Pirated by iTunes, Artist Turns to BitTorrent
Written by enigmax on February 06, 2008The Flashbulb, aka Benn Jordan, became so outraged when he discovered that iTunes was effectively pirating his music, that he uploaded copies of his latest album to BitTorrent. TorrentFreak caught up with Benn to learn more about the decision to stop distributors and ‘coked-up label reps’ from getting all the cash.
An established, but outraged musician has decided to shun conventional distribution methods by following other recent initiatives (such as Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ promotion) by making his latest album available for free download. It’s available on BitTorrent on sites like The Pirate Bay, with so-called ‘OiNK replacement’ site, What.cd, providing the album on ‘free leech’ to encourage more downloads.
TorrentFreak caught up with Benn Jordan who told us he’s not just disillusioned, he’s ‘outraged’ that iTunes is selling his work without permission and seemingly keeping all the money.
TF: Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your musical journey.
Benn: I’m Benn and I’m 29 years old. I started playing classical guitar when I was about 5, and since then, all I’ve wanted to do with my life was make music. Now 20-some odd years later, I feel lucky to tell you that I make music for a living. I’ve been releasing albums for about 14 years on various indy labels, and in the last 5 years I’ve also been composing for television, film, and ads. Music has allowed me to travel the world, meet thousands of wonderful people, and express myself through my work. It seems impossible to me that I’m on this planet for any other reason than writing music.
My label, on the other hand, doesn’t have a complex or radical plan. Our goal is to simply compensate our artists as much as possible, and that includes utilizing the “digital revolution” to our advantage, instead of punishing our artists by punishing their fans.
TF: Tell us a little about your dealings with labels and ‘the industry’ and why you became disillusioned.
Benn: Luckily, my record contracts were always negotiated well. Once things started moving with small labels I was approached by some larger ones, but there was always some seedy stipulation that prevented me from ever signing.
Still, with a 50/50 contract, I’d be selling 2,000 albums and would get $250 for it somehow. Many people that i’d meet at my shows would say that they bought my music on iTunes, yet I’ve never signed any sort of agreement allowing iTunes to host my music, and I’ve certainly never seen a dime of money for my albums hosted there.
So I started investigating the numbers from the label, which led me to some shocking revelations about how little the artist and label was getting in comparison to the retailers. When I got around to asking about iTunes, the owner of Sublight Records pleaded with me to “leave it be”. Everyone else made an extraordinary effort to ignore my calls and emails.
When I finally got a hold of the digital distributor (I must note that “digital distributor” is the most pathetic job title I’ve ever heard), I was told that once the files are in the iTunes system, it literally couldn’t be removed or taken down for a year. So, either Apple has created a self-aware doomsday machine that cannot be stopped or reasoned with, or everyone involved is just enjoying the gravy train of ripping off artists like myself and using Apple’s backbone of attorneys as an intimidation factor.
Even after having a lawyer working for me on this matter, this is the one and only response we’ve EVER been able to get from Apple:
Dear Benn,
I understand that you are writing to the iTunes Store because you are upset about finding your own album “The Flashlight” and some of your other album as well on the iTunes Store, and that you feel that you are owned
royalties for this music that his being purchased. I am sorry that you have to found this upsetting. My name is Wendy, and I would be happy to link you to right people to talk to about this issue
So, who’s the pirate I should go after? A kid who downloads my album because it isn’t available in non-DRM format and costs $30 on Amazon? Or a huge multi-billion dollar corporation that has been selling thousands of dollars worth of my music and not even acknowledging it?
I’m not disillusioned, I’m outraged, and anyone who ever spent a dime on buying music through these distribution methods should be outraged too. Here we are pleading with people to not steal music, and then we hand them dog shit when they go out of their way to buy it.
TF: You were a member of OiNK. Could you tell us a bit about your time there and how you used the site?
Benn: OiNK was an amazing network. As an avid-collector of ultra-rare old jazz records, I’ll tell you right now that it was the most complete and diverse library of music the world has ever seen. I filled some requests by uploading some of my rarer albums there. Eventually I started being harassed by someone on the network who was sending screen grabs of my seed lists to record labels. Upon complaining, a moderator simply removed my ability to communicate with anyone on the network or post comments on torrents. I can understand the paranoia and strictness.
I guess I just sort of laughed it off and stopped using it. When Oink went down, the only thing that surprised me was that the servers weren’t hidden in some weird country.
TF: Could you tell us more about the support you’re getting from one of the so-called ‘OiNK replacement’ sites, ‘What.cd’ ?
