Hilary loves us!

[SA_Dave]

Of course JackSpratts said it best! I wanted to comment on this earlier but my phone line was out of order for just over a week. (Local bandits steal lines to melt down the copper & since there's only 1 phone company, customer service isn't high priority. And people with AOL think they have problems! Try living in Africa.)

I love music. I really do.

You do? This is an important development! [/sarcasm]

The music industry is hurting and the technology business isn’t looking so bright either.

What? Note that 'music industry' can be interpreted as 'RIAA', not the many underground & alternative record labels/artists/producers who are thriving as a result of internet exposure. Funnily enough, they make music for the love of it, give the fans what they want and are profiting from that! [RIAA propoganda B$]Such innovation must be curtailed! [/RIAA propoganda B$]

There are so many brilliant and talented people in this room and throughout all of our industries.

It's true that there are many talented musicians. Oh! Doesn't 'our industries' refer to the RIAA, therefore making this statement untrue/paradoxical/an hyperbole? I'm not even going to comment on the first bit!

It is time to come together.

We, the RIAA, do solemnly pledge to become an insidious empire even more privacy-violating and manipulative than Microsoft, Sony & AOHell Time Warner put together! We shall control all forms of media and any activity or hobby that can in any way be indirectly connected to music, including needlepoint and/or gardening. Our partnership with Bill will attempt to transform the internet, a project based on Open Source ideals of freedom of information/expression and personal liberty & run predominantly by Unix, into a prison-like utopia with limited content. Don't worry! The viruses & security loopholes that you've come to know & love will still be readily available, perhaps on an even greater scale!

I firmly believe that when the music consumer is well served, so will we all be as well.

That's true, but your definition of 'well served' plainly leaves a lot to be desired! In case you didn't know, according to the RIAA dictionary, it means "eliminating all RIAA competion (alternative/unsigned acts ie. 99.90% of musicians or any forum which promotes them eg. mp3.com, streaming internet radio) and turning every consumer into an uninformed trend-follower." I don't even listen to RIAA music anyway & since when should one conglomerate exclude any music that doesn't fall under the "broad umbrella" of manufactured, mainly teen-oriented, "American" music (actually means : North-American & possibly any international music made by immigrants who had the decency to become U.S./Canadian citizens first & selling us their souls/bodies/intellectual property rights.) Their position on "oldies" (more than 7 years old and/or less than platinum sales figures) is also very limited. However, instead of making the material more widely available, the RIAA's tactic is to brainwash you into liking Brittany. Yuck!

The challenges we have faced as an industry with Napster and its clones are in many ways unprecedented in American commercial history.

So that "Boston Tea Party" thing was just a rumour/crazy urban legend.

There we were rockin’ along, producing great music and producing enough revenue to support artists, producers, writers, engineers, A&R teams, new investment by record companies and a vast and wide distribution system.

Damn Hilary! Now you have to sell one of your 7 limos and one of your 3 vintage jaguars in order to support yourself! Oh, and that seventh 'poolboy' has got to go. I wonder how much of this 'great music' that you produced was actually made available via this alleged 'vast and wide distribution system'?

Our product is suddenly being offered to consumers for absolutely nothing.

Free CD's for download? Funny, I thought even high-bitrate mp3's were inferior to the original, but maybe that's just me. Ah! They're upset because their tone-deaf clientele can't tell the difference anyway.

Only it wasn’t so sudden.

50 years later & this is all you have to say?

Yes the recording industry has made mistakes along the way.

You said it! What mistakes are on the horizon?

“Don’t they know how expensive and hard it is to create a hit?” they ask.

I've never asked this question! It's so "hard" to make 3000 Brittany's : sculpting fees (silicon implants), image consultation fees (hairstylists, wardrobe, makeup), catering (carrots, celery & wheat grass is expensive!) & miscellaneous (those 'writer' peoples, voice over artists, lip-synch coaches, music video 'talents'.) God! No wonder they're going bankrupt!

The business model of record companies has been to remain invisible.

I've read more bad things about record companies in the last few years than about any other issue. And I just love all those "invisible" stickers/labels on CDs/videos! Way to go!

Fans want great music. Their perception of cost is directly related to their perception of value.

Hence your decline in sales. You said it yourself Hilary! People are turning elsewhere for great music.

But everyone in this room knows or should know that a record company is not in control of all of these things.

Translation : in future we'd like to be.

Record companies have taken all the heat over the last few years, but let’s be honest, we have all been in this together.

WTF is she talking about? P.S. Hilary : stop associating with druggies ie. rappers & anorexic crackwhore teen popstars.

Now most people realize that the on-line services did not put a nickel into building actual consumer demand for a pay music format nor did they have any money to advertise.

Well if you keep bloody suing them what do you expect?

