For the past 8 years, ever since Napster first burst onto the scene, the Recording Industry Association of America, or the RIAA, has fought tooth and nail to smash P2P filesharing. Or basically any other form of listening to music that doesn't involve giving them money. They have even brought into question the legality of ripping music from a legally bought CD to a computer for use on MP3 players.
For the majority of the campaign, they have used the poor artists as their war banner, claiming they are fighting on their behalf, valiantly keeping them from jumping off the nearest cliff.
But in an interesting turn of events, the RIAA recently filed with the Copyright Royalty Board a petition to lower the amount of royalties record labels must pay to producers and artists.
The current rate is 9 cents per song. That means, for a standard 15 track album, the labels have to cough up $1.35.
Oh you poor bastards.
The RIAA was quoted as saying
For the majority of the campaign, they have used the poor artists as their war banner, claiming they are fighting on their behalf, valiantly keeping them from jumping off the nearest cliff.
But in an interesting turn of events, the RIAA recently filed with the Copyright Royalty Board a petition to lower the amount of royalties record labels must pay to producers and artists.
The current rate is 9 cents per song. That means, for a standard 15 track album, the labels have to cough up $1.35.
Oh you poor bastards.
The RIAA was quoted as saying
Ironic, coming from a business that is, in and of itself, compete out of touch with the rest of the world.... the rate is out of whack with the rest of the world and historical context.