Benn: It was really a fresh breath of air for What.cd to promote the idea of artists having involvement with their own torrents. Not only does it benefit the artist to no end, but I can’t imagine that any court in the world would be able to pin someone on copyright infringement for a torrent the copyright holder created.
TF: Aside from uploading your own albums, at times you took an anti-piracy stance at OiNK, why the big change of heart?
Benn: I don’t think my stance has changed all that much. It’d be a great PR move to say that I’m pro-piracy, but I’d be lying. I keep seeing these internet news stories saying things like “The Flashbulb Promotes Piracy”. It is totally out of control. How could I be promoting piracy if I’m uploading my own material with a “buy it if you like it” message in the torrent?
What I’m promoting is the artist’s freedom to choose what can and can’t be done with his/her music, and more importantly, the listener’s freedom to do what he/she wants with their own computer, MP3 player, or internet connection.
After a journey through miles and miles of bullshit in this industry, you learn one thing: If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself. Whether you’re downloading my music to check it out, to accompany the CD, or even pirating it…I want you to have a version/rip of it that I’ve listened to and approved of.
TF: You say you’re not pro-piracy yet you downloaded stuff from OiNK and also What.cd. One position seems to conflict the other. How do you explain this?
Benn: In my case I think that visible list of downloads strengthens my point. Most of those downloads are actually albums I already own (much easier to download than to record an entire vinyl album), albums I previewed but didn’t like, or albums I simply cannot find available in a suitable DRM-free format (including CD). Some of the software, like the TomTom DVD on my list, is actually impossible to technically “pirate” because you can’t buy a US TomTom GPS unit without the software. The thing is, when a tracker gets busted, the companies count these towards their losses.
So, my new album currently has 6381 downloads at the time of this interview on what.cd alone. Using that deceitful equation, my losses are over $100,000. If I wanted to, I could subtract those losses from my profit and completely get out of paying any income taxes. It makes sense from an evil, corporate, criminal-minded standpoint, right?
Beyond that, iTunes and other services simply are not acceptable to me. No company will have any control over a product that I legally own after I buy it, period.
Oink was the biggest music library in the world. People didn’t use it because they were criminals, people used it because it was literally better than any service you could pay for. It was the stubborn behavior of the record labels, artists, and government that wouldn’t allow that music library to have a cash register at the front door.
The thing RIAA is scared of is that their billion dollar backbone can no longer shelter people from exploring music themselves. Their business plan had evolved into telling the world what they will want to listen to and buy, and now they’ll have to actually compete with talented artists again. As the people regain control of the market, music will be judged by it’s content again and will be subjected to it’s own Darwinism. It is a very interesting time for the music industry…and since my entire life is devoted to making music, bring it on. I hope that this situation with my new record proves to other labels and artists that giving people exactly what they want is the smartest way to conduct any business.
TF: How do you feel about people being heavily punished for sharing music?
Benn: Obviously, the last thing I would want is anyone to be fined or imprisoned for listening to my music. Another feature of uploading my own torrent is that it creates a little legal nesting area on a network otherwise deemed illegal by most governments and RIAA. When someone else uploads a torrent of my music, it is without my approval…on the other end of things, and more importantly, when someone raids an admin’s apartment…no police officer is asking me if I want to press charges.
TF: What happens when people donate?
Benn: If you decide that you like the album, you’ll have the option of donating directly to the artist. If you decide that you’d like a CD, you’ll be able to order it directly from my label. I’ve even hired my mother to run our shipping department since she’s the most obsessive-compulsive-perfectionist office worker that I’ve ever laid eyes on.
Finally, every detail of my album’s content, release, and business is done exactly the way I want it to be done. I hope other artists realize how liberating and profitable it is compared to the distribution system we’ve all become so accustomed to.
TF: Radiohead did really quite well after they offered ‘In Rainbows’ online for free. You’re a few days into this experiment - how is it going for you?
Benn: My donations have a way to go before they match the numbers from CD pre-orders, but I’m still crossing my fingers. In a week or so I plan to release a detailed statistical report. For some reason I really like making pie charts.
TF: I’ve listened to the album - Soundtrack To A Vacant Life - and I really enjoyed it. Could you tell us some more about it?
Benn: It was 2 years in the making, and is conceptually me attempting to write the soundtrack to my own life. Of course this means that it is much more cinematic than electronic, and the songs all connect chronologically. Those who have heard my previous albums can expect this one to be a lot more melodic, tame, and instrumental. Suggested listening is with a decent pair of headphones from start to finish.
