techforumz

http://travis.servebeer.com/blog.net/archive/2007/03/10/ma...

Bravo, Gizmodo.

travis

Tpneer2

mikecanter

WickedSmahtie

Viva la revolucion!

Kaiser-Machead's Chips Ahoy!

You people were actually, "buying" music before? And not from some illegal Russian online shop, but full retail prices?

This explains a lot.

femstix

Fuck the RIAA. Forever. It's really easy, once you set your mind to it. Stop buying music from them, not just for a month, but permanently.

And this is not an inducement to pirate - for the most part, what they sell is crap, and if they only sell a few good things if you slip once a year and buy a Tom Waites album, that's okay.

There are so many independents worthy of your time and money that there's just no reason to buy from the RIAA.

And if you don't buy their stuff, they won't be around too long. But it needs to be more than a month - it needs to be forever. Let artists know that they shouldn't let the RIAA represent them.

The RIAA is broken, period. The only solution is to disband them permanently, and the only way to do it is to cut them off- forever.

One month is not enough.

illovich

Time to show the RIAA and big media the power of the people. On March 22, 2007, we're going to put Black Lab's "Mine Again" on the top of the Itunes directory. But we need your help.

If you are serious about independent music, freedom of expression or just sticking it to the "Powers that be", then I urge you to check out the site and participate on March 22, 2007.

jerseytodd

A little ahead actually as I'm just beginning my 8th year of no RIAA purchases.

Don't think I'm not spending though. I just purchase music that comes out of my local Houston music scene and I'm happier for it. I get to control where the money goes and actually see the benefit of my support.

Out of all the new bands I have heard, VERY FEW are looking to get contracts from the RIAA labels. It seems that the RIAA is starting to not look as inviting as it used to be to a new and upcoming band.

Support your local music scene in whatever city you are from.

axiomatic

grant0

Oh, and here's the link to the newest p2p craze: ENCRYPTED file sharing: http://www.GigaTribe.com !

You're welcome!!!!!

johnarama

If the big labels were hit with a boycott for three solid months, that would probably have a bigger impact upon them.

stray

Remember DefectiveByDesign's "Day Against DRM" in September last year? That was just 10,000 activists spreading the word in a focussed way. It wasn't a mass movement, just us rattling the cage, but it had a demonstrable effect. A few weeks later Peter Jenner organized a music industry conference about surviving post-DRM http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/03/peter_jenner/ and EMI announced plans to get rid of DRM http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/08/emi_abandons_cd_drm.h...
Now there's Steve Jobs' recent blog statement, and Gates has even joined in. The battle isn't over, but that single day of educating people and telling the corporations where to shove their DRM seems to have been pivotal.

So let's let the RIAA know how we feel. True, a month may not be long enough to hurt them financially but the campaign could have an impact of itself just like the Day Against DRM did. We should document just how much we are hurting them - I like the idea of setting up a site where we register and enter how much we spent elsewhere (categorising this would be good - indie/concert/donation to EFF/etc/etc).

s_han

http://byu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2243772217

Gidgidonihah

http://byu.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2243772217

Gidgidonihah

I think I'm going to post this as a MySpace bulletin and see if it spreads as fast as the 'OMG OMG FREE RINGTONEZ' posts...

MinceyFresh

contribute the non-cd buying funds to the EFF, one of the only groups helping to fight the legal battle.

http://www.eff.org/

it's tax deductible, and you are helping further a free and open web

cstatman

A letter to 25 people and a blog post is my contribution so far.

zingbot

Good for you Gizmodo and I welcome fellow boycotters.

quayzar

djdare

My entire point was that communism does not produce good art, it produces shitty art, if it produced good art than we would know about more communist artists. Capitalism on the other hand produces lots of art, some shitty, some not so shitty, instead of the government saying "guitars are illegal", the government says "rock out, and if you must with your cock out do it in your own home with consenting adults please".

