[Kosh]

hahahahahaha

"Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., EMI Music Canada Inc., Universal Music Canada Inc. and Warner Music Canada Co. have agreed to pay songwriters and music publishers $47.5 million in damages for copyright infringement and overdue royalties to settle a class action lawsuit. 'The 2008 class action alleges that the record companies "exploited" music owners by reproducing and selling in excess of 300,000 song titles without securing licenses from the copyright owners and/or without paying the associated royalty payments. The record companies knowingly did so and kept a so-called "pending list" of unlicensed reproductions, setting aside $50 million for the issue, if it ever arose, court filings suggest.'"

[Unknown Target]

Oh delicious irony. The first reply on there is also pretty interesting.

[Nuke]

pewnage. i had always made claim that the music industry exploit artists to make themselves rich. im glad to see now that i have a source to cite that proves my point they exploit artists, they exploit their own customers, and im glad to see them getting shafted in return. glad to see ****loads of artists breaking away from the industry, producing their own music and making a fortune, while the behemoth music industry collapses under its own weight.

[Titan]

pewnage. i had always made claim that the music industry exploit artists to make themselves rich. im glad to see now that i have a source to cite that proves my point they exploit artists, they exploit their own customers, and im glad to see them getting shafted in return. glad to see ****loads of artists breaking away from the industry, producing their own music and making a fortune, while the behemoth music industry collapses under its own weight.

I'd still be able to get music though, right? New music isn't just going to dissapear?

[The E]

Yes, the big music publishers dying will effectively mean death for music.


Errr


Wait.

No, it doesn't.

Unlike book publishing, there is a very easy and straightforward path for musicians to distribute (meaning, sell) their work online; the big record companies are little more than thoroughly unnecessary middlemen these days, who fight their own obsolescence tooth and nail.

[Unknown Target]

I'm sure you can still get it from digital download stores and physical stores that distribute independent labels. This is only for the companies that are part of the RIAA, which is not a singular recording company, but a coalition of many different companies. There is no "RIAA" label that you'll see stamped on the back of a CD, but the label that you do see might be a part of the RIAA and they might also say that on a separate label (to be honest I'm not quite sure).

[Nuke]

independent artists who produce their own music usually license it to a distributor who press, package and ship to retailers. this arrangement gives optimum control to the artists. otherwise the record label would produce and distribute regardless of what the artist actually wanted to be done, and the artists would be paid based on their contract with the label.

diy production is certainly becoming cheaper. for about 10k in equipment and a basement converted to a recording studio is all you really need. produce the master and let the distributor have it. a lot of less than famous bands seem to all think that you need to get signed to a label to make it in the music industry, which is somewhat of a fallacy. a couple years worth of bar gigs and a day job is probably enough to pay for everything (provided they dont blow it all on booze, which i really see a lot in local bar bands end up doing) you need to record a demo. use the demo to get more, higher profile gigs. have stacks of demo cds and sell them after the show. use the money to upgrade your basement studio, record a decent album, then try to sell it.

[Klaustrophobia]

the main reason most upstart bands look to get signed is for promotion, not equipment.

ontopic, i'm glad this happened, but $50 mil is probably just a drop in the bucket.  especially since they set that amount aside already.  i doubt this will change their attitude or practice.

[Ghostavo]

Taking information from the first post, 300.000 songs at 80.000 dollars per song, would make the record labels pay about 24.000 million dollars instead of a measly 50 million.

[karajorma]

Yep. They should have to use the values they themselves have assigned to the songs.

[IceFire]

Promotion is easy now (In my mind and I have a bit of experience with this) Hire a guy part time to promote the band on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and any other freely available service. If the music is good...the interest will spread. Even if it starts locally it can grow.

[Mikes]

the main reason most upstart bands look to get signed is for promotion, not equipment.

ontopic, i'm glad this happened, but $50 mil is probably just a drop in the bucket.  especially since they set that amount aside already.  i doubt this will change their attitude or practice.

