Tag Archives: zoe keating

Band Quiet Company says Internet Has Made Things Worse for Artists “New Boss is Worse Than Old Boss”

A decade into the snake oil and lies of the empowered internet musician the truth bares itself out over and over again. In a recent case study the band Quiet Company said of their promotional experiment with Grooveshark in an interview with Digital Trends,

“I think for years now, as far as back as [Quiet Company] has been together, people have been talking about how different the music industry is and how the Internet has changed everything and how we’re all looking for a new model.”

“After everything, I’m not sure there is a new model. The old model is still the model, it’s just that the Internet made it way worse.”

We’re not surprised in the least as we’ve previously noted how Grooveshark’s infringement based business model could easily be described as “Notice and Shakedown.” Even tech progressive artists such as Zoë Keating have struggled with the service. Zoë could not get her music removed from the site after issuing at least six DMCA notices to Grooveshark.

So it’s strange to us despite there being near universal agreement on just how bad this service is for artists that some people still don’t get it. Of course these always seem to be the same people that defend every other service that rips off musicians and pays them nothing like The Pirate Bay.

One tech blog actually said after the Pirate Bay verdict, “The folks this will hurt the most are those content creators who actually do value The Pirate Bay.” But we doubt that as it’s not like there aren’t tons opportunities for artists to give away their work willing, with consent, should they so chose. What we find most disturbing is why the choice of consent to give away one’s work should be forcefully take from them by companies who are profiting from advertising revenue?

It’s all pretty simple. Artists need to get paid and so many of these so called “new models” seem to be built on the “new model” of not paying artists anything at all, or next to nothing at all. Again, from Digital Trends,

But now the contract is up and not being renewed, because – you guessed it – a monetization strategy couldn’t be found for Grooveshark. “We were the test monkeys,” says Osbon.

Once again we see that The New Boss is Worse Than The Old Boss, indeed. We’re not surprised, we know there’s a lot of money being made on the internet in music distribution, it’s just not being “shared” with musicians. So once again we ask where are all of these self empowered, independent new middle class musicians? The answer is, like most things where the truth is self evident, they just don’t exist.

Zoë Keating’s Request for Internet Transparency met w/ usual Hypocrisy

We’ve been following Zoë Keating’s blog for a while. Zoë represents (figuratively, not literally) a new generation of musicians whose careers have only really existed in the post-internet, pro-piracy environment. As such, the perspective of these artists who have little experience in the world prior to optional payment and virtually no artist control over the distribution of their work is somewhat different from those who have inhabited both environments.

We celebrate the Zoë Keatings of the world for their undying tenacity in their efforts to navigate the current music industry without having had the benefit of the pre-piracy era. Zoë’s made a few excellent observations and suggestions. One recent post has been to ponder the creation of a new artists rights coalition to represent the needs of contemporary indie and DIY artists. Another post has been soul searching on what might be the fair way to set appropriate royalty rates across the various terrestrial, satellite and internet streaming radio platforms.

But it is one of Zoë’s most recent posts which has really caught our attention, as Zoë has been “slashdotted” just for asking for transparency and data sharing from the internet companies profiting from the artists work.

In the case of a service like Pandora, when someone has taken the time to create a station around my music or given my songs a “thumbs up”… I’d rather know where in the world those particular listeners are than be paid the $0.0011 per play that is currently required by law. That was my point.

Now, we don’t think this should have to be a choice, and we think Zoë has an excellent point, especially given that the Declaration Of Internet Freedom specifically states transparency as one if it’s principles.

Declaration of Internet Freedom

We stand for a free and open Internet.

We support transparent and participatory processes for making Internet policy and the establishment of five basic principles:

Expression: Don’t censor the Internet.

Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.

Openness: Keep the Internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate.

Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don’t block new technologies, and don’t punish innovators for their users’ actions.

Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone’s ability to control how their data and devices are used.

As with many things we’ve seen from the tech sector, there always seems to be selective reasoning when it comes to them actually adhering to their own principles. This from the same people who want permissionless innovation, up and until, you are not asking them for permission as Google is illustrating with Doogle.

Of course the double standard and irrationality of the freehadist hive mind doesn’t stop there. Among the comments posted, this one is indicative of the faulty logic and thinking expressed by so many of the anti-artist maximalists.

