basilrecords.com Blog

The Major Labels are desperate. With their business model withering on the vine, the RIAA is getting greedy. The situation would be laughable, if it wasn’t so sad.
With their real motivation revealed, I guess we can take solace in the fact that this is the beginning of the end.

Rolling Stone recently published a 2 part series on the Fall of the Record Industry:

The Record Industry’s Decline
The Fall of the Record Business: What Next?

What immediately struck me about the first article, was that it sounded like a case study from The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen. This book was published 10 years ago, [...]

The lighting changed, and now the puppet strings are visible. Nothing very surprising on this list. Of course, this only covers RIAA contributions. Check out www.opensecrets.org to see what other Entertainment Lobby money they receive.

EMI learned something interesting recently. Market forces reward companies who listen to their customers.

My father used to say, “The only people that should speak in the third person, are royalty and people with tape-worms.” Apparently, the RIAA and SoundExchange should be added to that list, particularly when they are looking out for the interests of Artists. Of course, the minute the RIAA uses the word “we” [...]

I have followed this story for several years. I personally find it interesting for two reasons:

It is encouraging to see the RIAA get its just deserts.
Ms. Santagelo is from Wappingers Falls, NY and I used to live there in the mid 80’s (small world).

Perhaps the Majors will finally stop their insane war [...]

Unlike the U.S. Senate, some of our Congressmen get it. In particular, Rick Boucher and John Doolittle. They are trying to reverse the tide of the DMCA and its assault on fair-use:

Reps. Boucher and Doolittle Introduce the FAIR USE Act of 2007

As always, the EFF is on top of this:

Support [...]

I recently came across the following 2 stories:

RIAA Petitions Judges to Lower Artist Royalties
Senators aim to restrict Net, satellite radio recording

As an artist and independent content producer, both of these stories disturb me. My concerns include:

The dinosaurs (RIAA and the Majors) are now resorting to changing the existing laws and statutes. This is an [...]