More RIAA stuff

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/20/1316235&from=rss

The battle between the RIAA and radio has been going around all year, but it remains a terrible problem.  A lot of radio broadcasters are fairly small outfits: they can't afford to pay to play music, and they certainly can't afford to pay the sort of royalties the RIAA is demanding.  If these bills go through, it will devastate radio.  The only groups that'll be able to afford to stay online will be the ones subsidized by big business or the government--maybe, if the government is willing to give them the money.  Oh, and the ones that decide to eschew anybody big enough to demand royalties and go straight for the indie groups.

Do you want all your music and news to be controlled by Turner or Sony?

What they don't seem to understand is how stupid this idea is.  The companies making up the RIAA are panicking, because they're having increasing trouble pulling in enough money to make the kind of profits they want.  I'll grant, it's not necessarily a matter of greed.  Some of these companies--some of them old and respected names in American media--are in danger of going bankrupt.  This is because the music industry has changed enormously due to the internet.  Music doesn't follow the marketing trails it used to, but the music companies would rather fight to avoid changing than reinvent themselves to get with the times, and it's hurting them.  But among the things they refuse to realize is that if they want to sell things, they have to get their product out there.  How many of us buy music without ever having heard anything about the band or their work?  Radio remains one of the best--and at this point, one of the few legal--ways to go about it.  The RIAA is already savagely attacking internet radio, to the point where if they get their way, internet radio will essentially cease to exist.  If these bills go through, too, and terrestrial radio starts feeling the burn, the music industry is going to quite suddenly find itself holding product that may as well cease to be, because none of us are ever going to hear about it.

And if that happens, the RIAA will find themselves stuck in the outrageously ironic position of depending on music piracy to save their lives.

The RIAA has blinded itself from seeing is what a great marketing scheme music piracy is.  No, I'm not advocating stealing mp3s.  I'm just saying that music piracy has its roots in the very foundation and holy grail of marketing: it's word of mouth advertising.  "Here," says the music pirate.  "I heard this, and it rocked.  I think you'll like it too."  Customers can download and test the product without risking an investment to see whether it's right for them.  Piracy is such an effective advertising tool, in fact, that certain TV networks have begun clandestinely releasing bootlegs of their own material in order to get people to check it out.  The concept is simple:  hook them on a poor man's copy, and they'll decide it's worth paying to get the good stuff.  If the record companies want to get anywhere, they need to start studying this beast and harnessing its potential somehow.  All they're doing now is destroying every existing incarnation of the concept and wrecking their own reputations in the process.