Musical Shell Game

Originally Posted 07/29/03--11pm CDT
My father began taping old radio shows at home while on leave from the Air Force during the 1950s using a Wolensak reel-to-reel machine. Over the next three decades, he compiled a collection of music that filled an entire walk-in closet. I taped my first radio broadcasts around the time of John Lennon's death in 1980 and have been actively "acquiring" music in a variety of formats and through a variety of means for 23 years. These two examples are personal but not unique. This sort of activity has been going on throughout America for years. Today it has evolved into what many are calling "piracy of epidemic proportions" leading to a complete compromise of "artistic integrity and copyright privilege." One of the many is the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). And under the first shell the little ball rolls. Sounds impressive. Sounds like someone is seriously concerned with securing the artist's rights and preventing the theft of their artistic and intellectual property. Think again. Take a look at Exhibit 1, what I feel is the alpha and the omega of this issue. And the shells go 'round. This is what it is all about. Money. Artist's make 12% from sales of their album. Record labels make 30%. That's right. Record companies make nearly 3 times what the actual producer of the art does from record sales. And part of what the record label charges the artist for is "packaging." Now I know that packaging isn't restricted to physical paper and cardboard, but for Pete's sake, 30%?! And this in the age of digitally delivered products through portals such as Apple's online music store? And we are to believe that the RIAA gives a rat's ass about artistic or intellectual integrity? We are to believe this even though musicians have testified in front of Congressional committees stating that record labels have more to lose from pirated music than artists do. These same musicians have said that their biggest fear isn't losing 12 cents on the dollar to pirated music, but rather losing control of their REAL intellectual copyrights through restrictive contracts with record labels. Go figure, it is record labels that try to contractually screw artists out of their intellectual property not consumers sharing music. Because, if the label owns the copyright on the song, then the label gets 42% instead of 30%. And that's 42% of forever. So as you watch the headlines for the latest in the online music sharing circus, watch the shell game. Don't be fooled by grand protestations from corporation music. Remember that the RIAA trying to protect a musician's "intellectual property" or keep their "artistic integrity" intact is like the fox guarding the henhouse. For all their ideological smoke and mirrors, it still comes down to one thing: $$$.