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Re: The RIAA are a bunch of commies




----- Original Message -----
From: <Hedewa7@aol.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2002 14:02 PM
Subject: Re: The RIAA are a bunch of commies


> herr goodman,
>
> though you responded to the following, it was definitely *not* me who 
>said
> it; i believe that might have been chris r.???? (kohntarkos)
>
> >> >If CARP ends up
> >> >pushing all non-commerical broadcasting off the
> >> >web, I think we end up losing in the wrong run.
> >> maybe.
>
> >Maybe?  Not to be too difficult Senor Torn, but as you're already fairly
> >embedded in the music industry
>
> even though, again, you were responding to what someone else said:
> that seems a bit naive, stephen --- i am far from being 'embedded in the
> music industry', though i do 'know people who know people'.
> *-)

Okay, I knee-jerked.  Sorry.  End point is you've broken through the 
primary
barriers to working as you do.  If one of them is being broadcast - and I
don't think radio is anything other than a promotional medium to many
folks - think of those who won't ever get heard if this draconian stuff 
gets
finalized.  It's what causes the Britney Spears Syndrome referred to in
other messages.  While that stuff only works for a short while, it doesn't
ultimately work for anyone much less the Big Five, though they obviously
don't realize it.

(I'm somewhat puzzled by the way at the recent Sony ads over here in the 
UK,
that show the MD recorder/player, and how easy it is to rip your favorite
tunes onto it.  Weirdly contradictory, don't you think?)

> i'm certainly lightyears farther from 'embedded' than brian eno;
> i have no hired-in public relations firm, no record company backing.
> by necessity, i *do* have a lawyer, to whom i am deeply grateful for his
> candor, insight & firmly ethical stance.
> recently, too, i have employed a personal manager.

Wrong wording, again my apologies.  My thoughts had more to do with
perspective I suppose.

> >and enjoying its relative benefits of
> >exposure and other work being done on your behalf -
>
> again, that seems pretty naive. very little work is done on my behalf:
most
> of it having been done by me, for the past -what?- 35 years? eek.....
> i've never had the 'benefit' of a record company paying-off comm'l. radio
to
> play my material, nor has a record company ever seriously employed a p.r.
> company for me;
> historically, the record-company either:
> a) wasn't like that, b) didn't see that option as cost-effective or c)
simply
> didn't have the dosh.
> (add'ly, for background: i've never been signed to a 'major', and none of
my
> recording deals have been 'long-term': thankfully!).

As business in general has gone towards an outsourced, consultant-oriented
method of working, I would suspect that the same is true of the music
companies.  They'd rather not have long term contracts with anyone unless
they "know" they're Guaranteed Platinum Artists, I'd think.  Would it be
unseemly to think then that the music biz - almost traditionally - would
seek to keep costs down and commitments to a minimum, by using people on
short-term or consulting contracts?  I don't know that the playing field 
has
been levelling out as much as it has been spreading out, in many ways out 
of
the controlling grasp of the Big Five.  The attacks upon home studio
operation and the technology used in them have gone on for years.  I recall
the situation in Studio City where an artist was running a studio out of 
his
home, and had enough space in a loop (there, that's not OT after all!) for
all the cars the folks who worked there used.  The artist's operation was
attemptedly shut down on the basis of it being an obstruction to the street
(which it wasn't), and I remember reading of attempts made to ticket the
cars in the driveway!  A complaint was made that a business was being run
from a home in a residential area - but there was no code against it.  
There
was a failed attempt to have local code changed at this time, whereupon
there was a court case that exonerated the artist and his home studio.  I
think this was round 1982 or so, and I remember reading it in Musician as
well as Keyboard.

I suspect then that while the Big Five are perfectly happy to try to have
consultants/short-term contracts, they don't like the additionally
spreading-out effect that this is part of, or perhaps also amplifies.  
While
it's a reflection of the actual market, it's also the one the music
companies are trying to keep from existing.  They can't have it both ways,
and ultimately as long as people are aware of their operations on this
level, independent artists will be able to pursue their interests freely.

> >as opposed to a most
> >artists - please remember that we have all been given a canvas to work
> >upon - broadcasting, which has been under a music biz stranglehold until
> >now - via the Internet.  Are you saying that taking this away from us
could
> >have a positive benefit for us?  Please elaborate (and I say this with
> >the most sincere interest in what you have to say).
>
> what i *did* try to say in *my* email was simply this:
> musical artists should get paid for what they do, with-or-without the
> internet.

No doubt there.  My apologies for knee-jerking again.  You don't deserve to
be lumped in like that.  Guilty as seen.

*****************

On another topic, I'm curious about what kind of fun stuff Tony Visconti 
was
doing this time around.  I remember the story from the "Heroes" sessions,
where that great cut-off reverb on DB's voice was done with a distant mic,
setup with a gate to be triggered at a given volume.  Were there things 
like
this being done on the latest sessions?

Stephen P. Goodman
EarthLight Productions
*
http://www.earthlight.net/Studios - The Free Loop of the Week!
http://www.earthlight.net/Gallery_Front.html - Cartoons!
http://www.earthlight.net/HiddenTrack.html - More Cartoons!