New anti-music piracy campaign has among others.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Sept. 26 —  Got unauthorized MP3s? Record labels are launching a multimillion-dollar public interest-style ad campaign to make sure you don’t.    

 

     ON THURSDAY, A COALITION of artists and labels will start running print, radio and TV ads featuring dozens of major recording stars who compare file swapping with stealing.  The ads, reminiscent of the American Dairy Association’s Got Milk or MTV’s Rock the Vote campaigns, are designed to shame people out of illegally swapping music. They feature big-name artists such as Madonna, P. Diddy and Sting. One of the ads contains quotes from a variety of singers, including Britney Spears.“Would you go into a CD store and steal a CD?” Spears asks. “It’s the same thing—people going into the computers and logging on and stealing our music.”

     Recording industry executives said they’re trying to educate music fans and their parents that file swapping is illegal and is hurting artists and the business. CD sales have been declining in recent years, a trend that’s coincided with both the rise of file swapping and a dismal economy.

“Illegally downloading is stealing, and it’s against the law plain and simple,” Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), said when announcing the campaign. The record industry, reeling from the effects of Napster and other file-swapping sites—which allowed millions of people to trade music for free—has been fighting furiously to regain control of its songs.  

       The ad campaign is the latest in an aggressive, multipronged approach by the labels to quash file swapping that’s not industry-sanctioned. In addition to launching the ads, the RIAA has sued file-swapping sites out of business, threatened to crack down on companies and individual file-swappers, and pushed legislation that would mandate anti-copying technology in new products.

      On Thursday, industry executives will testify before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee in support of a bill sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., that would allow intellectual-property owners to use technical measures to prevent copyright infringement.

      But the new ad campaign, which coincides with the hearing and will appear in at least one Washington-based policy-focused newspaper, may send mixed messages to fans.

      For example, when unveiling the plan Wednesday, Universal Music Group’s anti-piracy czar, David Benjamin, said file swapping hurts singers and midlevel music industry employees, whom he described as working people who are just trying to “put a roof over our heads and feed the kids and try to do right.”  

       However, it’s unclear whether testimony from multimillionaire recording artists will garner much sympathy among fans, many of whom complain that CDs are overpriced or contain just one or two quality songs.

      What’s more, the new campaign comes after a study by consulting firm KPMG that criticizes the recording industry’s anti-piracy efforts. The report said the labels need to devote more time to developing new Internet business models instead of trying to lock down their content.

     

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I agree with the later part of the article that says that this won't work because of overpriced CDs. They also didnt pick the best group of artists to do this, I mean Britney Spears? Nobody cares about her anymore, other than maybe when she'll cave in and do playboy.

[Guest Mad Dog]

Considering I can't stand most of these artists I don't really care.

 

Plus I know how artists make their money and them saying this hurts them is a load of shit.

 

I would buy CDs on a more regular basis but everything is terrible so why should I go to the effort for anything.

 

Most of the stuff I d/l is over a decade old anyway or things that aren't produced on CD anymore.

[Guest Kinetic]

Remember, kids:

 

 

 

If this was their campaign, I'd never d/l another song ever again.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Okay, file this under things that won't work.

 

If Kylie told me, however, I'd be inclined to listen.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest Incandenza]

I would say this campaign would be a tad more effective if they had artists that were actually being effected by online piracy--who wants to listen to a bunch of multimillionare celebrities get on their case?--but who would listen to a bunch a people you've never heard of?

[Guest Kagato Otaku]

The ads, reminiscent of the American Dairy Association’s Got Milk or MTV’s Rock the Vote campaigns, are designed to shame people out of illegally swapping music. They feature big-name artists such as Madonna, P. Diddy and Sting.

 

THE HELL!?!

 

Puffy's telling *us* not to steal music?!

[Guest Incandenza]

The ads, reminiscent of the American Dairy Association’s Got Milk or MTV’s Rock the Vote campaigns, are designed to shame people out of illegally swapping music. They feature big-name artists such as Madonna, P. Diddy and Sting.

 

THE HELL!?!

 

Puffy's telling *us* not to steal music?!

Heh. That totally went over my head first time around.

[Guest Kagato Otaku]

And give me a friggin' break. A stern lecture from the Material Girl isn't going to "shame" ANYBODY out of file-sharing. Not one wretched soul...

[Guest papacita]

Puffy's telling *us* not to steal music?!

 

LOL!

 

I'm not exactly running out to steal Puff. Sting or Madonna CDs anyway, so as far as I'm concerned, the campaign is lost already.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Hey, I steal P. Diddy!

 

But my musical opinion on this board is almost worthless because Techno and Raves managed to negate any good qualities.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest mesepher]

a variety of singers, including Britney Spears.“Would you go into a CD store and steal a CD?” Spears asks. “It’s the same thing—people going into the computers and logging on and stealing our music.”

 

so... Brittney and all the other faceless popstars are now musicians making music?? yeesh.

 

this will never work... unless the people downloading the music realize the difference of getting a poor sounding, compressed MP3 song as compared to an uncompressed audio track as found on CDs

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Someone on the fark.com comment thingee said that he sent money directly to the artist with a letter stating what he downloaded. That way the artist still gets paid, but the money hungry labels and RIAA get nothing. I might start doing that..

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

"The ads, reminiscent of the American Dairy Association’s Got Milk or MTV’s Rock the Vote campaigns, are designed to shame people out of illegally swapping music."

 

How are people supposed to be ashamed when they're doing this practice in the cozy confines of their f'n house?

 

And in regards to P. Diddy, if I want to listen to his music, I just download the original song he samples -- 99.9% of the time it sounds better anyway.