And now they are competing against KaZaa, Morpheus and Fast Track and urging the RIAA to increase enforcement so that they can survive.

Oh, so it's not the RIAA that decided to sue them? It's the very internet sites that the RIAA would prefer to be completely shut down, that decided to force the RIAA to sue FT? Nice try Hilary, but that's the lamest thing I've ever heard!

Retailers were pushing the other way.

What happened to this 'vast and wide distribution system' that you touted just a few paragraphs ago Hilary? Try to be a bit more consistent in your propaganda-fest.

Music publishing has been a big problem as well.

You created the system Hilary & Co. You're so 'open-minded' and 'forward-thinking' that you should have anticipated this! Continue hedging blame on anyone but your own organisation Hilary. Attagirl!

Technology companies have made progress difficult.

Yes, but what about this 'vast and wide distribution system' & seeing as you're so knowledgeable about software/hardware Hilary, why didn't you foresee the 'magic marker' trick? Never mind the problems you yourself created (see above comment) and are trying to "improve" upon with "technology".

Computer hardware companies benefit from the sale of products that are used by consumers for the unauthorized downloading and burning of music.

Of course every blank CD sold is used for creating audio CDs! There's no use for it in research (read the May 2002 issue of National Geographic, article entitled 'Moths'), software development, graphic design, engineering or even cheap backup purposes! Believe me Hilary, you'd be an anorexic crackwhore yourself if that were the case!

Policy makers are not immune either.

Hilary, the internet is based on Open Source & it's principals have a lot to do with democracy/freedom. It doesn't mean that everything is free though. I suggest you do some reading. Oh and also I suggest you stop living in your own little world! Go visit Africa, central Asia etc. & you'll realise that there are more important things going on in the world. If you lowered your prices you might be able to benefit from increased sales. You do still have that 'vast and wide distribution system' don't you? For example, Blizzard uses this to great effect. Warcraft3 was recently released worldwide & because it's half the price of other new games in S.A., the sales are boosted as a result!

So are successful artists focused enough about piracy to speak out and allow record companies to experiment with their catalog on-line?

It's pretty damn obvious why they're not eager Hilary! And I don't believe that you're willing to experiment (with online music distribution that is) either.

I hear of companies looking to offer cheaper albums with fewer tracks and to find ways to get effectively back into the singles market.

How innovative these singles are!

Then they sell the DVD in the stores to consumer.

Yes, but they make more money on VHS & DVD than they do on box office receipts. Plus, you currently milk concert-goers for every possible cent. It's an identical policy!

If the government wants to subsidize webcasting, let it. We can’t afford to.

Please Hilary! You won't allow individuals to 'fund' webcasting, even though they're willing to. Why should license fees be paid? Again, these archaic publishing systems which you previously bemoaned are still being clung to, in a desperate bid for power. And again, I suggest you visit Uganda or a similar country to see what poverty and hardship really is like!

Certainly more needs to be done by the record companies and I think everyone understands that.

No thanks. You're doing far too much already & I don't at all approve of TCPA/Palladium.

Indeed all licensing must now move more quickly.

Still on about these archaic publishing trappings?

I would also like to see more emphasis on things like consumer packaging on the physical product and special inserts that people can’t download or burn but if they really love the artists will want to buy.

This is one of the main reasons I buy CDs (not from the RIAA of course!) I don't think people want to pay for slutty Brittany pics & 'How my plastic surgeon & my stand-in vocalist made me into a star' biographies, when they can easily get billions of similarly trashy details/media off the net for free.

Current contractual relationships feel antiquated.

Another plan to further reward the multiplatinums & crush the independant & talented!

Yes, the industry may contract some, but it will be stronger and more diverse when it emerges from the current downturn.

Death to the RIAA!

Our members have had good relationships with the technology companies for several years.

Didn't you say earlier that you hated them & Gateway in particular?

There is little doubt that Intellectual Property has been a driver for the US economy over the last decade and it remains our #1 export.

Oil, agriculture, mining, forestry etc. are however irrelevant. Licenses are all that matters!

We have tried to be thoughtful at the RIAA in our enforcement strategies and we will continue to be.

Thoughtful = money-hungry, power-hungry capatilist pigs! The RIAA will continue to deny the fact that music was free for tens of thousands of years of human civilisation.

No one likes to be the cop, but the role must be fulfilled.

Kiddie porn is bad! "Piracy" is not.

What we seek – and what I hope everyone can eventually embrace – is an OPEN market in which everyone competes with mutual respect on the value of his or her creations.

You're seeking democracy in music? Since when? P.S. value has a financial rather than an artistic slant as far as Hilary & Co. are concerned.

So there you have it. My diagnosis and my prescription.

Blah..Blah. Your statements are illogical, contradictory & peppered with propaganda. Hitler may be dead, but nazism rules supreme in "America".