Taking the Anti-Piracy Argument Back From the Music Industry

[amoergosum]

Trailer ("Artifact", music documentary)

Jared Leto:
"How many people have a copy of our new record?"

Fans [screaming]:
"Yeah!"

Jared Leto:
"And how many people stole that copy on the internet?"

Fans [screaming, same volume as before]:
"Yeah!"

[amoergosum]

In March, FORBES broke news that the Wu-Tang Clan was planning to release just one copy of an album recorded in secret over the past six years. So we went to Morocco to get the full story -- and came back with a snippet of the mysterious record.

According to RZA and the album’s main producer Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzougarh, a Morocco-based part of Wu-Tang’s extended family, the plan is to first take Once Upon A Time In Shaolin on a “tour” through museums, galleries, festivals and the like. Just like a high-profile exhibit at a major institution, there will be a cost to attend, likely in the $30-$50 range.

Visitors will go through heavy security to ensure that recording devices aren’t smuggled in; as an extra precaution, they’ll likely have to listen to the 128-minute album’s 31 songs on headphones provided by the venue. As Cilvaringz puts it: “One leak of this thing nullifies the entire concept.”

Though no exhibition dates have been finalized, Cilvaringz says Wu-Tang has been in discussions with a bevy of possible locations, including the Tate Modern (a representative from the institution did not respond to a request for comment). Other venues, including art galleries and listening tents at music festivals, could eventually round out the tour.

Once the album completes its excursion, Wu-Tang will make it available for purchase for a price “in the millions.” Suitors could include brands willing to shell out for cool points and free publicity (just as Samsung spent $5 million to buy copies of Jay Z’s latest album for its users) or major record labels hoping to launch the album through the usual channels (they’re used to paying top acts seven-figure advances).

Here's the full story >>>
http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalley ... ret-album/

[Juan Expósito]

From FRANK GAMBALE in his Facebook.
*************************************************************
Hiya Folks...
How is everybody doing out there?
Well, as I have said before, I am not one to rant...but I have another one...I will do my best to keep it brief and certainly open to discussion.

Watch the video first....
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/unsound

I am not advocating funding for this project, that's purely up to you, but I am DEEPLY in concert with the subject matter.
I am a musician, an artist, and I always have been. I have never held down a "real" job.
I have always made a living as a musician.
With the advent of the latest technologies the lives of musicians, artists, film makers, authors and anyone involved in intellectual property, our livelihoods are seriously in jeopardy.

I'm NOT whining...simply stating the facts.

The theft of intellectual property on a daily basis on the internet MUST stop.

Imagine how I feel, as an artist, who has spent an entire lifetime honing a craft for art and humanity's sake, when I put my name into Google or Yahoo or whichever search engine and find hundreds of peer to peer torrent sites, hundreds of file sharing sites with ALL my work, books, videos, songs, music minus ones, everything I have produced as an artist ALL being exchanged for FREE...FREE, yes FREE...

My first thoughts are..."What's the point of doing this anymore?". Then I think, well, perhaps I'll notify the giant Google in the sky/cloud/vapour/ether and ask them would they kindly remove as many of the links that I have time to copy and paste for them to remove. (they don't make it easy folks!! ) Then, hey presto!! A day later they send me a nice email saying that the links have been removed.

The following week I put my name into the great Google in the sky again and lo and behold...they are all back and more, slightly changed, but just as rampant as before.

So I think to myself, what a wonderful world ( haha...thanks Satchmo )...no seriously, I think to myself why would I want to pursue this business any further?

My motivation is NOT money folks. It never has been. However, I do need to make a living and feed my family and pay my bills as any person on this planet needs to.
Right now, the circle is BROKEN! If nothing returns to artists, authors, musicians, film makers etc...then, as a business model, it has only one option, it will FAIL as a business model.

The result can only be that great artists, musicians, film makers will choose to do other things with their talents such as, open a restaurant, work for the Post Office, perhaps teach or enter into sales or other industries that are NOT downloadable....yet!

The day that people can download a pizza we're all fucked because no one will want to make food!!

I wish I could walk into a supermarket, fill up my cart and roll out of the store without paying a cent!! Wouldn't that be utopia?

I can't imagine a world without artisans, great intelligence being manifested through art....I don't want to live in that world.

Bottom line is folks, art is valuable, art is necessary and it needs to be supported by everybody.

Did you see the size of the house that Mr.Dotcom was living in folks?? I must say it made me sick to my stomach to see that opulence from ill-gotten gains. I have NO compassion for anyone running peer-to-peer sites and torrent sites.
In my opinion, they must ALL be brought down. Immediately.
I don't know how.

Google, Yahoo, all the search engines need to block ALL of them. Right now, Google and the like are ALL as guilty as Mr.Dotcom in my opinion because they are giving everyone access to illegal downloads and are not making ANY attempt to stop the problem.
Lawmakers are about 10 years behind the technology, so laws are not going ever catch up so, they useless too.