Sorry for not liking country music, I'm personally not a fan, that doesn't make it's music any less inspiring or less beautiful to other people, that was why I listed it, but included a minor quip. Didn't realize that made me a hypocrite, I have to love all music created in capitalist societies to recognize their importance... my bad.

Also sorry for forgetting punk, which with a name like MosH8ed I'm assuming you just love, if you'd like I can try to name off every genre created in free societies...

lets see theres rockabilly, rock n roll, soft rock, butt rock, classic rock, southern rock, hard rock, alt-rock, jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, country, ska, punk, metal, heavy metal, black metal, death metal, doom metal, Folk metal, Glam metal, Gothic metal, Grindcore, industrial metal, metalcore, neo-classical metal, nu metal, power metal, progressive metal, speed metal, symphonic metal, thrash metal, alternative metal, avant garde metal, celtic metal, christian metal, classic metal, dark metal, epic metal, extreme metal, groove metal, NWOBHM, post-metal, rapcore, stoner metal, viking metal, grunge, nu wave, electronica, trance, house, chicago house, detroit house, progressive house, minimal, deep house, mushroom jazz, free-jazz, rap, gangster rap, hip-hop, trip-hop, IDM, dancecore, gabby, happy gab, dance, punk-pop, pop-punk, emo, screamo, out music, drum n bass, jungle, 2step, bmore, reggae, dancehall, uk garage, dubstep, grime...

maybe you can do the same for communist invented genres?

hell lets ask Kim Jong Ill and Castro what genre's of music their cultures have fostered?

djdare

SowndOfDeth

Thanks for the comment...I am neither dilusional or misleading. I think you are confusing our company with the very RIAA labels this post was ment for. 90% of our clients are individual artists who realize that they actually don't need a label to make money. When we pay out .65 cents to them, they are actually making .65 cents per track...and no one is taking any of it from them. Now granted, your statistics may be true for the big label players like EMI, SONY, etc...it certainly is not the case for our artists.

BTW - One of our indie artists only has to sell 1/6th of the downloads of the normal artist signed with a label to make the same dollar amount.

indyband

charman

The key is SPENDING money for media OUTSIDE of the RIAA cabal and putting some hard dollar amounts on the size of that loss.

Someone needs to create a site where protestors can register. After registering, we should be able to post a running total of non-RIAA music spending. Tickets, tip jars, t-shirts, non-RIAA artist CD purchases.

I spent $50 at CD baby yesterday. Showing THAT money to RIAA is the way to show them what they're losing.

JonathanPeterson

the1gofer

It's all an insult to our collective and perceived intelligence, and if don't see it and if you're not insulted by it then you, sir, are fucking insane.

You can thank your capitalism for songs about rims, gold teeth, and clothing. You can thank capitalism for marketing such music to your kids, providing them a false sense of value. You can thank capitalism for never letting you forget that behind ever great act, there's always a great company sponsoring said act, providing that said act is still popular in the public eye.

Do you think Pepsi still sponsors Britney Spears even though the general population/media has decided to collectively hate her and deem her "bat shit crazy?" The fact that Pepsi was there to sponsor her efforts ensured that there'd be Britney Spears music for at least as long as big business deemed it necessary. You can thank capitalism for that too (BTW, I bet she makes a comeback/Fresh-out of Rehab album with a Punk Rock themes and edgy lyrics when all of this said and done... but that's just my personal prediction).

By the way, you lost all credibility when you singled out country:

...rock and roll, jazz, hip-hop, blues, country (unfortunately), rhythm and blues, house, all great art forms, all born out of free societies

...and add insult to injury, you didn't list punk, have you been living under a rock?

MosH8ed

Point your gun where your hatred is, kill an RIAA employee in march.

;)

M_Mickey

http://digg.com/tech_news/Help_End_the_RIAA_s_Rampage

I just signed up for an account myself, because I thought no one had done it yet, but it's at 3157.

djdare

Communism does not produce beautiful art, it produces bleak landscapes in every avenue it attempts to pursue, because under communism you become one of the whole, individualism is stifled.

