BS: Vent here

Subject: Vent here
From: michaelr
Date: 14 May 02 - 01:09 AM

Thinking it might be useful to start a thread bitching about something EVERYONE could agree on, I came up with the ultimate common enemy of, not only all Mudcatters, but virtually anyone who listens to live or recorded music today ----


THE MUSIC BUSINESS!!!


Use this thread to complain to your heart's fullness about anything and everything to do with the music biz, from the poor treatment of performers by venue owners, to the shameful price markup of commercial CDs, to the fact that the odious Celine Dion was allowed to make yet another album. FREE RANT FOR EVERYONE!!

I'll start things off with my pet peeve of the day: It pisses me off to hear the big record companies whine about the need for copy protection - i.e. technology that would make it impossible for consumers to make a perfect digital copy of a CD or DVD. EXCUUUSE me, but I remember the time when the industry shoved the new technology down our throats, unheedful of our feeble protests, because their projections showed that it would be profitable. I, for one, did not ask for digital media; I was perfectly happy with my turntable and my vinyl LPs, thankyouverymuch.

They created the technology to make perfect copies possible, and now they're crying (because their projections did not forecast the digital-media explosion and attendant price drops) that they can't control it. Boo hoo hoo. Write your congressman to oppose copy protection legislation. (Rant off.)

Your turn
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 May 02 - 02:46 PM

I hate the way they charge me 20 times the actual production costs - including copyright, marketing and so on....

LTS

If you really want a rant thread that will go through the roof, start one about work!

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: AliUK
Date: 14 May 02 - 03:36 PM

Everytime I go into a record store I feel that I´m being mugged, thank God there´s these guys on the pavements here who sell pirate CDs for 5 bucks a pop.No folk but loads of blues and jazz. I have nothing against pirating in this way as the labels rip you off anyway so this kinda compensates for it. Kharma or wot?

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: greg stephens
Date: 14 May 02 - 03:41 PM

Well, I'm in the music business. I play traditional folk music for a very precarious living. So throw something at me HELP

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Pseudolus
Date: 14 May 02 - 03:42 PM

Hmmmmm, advocating pirating CD's? Ever consider the possibility that pirated CD's are one of the reasons for high prices?

Frank

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: SharonA
Date: 14 May 02 - 03:54 PM

Frank: Well, that's one of the excuses for high prices...

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Deda
Date: 14 May 02 - 04:08 PM

Actually I've never given up my vinyl LPs and turntable. I may even still have a few old 78s in storage. Vinyl LPs are incredibly cheap, generally sound fine to techno-dummy me, and don't scare me or make me feel manipulated. My great regret about LPs is that I can't get any new ones. I enjoyed audio cassettes because I could make them and I could tape off the radio. Every technical advance since then has been mostly a big irritant, stuff that forces me to run harder and harder on my little gerbil-wheel trying to earn enough and learn enough to keep up with it all. Blech. I hope I've made myself quite clear.

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: GUEST,Just Amy
Date: 14 May 02 - 04:10 PM

I really hate that I can't buy prerecorded audio cassettes anymore. Audio cassettes are so easy to record on. Really how many of you (show of hands) can actually tell the difference between CD and cassette/vinyl recordings anyway. They are supposed to be soooooo much better but unless you spend thousands of dollars on a new stereo system, ha! no better sound.

I think Prince has a great idea. He sells all his stuff on the internet and the hell with the record companies.

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Mr Red
Date: 14 May 02 - 04:28 PM

vent, vent, vent - it don't make me feel any different 'bout the music business.... write a song about your gripes I say..........

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 May 02 - 04:43 PM

You mean you have people who get rid of their LPs and their turntables? Slaves of fashion, and serve them right.

The only records I'd consider buying new (as opposed to buying second hand) are from people who need the money, and they are probably the ones selling them off the stage or something like that. Not really part of the business in a business.

CDs, LPs and audio-tapes all sound just the same to me. The only thing is CDs are convenient for finding particular bits of music and avoiding other bits, especially compared to tapes, and you don't wreck them by "playing the same bit over and over, with you do with LPs. And tape is handiest for home recording. I wouldn't consider being without any of the three.

And the CD burner makes it easy to stick things on CD when that's more convenient.

Brilliant technologies to have at my command. But as for "the music business", it just doesn't register on my consciousness.

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 May 02 - 05:10 PM

I don't mean I only buy records off people because they need the money, as a charitable act. But the music I like tends to be from real people, playing real music, and you don't get rich doing that. And you don't deserve to get ripped off by bootlegging either.

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Celtic Soul
Date: 14 May 02 - 05:44 PM

ASCAP. They're like the mafia.

oy!

