napster was a promotional service

[pnyboer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (peter nyboer)]

napster as promotional...
the "mp3 as death to music industry" thesis has been getting a lot of press
recently, with all those grammy goings ons....I breifly saw a panel of
"artists" on that lousy show "Politically Incorrect," and I was amused at
how totally lost they were, how totally resistant to change these
supposedly progressive people are.  These were soul and rap artists,
mostly, one was jah love i think.  They tried the line "well, people don't
have access to this technology, so it's not as bad as they say," when,
reading between the lines, it seemed they were saying that black people
don't have have cd-burners, so, as black artists, they are not as
threatened.  Funny, I was in a bar in Oakland recently, and a dude was
selling burned copies of various popular hiphop and soul albums.  Who needs
access?  All I needed was a beer and place to watch some hoops.   I didn't
need a cd-burner :)
The problem for the industry is that there is a very effecient mechanism
for people to separate what is disposable, and what is worth material and
financial effort.  The "artists" need to produce something that is
materially viable.  It is clear that people will spend a lot of money for
things that they can connect with materially.  The industry's only idea so
far has been incredibly failed attempts at keeping things as they are.
What's really sickening about it, is that their solutions all seem to
engage law and police and enforcment rather than anything creative,
interesting, or artistic.

Pete.