When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide.

POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Monday, September 18, 2023 22:24
VIEWED: 4238
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6IXSTRINGJACK

Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:18 AM

This was not written by me. The blog can be found here: http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/2007/10/when-pigs-fly-death-of-oink-birt
h-of.html

When Pigs Fly: The Death of Oink, the Birth of Dissent, and a Brief History of Record Industry Suicide.

[Currently Listening To: Music I Didn't Pay For]

For quite a long time I've been intending to post some sort of commentary on the music industry - piracy, distribution, morality, those types of things. I've thought about it many times, but never gone through with it, because the issue is such a broad, messy one - such a difficult thing to address fairly and compactly. I knew it would result in a rambly, unfocused commentary, and my exact opinion has teetered back and forth quite a bit over the years anyway. But on Monday, when I woke up to the news that Oink, the world famous torrent site and mecca for music-lovers everywhere, had been shut down by international police and various anti-piracy groups, I knew it was finally time to try and organize my thoughts on this huge, sticky, important issue.

For the past eight years, I've worked on and off with major record labels as a designer ("Major" is an important distinction here, because major labels are an entirely different beast than many indie labels - they're the ones with the power, and they are the ones driving the industry-wide push against piracy). It was 1999 when I got my first taste of the inner-workings of a major record label - I was a young college student, and the inside of a New York label office seemed so vast and exciting. Dozens of worker bees hummed away at their desks on phones and computers. Music posters and stacks of CDs littered every surface. Everyone seemed to have an assistant, and the assistants had assistants, and you couldn't help but wonder "what the hell do all these people do?" I tagged along on $1500 artist dinners paid for by the labels. Massive bar tabs were regularly signed away by record label employees with company cards. You got used to people billing as many expenses back to the record company as they could. I met the type of jive, middle-aged, blazer-wearing, coke-snorting, cartoon character label bigwigs who you'd think were too cliche to exist outside the confines of Spinal Tap. It was all strange and exciting, but one thing that always resonated with me was the sheer volume of money that seemed to be spent without any great deal of concern. Whether it was excessive production budgets or "business lunches" that had nothing to do with business, one of my first reactions to it all was, "so this is why CDs cost $18..." An industry of excess. But that's kind of what you expected from the music business, right? It's where rock stars are made. It's where you get stretch limos with hot tubs in the back, where you get private jets and cocaine parties. Growing up in the '80's, with pop royalty and hair metal bands, you were kind of led to think, of course record labels blow money left and right - there's just so much of it to go around! Well, you know what they say: The bigger they are...

In those days, "piracy" was barely even a word in the music world. My friends and I traded MP3s in college over the local network, but they were scattered and low-quality. It felt like a novelty - like a digital version of duping a cassette tape - hardly a replacement for CDs. CDs sounded good and you could bring them with you in your DiscMan, and the only digital music you could get was as good as your friends' CD collections, anyway. It never occurred to any of us that digital files were the future. But as it turned out, lots of kids, in lots of colleges around the world, had the same idea of sharing MP3 files over their local networks, and eventually, someone paid attention to that idea and made Napster. Suddenly, it was like all those college networks were tied together, and you could find all this cool stuff online. It was easier and more efficient than record stores, it was powered by music fans, and, well, it was free. Suddenly you didn't have to pay 15 to 18 bucks for an album and hope it

LEADB

Sunday, October 28, 2007 1:29 PM

Article is much too long for me to read the whole thing. One interesting tidbit:

http://www.riaaradar.com/

is the URL for the RIAA Radar mentioned above; I ran the last half dozen artists I bought CD's from, and they are all 'RIAA Safe'. Not terribly surprised, 95% of the [s]albums[/s] cd's my wife and I buy these days are from local performances of artists hawking their own CD's.

Except for 'The Howling', the results from;
http://www.riaaradar.com/search.asp?searchtype=ArtistSearch&keyword=Mc
krells
show recent cd's from The McKrells (or Kevin McKrell; I guess he's gone solo of late for his cd's; longish story). If you like acoustic music which is American, but has a strong Irish 'flavor' to it, go have a look around.

You might say 'ok, what does LeadB's music preferences have to do with this.' One question asked above is, how do you discover new music? One answer, folks with similar music interest making meaningful recommendations.

6IXSTRINGJACK

Sunday, October 28, 2007 2:40 PM

Yeah... he's even more a talker than I am.

Was pretty sure nobody would read the whole thing, but it's up my ally anyways. I think he said a lot of powerful things there, but reading it is like watching Saturday Night Live for an hour and a half to find the 5 minutes of funny.

