RIAA is completely lost in a sea of stupidity
May 22nd, 2007 • chatter, idiocy, intolerance, music
Never one to want to be out of the spotlight, the RIAA — Recording Industry Association of America — is up to their tricks again this week. For years they’ve been heading down a never ending road of stupid moves from suing people without a computer to dead people to newborn babies. This week takes the cake, however. The RIAA has now decided to start suing those who made them rich in the first place: radio stations. They’re going to start suing radio stations over an exemption that allows stations to play music without having to pay royalties. Now the RIAA is clearly biting the hand that feeds. Without the thousands of radio stations across the nation, the execs of the RIAA would not be as filthy rich as they are now. So now the RIAA wants to basically negate the last 50 to 60 years of completely free promotion — and incredibly good sales — by suing radio stations.
They’re still struggling to place more blame on lack luster music sales on people downloading music — legally or otherwise — instead of realizing that the largest portion of consumers with the most money (humans ages 13-40) in their demographic are completely unhappy and unsatisfied with the choices they’re being offered today. This is the sole reason that indie labels and formerly unknown genres, such as emo and metalcore, are thriving. These offer the consumer something new to listen to and enjoy without all the overhead and politics of supporting Big Music. Do you think it’s pure chance that bands like Fall Out Boy or HIM are so incredibly popular because they’re incredible musicians? Hardly. It’s because the people with the money skyrocketed them into the spotlight by sheer buying power and word of mouth alone. This is also why bands and genres you’ve never heard of will have millions of profile views on sites like Myspace, it’s all word of mouth and grassroots viral marketing not manufactured music and personas.
When are they going to learn that business models are changing and they have to adapt and adopt, not sue and subpoena. Most Fortune 500 companies that deal with music and artists have adapted to the changing marketplace, so why is the RIAA so against it? Techdirt offers a very funny yet serious opinion on this new wholly deplorable tactic.