Exactly... considering they set 50mil aside and "only" had to pay 47~mil... furthermore... these 50mil were collected interest for them while they were sitting in a bank... 
... when you consider the amount of money  they made through copyright infringement 50mil is not even a setback... it is insignificant.

This is not a "victory" over corrupt corporations by any means or standard...  rather the opposite.

What we have here is a corporation applying risk assessment and management in order to deliberately engage in illegal behavior.
In other words, they are making a mockery out of the legal system and are getting away with it in full public view.

Is this related to this btw? http://www.thestar.com/business/article/735096--geist-record-industry-faces-liability-over-infringement if so... then the settlement in the OPs post really is an outrageous slap in the face of artists and consumers alike.

...  as someone who in his life bought every single album, movie and song in order to show his appreciation for the product... and also someone who is already severely annoyed by current DRM practices and choose not to enjoy several titles due to ridiculously restrictive or even outright invasive DRM...   this latest announcement does make me furious.

Still... I do wanna see the look on the judges face, ... when during another copyright case a lawyer points out that the plaintiff, who pirated 300.000 songs AND SOLD THEM FOR PROFIT, only had to pay 158$ per song...   but wants the defendant, who uploaded some songs without making money off of them... , pay 80k(or whatever) per song... now that actually WILL be hilarious lol.

[Klaustrophobia]

Promotion is easy now (In my mind and I have a bit of experience with this) Hire a guy part time to promote the band on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and any other freely available service. If the music is good...the interest will spread. Even if it starts locally it can grow.

that is SO not a legitimate marketing strategy if you're the least bit seriously committed.  i immediately perma-block all such "promotion" spam i get on those kind of sites, no questions asked, no time of the day given.

[Nuke]

Promotion is easy now (In my mind and I have a bit of experience with this) Hire a guy part time to promote the band on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and any other freely available service. If the music is good...the interest will spread. Even if it starts locally it can grow.

that is SO not a legitimate marketing strategy if you're the least bit seriously committed.  i immediately perma-block all such "promotion" spam i get on those kind of sites, no questions asked, no time of the day given.

ive listend to bands obscure or otherwise simply on the grounds that they had a profile on metal-archives.com, matched the style i was looking for, and had some videos on youtube. there are people who stick to listening to the radio or watching music channels on the tv, or promotional posters at the music store to tell them what to listen to. so if youre looking for music you will find music and if youre looking for a product you will find a product.

my point was diy promotion and production are getting much easier to do today, where it was almost impossible 20 years ago. it might not lead you to big money contracts, but it would allow you to get paid for your music. i always thought it was somewhat disproportional that all the resources go to a few big name artists who have a stock sound and artists with real talent go mostly ignored. then when they pull something like copyright infringement on the artists it really makes me question that the label does any real good for small artists at all.

[karajorma]

I think Klaustrophobia is confusing the difference between putting up a facebook account for your band then telling your fans to spread the word and putting up a facebook account and paying someone to spam everyone with links to it.

[Nuke]

sometimes you get fanbois who provide free spamming services.

[Polpolion]

sometimes you get fanbois who provide free spamming services.

problem is that the only people that really listen to 13 year olds are other 13 year olds.

[Nuke]

sometimes you get fanbois who provide free spamming services.

problem is that the only people that really listen to 13 year olds are other 13 year olds.

13 year olds are one of the many groups frequently targeted by record labels.

[Solatar]

13 year olds often have the resources of middle aged parents, but with the spending habits of well...13 year olds.  Why WOULDN'T the record labels target them?

[Nuke]

13 year olds often have the resources of middle aged parents, but with the spending habits of well...13 year olds.  Why WOULDN'T the record labels target them?

because they are moral and dont want to exploit children and their too busy to care parents

the point is record labels are evil monstrosities that need to be carved to bits by hoards of blade wielding teenagers.