TF: I have some, I’ll try that later. Thanks for your time.
Benn Jordan’s blog can be found here.
Previously: The Pirate Bay Fights Danish ISP Block
Next: How a BitTorrent Tracker Owner Hides from the MPAA/RIAA
129 Responses
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Well …. why not start a tracker with music uploaded and approved by the artists. That would simply make a difference.
Lets create iTorrent !
[quote comment="282523"]This interview is sort of … vague on some points. The fellow mentions Sublight Records. Who the hell are they? Are they the record label to whom this guy signed over the rights to his music — and the record label in turn made a deal with iTunes?[/quote]
Exactly - the legality of the label-iTunes relationship is completely dependent on the artist-label relationship. His contract is not discussed in the article, so it’s impossible to make a call one way or another.
At some point, somebody associated with the label or the artist uploaded the album to iTunes. Unless a complete third party did so, but I find that hard to believe. Even less believable is the insinuation that Apple would go out and pirate this album and sit on the profits from its sale.
If the sunlight label had exclusive or non-exclusive rights to digital distribution of the album, AND actually uploaded it to iTunes through a digital distributor, they’ve done nothing wrong.
If they did not, they were out of bounds to put this album on iTunes.
By the by, iTunes is not a “digital distributor.” iTunes is a digital retailer. You go through a distributor such as Tunecore or CDbaby to get your music up on iTunes. They handle the payments and making sure your music gets in the iTunes drop box.
Calling up iTunes and asking them about taking an album down is akin to calling wal-mart and asking them to remove an album from its shelves. iTunes has an agreement with the label, who has an agreement with you. Gotta go through the channels.
The issue here is that the artist clearly doesn’t have a clue how this music got up there in the first place, or if he does, would rather not tell that story.
right the fuck on! i’ve never heard of the flashbulb before, but i will definitely listen to your music and will gladly pay for it! great article!
*dugg*
The Flashbulb has been pulling lame shit like this forever. He rips off other people’s music and says he is original. This time he is ripping off Radiohead and their free music marketing tactics.
Has he ever done anything original?
@27
Let me guess, you’re the kind of guy who cries when an electronic musician uses the Amen break saying they are ripping off the original drummer?
[quote comment="282605"]
Calling up iTunes and asking them about taking an album down is akin to calling wal-mart and asking them to remove an album from its shelves. iTunes has an agreement with the label, who has an agreement with you. Gotta go through the channels.
[/quote]
What?
…theres a big difference between the two. its not like itunes has a stock of it that needs to be sold. its just a delete button away.
im a musician, not professional but hey. artist that are in it for the money not the music suck. fukin metallica for example has everything they ever wanted and some. they still want more money, and their quality of music shows it, before they released load they had so much more talent i think so anyways
I am an independent artist and have never had any problems getting paid for my songs that are up on iTunes.
I am not trying to start fights, but I have to agree that it sounds like he has a middle-man that is not looking out for his interests.
I would love to see an open system of distributing music and supporting artists (both large and small) that works but due to the economy of scale… artists with smaller audiences will not have much of a chance it would seem, unless a much higher percentage of people are willing to pay for the music that they enjoy.
[quote comment="282646"]im a musician, not professional but hey. artist that are in it for the money not the music suck. [/quote]
But there are also many smaller artists out there that only wish to make enough to cover the cost of their equipment or make a very modest income from doing what they are good at. Call them the “Creative Middle Class”. These musicians are not evil, they just need support yet no one seems to talk about them… or try to figure out some way to help them get a fair shake.
Just for the record, Apple does not make a lot of money on the iTunes store. It just about breaks even. Apple pays for every single download.
This guy is, unfortunately, being screwed over his record label. Blaming iTunes is a clever PR move.
Just for the record, Apple does not make a lot of money on the iTunes store. It just about breaks even. Apple pays for every single download.
This guy is, unfortunately, being screwed over his record label. Blaming iTunes is a clever PR move.
I didn’t donate for the album, but the people I shared my download with (burned CD I took into the office) chipped in $65 between them.
Does that count as doing my part for free-as-in-freedom music?
still looking for a what.cd invite… :-/
can anyone help me out?
murdoclu@gmail.com
Downloading album now after hearing some samples!
Donated $5 too (poor college kid).
1. Awesome cause.
2. Sounds like awesome music.
Haven’t bought a CD in several years, so consider yourself privileged, Benn!
