Most of the discussion on DRM these days focuses on the RIAA because of the all press surrounding their efforts to curb music sharing. All RIAA pro-DRM arguments revolve around record labels making more money by keeping controls on the recordings purchased on-line. They put an Orwellian spin on it by declaring that DRM is good because without it there will be no more music since the artists won’t get paid. Indulge my skepticism here for a moment. DRM does not prevent illegal file sharing. MP3’s that are downloaded are ripped from a purchased CD containing no DRM from the outset.<\/p>\n
I have provided links to a 9-part series featuring an RIAA exec speaking to Arizona State University in the Videos section. While this information is not specifically about DRM, it does balance the discussion somewhat. He outlines the woes of the music industry to a room full of college students. In his defense, putting these woes squarely on the backs of college kids is not an easy task and I almost felt sorry for him when the protesters showed up. I fell on my sword for the group and watched all nine parts. I got that hour of my life back courtesy of the insomnia from worrying that no one will ever make music again because I downloaded \u201cTurn Me On Mr. Deadman\u201d back in 2001.<\/p>\n
Anyway, it is widely known that most bands that sign with a major record label are basically indentured servants working off a large advance. That advance is often the only money the band will ever see for their efforts. This is not the sole fault of the record label. Bands enter into contracts with defined terms, usually not in the band’s favor. The folly of youth causes otherwise intelligent and talented musicians to sell their souls for royalties that hover around 10 cents on the dollar. A band has to sell a million records to pay back a $100,000 advance. THEN they can start making money. While $100,000 is a lot of money, it will only go so far divided by several band members over the course of a studio recording and North American tour. Rent, food, booze, whatever, needs to be paid in the meantime. Many successful bands are broke through several CD compilations and they still make music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most of the discussion on DRM these days focuses on the RIAA because of the all press surrounding their efforts to curb music sharing. All RIAA pro-DRM arguments revolve around record labels making more money by keeping controls on the recordings purchased on-line. They put an Orwellian spin on it by declaring that DRM is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/drmatptc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/drmatptc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/drmatptc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/drmatptc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/drmatptc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/drmatptc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/drmatptc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/drmatptc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/drmatptc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}