Luxagraf

Before I get started, I have several sort of general purpose warnings for the casual reader: first, while I have downloaded some music in my day, I am not regular user of file sharing networks. Second, before you think this makes me some upstanding citizen let me add that I have copied a fair number of cds in my day. I have probably downloaded about 20 songs on my life and I have probably copied about 50 cds. Just to get that out of the way. Now on to the good stuff…

As you probably know the RIAA is making good on their bluff to go after individuals sharing copyrighted material over networks, and according to CNET the timing of these subpoenas is not without reason. What we are witnessing is a calculated attempt to cause harm to a company’s own customer base, which, regardless of the legal rights and wrongs can never do positive things for the company. If nothing else they look like the-biggest-asshole-on-the -planet, and create nightmare for public relations folks. But that’s not what irks me. I already know the major labels have their heads up their collective asses, just look at the bands they sign… No what disturbs me is two-fold. First the invasion of privacy necessarily to obtain the names of suspected file sharers. I won’t get into this issue. If you’re concerned, I encourage you to visit and possibly even support the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I’m confining myself to something more abstract, which is the notion of copyright and why I think the music industry and the culture it fans is, well, to put it simply: fucked up. And here I have to add a couple of more caveats. One, I do not count music as a primary source of income. Two, I do however have many friends who do and its worth pointing out that many of my friends have kindly, graciously and very enthusiastically chosen to make their music freely available on my other web site. Now why would they do that? I have two theories on this: they love music and they aren’t greedy people. The future of music lies in the same place as the future of software: open source. For software and how open source works try google. As for music, I’ll get there.

Music, and especially rock music, is going back where it came from: community. When I was younger the bands I listened it were tiny little punk bands, many of which were put out by (then) tiny labels like discord, revelation, hibtone and many others whose names have been lost through the years. But the reasons I listened to this music had very little to do with the labels or the magazines that advertised the bands and labels. It had more to do with the guy behind the counter at the record store and slightly intimidating tattooed folks hovering over the counter. I listened to them. And I listened to records they liked. We listened together on the stores stereo. And I doing so, by the letter of the law, we violated the bands copyright protection. We gave public broadcasts of the songs which is not legal, at least not legal without then reaching into our pockets and forking over some cash. Of course the bands we listened to weren’t involved with RIAA, but more importantly they would have loved to know that we were sitting around listening to their songs, dissecting their lyrics and learning their riffs on the beatup strat in the back room. Sometimes they were their, and they played things that hadn’t been released yet and we talked out the music and the lyrics and the shows and things were very relaxed and a loose sort of community formed in record stores. And I know that noise noise noise and vinyl solution weren’t the only places that this went on. Nor were we the first.

I’m no expert in jazz history, but like to see Miles Davis stopping into a record store in 1967 with a new seven inch from some sessions with Quincy. And I like to see beethoven down at the local pub trying out a few crescendos after hours. Music has that natural organic quality that can’t help but draw you in like that. I have seen some bands whose music made me want to vomit, but for one reason or another drew me in to the spirit of a shared experience. And its tempting to be cynical when we find a state of affairs like we have today with the RIAA, but I’m not giving in. I believe there is a solution that not only makes the artists happy and allows them to continue to producing the music we love, but to make a living doing it. And at the same time allows us the enjoy the music in any format we want, without having to resort to magic markers and electrical tape to get cds to play in our computers.

I propose a number of things: first, give back to the people who make the music you love. You love it. It brings you joy. Allow the people who create it to be able to live decent lifestyles and continue to make more music that you love. But by all means post it to every files sharing network on earth so that the rest of us can find out about it too. That way we can download it. Listen. And decide if it move us to go out and buy it. I might be showing my age here, but there is something far more magical about unwrapping a new record and throwing it on for the first time than downloading it from a network. In days of yore I would by a record because of a song or two, but I would always start it at the beginning to see how the entire thing fit together, to see what sort of interconnections existed between the songs I knew and the songs I didn’t. I suppose suggesting that everyone pay for the music they love could be seen as a naive solution, but I believe that the solution is always in the hands of the people, and if you want to be cynical then be so, but I fail to see what you gain. I believe that people want to do that right thing for others and I don’t think abandoning that belief is going to make me or anyone else a better person.

To be continued…