What's left? Crowd funding? Should I make a video and start pan-handle my fans to provide a budget for my next album/video/book etc?

I have two new books and 14 hours of a video Blues course I have written. They've been finished for over a year now. I can't bring myself to release them. Why? Because, a month after I do, they will end up on all those torrent sites for free. That's why!!

So folks, we have a problem. A very real one.
I'm withholding. I don't want to give away my work for free anymore.

I'm fed up!!

I'm not alone here. Look at all those names at the end of every film. All those people are effected, we are ALL effected.

I am only scratching the surface here. The same thievery is happening even within performance rights companies that are supposed to be collecting royalty monies for artists. Much of the money is never distributed because artists don't know its there!!!

I am but a small voice in a very large crowd.

I want to chime in and bring some more light to a very real problem with intellectual property. There is a lot of discussion going on about this very subject right now and no one seems to have an answer. I think a good start would be to shut down ALL peer to peer sites because the majority of what they do is allow people to steal intellectual property with the anonymity of the internet.

If my voice is heard and it reaches ANYONE with any influence on major computer companies, Google and the like, please shout in their deaf ears!!! Help STOP the piracy!! Don't provide the gateway!!!

Enough said,
FG Out

(share if you wish to. Translate this rant into every language, help get the word out that artists are suffering everywhere!)

[electrizer]

I'm kinda worried that I'm risking saying a terrible cliche but shouldn't changes start at the grass-roots level? I mean, legislation is one thing but that's like medicating a problem, not preventing it happening again. I believe people are good, but kinda dumb in a sense that a lot of them need to be told what to do. Newscasts tell us to believe stuff, based on footage (real or fabricated), doctors tell us how to look after ourselves, scientists tell us why everything around us happens the way it happens.

IMO, what should happen (among a million of other things) for the things to get better, we should change our ways. 1) The message should be heard widely, and it should become part of the folk consciousness, like "smoking kills" or "give your bus seat to the elderly" (maybe a wrong example, but hey! Used to be a thing...); and 2) it should come from an authority, which will make it more believable and harder to ignore.

Everybody need religion. It's become a thing to blast religions through focusing on the bads, instead of giving a though to the timeless stuff. What people don't realise is that they burn some Gods while praising others, like money, soccer superstars, celebrities, and they believe every word those Gods utter. I say the gods of the music world should say something to their believers. Otherwise changing the law is a waste of time. Prohibition was a law and look what it did.

[Old Pit Guy]

My terribly pessimistic take is that the genie is never going back in the bottle, at least not in our lifetimes. It's easy to point fingers at big business and government for controlling the fate of artists, but as long as consumers think the gravy train of cheap or free music is fine by them then that's that. It would require a sea change of attitude, and I can't figure out how that happens in a me, my, mine world.

[gretsch-o-rama]

I'd agree that it's only the "artists" that are hurt by it. People that are not artists, i.e. Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry make so much in sales online, they can easily absorb whatever is out there for free...I'm very selective about the music I buy, but my list is long. One thing that would help me buy more music is if they could get the "compression mixing" under control...It makes it difficult for me to buy an album that I'll listen to five times and then lose interest because of the horrible sound qualities contained therein. Peace

[amoergosum]

Watch the video first....
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/unsound

Let's embed the clips...looks like a really interesting documentary >>>

[amoergosum]

One thing that would help me buy more music is if they could get the "compression mixing" under control...It makes it difficult for me to buy an album that I'll listen to five times and then lose interest because of the horrible sound qualities contained therein. Peace

I agree.
At some point I've had enough and started checking the dynamic range of albums I'm interested in online before I placed my orders. Too many albums sound awful because of poor dynamic range. All you get is ear fatigue.

It's so sad because the whole Loudness War is based on a lie.

[deseipel]

recently, it seems like I keep going back to "if you can't make a living at it... stop doing that and do what makes money". Unfortunately, that probably means not making music for release on CD or mp3 or whatever. I don't like it, but if the only money is in live performance.. after a while some music might become valuable again...i dunno

[Julián Fernández]

When I read Gambale´s rant about this I was about to post something like what I´m typing right now... I figured that maybe I was just a little moody that day and I should empathize with Frank a little more...
...but yesterday I saw this vid that reinforced my whole point. I don´t pirate software or music, and I do believe that there should be a profound debate about music streaming, copyright and stuff, BUT I always find kind of puzzling that many musicians with such a huge reach (like Gambale) only rant about music downloading and nothing else... Again, this is not a piracy legitimation, but there´s so much shit going on right now in every corner of the world that focusing in that and only that (and also saying is not about the money) is kind of shallow to me.

This guy got it right... I celebrate his enthusiasm and the vision to speak to the drumming community about something else that selling content or whining about music sharing online... Cheers, JP!