Demonoid Aftermath: An Open Letter to the CRIA
Written by Ernesto on October 04, 2007In the aftermath of the recent demonoid turmoil, “A former music buyer” posted an open letter to the CRIA - an impressive summary of what’s wrong with the music industry and how they alienate their customers. The RIAA and the CRIA have to rethink their business models, closing down p2p sites does not solve the problem.
To Whom It May Concern at the CRIA:
I have been an avid music collector for many years, and have approximately 1000 CD’s in my collection, not counting albums that I have purchased over the internet and own only digital copies of. I purchase approximately 30-40 new CDs per year. However, thanks to your recent decision to block Canadian users from accessing Demonoid, I have decided that I cannot continue to support this backwards, dysfunctional industry with my money any longer, and as such, I do not plan on purchasing music ever again if it means that one penny goes to your organization.
I listen to heavy metal music, a form of music that “the industry” stopped supporting many years ago, so I have a hard time feeling any sympathy. Sites such as Demonoid have done far more to promote the music I love than your organization or the industry in general has ever done. I can find out about new artists and new releases from artists that are never promoted. I can listen to music from artists that have never been played on the radio, will never be shown on MuchMusic or MTV, and never have a review or even mention of their new album written about in the local newspaper. From listening to this music, I can make an informed decision if I wish to purchase the album or not, as I am not going to gamble $15-20 on something that I haven’t heard anything off of before.
25 years ago, I primarily learned about music from friends who dubbed a copy onto a cassette tape, where I could listen to it and make a decision if I wanted to buy the tape for myself. Now, many years removed from school, my “gang” of friends to share music with has shifted from cassette tapes and the school cafeteria to sharing mp3’s online. I listen to some things that I don’t like, and consequently, I don’t buy those albums. What I do like, I buy, or at least I used to, before your decision intended to stop me from hearing new music.
The industry cries that record sales are down, and blames this all on internet downloading. I won’t be so naïve as to say that internet downloading has no impact on the sales. Downloading has certainly stopped me from making the stupid purchases where I heard one single that I liked and bought an entire album only to find out that the rest of the songs are crap, and the CD sits collecting dust on my shelf. But for every CD that I didn’t buy based on those premises, there are 2 or 3 other CDs that I did buy because I heard of them for the first time on a site like Demonoid.
In the meantime, the music industry itself needs to recognize that they are to blame for sagging record sales. For years, they have been marketing recycled crap, and people are getting tired of it. On the odd occasion that something fresh and new accidentally slips through and gets radio play, the music industry immediately signs a seemingly infinite number of clone bands that makes the “new, fresh” sound boring almost instantly. It seems the music industry doesn’t even care about making or promoting good music any more. Instead, they market a young, pretty face that can dance provocatively and lip-synch well, and push this on the radio stations to play while getting the tabloids to print large pictures of their breasts. If bands like AC/DC or Motorhead were to emerge today, they would never be successful; not because of poor record sales due to downloading, but due to the fact that they’re ugly so the record company wouldn’t promote them, if they picked them up at all. In the meantime, they’re falling all over themselves to promote Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, or any teenage tramp that can be airbrushed to look sexy.
The record labels cry about downloading cutting into the profits of the sales of albums. They put out “greatest hits” albums by 20-year olds with 2 or 3 albums under their belts, released with one new track to try and sucker the fans that already have both albums into spending another $20 for one new song, or re-releasing a 3-month old album with a “previously unreleased bonus track”. Then they can’t understand why people aren’t buying them, and cry foul that people are downloading the one new song instead.
I know not only the record companies are crying. Artists that have been around long enough to have enough clout to get a cut of the record sales are concerned about their cut, like Metallica that also clamor that “downloading is evil”, and then go on to sell over 9 million copies of their last album instead of 9.1 million. Boo hoo. Meanwhile, many younger, smaller artists favor downloading, because they know it’s the only way that people will get to hear the music and in turn come out to see their shows, because the record label sure as hell isn’t promoting them. But they can’t say that out loud, can they? If they do, guess which band is going to get dropped by the label?
So tell me, what does the CRIA do to promote metal? Oh, right, you’ve got a link to the top 50 “metal” albums in Canada, which after a quick glance at the top ten this week includes punk acts like Dropkick Murphys, Finger Eleven, and Billy Talent, and rock acts like Nickelback and Queen, but very little that resembles heavy metal. (Perhaps you should ask the Celtic punk band, Dropkick Murphys, what they think of being labeled as “metal”.)
