RIAA’s Mux-up

RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is trying really hard to get money for the record labels and eventually the artists. That is their purpose, to fight for the record labels. Only problem is that they are fighting from a 1980′s mindset. A mindset that fears the way music will be purchased and consumed in the future.

In addition to suing clients, RIAA also pressures websites it doesn’t like into shutting down. Their recent bullying came against Muxtape (www.muxtape.com). Muxtape allows its users to create customized playlists by using their uploaded MP3s. Apparently Muxtape has not paid royalties for use of these songs.

I understand that. RIAA has a point. But here is my problem with it. Muxtape was an incredible way for friends to share music with their friends. It was an amazing system of music discovery that was completely user generated. Radio no longer had the control of what was heard or not. I received invites to listen to friends Muxtape playlists and it was always thrilling.

And this is where the old mindset comes in. RIAA looks at this and doesn’t see money being made for their artists. Ok, granted. But what RIAA is not seeing is that bands that they represent were achieving a completely new fan base that had never heard of the particular band before their friends introduced them through Muxtape.

Perhaps the person who discovered the new band really liked that band discovered through Muxtape. Perhaps they buy their album. Maybe RIAA is not that lucky though and the fan just downloads the album for free. But, what if this new fan now attends a concert when the band tours in their city. Now the band has made $10 off a ticket sale compared to just $2 off an album sale.

And therein lies the problem. RIAA would not see the kind of money from the ticket sale that it would see from the album sale. So their interest is to squelch music discovery instead of allow bands to build a fan base.

News flash RIAA – music discovery will happen anyway, through a different method. But keep spending your funds suing and shutting down. Destroying is so much easier than building, isn’t it?

In unrelated news, RIAA executives Mitch Bainwol and Cary Sherman each pulled in 2006 annual salaries of $1.5 million.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com