This year, I'm losing weight without making a resolution. So there's one down. Money is still an issue, but one that won't be settled with a simple resolve. I'm convinced that you get what you want, and I'm not sure what it is I want that lots of money will get me. So I'm looking in other areas of life for what it is I want. Organization? Well, we all need dreams, right?
But I have made one resolution this year, one that I want very much to keep. And that is to be more tolerant, more understanding and less reactive. Anger can be charming on the page, if you do it right, and if you're not the recipient of that anger. But anger hurts, and it turns out that it not only hurts the person with whom you're angry, but it also hurts the person who is angry. And aside from a quick little jolt of energy for the reader, I don't think it does anyone else any good, either. So, this year I resolve to be a kinder person. More understanding. Less angry and quick to throw vitriolic arrows of outrage at targets of my righteous indignation.
Let's put this to a test. Let's talk about the record industry.
Earlier this month, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced, with much fanfare, that it was no longer going to sue people who downloaded songs from the Internet for free. And then it announced it was dropping the company that scoured the Internet, looking for these scofflaws. So it seems serious about changing its ways, after filing more than 35,000 lawsuits.
Let's take a look at this issue. It's pivotal to the entertainment field.
Ever since music went digital in the 1980s, the record industry has been nervous. And for good reason: music recorded digitally is far more available to consumers than its analog cousin. In the halcyon days of the music business, an songwriter wrote a song, a publisher published it, the record company brought one of its artists with a producer into the studio to record it on a very expensive tape recorder, which was then pressed onto a vinyl disc, reproduced and packaged in full-color LP or 45 rpm sleeves, sent to distributors who then sent the product to record shops, while promotion men haunted disc jockeys at radio stations to play the disc. Each person at each step of this process was paid, often handsomely. But since the record industry had a virtual lock on the recording and distribution of its product, there was plenty of money to go around.
When the recording and reproduction of music switched from electrical signals on magnetic tape (analog) to capturing a series of zeros and ones in the computer (digital), things got different very fast. Suddenly, and almost virtually overnight, one no longer required an expensive tape recorder to make a pristine recording. And, with the advent of the Internet, one no longer needed a record industry to record, manufacture, and distribute product. But the industry kept the same model in place, because it was such a great money maker, and it fed a lot of people.
Here's the problem: in the old days, one couldn't post a recording in a public place. Now, it's just too easy. People have come to expect free entertainment on the Internet. So files were uploaded, and downloaded, for years, and the record industry folks went crazy. And here, in days gone by, is where the industry and I parted company.
The people in the industry are not monsters, or morons (see? right there is a huge step for me). They see their product being absconded by pirates and thieves, and they rightfully react. The profit margins of the record business have been on a downward path for quite a few years now, and the folks in charge of figuring out why have concluded that it's primarily due to downloading free files. But there didn't seem to be a way to stop it using technology, so the industry used its big gun -- lawyers. It sued Napster, the first major Internet company to specialize in file sharing, and won. Then, after other companies sprung up to take Napster's place, the industry decided to go after individuals. And they were successful; the majority of lawsuits settled for about $3,500, which is a fortune to most of the people who were sued. But it didn't cover the cost, ultimately, of the legal campaign, or stop file sharing, which is still a robust activity. Meanwhile, iTunes and other Internet music sites are prospering.
So the RIAA called a halt to the lawsuits, which were mostly filed against kids and grandparents (look it up). In fairness, their product was being taken and distributed for nothing. It costs a lot of money to make that music, and a lot of skill and talent goes into the process. Artists and producers need to get paid -- otherwise, they'll do other things. Entertainment is not a volunteer activity, it's a full-time job. It's hard, and deserves remuneration. So I see why this is a problem the industry felt deserved the nuclear option.
But it doesn't ignore the primary truth behind the curtain of the industry's indignation. The 1980s saw the introduction of digital, and the industry folks knew it was a new era. But the old system remained unchanged, due to laziness, greed, and a complete lack of foresight by people at the top of the industry food chain who make enormous amounts of money to see just these kinds of changes coming. I know this inside baseball stuff, and civilians don't really care, and I wouldn't be writing about it to a general readership if it hadn't come down to suing its own customers. But it did. You and I were subject to lawsuits for the crime of finding and using file sharing sites that were, as far as knew, perfectly legal. Sure, I know that child pornography is wrong, even if I find a site that promotes it. But downloading a favorite song is hardly in the same category.
No, my argument is this: the industry finds itself vulnerable and at risk, because it stubbornly hangs on to a system that no longer works. It desperately wants to fit its old model into the new paradigm, and it's just not going to happen. But the insult was having the arrogance, the abject arrogance and hubris, to think that it was somehow all right to punish its customers instead of firing its top ranks for going into a coma for 20 years and completely ignoring the obvious.
No doubt the industry is undergoing a major restructuring right now, and hopefully the old school thinking is being swept away. We need a record industry; finding and recording artists is a major undertaking, as is promoting those artists and songs. The new era of Internet distribution presents major challenges, but also massive opportunities. Let's hope the new generation of record executives knows how to make it work, so we can enjoy the product without fear of legal retribution.
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