“She got money, I got music. There was no agreement to get my data. 0% is hers.”

The point that should be emphasized is that there was no agreement period. Pandora gets a compulsory license. It gets the benefit of a “one-stop shop” for all sound recordings so long as it pays the rates, no questions asked. Congress took away from Zoe Keating the choice to make that agreement. So it’s also perfectly valid to say that Pandora should also turn over some data to artists in exchange for that – especially if the consumer is (and should be) given the choice to opt-in.

We are pro-choice and respect consent, and we believe that the internet and tech community should also as well.

Weekly Recap Sunday Nov 4, 2012

Grab the Coffee!

Recent Posts:
* Techdirt Is A Never Ending “Dumb Off”
* Untruth in Advertising: Pandora’s Misleading Plea To Listeners On Behalf Of The Internet Radio “Fairness” Act.
* Mellencamp Character Assassination. The New Republic Bravely Stands Up For Corporations and Criminal Groups That Exploit Artists.

From Around The Web:

Ars Technica
- Artist who sued Twitter over copyright declares victory—via settlement
- The Russian underground economy has democratized cybercrime
- Google settles Rosetta Stone lawsuit, its last major dispute over AdWords

Copyhype
- Friday’s Endnotes – 11/02/12

Music Producer Tunnidge via Facebook
- Tunnidge Facebook Post
“I am going to try and be as obvious as possible. Without being able to make money from our music it effects greatly our ability to make the music, more often it stops us.”

Vox Indie
- Where’s Our Outrage When Internet “Free Speech” is Really Under Attack?
- Blogspot.com, a Bridge to Piracy?

The Illusion Of More
- On Letting Foxes Mind Chicken Coops

The Register UK
- The Big Debate: OK gloomsters, how can the music biz be FIXED?

Zoe Keating
- Towards a manifesto
“We can’t just hope that the interests of music and technology companies will always magically align with ours. We have to participate in the process. Otherwise, we just have to accept that anachronistic legislation, policies and deals will continue to be written without our input. We need public policy that reflects us. We need fair royalty schemes. We need companies to build our interests into their business models.”

Popup Pirates
- Theft is not “Free Speech”

Music Tech Policy
- Mellencamp Is Right, Brand-Supported Piracy Screws Songwriters AGAIN: Snakes in the Grass, @McDonalds, Google and Other Species of Vermin

Digital Music News
- It Gets Worse: Pandora Executives Have Dumped $63 Million In Stock In the Last Year…
- 13 Extremely Scary Things About the Music Industry Today…

Tape Op
- ON SPOTIFY (AND WHY I’M NOT A CONSPIRACY THEORIST AFTER ALL)

Copyright Alliance
- AN INVITATION TO FREE INTERNET ADVOCATES TO JOIN US
“Without free speech, copyright protection is meaningless. The two rights are critical to artists and combined have proven to be a powerful force for social justice around the world. That is why we consistently and openly advocate for a fair and open internet that champions free speech as well as respect for authorship.”

Torrent Freak
- Piracy Topsite Operators Handed Suspended Jail Sentences
- IMAGiNE BitTorrent Piracy Group Members Jailed
- BitTorrent Pirate Ordered to Pay $1.5 Million Damages For Sharing 10 Movies
- Link ‘Pirate’ Sentenced to Pay $13,000 to NBA, NFL, NHL, WWE and TNA

AdLand
- The trouble with Adsense – abusive porn ads on The Star news site [NSFW]

Musician’s POV: Five Things Spotify (and others) Could Do Today to Level the Playing Field for Independent Artists

We’ve talked about piracy, but now let’s change that conversation to talk about the “New Boss” licensed services.  One of the problems for artists selling their music, films or books in the legitimate digital space is getting a fair deal from the New Boss distributors.  And that is exactly what they are–digital distribution requires artists and labels to outsource what are essentially manufacturing and distribution functions.

That’s fine if it creates efficiencies, but what it also has done is create a huge dodge for the “New Boss” who tries to say that any problems that artists have with them is a problem with the “Old Boss” who made the deal the artists don’t like.

