The New Thick

[SonsOfLiberty]

The New Thick, a non-existent, and paperless agreement with record labels. Step one involves raising your middle finger to the man and step two is patting yourself on the back for all your hard work. On a more serious note with the new Thick there is no contract, no clauses to worry about, and no dotted line. Artists like Eminem don’t have to worry about clauses in their contract that cause loss of royalties on tracks distributed without their permission (source). Instead artists and musicians now have the ability to be sole owners of their works and are able to distribute their work to millions upon millions of people across the globe taking the majority of the profits and royalties, if not all of them. Sweet deal, eh? I for one would rather take all the profit from my work than cut a deal with let’s say Apple who sells tracks on their online store iTunes at .99cents a pop. Well that’s profit for the artist right? Yeah, if you consider Apple charges .34 cents per track sold and your record label takes .55 cents leaving you the artist with .10 measly cents profit (source).. That sounds fair, right? No.

On the other hand you could take an alternative route as did the well known group NIN. In 2007 they left Interscope records becoming independent and have been taking advantage of the internet by utilizing digital distribution platforms such as BitTorrent. That’s right, no restrictions to how they distribute their music.

Now, can every band and musician survive in a digital world, with no help from record companies?, no PR firm, no marketing firm, or advertising agency? The answer is simple, yes. Artists and band’s have the power of the internet at their finger tips just like any other individual in this world. Artists can utilize services such as MySpace music which is like a pr, marketing, advertising, and distribution firm all wrapped into one neat package all for the wonderful price of FREE. They can also utilize technologies like BitTorrent and p2p networks to distribute their works free of charge or for profit with services offered by sites like PayPal.

Quite simply, the majority of artists will catch on to this new trend, and become more dependant on technology rather than record labels who preach to the general public about how piracy robs artists when in fact they are hypocrites’ of their own inevitable demise.

Note: If you didn’t catch on, The Thick, is the contract that record labels have artists sign (50+ pages long).

Source: Blog Pirate

[megabyteme]

The record industry has stolen more from the artists than file sharers ever will!

Please stop supporting industries that are working to counter our freedoms!

[Skiz]

The record industry has stolen more from the artists than file sharers ever will!

It's a business. I don't see many artists hurting for money or making similar statements.

[megabyteme]

^There have been many stories that have surfaced over the years. Frank Zappa talks about "the record industry pricks" in many of his songs. More recently, the Dixie Chicks gave details on how the industry left them with next to nothing. Even the above article breaks down how much the industry is taking. After everyone else takes a cut, the artists receive very little. Is it more than you or I make? Probably. While many get to live lavishly when they are on top, most have very little left after their careers. Many, many others don't make anything.

Right now, I am very much against the industries that are putting their "rights" above everyone else. One of the major arguments given for buying music is to "support the artists". I argue, as the article does, that there are better ways to "support the artists". We can bypass the industries and give the artists a greater share of the profits.

The internet poses many threats to the record industry, specifically. It could, in fact, make them obsolete. That is why they are fighting so hard to regain control. They are willing to destroy the internet as we know and enjoy, it to do so.