Fuck Apple, fuck iTunes.
Did you fucking expect this?
Did you fuckers expect this shit??
Oh! My! Fucking! !!! !!!!!!!!
This album is beyond words! I almost feel I shouldn’t do this album such an injustice as to try and describe it for you. This is the most extraordinary thing. Wishing for longer songs would mean songs on an album. This is outside that box in every way. I feel this is tracked more like a DVD. This album is completely fucked. It’s stupid, it’s stellar, it’s everything. I wanted to call everyone I know and make them listen. I didn’t know what to do with myself when it ended the first time. I wasn’t sure if I should listen to again, but I did. What the fuck is this album?
It is unlike anything I could have expected! (Even after the EP) It is so much better! We had no idea how good this was going to be, did we? This is beyond what anybody has been able to do with music within this “genre”. This is indefinable as a genre, it’s just music. It’s everything. He took production to another level. He set a new standard.
The title of this album is EXACTLY what it is. It is a Soundtrack, not an album, or a collection of songs; it is a musical story to a vacant life.
I cried, I laughed, and I had such a state of sustained euphoria with a huge smile on my face in sheer delight for such prolonged periods of time that my face started to hurt! I felt aggression and anger, this album is everything. It holds so many emotions. Talk about an emotion of built up tension and release in the most brilliant and beautiful way! I had bodily physical reactions to the emotions throughout the album. Cringing, tensed, a grunt in release of tension, laughter, cries…
It is a completely whole composition. What is this thing that he created? It delivers the gratitude felt when one can say “thank you” to someone that did something nice for them while at the same time delivers the satisfaction of being able to say “you’re welcome.” Everything, yes. Complete
This is so much more than I could ever imagined it could have been. It’s a hint of nearly everything he’s already done, just taken to an entire new level. Benn Jordan just said a huge Fuck You to anyone that writes music, saying “look what I can do!” It scares me that someone can write music like this.
So dark, Vacant, empty and hollow, yet majestic sounding. I got completely lost inside this soundtrack. The music explodes at times with energy, light, and joy, while fucking your head from all angles in the next track climax. Achingly gorgeous melody, and lyrics from the core.
The sound landscapes he has created are so vast and open. I feel like I was in a world of falling sparkling dust all around me, falling slowly, tickling my ears as each spec of dust contained ear prickling soundscapes creating a 3D atmosphere with great depth. I could see the soundscape all the way to the top.
Greatest album ever produced by man on this earth to date, in my opinion. Very dramatic sounding, I know, but I just felt the results of a shock and awe campaign released by the fury of Benn Jordan.
I’ll now catch up on these forums.
(continued from #39)
After listening to album…
F*ckin’ Hell this is awesome music!! Congratz!!
I’ll spread the word to those I think would be interested.
Well, I do not have the chance to have a record company or label helping to spread my music.
So, I decide do to it on my own. And with the help of Mininova and their featured content, I released my first “album” on January 1st.
Till today, it has been downloaded more than 3300 times on Mininova. Others torrent sites take the relay and has done an approx. total of 5000+.
Thanks to the community.
I’ve get great feedback since and it keeps rolling.
Feel free to download it too at
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1080807
It’s pure and delicate electronic music and it’s free!
Or follow me on my website (with flash player!) at
http://www.uber.com/IceSixxx
Thank you all for listening!
Yeah it all suck, hes getting ripped off by his label blah blah blah…….he owns the label, its down to him to sort out distributions
Is that all there is? The entire expose was that
- evil Apple stole this guys music and put it on iTunes
- they can’t remove it for 1 year
- the only response he can EVER get is from Wendy
Do you think we’re all stupid enough to believe that’s all there is to this story? Tell us what’s really going on.
Hmm, I think he’s getting all of us to d/l his torrent so he can get those numbers up for that lovely juicy lawsuit - ‘I had 173000 downloads, that means you owe me *pocket calculator* $3.72 quadrillion dollars’
Seriously tho, I’m on his Myspace at the moment, and I think it’s actually sounding good! - not like In Rainbows or goddamn Niggy Tardust.
Oh, come off it. This is a publicity stunt.
He’s hardly going to say ‘ Bohnerwachs Tontraeger screwed me over!’ because nobody will of heard of them - they are his former record label that he released his albums through which he fell out with. The issue here is that the record label isn’t giving him his royalties.
Clever rouse to get money off chumps, though, isn’t it?
trust me, you wouldn’t want to pay for his music.
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