Please don't confuse the RIAA's tactics for capitalisms tactics on the whole.

djdare

I see. Nice website, they've got...
with some hefty Threats.
They'l'l hack in to your pc, delete ur mp3s and throw you in Jail.
Wow..
Vandalism & Rioting .. gives you less years in Prison *hint*.
What do you choose?

bob fisher

oCfuu

bob fisher

willyolio

jabber

Erzengel

More importantly, you need to focus on the target market of people who buy cd's. Take a look at the RIAA's own market research data:
http://www.riaa.com/news/marketingdata/pdf/2005consumerpro...
You're targeting 15 to 35 yr olds. You nee to get the word out to those people. The ones who don't copy music. I'm assuming most of the people that read this site are more likely the ones who copy. So, how do you reach that market?

I'd strongly recommend people investing their time this month checking out lala.com, a cd trading site and their library for music. My library lets you look up cds online an place holds on them.

Basically, the goal needs to be set not at holding off from cd purchases for a month but of getting your music buying fix somewhere other than the RIAA for a month. If people simply don't buy their RIAA artists for one month, the next month they will make up for the month they skipped and the RIAA will break even over several months negating the purpose of the boycott.

kraniak

Go big, start a fund for a full page ad like Firefox did, talk to CNN and Fox and whoever makes up news...

I believe in music, i just don't believe in the RIAA.

whiskey

There's something unintentionally hilarious about this phrase.

Manuel

Don't be an idiot. "Why should I give money to someone I don't know" is a rationale to stop paying your electric bill--which probably isn't an issue for you; I'm guessing you haven't yet reached the age of majority, when you have to concern yourself with such things as electric bills.

"We're not telling you to pirate" is right. The whole point is to let the RIAA know that there's a business model out there that doesn't involve being a complete dick. Pirating music encourages them to play hardball, because it gives the impression that people will only buy your music if you hold a gun to their head. If you go off and show that eMusic have a good business model instead, the RIAA are far more likely to start playing nice.

Manuel

Hand_O_Death

daveghax

And since the RIAA is using Illegal buisness tactics and Illegal information gathering the RIAA IS DOOMED too.

I'm surprised the RIAA and MPAA haven't been completely destroyed by hackers yet.

Plasmafire

http://facebook.com/event.php?eid=2248679033

obbie

St.Jimmy

I'd buy it.

cellphonejunkie

i just invited 460 people

obbie

I've done the best I can...

Neil.Will

pmhesse

eagleapex

SowndOfDeth

kukhuvud

Although I did finally go over to the dark side (curse you, Gizmodo, for mentioning it in the first place) and get a refurb 1gig nano, and I've bought a few moldy oldie tracks from iTunes since then.

infmom

And while you're doing it, say a word of thanks to Whatever that the public library was invented before the RIAA came along.

infmom

Then again, I've paid $20 for CD's at live gigs, cause I literally give the money into the artists hand. He takes 100% of that and I get my 100% satisfaction. Why in the world does the artist get the least of the profit's that HIS/HER CD make? Cause some companies think they can rip us all off, that's why.

I also buy at local/small record labels, cause they tend to treat their artists fair and give them what they can!

So to sum it up: Yes I do download music. But when I find something I really like, I buy it, just not via Wal-Mart, Amazon etc. I buy locally, at eBay, I trade of do otherwise. There are so many options, as people have shown above me. One more is http://www.cdbaby.com they also sell independent music for cheap.

F$%& those RIAA bastards. WE can do better than them!

peace.

oCfuu

I mean I'm all for Gawker sites getting behind this, but it's funny that the gadget blog came up with this.

Taylor McKnight

Mr. Black

First off, one month will do nothing. The whole point of a boycott is to boycott until your demands have been met. One month just isn't serious enough. The RIAA can handle a month. Especially since we've given ourselves little more than a week to organize.

