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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If you’d've asked me 6 months ago, I’d've told you to fuck off for writing that shit, but that was before I started keeping an eye on the news…now I cannot look at a CD…it makes me ill.
I will download and download and download even more, ILLEGALLY (mind you), and share the fuck out of these files, and make it known, that you have lost a customer who spent +$600 per record store visit…
You fucked up, CRIA. [note : i do not use demonoid. i'm more of a TPB kinda guy ;-) ]
If only i had more than one digg to give
This is awesome.
I am a huge lover of music of all different genres. Unfortunately the RIAA is what is wrong with America.I am an American , one of the few who is educated enough to see how multinational corporations expand rights that do not belong to them. As far as I know the RIAA, CRIAA, MPAA do not own the internet!They instead choose to distort copyright law so they can force people to buy there music alone. Unfortunately when the main stream media is owned by partners of the conglomerates you will never hear any pro digital rights arguments in the media at all and it is a shame. But it has always been like this since the begining of time when as Carl Marx put it exploitation takes place at the hands of the powerful enforceing their will on the subordinate classes of people. Do you ever wonder how these companies got their copyrights? hrough bribing lobbyist who are buddy buddy with the rich and powerful aka cartels like the RIAA and CRIAA…ect. Here is another lost customer of the music industry!
Best. Letter. Ever.
Same thing goes for the movies. If hollywood would quit putting out so much crap. And quit remaking everything from the past 20 years people might actually go to the movies more. What happened to all of the fresh new ideas for movies when i was a kid.
One word: Amen.
[quote comment="180613"]Nice letter, music fan man. I have also refrained from buying cd and what not simply because the market is flooded my mainstream crap; I’m tired about hearing Rihanna a billionth time on a dance floor or some other rap crap (old rap was good, the old ones from way back. Actually sang about people, no sex, bling, rims, suvs, hoes, etc, like today).
Every time that I do go to a store that sells audio media, I can’t find for the life of me, any trance music. I stay there for hours and I can’t find any, just a bunch of radio crap.
I then come back to the internets to get what I need. I sometimes also have to get my cd’s outside of Canada, like in Europe to get my trance.
|sarc| I congratulate the RIAA and CRIA, way to promote other genres of music.|sarc.end|
I see soo much dance music, unfortunately, its crap that is heard on the radio.
I do hope that the music industry, not the MPAA (I love watching my movies in the theatres), does die in flames or quietly. As well as anti-p2p and ant-piracy orgs., may they die as well.[/quote]
/signed
hear hear!
The music was here before RIAA\CRIAA and it will be here after.
I have to take umbrage with the suggestion that Lemmy is ugly.
:)
This looks way too much like China blocking google IMO
ya know, isint the porn industry the biggest money making industry? isint it also the most pirated? do they complain?
Anyone who knows the situation in Canada knows that the CRIA went to court several times and were basically thrown out. The Canadian courts have made it quite clear that they will not decide the fate of file sharing. They have passed it down to our policy makers, who won’t do anything right now, because the CRIA and the Industry is getting compensation for that, by our Government. Plus for them to take action would be considered by many in Canada as a fundamental right to privacy issue as well, and this situation if true would be plastered all over the place in mainstream media (Radio/TV). I have yet to hear a peep out of mainstream about this.
A threatening letter is one thing, actually knowing your legal position in another. The CRIA is a lobby group with no legal merit in our courts. I highly doubt they would send a “letter” out demanding all Canadians be blocked. That to me says this is a cruel joke right there. It would be a more likely of Demonoid receiving a “Statement of Claim” (which is a legal court document and traceable) if the CRIA wanted to take action.
I work in the recording industry. The CRIA is under opposition big time from some of our top artists and music creators in Canada for the way they have been handling things:
http://www.musiccreators.ca/wp/
I don’t think the CRIA moved to threaten Demonoid, in the matter everyone is talking about. I would be very surprised if this turned out to be true. Money has NOT been losses from downloading music, quite the opposite! Attendance in Live Performances are up huge! 2006 saw record numbers in digital music sales. CD Sales are down, because more and more people are purchasing legal digital music through legal digital distribution channels like Itunes etc. Plus us Canadians are PAYING for our downloads anyway because every time we buy any recordable media like blank discs, Ipods etc, we pay a “levy” that goes directly into the pockets of the CRIA members. We’re talking millions here. Any court case with Demonoid will be thrown out just on that. The CRIA is already getting compensation, they can’t sue for more. Demonoid can’t be held responsible anyway, no media files where hosted on the site. Where does it say in or laws that we can’t host “torrent” files?
