What's wrong with the Music Biz?

Lets say you have a problem. You run a company and people want what you make SO DAMN MUCH that they can not wait to get their hands on it. They want it so much that they will stay awake all night trying to find it. And you as head of your company, think that this a problem and you have to put a stop to this!

Recent talk from the head of major record labels (you know the folks that control almost 80% of all recorded music worldwide and believe that we all want to dance at the club or look like perpetual teenagers) and the Recording Industry Association of America is that the Family Entertainment Act is a good thing because it will stop all of those wascally wabbits who want to listen, see, and experience music and film.

And of course, this must be bad because only the corporations know what we want, when we want it, and how we want it delivered to us; especially if that delivery system makes the company money. Doesn't matter if that is the way we want it or even if its what we really want to hear.

Enter the FECA. How many of us have been paying attention?

The Family Entertainment And Copyright Act is primarily about fining people for distributing product before it's released.

Now think about this for a moment. Just a moment, please. Is this really a serious problem for the industry? So many people want what you are offering that they can not -- NOT -- wait to get it. They rack their minds trying to come up with ways to get to it.

People will spend hours, days, even longer searching the Internet looking for what they want. Looking for that one song that they can't get out of their heads. Looking for that emotion that they cannot live without. And this is all supposed to be bad? Bad for the industry? Huh? Have we crossed over into some strange George W. Bush universe where wrong is right and down is up?

Wow, the level of demand is simply incredible. Yet instead of trying to satisfy that demand, the industry is fighting it. Only in the we-must-control-everything world of the music industry would penalizing its most loyal and dedicated fans make sense. These dedicated fans are fined to the tune of a $250,000 and/or five years in prison just for the first offense. That's right the very first offense! And, as we all have read and heard, age is no defense against criminal prosecution!

As a friend of mine in radio put it:

Think about it, you're better off going to Tower or Best Buy and STEALING TONS OF PRODUCT, the ultimate penalty would be MUCH LESS! I mean make the time fit the crime. What kind of world do we live in where we try to legislate behavior with INSANE penalties. Maybe the BEHAVIOR should be looked at and the law should be modified to fit REALITY!

Good point. Its not P2P, Podcasting, and other trading posts that are the problem, its the industry itself.

Learn more about the The Family Entertainment And Copyright Act.

Or read about it.
Or here.

And the lapdogs in the Congress.