortable at all. Prompted me to cut down on my habit.

I can't wait until nobody gives a crap about these people anymore. Fergie, ten years from now on VH1 eating bon bons on her couch: "In 2007 I had the 10th best selling ringtone in AT&T, a lot of people forget that."

I couldnt've said it better. Thank you so much for saying that. Thank you. Want a quote of the day there it is.

Better than "comment of the day" ... wtf was that?

Definitely.

In addition, text messaging and other things such as that are as well.

Also when conversing with other people.

Definitely.

I hate it.

And i'm something of SMS/email-obsessed.

.
The last hope.

.

There is tons, and tons, and tons of bad writing on TV shows, but think of all the amazing writing out there...

Many great shows wouldn't be a fraction of what they are without good writers, and the writers go on to get only a fraction of the work in dividends.

Or talk to anybody in the industry.

50,000 albums selling in this day and age is considered pretty good.

50,000 albums was an absolute joke 30 years ago.

The only albums that go platinum (sell 1million or more) now (with some exceptions) are either tweenie-bopper disney artists, Kanye West, or re-mastered U2 albums and the like.

Develop as in this:

In the 60s, 70s, even 80s and into the 90s (prior to the file-sharing revolution), major labels had the ability to truly develop artists.

What does that really mean?

That means they could hold out for more than one good record. If an artist had potential, some kids that didn't quite know what they were doing yet but with the proper care and fostering could be the Beatles, were taken care of.

They could release a few albums that sold nearly nothing and still be held onto, because the funding was there to wait for their development.

Music is not a commodity like it's become. It's not as we now think of it is with, to use the Hannah Montana example, some garbage created by someone as part of a very seriously marketed business plan towards a demographic.

Music is an art form that requires time, care, experience, life, love and viewpoints to truly grow.

Nowadays, with budgets trim, A&R reps get thrown off all the time. If an A&R guy has 4 artists signed to his label through him, and 2 or 3 of them have yet to produce huge profit numbers for the company, he'll get fired.

Simple as that.

And just like that, the artists get shuffled to the bottom of some other A&R guys priority list, and are now signed onto a record label that will probably never do anything for them again.

Lol, it's also totally illegal and provides no funding for any of the artists it sells music from.

Honestly, America is NOT 'revolting' against some corporate giant by stealing music.

America just really does not care.

Piracy might be totally annihilating the music industry, chopping into pieces and throwing it away, but until the whole thing falls apart, it definitely won't stop.

It's a long standing tradition in human history - don't change til it's totally ruined.

The "stop churning out crap" argument is just about as ignorant and blindsided of a thing to say as any on the argument. The quantity of terrible music is a cycle that's being perpetuated BY the lack of money caused by piracy because there's no money to develop artists anymore.

Not to mention we have a completely deadbeat, disgusting and piggish American culture that is perfectly content spending money on artists like Nickelback, Daughtry, Breaking Benjamin and Hinder.

It's either that or Hannah Montana and ringtone rappers.

The same culture that lines up to see SAW IV and makes it get more than $60 million in two weeks at the box office.

Hahaha....

And you're very right.

That's a pretty ridiculous thing to say. He's 16 years old. Jesus.

HUH?!

Keep up the good work :)

Uh huh. Suuuuuure.

I wasn't making any comment as to their means. Obviously they've gone to some ridiculous ends. I was commenting on the fact that they are not a government organization of some sort.

They are a conglomerate of rich label execs trying to protect their assets (which are made up almost entirely of $$$ robbed from artists in bad deals.)

@AXIOMATIC: A friend of mine actually knows this particular band, strangely enough, and while they are CERTAINLY *not* making money by the "truckload", they are making a *living*. And that's also to go on to say that probably <4% of America has even heard of them.

And even if it was true that they were making "truck loads" of money, which they are not, it's definitely an exception to the rule. They join <20 bands accomplishing similar, non-major-label success.

An artist becoming actually gigantic is, in this postMTV-age, almost entirely dependent on somebody with alot of money turning on the big money faucet to shove the music down Americas throats through Clear Channel or whatever other venue. Thats why the major labels are helpful.

You do know the RIAA is just a conglomerate of the fat cats at the top of labels... Its not like the FDA or the FBI or something. Its just a group of ultra rich execs of labels looking out for their own interests.

These are guys that take 80-90% of an artists share of albums sold.

The reality is: you burn the RIAA down and you burn every chance an artist has to be heard in the way the industry is set up right now...

The problem is EVERYBODY suffers from the RIAA's asspounding bull shit. EVERYBODY.

And while the suits and the legal shit sucks for the consumer...

The artists, are the ones getting the most raped by the RIAA, and all major labels in general.

And I'm thoroughly surprised, to be honest, that nobody has really noticed the disturbing trend a that the previously customer-loving Apple is exhibiting... More and more the company is moving towards the things that make the thinking person hate corporations...

No longer do you walk into an Apple store with your broken iPod and walk out with a new one no matter what...

No longer is every product generational jump a true leap into another realm of technology...

No longer is quality control at any sort of par as it was before...

The list goes on, but truly we are seeing some terrible things and trends in Apple's seeming "change of heart"...

Artificial product differentiation (touch vs. iPhone OS)...

Gimping product lines for the sake of future "mini upgrades"...

Coming down hard on the true innovators of software, third party developers, and the productive people that adapt them....

The list goes on...

Sad times...

:(

I was quite joyful to see the trailers for Wall-E.

Even if you think about the cosm of people who will read / comment on this post: the people who are interested enough in the ever-expanding concave problem of music piracy to read this post are willing to care about the music.

Most people, won't.

The Format sells one album, and there are 20-30 people that will get the content from that one sale. (The demographic that listens to The Format is very likely to burn that copy for a friend who burns it for 5 more, or to torrent it, etc. etc.)

Lyle Mays or Lucinda Williams sells one album, and somewhere around 1-5 people will get the content from that one sale. (People in this demographic are much less likely to engage various forms of piracy)

Someday, hopefully, labels of smaller bands that get ripped off on a scale much grander than that of other artists can find a way to track this, so that they get the label / marketing attention they are due.

Watermarking could provide that benefit.

Not like "omg the RIAA sucks so bad they're going to track me to my house and burn it down" ... rather, to find out how many people downloaded/ripped/burned/stole/shared/whatever'd a file so that a label or a company can gauge interest or something in a particular artist. With record sales being absolutely no true indicator of whether or not people like the music anymore (people ages 9-30 are about 20x more likely to steal/share/download/pick-your-favorite-verb music than older people, The Format sells 100,000 records, Lyle Mays sells 2 million in Starbucks nationwide).

...at least, that's what some watermarking theroies state SHOULD happen.

Hopefully it does happen.