That link you mention is great. I've always been in the artists corner and I've never implied that somebody should steal from artists. Go to their concerts (preferably when we dethrone the scalpers at Ticketmaster), buy their shirts and keychains and bling. And by all means, purchase thier albums when they break free of the contracts and go independent or small label, like Trent Reznor recently had. Just PLEASE don't feed the RIAA troll machine that pumps out pop shit and pop artists like they are going out of style (which coincidentally, they are)....

With the rise of new technology, the call to the Major Labels at the beginning of the century was Adapt or Die. They chose the latter. It's just a matter of time now....

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack

FREMDFIRMA

Sunday, October 28, 2007 2:41 PM

Excellent.

Been sayin much the same for years.

-F

6IXSTRINGJACK

Sunday, October 28, 2007 2:55 PM

Thank you Frem.

I forgot to mention, it's people like Bono who legitimatize everything these Major Labels stand for by releasing U2's "Vertigo" to the public via a Target commercial a months before the CD came out. Then when the video comes out, the band is rocking on a cataclysmic Target symbol in the middle of the desert.

After they cashed in like that, who should ever feel obligated to give them a single cent for any of their music?

I mean, by using reverse RIAA psychology, you already paid for it by watching the ad associated to it. Right.....?

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack

SIGNYM

Sunday, October 28, 2007 4:05 PM

Amen.

I'm not a music lover, but the same goes for Microsoft (Bill's penis), proprietary software and Digital Restrictions Management, officially labeled in Orwellian fashion as Digital "Rights" Management... as if they were talking about YOUR rights.

I think a lot of this crap goes back to DMCA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA (thank you Bill fucking Clinton) and if there is a law that needs to be changed, focus on THAT.

---------------------------------
Always look upstream.

LEADB

Sunday, October 28, 2007 5:22 PM

Agreed, DCMA is terrible. I send a rant to my duly elected representatives on that now and again.

FILLIANGIRL4136

Sunday, October 28, 2007 10:35 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I forgot to mention, it's people like Bono who legitimatize everything these Major Labels stand for by releasing U2's "Vertigo" to the public via a Target commercial a months before the CD came out. Then when the video comes out, the band is rocking on a cataclysmic Target symbol in the middle of the desert.

After they cashed in like that, who should ever feel obligated to give them a single cent for any of their music?

I mean, by using reverse RIAA psychology, you already paid for it by watching the ad associated to it. Right.....?

I am a big supporter of local artists. Being from Chicago, I get to go to a lot of small shows with upcoming artists. I definately believe in purchasing the music directly from the artist. I have had conversations with certain performers who say they get more money from fans purchasing music at gigs then they do through stores. Plus they get to see who is really into their music.

This is why I have to give huge props to Radiohead (not signed to a major label) who released their new album on the internet for a "donation". I think it's great that established artists can make music and let the consumer chose the price. If you haven't already seen the new Rolling Stone there is an article about it.

But to get back to the whole U2 thing. Yes, they "sold out", but you have to realize that endorsements and tours are where the real money is for artists that are signed to major labels. I don't blame them for doing because they use the money to help other organizations around the world. God, Bono was nominated for a Noble Peace Prize.

But, local artist

PIRATENEWS

Sunday, October 28, 2007 10:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

[Currently Listening To: Music I Didn't Pay For]

That used to be called "RADIO".

Now the record label monopolies own 1,000s of stations networked together, and only play their own music, so they don't have to pay royalties to their own bands (nor hire DJs and news reporters). These Clear Channel type stations play the same worn out music over and over, year after year, decade after decade.

Music lovers are forced to go elsewhere.

The net allows indy bands to bypass the censorship of the multinational anti-American radio stations, not only locally, but worldwide. This introduces bands to billions of potential customers. If the listeners likes what they hear, they can perhaps download a low-res MP3 or WMA file, or buy a CD with hi-res WAV file, just like the old days when they could taperecord music off the radio for free.

Myspace, Amazon and Garageband.com allow free webhosting for bands to offer downloads of music, either free or pay per download. I offer my music for free download at Myspace and Garageband, and for sale at Cafepress.com, without any overhead.

These internet music networks allows personal networking between bands and promoters, worldwide. That's how I hooked up with a band in LA, and produced a music video for them that won awards in Hollywood. The band got $1,000s worth of "free" labor from me, and I got $1,000s worth of free publicity from them. This would never have happened without "filesharing".

I produce videos and DVDs, and it's great to negotiate royalties with indy bands. But it costs $10,000 just to speak with lawyers for the same bands, in their previous contracts with major record labels, with the bands getting none of that money. That's why these bands fired their major labels, and now self-produce their CDs. One of theose international labels "lost" $100-million of their bands' money...