And also tell me, without Demonoid, where would I have found out about bands like Evile or Dublin Death Patrol and made a decision to purchase their album online (because no record store that I have found in Canada carries either one). And god forbid the CRIA would care about the promotion of Canadian talent, such as longtime recording artist Annihilator, which released one of the better albums of 2007. However, I have yet to see their new album sold in any store in Canada, including HMV’s flagship store on Yonge Street in Toronto, and I ultimately had to buy a copy from a UK website. Considering the only place I had heard about this album was having downloaded it from Demonoid, do you really expect anyone to make this kind of effort to buy an album without ever having heard it?
The record labels and CRIA have gone to great lengths to tell us that downloading and sharing music is killing the music industry. Open your eyes and you will see that the music industry dinosaur has already been killing itself for years, and by resisting technology rather than embracing it and using it to their advantage. “Oh, but they have,” you try to insist, pointing to the sites devoted to selling music in mp3 format online. I notice that most of the metal bands I am interested in are still not available through these services. I also notice that buying an entire album ends up costing as much, if not more, than if I went to buy it in the store, even though there are no longer costs of materials or shipping that have to be paid for, and once again, I fail to come up with any sympathy for the music industry. I hope the music industry does die, because I know that music itself will not die so with the corrupt aspects of the industry gone, only then might music once again flourish.
Sincerely,
A former music buyer
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365 Responses
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I’m just wondering what the CRIA are doing in New Zealand as I can’t seem to access the site either..
although reading the more intelligable responces those that don’t degenerate into curseing and namecalling
there a thought that I haven’t seen brought up and while I note I don’t know much at all about international law (though it seems international law appears to count for little these days ‘Extraordinary Renditions’ spring to mind) would it not be possible that another lobby group has applied pressure somewhere in which accumilated to said letter.. if letter exists fraudulant or otherwise, with the extended clause of do this and there’ll be no harm no foul but must maintain confidentiality on the deal!?
again, I’d point out this is just a thought, and there have been valid points on both sides of the debate made
p.s. for those that would attack my apparent lack of grammer and spelling, I’m one of those people that tends to type faster then accuracy allows and thus have found much joy in the ‘edit’ button that some forums allow ;)
Demonoid was taken down a week ago (by order of CRIA).
[quote comment="180689"]i live in the usa. that is the land of the free. :O)[/quote]
I live in America too. And sadly to say any American that thinks they live in the “land of the free”, must be on crack.
Wake up! You live in the most surveilled country in the world. Sad truth…
Haven’t bought a CD in a long time and this christmas will make sure that no one in my family buys a CD as a present, time to hit them where it hurts in their pockets. If we get a campaign for people not to buy CD and pass the message on some of the record companies WILL change……..
“The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.”
This doesn’t sound right…
1) The CRIA has no need to threaten, if they have legitimate case they simply close you down by law.
2) Very short announcement from someone who’s interested in all this enough to host Demonoid thus far.
I would expect more.. A protest? A thank you note to fans and goodbye? A “temporarily” added in to show he’s still looking into the matter?
Hell, I’d even settle for whining.
3) “The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us…”
-what? they have no name? And because of the threat to the host, demonoid is out the door? Look for new host! Protest to your host that you don’t care as long as you’re legal in what you do.
All in all, either he was threatened by mafia or something, or HE himself wants to close down the site.
I agree 100% with the Open Letter, but let’s not be too naive here, ok?
This sounds fake.
Or… could it be hacked? (^.-)
[quote comment="211093"][quote comment="180689"]i live in the usa. that is the land of the free. :O)[/quote]
I live in America too. And sadly to say any American that thinks they live in the “land of the free”, must be on crack.
Wake up! You live in the most surveilled country in the world. Sad truth…[/quote]
..and you don’t live in America. That’s the whole continent. You live in United States of America -something you guys always forget
*mumbles*there be dragons to the south…
Excellent diatribe, couldn’t agree more because I listen to metal too and you’ll never see a bands like Sleep, Manatees, or Agalloch pimped out like whatever the latest pop trend is.
Use riaaradar dot com before you buy any album so that you know you’re not supporting the RIAA.
