Better put your heads under the covers and hope the bogeyman will go away! The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is pissed off.

"We'd much rather spend time making music then dealing with legal issues in courtrooms. But we cannot stand by while piracy takes a devastating toll on artists, musicians, songwriters, retailers and everyone in the music industry."

– RIAA president Cary Sherman

They have some nerve.

Sure, file swapping is technically stealing. But the record business has ripped off its own musicians and consumers for decades, and when the industry starts losing money, it’s time to get payback. Maybe they should try looking in the mirror first before publicly threatening to track down and prosecute petty thieves when they’ve been ripping off everybody so a few non-talented suits could suck off the artistic tits of legends long since gone.

Besides being an opinion columnist, I am a songwriter, producer, percussionist, synthesizer programmer and have been since 1979. Still waiting for my big break….

For a long time, record companies screwed older musicians by charging them for, among other things, the recording sessions (to be paid for off the top of sales), new instruments, food, drink, and any other expenses they could. The companies sometimes paid those musicians a one-time few hundred dollars (big money to broke musicians in the 50’s) and pocketed millions in sales made to this day with digital re-releases and re-packaged box sets.

– Lamont Dozier, legendary songwriter (Stop! In The Name Of Love)

Nowadays, record companies charge musicians for recording sessions, even though the companies keep the master tapes, convince them of the need to embrace MTV and make a few $2-5 million promotional videos. The band later has to re-pay those costs first off the top before they see any money. Some companies even charge the artist for the costs of promotion, which can also be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. And when all is said and done, the artist is lucky to receive even 10% of the record sales.

Some record companies have what are known as “9-5 composers” whose sole job it is to write hit songs according to “formulas”. Some are paid a “kill fee” and some get royalties as well. This is money that doesn’t make it to the artists, and some groups are required to use some of these composers even though they are quite capable of writing their own material. This keeps the mortgages paid for friends and relatives of senior record company personnel. The artists may come and go, but do a search of some obscure composer names and see all the different places they appear….

“If you create something and then someone takes it without your permission, that is stealing. It may sound harsh, but it is true.”

– Mary J. Blige, multi-Platinum award winning artist

I find it amusing: today’s R&B and hip-hop artists lecturing us about obeying the law. How many of them illegally carry guns, beat their girlfriends (the ones they artistically refer to as “bitches” and “hos”), shoot their rivals on the street and in the studio, beat up company employees, commit gang rape, and more. When was the last R&B, hip-hop award ceremony that didn’t need to have the police called?

Content

Why would someone break the law and download a song rather than pay for the CD? Simple: with the exception of maybe two high-profile songs, the other 15 or so probably suck. And the CD still costs near $20.

Today’s compact disks hold up to 80 minutes whereas yesterday LP’s held only 46. There’s almost twice the room to fill and today’s talent, to be quite generous, is questionable.

“Downloading… it’s petty theft for those that don’t have the guts to go ahead and shoplift.”

– Marcus Hummon, songwriter and playwright

I remember paying $14 for Stevie Wonder’s “Songs In The Key Of Life”: a double album with a bonus 45 tucked in a sleeve. There was a line around the corner and it was an album everyone had to have. Now why would someone want to pay an additional $6 today for Brittany Spears or Justin Timberlake?

A few short decades ago, you could play an entire album at a party. Almost any Stones album, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Eagles, K.C. & The Sunshine Band, The J. Geils Band, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Boston, The Ohio Players, and lots more.

Watch your average commercial today. Are they playing a hit song from last year or 20 years ago? I’ll bet anyone out there over 30 can name 10 hits from the 70’s and 80’s. The 90’s get a bit murky…. Can someone name me 10 hits from last year? How about five?

As I’ve pointed out on many previous columns, this is what it takes to be a songwriter today:

1. Sit down and create a song from dead air. Tough, but most satisfying.

2. Go to Tower Records, find a Rhino Records’ Greatest Hits of the 60’s or 70’s CD, take a song painstakingly written using Method 1, extract an eight measure “hook” from a song, loop it indefinitely, and get some rapper to talk over it in an attempt to “make it his own”. The more profane, violent, and juvenile the sexual references, the better.

The record companies aim their product at kids 14-17 (the teen demographic). One problem guys: this demographic, for the most part, ain’t got no money. The music industry is relying on a hard sell off MTV hopefully (for them) resulting in persistent whining and nagging from spoiled-brat kids to get the $20 from parents who know better.

What do parents know? They’re just the ones who have to listen to their kids play one song over and over and over, later just to leave that CD face up on the floor to be run over by a skateboard.

“Without copyright protection and the royalties it insures, artists and songwriters will have no long-term bankable financial security whatsoever.”

– Hugh Prestwood, number-one Country Music hit songwriter

Personally, I would love to be writing and performing songs for a living. I would much rather be on stage slowly going deaf, but taking in the adrenaline rush of playing to thousands of people who are singing my song along with the band. I’d much rather be doing that instead of eking out a living, and writing columns that I feel a passion for but have yet to see any monetary reward.

Bottom line, Hugh: no one owes me a living in the music business just because I write songs. One small suggestion: if the record industry wants to make more money, MAKE A BETTER PRODUCT!

We, the adults in this equation, who give the our brats the money so Christina Aguilera can over-sing every line, pierce her genitals, and tell us how cool she is, bought a lot of the music we download before.

We ditched our records since y’all stopped making turntables. We re-bought a lot of our old record collections on CD, so we really bought those albums at least twice. But the industry expects us to pay more for music with inferior content and album art that you need a magnifying glass to read even if you still have 20/20 vision.

“It hurts artists, songwriters and everyone else who brings music to the public, and we will hold those who engage in this activity accountable.”

– RIAA spokeswoman Amy Weiss

The music industry had better watch out whom they threaten. Those who are doing the majority of the downloading are kids with little or no earning power. It’s the parents who have to deal with the out-of-control “artists” who have our daughters dressing like porn stars, and our sons like thugs.

The music industry produces videos that portray young girls doing almost obscene gyrations while being eye-candy for young males cruising the streets while flashing gang signs. When a crime is committed, the industry is the first to deny responsibility.

Now, they produce garbage and issue ultimatums when they can’t meet a bottom line.

Good music sells. People will want a pristine version, physically hold it, enjoy the album art, and play it over again. An mp3 is instant gratification, but it’s a lot better than being made to look the fool again: buying an expensive CD with one or two good songs on it, and a near worthless trade-in value.

Only a dumb business would sue its customers to force them to buy more of a lousy product.

The record industry is dumb. So sue me.

Bob Parks