Newsbytes reports that the new consumer rights group, Digital Consumer, has responded to the RIAA's attack on Gateway's consumer advocacy commercial (Consumer Group Joins Tiff Over PC Maker's Piracy Campaign). As LawMeme pointed out last week (CBDTPA Round-up), Gateway began airing a new ad that featured their CEO and a cow lip synching a song, while text encourages viewers to download and burn the song to CD. The ad ends with the message, "Gateway supports your right to enjoy digital music legally." Pointing out that not all music downloads are illegal upset the RIAA something fierce. The Newsfactor Network has one take on the story (RIAA Blasts Gateway's Digital Music Campaign). However, I think that The Shifted Librarian responded to Hillary Rosen best:
Hillary Rosen:
"The Gateway commercial is fun, but their website is nothing but a gateway to misinformation. No one has proposed anything that would 'prevent all digital copying.' If Gateway truly believed that illegal copying hurts all artists and labels who make the music we enjoy, they wouldn't be relying on these misleading scare tactics -- they'd be working with us to find a solution to the piracy problem. If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on this ad campaign to help stop illegal downloading...but that wouldn't help them sell more CD burners, would it?"
The Shifted Librarian:
"The RIAA's proposed solution is fun, but their website is nothing but a gateway to misinformation. No one has proposed anything that would 'prevent a digital music industry.' If the RIAA truly believed that illegal copying hurts all artists and labels who make the music we enjoy, they wouldn't be relying on these misleading scare tactics -- they'd be working with us to find a solution to the problem of how to pay artists fair compensation. If only they would devote a little bit of the millions of dollars they're spending on lawyers and elected officials to start providing actual digital content...but that wouldn't help them sell more CDs, would it?"
There have also been a number of stories regarding the RIAA's claims that piracy is the sole cause of the music industry's woes ....
Newsbytes reports on the release of a couple of studies (Digital Music Downloading 'Bigger Than Napster' - Study) and ( Online Sharing, Pirates Fingered For Dip In Music Sales). But do these studies show what they are purported to show? Pam Horovitz, President of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers addressed a conference of the International Recording Media Association on March 23, 2002 and had some pointed things to say about the marketing strategy of RIAA members (NARM President Pam Horovitz Addresses IRMA). Thanks to Blogaritaville@scriban.com which analyzes how the RIAA's marketing techniques, which include price-fixing and attempting to force consumers to buy entire albums of mediocre music with only one or two good tracks has backfired (price fixing since 1996 caused CD sales slowdown) and (major labels' CD remix a failure?). In related news, C|Net News reports that radio and major venue monopolist Clear Channel will enter the digital music delivery fray already occupied by Pressplay and Musicnet (Radio giant to offer music downloads). Problem is (Clear Channel not having payed any attention to the market) you can download music but won't be able to burn it to CD or transfer it to your MP3 player. As Gartner research analyst P.J. McNealy understates it, "Consumers haven't exactly gone screaming into the streets with their credit cards" in order to have such limited access to music. Slashdot readers respond to a number of these articles (The Music Business and the Internet) and celebrate the latest Nomad Jukebox MP3 Player (Nomad Jukebox 3 Officially Out).
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WIRED looks askance at the recording industry claims (Slagging Over Sagging CD Sales).
The New York Times (reg. req.) has a short look at some of the recent issues (Music Services Aren't Napster, but the Industry Still Cries Foul).