NEITHER OF YOU GUYS IS SEEING THE HOLE TRUTH BEHIND THIS ALL CONFUSION………VERY SAD…..
Hope CRIA has read this and learned a lesson, i will never buy another cd thanks to them
I think the musicians should all have their own websites and accept donations.
Cut the record companies out of the financial loop.
Let the record companies charge for what it costs to produce a CD (under $5 CAN or US). If people like the music and musician they go to the musician’s website and make a donation.
Simple eh!
Cody
[quote comment="213918"]I think the musicians should all have their own websites and accept donations.
Cut the record companies out of the financial loop.
Let the record companies charge for what it costs to produce a CD (under $5 CAN or US). If people like the music and musician they go to the musician’s website and make a donation.
Simple eh!
Cody[/quote]
Record companies are required to create meaningless crap for people to buy.
That hits the nail right on the head! I believe that the following is a great idea, the big recording companies don’t need any more of my money! [quote comment="213918"]I think the musicians should all have their own websites and accept donations.
Cut the record companies out of the financial loop.
Let the record companies charge for what it costs to produce a CD (under $5 CAN or US). If people like the music and musician they go to the musician’s website and make a donation.
Simple eh!
Cody[/quote]
As a personal opinion:
The CRIA does not and will not ever care about what most of you guys will say.
Yes all you guys are protesting about this, but so what? They aren’t losing much customers, you guys are just those who rarely buy and usually donwload.
The CRIA did closed Demonoid for more PROFIT. Arguing and protesting like this will just make them happier…
good shout! i agree 100% bring back demonoid!
[quote comment="220951"]As a personal opinion:
The CRIA does not and will not ever care about what most of you guys will say.
Yes all you guys are protesting about this, but so what? They aren’t losing much customers, you guys are just those who rarely buy and usually donwload.
The CRIA did closed Demonoid for more PROFIT. Arguing and protesting like this will just make them happier…[/quote]
Yes but Reading That A recent artist in his 30’s As sold over 650,000 units in the first week in the UK alone…. I think Filesharers are still small pittence… the “middle man” whines because they no longer have TOTAL Profit margin…. How pathetic the middle men are….
I am happy to get whatever I can from the internet….. It’s all information to me anyways….
cheers
Shutting down Demonoid means a much more clever File sharing site will return in its place…. I welcome it
the CRIA happy or not Exists because of the people…. Force government to back off by the people and you’ll see a different CRIA :P
It’s just getting there is what’s misleading…. but it’s rather simple…. Force Sellers to realise they cannot have ALL the pie….
but there aren’t enough people sharing files… yet… we’re still small in number - wih Globalisation - we can continue this without interruption for what? another 10-20 years?
Cheers
jaymarcs@hotmail.com
I live in a 3rd world country where it is not unusual for a govt to close things down quite easily. If what Demonoid said is true, I’m amazed that they went belly-up without a fuss. In that case, they’re no better than the music industry - a dying activity. (Doesn’t the phrase ‘music industry’ sound like an oxymoron to anyone else?)I grew up listening to bands that existed before the ‘rock/pop star’ madness became the nauseating norm it is now. Does anyone remember the Grateful Dead? They made a living playing their music live, which is how music was disseminated even further way back, before any kind of technology (and therefore, industry)intervened. The music industry needs to know that the Dead had a far more stable and honest ‘revenue model’ than these turds ever have.
Fuck Demonoid - who cares! Fuck the industry - I care enough to love the idea. Music lives forever.
I used to buy two or three cds a week minimum. They were invariably electronic imports bought from Virgin etc… That’s about 5 grand a year. The last cd I bought was about 4 yrs ago. I just got sick of that sinking feeling I got when I realized the disc I just bought is crap, save the one single. It’s the feeling I got when you naively entered into a trade as a kid and got a broken toy… NEVER AGAIN. CRIA, shouldn’t you really be the CRIAA? (”Canadian” Recording Industry Association of AMERICA)
Man, I’m Canadian and the actions taken by the CRIA just piss me right off.
They only advocate on behalf of the major US recording labels anyways. WTF is with that? It’s all just a money grab…
All the best metal bands NEVER get radio play or serious promotion by recording labels. No way in hell I’m ever buying a CD again unless its directly from the band at a live show. At least then I know that the band is making the profit.
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting!
BOSH
Amen.
I am boycotting the music industry until they start doing what we tell them instead of the other way around.
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links:
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