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Little Hawk
Date: 15 May 02 - 03:44 PM

The Music Business is so disgusting that I wish a huge crevice would open up and swallow them all. Commercial radio is a form of auditory and mental torture. Videos are audio-visual torture. There is nothing you can say about the Music Business so horrible that it is not true!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Blues=Life
Date: 15 May 02 - 04:30 PM

Let's not forget that the artists get screwed by pirated music too. My friends The Winstons (www.thewinstons.com) just sent me their latest CD, "Coming Through". Andy Winston is not only a great songwriter and guitarist, but moonlights as an attorney. :-) I'm assuming he is responsible for the following note on the back cover:

Warning: All Rights Reserved Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. So, don't.

Can't say it much clearer than that. Blues

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Blues=Life
Date: 15 May 02 - 04:30 PM

Let's not forget that the artists get screwed by pirated music too. My friends The Winstons (www.thewinstons.com) just sent me their latest CD, "Coming Through". Andy Winston is not only a great songwriter and guitarist, but moonlights as an attorney. :-) I'm assuming he is responsible for the following note on the back cover:

Warning: All Rights Reserved Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. So, don't.

Can't say it much clearer than that. Blues

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Blues=Life
Date: 15 May 02 - 04:32 PM

Sorry about the double post, I got caught in a deadlock again... whatever the hell that is!

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: AliUK
Date: 15 May 02 - 06:40 PM

weelllll. I won't say that pirating CDs is cool, of course it's not. I was just saying that at the moment it's cool because of the rip off prices that record labels charge for their product. I mean they have a 200% profit margin guys, and I don't ever see it come down. What about downloading songs off the net. I do because I don't have access to folk music so I just get my trusty download programme fired up and away you go. that hurts the artist too, doesn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Burke
Date: 15 May 02 - 06:54 PM

Here's fodder for venting about bad music on the radio.

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: GUEST,ozmacca
Date: 16 May 02 - 01:34 AM

Want to beat the high cost of CDs? Want to beat the unrealistic prices of new sound systems which claim to offer a more realistic sound?

A Scot's solution... Borrow somebody else's.

PS... Want to lose friends and influence people? Don't give them back! Now there's something to vent about.

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: Callie
Date: 16 May 02 - 02:39 AM

Yeh Ali - but the artist suffers from not getting royalties. If you're really buying pirates for philosophical reasons (and not just coz they're cheap) I hope you're sending the artist and songwirters a cheque.

Ahh. I feel vented now.

Callie

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: michaelr
Date: 17 May 02 - 01:10 AM

OK, here's another one: My band (a local Celtic ensemble) has been booked at one of the larger clubs in the county (Sonoma County, California) to open a show for a touring Celtic-rock band from the other side of the pond. They'll likely sell out the place, so we'll get to play to a full house (200 - 300). Which is great!

On the other hand, I have reliable information that the venue owner has given the booking agent a pretty free hand in regards to money; however, the booking agent tells me that the venue will only pay $100 for the opening act. Which sucks!

Of course I won't turn down the gig, because it's a great opportunity, and exposure, blah blah blah... but it sort of rankles, all the same. We'll have four people spending at least four hours of their time, for $8.25/hr, plus I feel that the booker is taking advantage of us! (BTW, tickets are $20).

What do you think?

Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: SharonA
Date: 17 May 02 - 11:01 AM

The above post (17-May-02 - 02:12 AM) was not made by me. I understand that this thread is not the place to vent about anything not related directly to the music business. I had posted the above story in a thread I started last night at the local library, entitled BS: Dying alone stinks (using the cookieless handle "SharonA at the library"). An anonymous GUEST copied my story and posted it here and in at least one other Mudcat thread (the "Help: Liland invites prayers" thread), but typed "SharonAatLibrary" in the "From" field. I want to make it clear that I left the library at its closing time of 9 PM Eastern Daylight Time, and have not posted from that time until 17-May-02 - 09:41 AM (the post above, in this thread, with cookie). Please rest assured that if I make a post from the library as a GUEST on another thread, and want to refer to this story, I'll post a link to the "Dying alone stinks" thread rather than take up bandwidth reprinting the whole thing. If this story ever reappears anywhere else in my name, please know that I didn't put it there!

I'm sure that the anonymous GUEST had only good intentions, and I appreciate that someone was moved by the story enough to want more people to read it, but I'll be grateful if in future the poster would not type my name in the "From" field to make it appear as if I'd made the post. A sentence within the message to the effect that "SharonA wrote this on another thread" would be fine. Alternatively, a link or URL of that other thread would be shorter! *G* Thanks in advance.

Sharon

duplicated message referred to in this post deleted by mudelf ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: pattyClink
Date: 17 May 02 - 03:15 PM

Michael, I think you should cancel. If they threaten legal action, pass the hat, collect $100 and send it to them, they apparently need their $100 a whole lot. (Or they'll suddenly 'find' additional monies. Or your agent will suddenly decide to give you the actual amount instead of skimming most of it)

Subject: RE: BS: Vent here
From: GUEST
Date: 18 May 02 - 01:31 AM

Someone has lost more than their cookies.