That gloss doesn’t work for independent artists, though, because there is no “Old Boss” to point the finger at.  Even if there were, the Old Boss is usually a union signatory under a collective bargaining agreement that allows a negotiation team to air grievances directly with the labels.  That doesn’t happen with the New Boss.  There’s a reason why Senator Rockefeller said that the big tech companies (pretty clearly meaning you know who) were worse than the monopolist Standard Oil (which was run by John D. Rockefeller, Senator Rockefeller’s great grandfather).

As far as we know, there is no New Boss who is a union signatory.  In fact, the old joke goes that tech companies know so little about unions that they think collective bargaining is venture capitalists setting a target’s valuation.   For example–YouTube refuses to be audited by independent publishers.  That would never happen at a record company–they might take an edge in other ways, but if they ever denied an audit right there would be a revolt.  In fact, the New York Attorney General sued major labels over “unclaimed” royalties and California has laws about transparency in record company statements thanks to Don Henley.  The sheer indifference and arrogance from the New Boss companies is startling and leads to one answer–they do it because they can get away with it.  And nothing says Internet Freedom like getting away with it, right?

Nowhere is this indifference to artists more apparent than in subscription services.  (We have some thoughts on a la carte download services, too, but that’s a subject for another day.)

We tried to think of five things that Spotify (and their competitors in the subscription business) could do today to level the playing field for independent artists.  These are things that wouldn’t cost them much, but that would be very helpful to artists making less than say $2500 a year from the service.  Leave a comment if you have other ideas or if you disagree.  (And you’re welcome, Spotify, Rhapsody, Napster, Google this is free market research for you.)

1.  Remember, nobody ever negotiated royalty terms with independent artists, it was just presented as take it or leave it.  Make the royalty rate more fair and transparent in two ways:  First, stop deducting out of pocket costs for advertising sales commissions (and all other advertising-related costs) off the top from independent artists.  Spotify and the others shoud eat those costs out of their revenue share rather than making independent artists bear 50% of these costs.  Second, pay artists a per-stream minimum across all your products.

2.  Spotify can start linking from Spotify’s internal artist profile page to places that actually might help the artist, like artist websites or tour information.  As Zoë Keating said “I wish Spotify would do more to facilitate the connection between listeners and artists — i.e show that the artist is playing nearby, or add links to buy music.”  We think she’s got a great point and we’re sure that most artists would be happy to reciprocate with a link to Spotify.

3.  Promise to pay each independent artist on the service a fixed amount of money as a bonus if Spotify goes public or is sold.  $5,000 each sounds good to us, and if Spotify has a $1 billion valuation now…. They will certainly be able to afford it if their valuation is high enough for a firm commitment underwriting (aka IPO).  This promise will not cost Spotify anything right now and won’t slow down its growth–which seems to be the most important thing to Daniel Ek.   Spotify would only pay it at the liquidity event, i.e., when they have the money.  Remember–sharing is caring.

4.  Let independent artists sign up for Spotify for free.  Either give the artists access to upload their music, or cover the costs of forcing artists to use an aggregator by grossing up their royalty split.  Please don’t charge us to make you rich.

5.  Contribute something to music education foundations, like Instruments A Comin’ (Tipitina’s Foundation) or to a musicians health care organization like the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians.  Would this really be so hard?  Start with 1% of revenue, even 1/2% of revenues.  And please don’t set up your own charity so you can have parties and give yourselves awards every year.  We already have those.  Save the money on the back patting and give it to people who are already doing the good works.  It would make a big difference in the lives of the next generation of artists and to families.  Good PR for Spotify, too, you could use some.

It feels good to do some good.  If that’s not enough reason, think of it as preserving your supply chain.

Grooveshark On The Hook : Notice and Shakedown

We salute Tunecore CEO Jeff Price who recently called for a boycott of Grooveshark on his company Blog. This after a series of articles from varied and respected media outlets such as Digital Music News, Hypebot, Billboard, and others who have been reporting on Grooveshark’s unethical practices against artists and the resulting lawsuit by the major labels.

But this isn’t just about major labels, it’s also about indie artists and labels who have been victim to Grooveshark’s practices for years. Just one example is from Helienne Lindvall who detailed her attempts to have her music removed from the site in painstaking detail, to no avail. Later we’ll show how other artists and labels experience is exactly the same as hers.

