I found a delightful rant about the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) at Jasonzada.com. This is how it begins:
Hi there. I just wanted to say, fuck you. You have stolen so much money from me and everyone I know that it's hard for me to feel sorry for you. Sue some 12 year old girl for downloading music? That takes some balls. Fight this all you want and I will hate you even more. Do you know how many people bought an album, then bought the same thing on tape, then bought the same thing on CD? Do you know much money you made off of each person as they re-bought music they had once paid a fortune for? I don't think you do.
It's a wonderful expression of rage which nevertheless manages to maintain rationality. And the author even goes so far as to propose solutions. (The comments from readers are also very interesting.)
I agree with just about everything he says. The record industry here in the US has clearly gone too far. They've had years to anticipate the effects of the Internet and adapt their business model, but it appears they've done nothing at all, and now they are suing their customers. Many people, myself included, refuse to buy any more new CDs. By refusing to adapt and by alienating the public, they may very well have done themselves in. Yet strangely, they still don't see that. Solutions exist, but it remains to be seen if they will ever be implemented.
Here is my proposal for what the RIAA should be doing to save itself. Most of these ideas are not my own, and a lot of them are just common sense, but I haven't seen them all put together before.
Stop Suing People
Stop suing private individuals for sharing files online. Apologize to those who have been sued, and refund their money, along with a sizeable gift certificate. Issue a press release explaining that the decision to file lawsuits was a terrible mistake and will not be repeated. (They should also stop hassling small Internet radio stations.)
Embrace the Internet
If the big record companies are to survive, they have to accept that in the very near future the bulk of their profits will come from online sales of downloadable music. It is in their interest (Actually it is a matter of survival.) that online music services, such as iTunes, are successful. (Ideally they would have their their own distribution networks for this, but they waited far too long; now they must partner with other companies.) They should be doing everything in their power to establish good relations with these companies and help them to grow.
Embrace File Sharing
But selling music online won't be enough, because this alone does not address the issue of file sharing. Contrary to what many people believe, file sharing is not synonymous with theft. It has many legitimate uses and will never disappear. If the music industry so chooses, it has the resources to create the greatest file sharing network ever. It could do for file sharing what Google has done for internet searches. And in the process it would drive other file sharing models, such as Morpheus and KaZaa out of business, simply by offering a better service. Here's how it would work. Once the network is up, all the record companies open up their entire libraries of music tracks to it in MP3 format and at various bitrates. The files would be tagged so that users could see which files on the network are the official releases and which are copies or creations produced by individuals. In the case of commercial music, most people would opt for the tagged versions, since they could then be certain of the quality and content of what they are downloading. As more and more files are downloaded by end users, the strain on the servers is lessened as users share files back-and-forth rather than getting everything straight from the record companies. Eventually, the service would need to be extended to include most other file types if it were to have the functionality of KaZaa. This would have to be introduced gradually to prevent the record industry from being sued for copyright infringement. But once the music sharing model proves to be a success, it would not be long before the movie industry would become open to partnering up, and perhaps eBook publishers would find a way to jump on board as well. The money would, of course, be made through subscription fees. I believe most people would be willing to pay a reasonable fee for the ability to download from the entire library of the music companies coupled with the knowledge that what they are doing is legal and benefits artists. As the service improves and proves itself to consumers and adds additional content and capabilities, it would be possible to raise the price a bit. The digital tags would make it easy to track what is being downloaded and in what quantities, so artists could be paid royalties on a per-download basis. Record companies would have the added benefit of seeing what music really is the most popular, literally on a minute-to-minute basis. It would also allow them to spot up-and-coming artists who burn their own music and do not yet have contracts. This would democratize music and help the record companies. What more could we ask?
Improve on the Music CD
We still have a strong CD-collecting culture in the US. People often go out and buy the very same music they download. It seems that people want a physical manifestation of the music and not just the data. There is still a demand for the CD, and that is the only reason the record companies are still in business. But now that we have reached a point where anyone can burn their own CD and there is a growing realization that buying CDs does much more to support the record companies than the actual artists, this will soon change, especially when coupled with public outrage directed toward the record companies on account of the lawsuits. But there is something that can be done; instead of music CDs, why not offer the public music DVDs with the music encoded in multiple levels to increase the quality beyond that of the CD and beyond current desktop burning technology. Offering a substantially better product should encourage the public to purchase it. And there could be all sorts of bells and whistles added, like posters or special codes for downloading special pre-releases or for getting discounts on concert tickets. There are all sorts of possibilities. And the DVD could still contain MP3 tracks for all the content for people to download to their computer or music player. I've heard the objection that this would only be a temporary solution, because eventually desktop recording technology would catch up. I don't think that's really an issue. The record companies should always have enough in the way of resources to stay one step ahead of all that. It might cost them a little more; instead of spending $1 to produce a $20 CD, they might have to spend $3.
Of course none of this is guaranteed. I'm certainly not qualified to propose solutions for saving multi-billion-dollar corporations, yet strangely I (and thousands of others) appear to be better qualified than anyone they have working for them. I suppose my main point in writing this is to say that the RIAA is not just the unfortunate victim of the exploits of illegal file swappers. There is a multitude of options that could be explored; but instead, they have chosen to waste their time on stagnation and intimidation.