Second, the comments here don't display the moral indignation that could inspire people to sacrifice the convenience that the companies of the RIAA provide. Why would a normal person with little concept of the RIAA or what the RIAA has been doing go along with this idea and give up the music that they've so far been happy to pay for?

Third, I'm sure that the bulk of CD sales doesn't come from the readers of blogs. And with just over a week to organize a plan initiated by a half-hearted post on a fairly popular gadget blog, why should the mainstream media care? Where's the spectacle? Why would Joe Blow give a shit? Without the mainstream media to tell Joe Blow why he should give a shit nothing will come of this.

Not that an RIAA boycott is a bad idea. I myself have been boycotting the RIAA for over two years.

It's just that if people want to actually make the RIAA feel the crunch, they'll have to be a little more active.

You need to create a spectacle that will at once get the media's attention and get your message across. I think a good idea would be to get as many people as you can to hand out information in front of local CD shops.
And make sure to tell the television stations exactly when you plan to be there. If you could hand out something novel like burned CDs containing information and possibly file sharing software, all with a neatly designed CD sleeve, all the better.

Endorsing piracy as a means of civil disobedience would bring even more attention if you'd like to go that route.

But the most important thing is that you have a clear understanding of why the RIAA should be made to suffer and why normal people should take part. What's the big issue here? Why should people really care? Do your best to express that and try as hard as you can to get regular people talking about it.

I personally am pessimistic. I doubt this issue will have any legs until it's about full blown copyright reform. People won't care until they believe they're being seriously ripped off. If the issue is the RIAA invading people's privacy while going after pirates people won't care. The real issue is that in the digital age the distribution of information doesn't require the stewardship of the large studios. The price of musical instruments and studio equipment is plummeting and musicians don't need to press millions of records or CDs to get their music to their fans. What are the studios there for? If music can be distributed more efficiently by consumers why are they there?

Or maybe we should all just feel good about ourselves and boycott the RIAA for a month and then get back to our normal lives. I'm sure that's what will happen.

cory

panda

froggy

From 2000 to 2004, I bought dozens. What changed? Napster.

Since 2004, I've bought 4 CDs. 3 of those direct from the artists. (I had one moment of weakness when Inhuman Rampage came out) What changed? The goddamn RIAA lawsuits.

I've been putting my money where my mouth is for almost 3 years.

TechnoDestructo

froggy

Click here to read more. (Disclaimer: I don't work for Amie Street, but I have uploaded my songs to their site.)

loquaciousmusic

What it does mean is that there is a fairly large cross-section of young Americans, who happen to be moderately tech savvy that have found a way to bypass companies that claim to protect artists rights.

The RIAA is just another fledging America corporation that fears its certain demise and has promised to fight, scratch, and scream until their very end.

Record stores and their pretentious, so called music experts, a.k.a. CLERKS have become obsolete. Large scale recording studios and their hourly rates have been made redundant due to pro-tools software and home recording studios. Music instrument stores are dropping left and right due mainly the large buying power of Guitar Center.

Thanks to technology, music is becoming easier and far less expensive to compose, record, market, and distribute [and in turn, it's also becoming a lot more pedestrian and less interesting, but I digress].

Let's add them up, mom and pop music stores are closing because of Guitar Center's Wallmart style of purchasing, thus making instruments and home recording equipment less expensive. Cheap means of production is being put into the hands of potential philistines who in turn make crappy music. The radio stations play garbage religiously instead of anything remotely interesting. Pretentious record stores are closing, putting otherwise unemployable clerks out of a job because there isn't anything "popular" for the masses that's worth buying... and everybody is supposed to be bullied by and bow down to the RIA-fucking-A because they can't seem to get their shit together?

Music has been raped, reused, recycled, and re-marketed for decades, and by protecting pre-stolen intellectual property the RIAA has become hypocritical by their own definition.

Please don't be put off by any of this... this is just what happens to ART in a capitalistic society. When the means of production is maintained and controlled by the few, e.g. communism, the overall quality seems to increase due to scarce talent and limited means of production. When the means of production is given cheaply to the masses cheap, hack-worthy music is produced.

