...Or take author Mercedes Lackey, who occupies entire shelves in stores and libraries. As she said herself: "For the past ten years, my three "Arrows" books, which were published by DAW about 15 years ago, have been generating a nice, steady royalty check per pay-period each. A reasonable amount, for fifteen-year-old books. However... I just got the first half of my DAW royalties...And suddenly, out of nowhere, each Arrows book has paid me three times the normal amount!...And the only change during that pay-period was that I had Eric put the first of my books on the Free Library. There's an increase in all of the books on that statement, actually, and what it looks like is what I'd expect to happen if a steady line of people who'd never read my stuff encountered it on the Free Library - a certain percentage of them liked it, and started to work through my backlist, beginning with the earliest books published. The really interesting thing is, of course, that these aren't Baen books, they're DAW---another publisher---so it's 'name loyalty' rather than 'brand loyalty.' I'll tell you what, I'm sold. Free works." I've found that to be true myself; every time we make a few songs available on my website, sales of all the CDs go up. A lot.
Public Enemy released their album "There's a Poison' Going On" online before releasing it in stores. Including the controversial single 'Swindler's Lust'.
A group with that much power, influence, and the money to buy more of it isn't about to "go under" antime soon.
The people of the U.S.S.R thought the same thing.
Oh sure, I see the similarities between a lobbying group and an entire country. Never mind the meaningless details such as economics, geopolitical politics, cultures, the dynamics of world history, etc. Wait, quiet!, is that a logical fallacy I hear somewhere of in the distance?
This is what is scaring the piss out of the RIAA. If this ever becomes commonplace the RIAA is going to go under in a big way. :lol:
*holds up a bottle of rootbeer * here's to the day I can dance on the ashes of the RIAA. :twisted: Sadistic bast....
Huh??? Some wishful thinking I'm afraid. A group with that much power, influence, and the money to buy more of it isn't about to "go under" antime soon. On the plus side however it could cause them rethink their model.
However you think the likelyhood of it happening, it seems clear to me that is something they are deathly afraid of.
Picture it... what would happne when the first singer or band breaks it big with NO support at all from a recording company?
Jane Siberry went web-solo a few years back. I've lost touch a bit with how it's gone... but her site is still up and running. Heavy on the page-load time though, not exactly PPC-friendly. But I have 8 of her albums, going back to long before 'Mimi on the Beach', her 'new wave' mainstream hit of the mid-'80's. She's a phenominal poet, storyteller, and very groovy arranger, with a voice to rival most anyone's. http://www.janesiberry.ca/
Hey, this is the beginnings of quite a handy resource. Someone with some savvy and resources ought to paste together a little indies compendium site, a sort of 'green' music shopping place, but not selling anything, just linking to all the great artists who are flipping the megalyths the bird. Um, but not me. I'm broke and too busy trying not to go to jail for it...
This is what is scaring the piss out of the RIAA. If this ever becomes commonplace the RIAA is going to go under in a big way. :lol:
*holds up a bottle of rootbeer * here's to the day I can dance on the ashes of the RIAA. :twisted: Sadistic bast....
Huh??? Some wishful thinking I'm afraid. A group with that much power, influence, and the money to buy more of it isn't about to "go under" antime soon. On the plus side however it could cause them rethink their model.
Only in the sense that Jonathan stated it in very black and white terms, but it's not unthinkable. History is littered with the bones of once-powerful and influential companies. The RIAA is certainly frightened of major changes in the market that leave them exposed to a significant loss of control over the industry.
Will they disappear? Well that's up to them. Most likely, they will do exactly what you've said, but they haven't so far and it's not yet certain that they will. One thing is certain though, the market is changing and they will either have to adapt to it or perish. In either case, they will lose some influence.
Still, there is a need for the service they provide. Consumers will not go to thousands of web sites of wannabe musicians to screen out the garbage from the gems. (Same will apply to ebooks.) People still need/want someone to help them decide who they should consider listening to. My prediction is that it will take a different form than the current model (perhaps consumer-based evaluation) and that the RIAA will be right in the middle of it, but that the power of independent artists will significantly increase and effectively break their stranglehold on the industry. That would mean higher royalties to musicians, a smaller cut for the RIAA and more choices for consumers.
I'm a big fan of the late Harry Nilsson ('Without You' was his #1 hit in 1971). A tribute album, released in 1995, contained Aimee Mann singing the song 'One' (a mellow version of the #1 hit for Three Dog Night in the late 60s). Definitely one of the high points on the album...
We need a directory of artists who are selling their own stuff via the web. I would much rather support them directly, but I need to know where to start.
BTW, Janis Ian has written a couple of great articles on this topic that are worth reading if you haven't already.
also...
* here's to the day I can dance on the ashes of the RIAA. :twisted: Sadistic bast....
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