I just happend to catch this MTV news segment the other day, its was about the JAYZ grey album, it basically was telling about how 100,000 people downloaded this album on FEB 24th and told about cease and desist orders from Labels owning rights to the Beatles music, and of course it then had commentary from 3 kids who responsible for the whole downloading thing and ignored the cease and desist orders. Now dont get wrong, Im not a fan of labels at all, I am however tired of these college campus kids who do nothing but download, trade, and all this other bullshit and then make it seem like they are making a stand. The kids who were responsible for this download are saying they are the Victims and LABELS are just trying to shut em down even though they arent losing anything. Well once again I am not on the Label side but these kids dont GET IT. Sure 100,000 people downloaded it, OK, thats cool, for free, OK thats cool, I guess, BUT I have seen this GREY ALBUM CD for sale Everywhere Bootlegs are found, which is about every street vendor here in NYC, So MONEY is being Made and Im sure the artists are not seeing a penny of that. Sure the BEATLES have tons of Money, thats NOT the point, and that is a stupid statement for someone to make. Its just the Idea of IT that these "campus kids" dont get, I know there stand is that WE should be able to hear the music and trade for free but honestly most of these people arent buying the CDS they are just looking for a way not to have to pay for Music, and they HIDE behind the statement that they are against LABELS blah blah blah. OK so lets SAY these people who are AGAINST Labels and feel they are ripping the consumers off, lets say THERE ARE NO MORE LABELS, and U have to get your music DIRECT from the Artist, through WEBSITES, Stores, or mail Order, and Downloading is not possible anymore, do U think they will be like "oh cool no more labels" now the artist can get the money, no they wont. Now i have heard some people say that this whole TAPING and stuff has been going on since the days of Albums, things like Home taping and stuff like that, are U fucking crazy, sure people were taping albums back in the 70's and 80's but back then the Technology didnt exist like today, back then it took 45 minutes to tape a 45 minute album, today U can burn a 45 minute CD in about 5 minutes, come on lets get real already.

Record labels go to an artist that will make them money. The more the ripping off happens online, the more quality of artists will diminish. It is not the quality of music, it is whether or not that artist will sell records. Right now record labels are taking the safe route. If you don't think the bootlegging affects what is being churned out you are sadly mistaken.

The catchier the hook, the simpler the tune, the more the general public gravitates too. It's ten fold today.... But...the recording industry needs to find a different avenue to make money. Man, record labels are firing staff and folding because of this

Free the Music.

AFAI'm Concerned:

Musicians should only be making money off of concert sales and endorsements.

CDs should be free to everybody.

What?

Why don't some label off a up a few million and release this damn thing! Pay off the Beatles and Jay-Z. The demand is out there.

actually, if the person who created the "grey album" had the money he could defind himself by claiming the album is a parody.....a top copyright lawyer said such on npr a few weeks back...

id love to hear a lawyer comment on this...MATT? MATT?

lastdecember said:

let me ask you this, in general:
-do you think cd's are expensive goods?
-what do you think it costs the recordlabel to produce and promote these goods?
-do you think the kind of money they make on selling these records is fair?

of course the download-mania affects recordsales. but it didn't start for a reason. records have always been overpriced in my opinion. but over the past five years it has gone from bad to worse. therefor, people went to look for a cheaper alternative. this IS getting out of hand though, i agree. but i find myself participating in it too. i'm not proud of it though. it's just extremely tempting.
the only way i will cease from downloading is when labels start focussing more on qualitycontrol. control the quality of your output and people will be more willing to pay for your products. in most cases the balance between price and quality is way off at the moment.

about dj danger mouse, i don't think he feels ripped off. dude couldn't be more happy. he's getting the best free publicity there is. from a "nobody" he's been turned into a well-known dj. and for something that couldn't have been realized legally. do you really think people will cooperate in releasing his 'grey album' legally/commercially? the licensees will never give up all of the rights i'm sure. and recordlabels will never help fund the costs for these rights. you know how much that would cost? a fortune, let me tell you.

i'm sorry but you can albums very cheap these days.
gone are the days when albums cost £15.99
i pay half of that for my albums now.

the excuse is .....cos they can. hell i've downloaded stuff before. but then if i like it i buy the original cd.

record labels are folding cos the profits are not as great anymore....but they still making big profits.

downloading will affect the artists directly.

i don't think ppl give a shit about the artists when they download for free.

lastdecember said:

I think it is really hard for a teenager, let alone any middle class person, to see JayZ or the remaining Beatles, or Record Label Execs for that matter, as poor helpless victims. In other words, if some creative people want to juxtapose two very different albums into an amusing creation, and share it for free with others, enjoy it for what its worth and get over it.

If they were trying to sell it, I would see a reasonable argument. But I have zero sypathy for these recording artists when they are rolling around in 100s of Millions of dollars. They have been more than compensated for their 2 or 3 months in the studio.

It rubs even more salt in the wound when absurdly greedy record labels, wanna milk every last dollar out of it.

purpleone said:

Well i agree with you, LABELS need quality control, but the problem is the way the industry works. Talent is not really important anymore, most artists coming out have that "one" hook to reel people in and sell a million copies and then its on to the next person. Another group to blame is MTV, basically because it gets PAID to play what it plays and the same goes for DJ's at radio stations, they are given a list and they jam it down the throats of people. Just take a look at the Top 10 songs we have right now in america, it constantly stays the same, they are songs that are on the charts for almost a year, that kind of think never went on like that, songs were luckily if they charted for 20-30 weeks, now they run around 40-50. Variety is gone in music, everything is aimed at a certain group and type of person and marketers try to cash in on that. The problem is that alot of TALENT gets lost in the shuffle, a good example of this would be a band like the JAYHAWKS, now they have been around since 1989, they have a loyal following and they are a band that a LABEL back in the 70's would be right behind. But in these days that is not true, The JAYHAWKS were just dropped again from their new Label, after they were dropped from SONY their other new label, basically because they sold about 150,000 copies of their latest album, now obviously that is considered a BOMB but really is it.

Tom said:

You see this is where i disagree, true i could care less about Labels, basically because they Rape their artists of everything and VERY few make anything off of what they sell. But the attitude cant be "oh the Beatles have money" or "jayz already got paid". The point is no one should be making money off the Beatles but the Beatles, and the same goes for Jay z, thats the reason they got to where they have, now just look at other artists who DONT make a fraction of what those two artists make and how they get ripped off and at the end of a year they end up with hardly anything. We seem to believe that ALL artists get paid, but really about 10 percent GET PAID and when I say get paid I mean royalities and recording contracts, alot of them who are in bands that sell about 100,000 records make about that much a year and most of them make much less. And for the record this GREY album that was downloaded for free was also all over the streets and bought by many JAY Z fans so money was made by someone and thats the point, someone is getting paid for doing nothing.

jAY-z released the album without music tracks so that his fans could experiment with it.This is all.It';s a very cool thing that has blown out of proportion.danger Mouse made a great album that I have been listening to every day.He isn't selling it.He just experimented and then others took it the next step.Jay_Z and Danger Mouse are cool for this.If EMI or Mi9chael Jax were wise,they'd grant Danger MOuse permission and work with him to release officially,in conjunction with Jay_Z,of course and show that a creativity is still alive.It would be an all winning scenario for everyone.I would still buy the officiual version for the artwork and top quality sound.