Dear Peter

[theknife]

Peter Gabriel is my all-time favorite artist and he has just released his first cd in years - and this is one release that I would ordinarily run out and buy without hesitation.

But I just can't do it...and I have such respect for him as an artist that I felt compelled to explain why. So I just posted this at the general forum at his site.


Dear Peter,

I've just finished downloading your new cd from Grokster (the FastTrack Network).

You know, I have bought virtually every album you've ever made - all the way back to From Genesis to Revelation....and I would have been pleased to buy the tracks on your new one as well.

But I will not support the RIAA any longer. Not one more dime to the recording industry. I will no longer support the cartel that would like nothing less than total control over all music distribution and the ability to disable any technology it finds threatening. These are the same people that would like to see chips in my computer that would restrict what I can listen to...the people that are working very hard to eliminate the concepts of "fair use" and "public domain". I have come to regard downloading music as a form of civil disobedience, and I'd like to think that, in some small way, I am helping to dismantle a monopolistic, archaic, and essentially corrupt business model.

I would have been thrilled to pay you directly, and just download the tracks from your site...and I would think a techologically savvy and socially aware artist like yourself would have an interest in distributing your music thusly. But I don't need to buy a disc and I don't need your record company and I think the day has come when you don't either.

Regards,
A Fan

He's a very sharp guy, technologically speaking, and he is also keenly aware of social issues...and while I doubt he will ever read this, I would like to think he gets the message.

[JackSpratts]

do you have a link to your post?



it's an excellent letter theknife and i think

1) he'll probably read it and

2) he's getting the message and

3) so are a lot of other very nervous artists.

winds are blowing and it's time for a change.

- js.

[multi]

the knife ...hehe
now i know wher u got yr name from,eh
if i remember correctly it was an exelent genisis song...from that live album(i still got it on tape somewhere)
and have loved and bought alot of his stuff over the year,
good work on the letter....
peeps should send similar ones to ALL their favorite artists...

[spstn]

Another kitchen goes down in flames trying to roast the pig.

[theknife]

you got it, multi

jack, the link is here - the post is in the General Forum.

Y'know, this is really the first cd I've wanted to buy in a couple of years....and it's really not about getting something for free. It's just that, after all the rhetoric, the articles, the scare tactics, the propaganda coming from the RIAA, it's clear that some portion of my 17$ cd purchase would go to support a political, social, and technological agenda that I find entirely unacceptable and even threatening.

Never again

[multi]

Labels tap into free tunes to woo fans
In a fight to win back fans from the "gray zone" of online song-swapping services, the music industry is borrowing a trick from its nemeses: free music downloads.
For one week beginning Thursday, music fans in Europe will be able to download, stream or burn onto their hard drives a selection of tracks from 6,000 artists including Coldplay, Dido and Elvis Presley.

It is part of a marketing ploy called "Digital Download Day" devised by British firm OD2, a technology company specializing in digital music distribution and co-founded by recording artist Peter Gabriel.




Backed by record labels and music retailers, a host of subscription download services have been hatched over the past year to tap into the consumer craze of downloading music.

But the pay-for services are still no match for free download services such as Kazaa and Morpheus MusicCity, which claim tens of millions of users. The major labels blame the availability of free music downloads for a drop in CD sales.

The free download, or peer-to-peer, services brand themselves as "file-sharing" Web sites and do not actively condone downloading copyrighted files such as music or video files.

But the music industry brands the services as pirates and has launched a number of high-profile lawsuits against them, recently claiming the scalp of now-defunct peer-to-peer pioneer Napster.

"We're now facing a marketing challenge," said Ed Averdieck, marketing director for OD2. "We need to show the public that instead of downloading from...one of the file-swapping services, you can download from the legal sites."

OD2 builds subscription music download services for retailers and Web companies. Its clients include ISPs (Internet service providers) Tiscali, Wanadoo and Microsoft's MSN web portal, plus retailer HMV Group.

The company has secured the digital streaming rights to 100,000 songs from a variety of major and independent music labels. It has enlisted some 50 recording labels, including EMI Group and Bertelsmann's BMG, plus its retail and Internet partners to allow consumers to sample the subscription services as part of the marketing initiative.

The program will be open only to European Web users. Consumers who register on one of the six participating sites will get $7.90-worth of digital music to sample or burn.

The Digital Download Day initiative is a change in strategy for the industry. Averdieck, for one, believes taking a tough-talking approach is not nearly as effective as giving consumers the option to try services for free.

"Paying for music has to be a better option...any initiative that helps create that atmosphere is to be welcomed," said Andrew Yeates, director general of the British Phonographic Industry trade group, in a statement.

Lately, the labels have gone on the offensive.

Last week, industry trade group the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said it will air a series of TV ads featuring Britney Spears and Madonna that likens the act of downloading music to stealing.

.
i thought this news a bit relevent to this thread....
its not about them giving back the $$thousands$$ the listening public is due is it i hope...

[pod]

Originally posted by theknife
it's clear that some portion of my 17$ cd purchase would go to support a political, social, and technological agenda that I find entirely unacceptable and even threatening.

Never again

You buy CDRs?