 

I wonder if TV studios will someday have actors saying "If you videotape our shows instead of buying DVD box sets, you're taking food away from the mouths of our children."

[Guest CED Ordonez]

My basic response to most music artists with a record deal behind RIAA is "F*ck you. You make 100 times what I make already."

 

The only way RIAA's campaign would succeed is if they managed to kill the Internet and ban the use of CD-Rs for non-commercial use. This means that their battle has already been lost for nearly a decade. Enjoy losing more money trying to battle us, you industrial f*cktards!

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

Wow. There's selling out.

 

Now, Sting and Madonna and Britney and Puffy all have more money than any of us will ever see, and I bet they full well know how filthy the music industry is. I wonder how much they're getting paid to do this, or if it's just in their contracts to the label that they have to simply do what they're told when it comes to business decisions.

 

Bands are a commodity. Yes, I still buy CDs (rarely does a month go buy I don't pick a couple up), but you know how I got into most of the people whose albums I buy?

 

File sharing.

 

The RIAA can eat ass if they keep up the business policies they practice, treating musicians as total commodities. Their business is, plain and simple, making money for *themselves,* and not the artists. The real money for musicians is in touring and merchandise, not what they got from their label. The label gives them exposure, and except in the cases of the huge names they've got speaking out here, not much money from the actual sales, period.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Don't see Kylie trying to stop this stuff. She's said herself that she appreciates the exposure in the American market before she hit it big here, and I can vouch for that actually. I found about her through my Aussie then-girlfriend, and downloaded her entire newest album, which made me more rabid for its release here. I got it the day it came out. I have discovered SO MANY groups, bands, singers, DJs, whatevers, on the internet through "stealing," and I still buy their albums.

 

But if Kylie said to stop, once again, I probably would.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Definitely. File sharing shit gets bands more exposure than they could ever dream of. The internet has helped out metal IMMENSELY. Before the MP3 shit hit big, I hadn't heard a thing from a lot of the bands I really listen to now. Most of those bands just get money from live gigs and shit, and have other jobs. You can't find the CD's ANYWHERE, and they have to be ordered. Downloading a song or two to make a judgment on a band is a fantastic thing. Totally expands a band's market, (in a good way) in this case, and they're still making money because I'll pick up a CD if I like a band enough. Lord knows it's a bitch to find, though.

[Guest Kotzenjunge]

Wasn't the music industry in a slump supposedly when all this stuff started becoming an issue? I'd think that it's helped a helluva lot more than hurt the big companies actually. You see people still setting records for openig day sales and stuff like that.

 

Fo sheez,

Kotzenjunge

[Guest MrRant]

I would buy more CD's if they cost like $5 - 7 bucks. I'm not going to spend $20 on a CD with 2 song like. That like $10 dollars a song and 8 more of suffering for free.

[Guest razazteca]

why spend $20 for a CD when I can get a concert DVD for about the same price?

 

until they put more value in the product I will continue to use P2P.

 

the last CD I bought was a single that had 3 songs and 2 music videos for $1 now that is value for the money. If I really need to have a certain cd I will buy it used at around $5-$8.

 

And DVD Audio at $9 for a single is just to damn much, especially since I dont have the special expensive equipment setup.

[Guest NoCalMike]

Does Britney Spears even know what a computer is?? Seriously though, if file-sharing was put to a 100% halt, I STILL WOULDN'T buy a cd at full price, because the prices are fucking ridiculous. Tower Records, Virgin Records......these guys are the real theifs. Funny how the RECORD COMPANIES are the ones that are going to congress and putting pressure on the artists to make these lame commercials, because the artists aren't the ones being hurt by mp3s. As long as a Britney Spears concert tour gets sellouts, then MP3s mean nothing to her. The only people hurt by MP3s are the record companies fat-cat wallet books......Fucking Millionaires complaining.....worse than pro-athletes I tell ya.

[Guest Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye]

Damn you file sharers!!! If it werent for you I would have sold 4 million copies of my latest album instead of the lousy 3.25 million". I can seriously see these people saying that.

 

Somehow I just cant feel sorry for them

[Guest NoCalMike]

The funniest thing is the artists have come out on many occasions themselves and said, "according to our contracts we can sell a million records and still not make a dime, it is touring and the revenue from the sold out shows that makes our fortunes" The artists say this THEMSELVES ALL THE TIME.....so are they just gonna ignore that fact when they make these commercias!?!

[Guest razazteca]

the people with actual musical talent and a brain are the ones that have that opinion. While people like Britney Spears who are mass produced sex objects continue to be RIAA puppets.

[Guest CED Ordonez]

RIAA can eat my ass because I've only bought two CDs in the past year. What are they? Imports. How did I find out about them? File sharing.

 

I haven't purchased a single domestic CD in ages with on the principle that my car radio entertains me just fine and I give nobody any money this way. Almost as good as stealing, bitches.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Last CD I bought was Slayer's new one...before that..god, I can't even remember. Probably a Dillinger cd.

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

I think the last CD I bought was either Beyond The Embrace's debut Against The Elements. Beyond The Embrace are signed to Metal Blade Records. Metal Blade Records are not part of the RIAA, and encourage file-sharing, as it means more bands get exposure on their label, thereby creating a larger revenue for both the bands and the company.

 

Fuck the RIAA.

[Guest hardyz1]

Someone on the fark.com comment thingee said that he sent money directly to the artist with a letter stating what he downloaded. That way the artist still gets paid, but the money hungry labels and RIAA get nothing. I might start doing that..

 

I've had this idea for quite a while. Download the whole album and send the artist $10 with a letter stating what you DLed. Artist gets money, RIAA gets none, people get music, it's all good.