Greedhead Followup
I've been thinking about this a lot since I posted this yesterday about Madonna's lameness.

I can easily see the argument to the contrary that pirating music is stealing, that it does remove money from the artist's pocket, that it does undermine the music industries heavy profit margins and all the other propaganda rammed down our throats since Napster went belly up because of Hillary Rosen and the RIAA.

But all of that's bullshit and they know it.
First off, the taking of money from an artist's pocket shouldn't be applied to someone who's made hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars already. That's just greedy and lame. The argument carries far more import when applied to an up and coming band that needs the income to continue crafting their art. Not for some diva to build another estate.

Second, the RIAA and the record labels have made utterly incomprehensible profits off the labors of the artists they signed to prohibitive contracts when they were poor and needy. Fuck the RIAA, fuck them and their fat cat stupidity for not recognizing that they could have embraced the new paradigm for music. Instead they tried to dig in and showed what kind of true fossils they really are. They're not concerned with artist's rights, they're concerned with stuffing their already overflowing coffers with more illegitimate income generated off other people's efforts.

Third, in Madonna's case, attacking your fans is about the dumbest reaction I can think of. You want to make people look for other sources of musical entertainment? Berate them and make them feel like thieves. Good work. What? You think you're the only game in town? Get over yourself and your fake British accent and your pointy underwear-on-the-outside style.

Fourth, enabling consumers to buy the music they want online (and ONLY the music they want, no filler shit tracks on each CD) will mean that the one's making the music (and not just the contract holders) will get the lion's share of the profits and not the other way around. The people who deserve the money will get the money and fat headed jackasses in the RIAA will have to make do with their millions they've already got.

The paradigm for music delivery has changed. Wake up and join it or flounder on the sidelines with the fossils. Do I still buy CD's? Yes because its the only reliable way to support the bands that I like. Would I prefer to pay them directly and download the music I want? Hell yeah. Cut out the middle man, especially if he's a greedy old white bugger who's already got more money than he could ever spend on ten lifetimes of debauchery. That's part of the reason that I was so excited about the prospect of Steve Jobs getting into the music industry fray. But it was just a rumor that smacked Apple's stock down a few notches.

By the way, I'm very much looking forward to the first remixes of Madonna's mp3 rant. And I love the fact that technology can be turned against anyone no matter who they are or who they think they are.