Don't believe me? Just pay attention to all of the hacks that you know who own a guitar but only strum power chords? Pay attention to how many of you wannabes fulfill your deepest "rock-star" ambitions by playing Guitar Hero? Do you watch commercials and revere their creativity as innovative and artistic?

Art is dead, and capitalism killed it.

MosH8ed

elshiv

TheTofuFactory

Sixdust

Can anyone point to someplace that provides ways to fight these suits? It seems that if everyone fought them, then their lil' money machine would be hobbled...

If there isn't then that'd be a great article for Giz.

Trai_Dep

Find the lyrics to MTV Get Off the Air.

girraffesack

bdkennedy1

L_darkness

corporatecountrysucks

So would March's decrease in profits be blamed on piracy instead?

Everyone at Gizmodo knows that piracy isn't a factor (at most, it's within the errors of all studies done showing the effects of piracy). But considering that the RIAA have blamed piracy (while they've made tons of money)...

And you might want to add a note saying to NOT pirate the music either. In fact, if something like that happens, that'll just destroy the cause.

(I hate the RIAA as much as anyone, since they're to blame for a lot of crappy legislation around the world, but you do have to think a bit, since they blame every "drop" in income as piracy...).

Worf

pmhesse

This is a great idea. I hate them bastids.

aDuh

IphtashuFitz

Thanks for your continued $$$,

Lars

girraffesack

The cost of a concert ticket lost me. But I do buy from my fav band when I get to see them at a show. And I also look to buy CDs used, swap, or online at $10 or less.

I boycott RIAA all year long. I don't steal. I just don't use MP3 format.

Spare_Change

neekap

grandaardvark

fastmike

No need... I already do pirate everything. Why should I give money to somebody I don't know, just so I can enjoy some music?

FredR

If you're on Facebook...look for the event, it's called "BOYCOTT RIAA!" and join!

Invite everybody and their mom!

AciSpades

dosguy

thereviewer

Weihovah

AqueousBeef

Jose_J_Herrera

szamot

raulthepoolboy

mikesfree

"...Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold, a huge amount considering how little they have to do. Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract..."

The RIAA will not get a penny from me ever again. Ever.

pete

soopafly

SharkByte

mela_luvs_gizmodo

TVGenius

See previous post: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/riaa-wants-t...

I'm flattered.

Although 1 month (March) will not put a ding on their bank account because of cash flow and ahead-billing. You need 2 to 3 months for that.

That's why I suggested 120 days... so you can really dry up their accounts.

aec007

I doubt anything will come of their attempt to impose penalties on operators of WiFi but the very fact that they are looking for scenarios and opportunities like that shows that eventually this will probably impede progress/freedom/privacy of millions of Americans.

I'm at a loss on how best to fight them but pirating music/not supporting an artist is ineffective as we will hurt the artists we support.

I wish they were a government we could overthrow. They must be stopped.

@werk

Good luck and We are all supporting you guys.

DorkusMalorkus

Since I'm paying the subscription, I'm much more likely to go ahead and just download an artist's entire discography, or try out something I'd never bother with otherwise. I'd never do that on iTunes at those prices, even if they got rid of DRM.

Sometimes lower prices mean higher revenue.

Darcy

slyseekr

I like, but why stop at March -- dont buy anything RIAA labeled ever again is what I say.

Exactly right. This boycott makes about as much sense as the boycott gas station day, if you're just changing the day you stock up.

gizmodo banned me for the truth.

pisspaws

deusdiabolus

This is a great idea. I hate those RIAA bullies.

middy

/and the last album I bought was ooooold (Bootsy Collins).

lordargent

Why is Fall Out Boy still playing?!

Chebwa

gsxrboy

joshieca

EMoShunz

pir800

The best idea is to purchase the physical CD from the artist at a concert so they are guaranteed the highest amount possible.

Caleb Carruth
Catapult Digital Distribution
www.catapultdistribution.com

indyband

Papercutninja

Brad