Grooveshark illustrates the failing of the DMCA by creating an incentive to build a business on infringement. Previously YouTube did it and that practice is now at the center of the recently appealed, billion dollar lawsuit with Viacom. At the heart of the matter is ethics.

The DMCA was designed to protect Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from liability if they had no knowledge of infringing material. The DMCA was also designed to provide protection for artists to have their work removed from an ISP (website, etc) if it was discovered to be there. In other words, the DMCA was drafted to give a little latitude to reasonable people acting reasonably and to empower artists to protect their rights without having to file a federal copyright lawsuit.

Grooveshark, like YouTube before it, has exploited this loophole in an attempt to build a business on infringement. The attraction of this business model is substantial as there are no licenses, fees or negotiations and no artist royalty payments, ever. All they have to do is plead ignorance, and wait for the DMCA notices to come in. And, once the notices come in, just wait for another user to upload the same material again. And so it goes on and on; the DMCA dance of death until artists are too exhausted or broke to continue.

The really insidious part of the Grooveshark model is representative of the old saying, “It’s better to ask for forgiveness later, than to ask for permission.” This is also known as “negotiation via lawsuit.” Grooveshark’s strategy appears to be: lure in artists as they seek to have their illegally exploited work removed, and then try to get the artist to sign a license agreement. This heavy handed approach has been aptly titled, “Notice and Shakedown.” Thankfully, a lot of artists are smart enough to question such shady practices.

We know of at least one indie label who when they contacted Grooveshark to take down offending material were met with the smarmy onslaught and the hard sell.  You can see the pitch here in the first sentence of a DMCA query on the site.

http://help.grooveshark.com/customer/portal/articles/302472-your-music-on-grooveshark

“If your music was posted up without your permission and you’d like to have it removed, please click here to access our DMCA takedown form — we highly recommend, however, that you contact us first to talk about ways that Grooveshark can fairly compensate you for your music!”

Ah, yeah right. Exploit my work, then try to negotiate with me (using fuzzy math based on Spotify model) about how much you are not going to pay! At least Spotify is legal, and I can actually remove my titles. But it doesn’t end there.

“You have full control over all songs in music catalogue. This includes the option of removing them all together. It only takes a minute just follow these steps:”

Uh, yeah, ok, but keep in mind at this point, Grooveshark is only helping me to “manage my catalog” which just happens to be on the site illegally. Also removing the songs via their “rights management” system avoids a DMCA takedown. The entire set up of Grooveshark is to engage artists and content owners in a conversation to negotiate with Grooveshark, on Grooveshark’s terms because guess what, they already have your music illegally, and they’re not paying you. But wait there’s more…

“Currently, songs can only be removed one at a time – we’re sorry if this is an inconvenience. Please let us know if you need any help along the way”

Yes, you can help me. You can remove my catalog from your site that I didn’t give you permission to profit from by monetizing it against advertising. And the way to do that is to click on the DMCA form for a proper take down. Of course, you’d hope this would be the case, but unfortunately not so as witnessed by this report on Digital Music News from famed guitar legend Robert Fripp which is nearly identical to that of Helienne Lindvall. Even classical indie artist Zoe Keating could not get her music removed from the site after issuing at least six DMCA notices to Grooveshark.

As if all this we’re not bad enough CNET reported on internal emails that show how Grooveshark was intentionally using the illegal exploitation of artists work as the basis for it’s business model. Unfortunately, not everyone sees this practice as deceitful and unethical; TechDirt has rallied to support Grooveshark despite serious complaints dating back to 2009 by indie label DashGo.

Ultimately we’re encouraged that one of the things the internet is really good at is sharing information. As more artists become educated about their rights, and how they are being exploited, we can see that they are speaking out against these unethical attacks to their livelihood.

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[ THE 101 ] [NEW BOSS / OLD BOSS ] [ SPOTIFY ] [GROOVESHARK ] [ LARRY LESSIG ]
[ JOHN PERRY BARLOW ] [ HUMAN RIGHTS OF ARTISTS ] [ INFRINGEMENT IS THEFT ]
[ THE SKY IS RISING : MAGIC BEAVER EDITION ] [SF GATE BLUNDERS PIRACY FACTS ]
[ WHY ARENT MORE MUSICIANS WORKING ] [ ARTISTS FOR AN ETHICAL INTERNET ]