This week, my weekly TV show was again banned on Youtube, because of my comments about Comcast throttling my cable broadband service, from 4MB/sec down to 10KB/sec. Comcast reportedly perps this fraud against all its customers who visit myspace, google video and youtube, since that's now classified as "filesharing". Comcast has TV adverts for the Slowskys (talking turtles), making fun of DSL. My youtube comments observed the Slowskys are an example of Truth In Advertising, since all Comcast customers are Slowskys.

Here's the Comcast employee who got me censored on Youtube:

Quote:
"LOL @ You. really slow? I get 12Mb+ at my home using their 6Mb service. They don't throttle at all. They only send warning letters to the top .001% of their subscribers each month regarding bandwidth usage. Most of these customers are using the service that violates the user agreement and are distributing copyrighted material. You, sir, are a complete dumbass. If you want commercial class service, then open your wallet and get a bonded T1 line at your house."
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/piratenewsrss/message/355

I guess the Comcast monopoly isn't satisfied with the $500/year I pay them for cable internet. Sounds like a class action will soon cost them a few $100-million. A similar class action was filed against ATT, which is partnered with Comcast.

BTW, filesharing is not illegal, no more than it's illegal to let your sister borrow your record or send you an email.

But if you never learn how to win in court pro se (without a lawyer), such as traffic tickets and parking tickets, how can you hope to win a filesharing lawsuit from the record label rackets?
www.piratenews.org/fasterthanaspeedingticket.html

Hanoi Hannity: "Outsourcing your job is good for me."
"US ports owned by Commie China is good for me."
"Dead and disabled US soldiers are good for me."
"Sir Rupert dines with Hillary every week."
"Ron Paul does not exist in my 'Verse."

"As far as Chinese goes, I resented it."
-Adam

6IXSTRINGJACK

Monday, October 29, 2007 12:51 PM

I'll give you that about Bono. He is doing a lot for other people, and though I may not appreciate it like his fans do, I'm not trying to talk anybody out of being a fan if they are. Certain things that rich folk do just get under my nerves. I like a lot of U2 songs over the years. I was a huge Metallica fan back in the day too, and even though a lot of critics and fans hate their new stuff, I don't mind it all that much. I'm just never going to buy anything of theirs anymore after certain decisions they'd made about the people they were going to back.

Somebody in Metallica's position really had a chance to start making changes about the way the game is played at their home turf and they decide to go Corporate. The very same guys that would never cut their hair and made fun of made bands like Motley Crue, calling them a bunch of "*@c*suckers" turn around and suck on the corporate teat and drop their drawers and shit on their fans in the process.

I realize that to some, probably most, the fact that Bono released a good song like Vertigo as a commercial and made the entire 5 minute video a Target commercial isn't the same, but to me it is. I've seen the commercials and even watched the video (several times laughing while showing others who didn't know how they're Target's new mascots). I figure I've paid my dues. If I want to download their entire discography, whatever.... It's not like Bono's strapped for cash, although I could see him backing the RIAA someday and suing everyone in their uncle saying that since we listened to their music, our money should be going to Africa to feed starving kids. But then again, I'm not a fan. I know nothing of the man. Maybe he'd not be capable of that...

I don't blame Bono for being a capitalist. It's very hard today to not find that in an artist who has become a household name. It's just not what I respect in a musical artist. If the man was living like a pauper (see a struggling couple paying for daycare because they both work at a shitty, low paying 9 to 5 job making regular workingman's wages, with a used car, 3.5 kids to insure and put through college, and a 30 year mortgage on a McMansion), I would have all the world of respect for him for doing what he was doing. As it were, I don't take kindly to a man trying to make me feel bad about decisions I make when he has the means to live in excess whenever the desire comes upon him.

I'm glad Bono is helping people, but he is an attention whore. He is the most conceited philanthropist I've ever witnessed and he's built his entire image around that. People aren't even going to remember Bono the musician. People will remember Bono the philanthropist.

I'm a fan of what Radiohead did. It was definately a publicity stunt. And a very creative one at that. I don't hate em for it. They only gave the fans lower quality tracks and the actual CD, on top of sounding superior, will also contain "bonus tracks". But it's definately a step in the right direction. Hopefully others will (be allowed?) to come forward and emulate that type of behavior and even trump it. I was also a fan of Prince's decision to release his CD in the newspaper for free. The world's never seen anything like that before, though I can't help to question what the possible altereor motives might have been. Time will tell if this is all just a gimmick or if we will begin to see an entire new way that fans interact with their favorite artists... the way that fans and artists network and find each other and share each other. A community that will happily shed itself of agents and lawyers and corporations and labels. Imagine what a different world may be created by such a thing, if left to flourish without greed influencing every creative decision.

Imagine

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack

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