The Real Music Pirates…Rogues

As many of you already know, we actually like being called pirates, and we (some of us) make no secret about downloading copyrighted works  as a form of civil disobedience. But want to know who the real rogues of the music business are? Some of you are going to be surprised!!!!!

Personally, we like Spotify.. and since scoring a couple of free accounts for all of us at eZee, we have hardly downloaded any (copyrighted) music (illegally) from the internet via uTorrent or Frostwire, simply because Spotify is a pretty good alternative and being geeks we are mostly in front of our monitors – streaming suits us. Don’t get me wrong, we have the piracy gene running strong in our blood now, so we do occasionally rip music directly from Spotify using Wiretap Pro (Mac) or a host of other softwares when on the PC.
Hint to the music and film industries: Good alternatives at fair pricing will crush piracy, trying to clamp down on us or control us the way you did in the 80’s and 90’s will just get you more p-ed off consumers turning to uTorrent and sharing networks like Frostwire.
For those of you using utorrent and / or Frostwire we cannot stress this enough, use a VPN no matter if you are in fascist controlled (3 strikes) France, crazy Korea or… god-kill-the-queen Britain.

But what happens when the major labels enter any good idea?
1. They screw it up royally
2. They screw the public
3. They screw the artists

Here’s a perfect example:

(Commercial) Piracy is without a doubt, truly evil. It doesn’t help the artists, it robs them of their rightful revenue and is such a poor basis for a business model, it’s unworthy of consideration. Of course, new streaming sites are miles better, offering a legal way to listen to free music. Hmm – Lady Gaga got a million plays on Spotify and earned $167.

In August, Swedish artist and composer Magnus Uggla launched a scathing attack on the owners of Spotify. After discovering that Sony BMG is a shareholder and receiving virtually no cash from his music being played there, he withdrew his tracks from the service and stormed away, declaring controversially: “I’d rather be raped by The Pirate Bay.”

Nevertheless, Uggla insisted that Spotify is a fantastic service with a great range of music to sample. However, he felt that the fact he wasn’t getting paid was the fault of the major labels involved in the project (Sony BMG bought 5.8% of Spotify for 2,935 Euros, Universal Music got 4.8% for 2,446 euros, Warner Music paid 1,957 Euros for 3.8% and EMI pocketed 1.9% for an investment of 980 Euros), claiming that he “earned as much in six months as a BUSKER could earn in a day.”

As the dust settled on the story, many non-Swedish readers were saying “Magnus who?” and wondering if this artist’s lack of mainstream popularity was the real reason behind him earning virtually nothing. But what about big artists? What about really, really big artists with huge international appeal. Say, an artist like Lady Gaga, who has sold more than 4 million albums and shifted in excess of 20 million paid digital downloads?

According to a report today, Lady Gaga’s track “Poker Face” was one of the most popular tracks during a five month period on Spotify and was played more than a million times. So how much money does she get paid by STIM (the Swedish Performing Rights Society) for this massive achievement?

SEK 1150 – that’s around $167 or roughly 113 Euros.

Commenting on the story, Douglas Léon, better known as Swedish rapper Dogge Doggelito, said he was dismayed.

“It is totally sick. We musicians have no rights, you may not charge [for music] anymore,” adding that Lady Gaga could’ve earned more driving an illegal taxi-cab.

Swedish artist, music producer and philosopher Alexander Bard, however, said that this payment was better than Lady Gaga would have achieved from her music being available via The Pirate Bay, noting that the amount was “…more than zero.”

Technically Bard is absolutely right, but let’s be honest – Lady Gaga would blow the money she earned from STIM in a 20 minute hotel mini-bar bender. Looking at the overall downloads, let’s face it, per track she earned pretty much near to nothing from both services.

While Spotify is to be commended for having the guts to try something new, for providing a truly wonderful service and for having achieved such a lot technically in a such a short space of time, one can’t help but wonder if it is ever going to bring in decent money for the artists.

After all, aren’t these the very people the music industry continually holds up as the important ones to encourage, nurture and support?

Read the rest of the article on TF

While these may be the very people the industry’s supposed to support.. that’s actually very FAR from what they do…

Related posts:

1. One Shot Answer For The Music Industry? NOOOPE!
2. Music Industry Going Back To Basics – Trying To Bribe Their Way Through (UPDATED 2)
3. Legit Game Buyers Penalised – Pirates Uneffected. (UPDATED)
4. Music Industry: Too Greedy For Own Good (Whats new?)
5. Pirates Don’t Screw The Artists, Labels Screw The Artists
6. Insects (Beetles) Squeezing The Parasites (Music Labels!)
7. The Real Pirates Are The Anti-Pirate Organizations!