In any case it wasn’t the CRIA that blocked Canadians or shut the Canadians out, it was Demonoid. The music industry has changed as per this letter this “former music buyer” wrote quite clearly on exactly how it’s changed, however this “letter” is nothing new. CRIA already knows this, so does most of the world. It’s been happing since the mid 90’s I think the CRIA and others kind of get the grasp of consumer trends. SOME of them actually have brains.
Many know all about this in the industry and have adapted to it, including members of the CRIA who are now offering up free music downloads. If Demonoid wants to shut Canadians out, well too bad for them. There are other torrent sites out there, that are just as good if not better then Demonoid. I think us Canadians would rather be with a torrent site that’s run by people who would actually look into the matter then tuck tail and run, and not take the time to examine the facts.
Whether this Merrlinne person works for the Canadian government or not (she sure has a lot of spelling mistakes in her response), it’s up to Demonoid to have all the facts on this case before taking action. Demonoid will be the ones loosing out and looking like compete twits. Those Demonoid guys need to chill out and have a beer eh, and maybe source this out, because as others and as member of the recording industry, I personally believe there’s no legal merit for what they have done, and no purpose behind it. It doesn’t make any sense to me why the CRIA would ask to have all Canadians blocked knowing the legal situation in Canada. Thus I firmly believe that this very well could be the biggest prank on a torrent site ever played, and Demonoid will end up extremely red faced after all is said and done. There are many of us in this industry that this has gotten to, and know the CRIA has NO pull on our courts here, and that Demonoid did not seek legal advice!!
I hope this gets back to the admins at Demonoid since I can’t seem to contact them because I’M BLOCKED!!!
would anyone blame me if i went and BOMBed RIAA//MPAA/CRIAA/MD/whatever offices?
the world would be sutch a better place.. :D
they are terrorists against their own people..
Everyone who feels strongly about this should boycotted buying music until access to Demonoid is re-allowed; if CRIA and the RIAA feel sites like Demonoid hurt sales, maybe it’s time they find out what blocking those site does. Oh and CRIA, since we’re being blocked from downloading, CANCEL THE LEVY ON BLANK MEDIA. I’m SICK of paying extra money to YOU whenever I use a CD/DVD to back up MY OWN PHOTOGRAPHY WORK.
Wonderful open letter. CRIA, RIAA and all the others is gang of corrupt dope addicted greedy anal fuckers! The actual music industry do produce crap! It sounds all the same stinky shit. Go down corrupt music industry!
The last CD I bought (about 2 years ago) would play in the CD-player at my home, but wouldn’t play in the CD-player of my car, because of some DRM crap on the disc.
I haven’t bought a CD since, and I don’t intend to unless it has a sticker “DRM-Free” on top.
Meanwhile I listen to radio and the CDs I already have.
PS: I never downloaded any music.
could someone e-mail me an invite to oink please? toooneproductions@yahoo.com
Amen.
Can we all start abducting members of the MAFIA?
well said..
Hip Hip Hoo-f**king-ray!
Good job mate. Eloquent, intelligent and well stated.
I can’t tell you how impressed I am with how succinctly this letter summarized my feelings.
Here’s hoping this doesn’t fall on deaf ears.
ColdFission:
“old rap was good, the old ones from way back. Actually sang about people, no sex, bling, rims, suvs, hoes, etc, like today”
Ohh no, there’s good rap now (I guess it’s all called “hip-hop” now) but it’s not what’s mainstream. Hip-hop isn’t just about lyrics, it’s about the production and the beat, the lyrics and how it ties together. It’s not all about bling and how awesome you are; there’s a lot of great music that isn’t like that. Unfortunately, it’s more difficult to find.
And I don’t know where you’re from, but “way back rap” had plenty of people rapping about sex, drugs, and bling. (Remember NWA?)
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