New York Dreamer

Several days ago. I got an email from my friend, Ray Beckerman, a well-known attorney fighting against the music industry, representing people being chased by RIAA..

The email said:
“Ha ha ha ha ha. RIAA paid its lawyers more than $16,000,000 in 2008 to recover only $391,000!!!” (Further Details: Recording Industry vs. The People – http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/)
What is wrong with this picture? What has happened to the music industry?

I remember several years ago an attorney told me that recording companies seriously consider suing its customers as a viable business model for the music industry (let’s say, several thousand dollars for each case settled). What a joke. But it was not a joke.

Why do I hear more news about RIAA suing people or organizations, rather than about some recording companies coming up with innovative products or services that are gonna amuse music lovers and change the future. Instead, they are suing John does, Jane does, dead people, computer-illiterate grandmas, Napster, Grokster, now Limewire, etc..

My friend Nicolas, who once got actively involved in the 90′s music scenes in the city, said “Napster was the best thing that ever happened to the music industry!” What?! Somebody from RIAA might try to kill him for saying that because Napster literally killed their once steady business model. Steady but probably was not that sustainable. Frankly, in some ways Napster was one of the very innovative music services we hadn’t seen quite in a while. It’s unfortunate that the music industry didn’t try hard (or didn’t know how) to turn that into new business opportunities.

So making a 9-year-old-free-downloader boy a criminal would be the only aid to resuscitate the music industry? Do you think it’s that simple? Think again.

How about the music video I accidentally posted below? Ok. Let’s talk about that. Let’s say I want to post music on my blog or want to use some music for my video to post online, how much I should pay for it? If I use the music I downloaded legally (so I paid for it and I own it), is it okay? Otherwise, Is it gonna be insanely expensive? Who should I contact to license? Is it even possible to license the music even if I find somebody to license it? A lot of people nowadays may not be that interested in downloading or physically owning the music. So it may not be about downloading any more. Then, do you know what kind of license is it required? Do you know that there are several different types of licensing: Mechanical Licensing, Performance Licensing, Synch Licensing, Blanket Licensing… Do you know what to get for what you wanna do? Do you know who to contact for each different kind of licensing? Do you know the difference among ASCAP, BMI, Harry Fox Agency, Publishers, Recording Companies, Sound Exchange? Do you know the difference in their licensing roles? Hmmmm… If you have no clue, then the music industry has no clue that you have no clue.

I once had a brunch with a well-known music licensing attorney. He whispered that if anybody tries, they are gonna demand a large sum to scare people away. Also, when I visited an office of a big music publisher before, they had a very complex licensing map that was divided into certain percentages depending on the regions. But how can you deal with that? Nowadays, when you put it up online, that’s instantly global. How come you have very meticulous, complex, incomprehensible division in the licensing rights and then expect people to geniusly figure out how to comply? How are you gonna solve that? How and when are you gonna return the pleasure of enjoying music back to people? I wanna know the answer.

Oh, how about this?: the music industry can give me a portion of the money spent on or to be wasted on the law suits. Let’s say, $3 million. Then, I’m gonna turn that into a very interesting business that could change the future. How about that? Are you interested?