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
108 Responses
I got his album on What. I also bought the FLAC version from his site to support him. It’s crummy that iTunes would openly deny that they can’t do anything about the albums in their music store, but when they release the wrong Heroes episode on there, it’s gone the next day?
Bullllshhhittt.
I’m sorry that this guy is getting screwed by his record label, but that is not the fault of iTunes. The problem seems to be with his label.
If an independent artist puts their music on iTunes through Tunecore, they will receive $0.70 per track sold. If they go through CDBaby, they will receive $0.63.
[quote comment="282379"]I’m sorry that this guy is getting screwed by his record label, but that is not the fault of iTunes. The problem seems to be with his label.[/quote]
A. You probably didn’t read the article completely, because iTunes isn’t paying anyone anything for his albums.
B. You have to pay Tunecore to put the music on iTunes, and this guy is getting $1.00 for every $1.00 sold on his own label.
Props to him. Great album. I opened up my wallet for it.
Yeah.. Good on the guy.. come on folks support this guy when or if you can. He’s been screwed over by a bunch of industry knobs.
Lets show the world artists can reach out to the people directly and don’t need to be ripped off by massive corporations.
I’m going to be d/ling this and donating. This guy deserves it.
burrr: you apparently did not read this article iTunes is selling his music, they won’t acknowledge that they even have his music, yet they then won’t take it down for a year until the gravy train is over and they have made their money off of him, and not giving him his money owed.
“A. You probably didn’t read the article completely, because iTunes isn’t paying anyone anything for his albums.”
It’s not clear from the interview that this is the case. HE is not getting paid, but that does not necessarily mean that iTunes is not paying. It is more likely that whoever iTunes is paying is not paying him or his label.
There are plenty of independent musicians who sell their music on iTunes and get paid for it. This guy is getting screwed by somebody, but it’s not clear that iTunes is the culprit.
“B. You have to pay Tunecore to put the music on iTunes, and this guy is getting $1.00 for every $1.00 sold on his own label.”
You are forgetting about the PayPal fee. He is probably making more like $0.80 on the dollar. Still, better than iTunes, I admit.
Its not exactly hard to make a pay torrent site that gives 100% of sales directly to artists.
Normal MP3s could be free, while you pay for lossless or image files to burn to CD.
Itunes only ripp artists, theres no need for sutch a service to take anything from the sales, atleast not if they were using Bittorrent and ads pay for the site.
Itunes though will continue the old dinosaur ways and so will the music industry.
Im glad yet another artist realized whats going on and trie to do something about it ;)
And they call us “thieves”????
I wish there could be some mechanism embedded into mp3’s whereas Winamp for example could have a Donate to artist button and the monies go directly to the artists fund.
Could be open to security risks, but ideally this would be the best thing to have.
We are.
LOL @ #7, ya no shit hehehe.
This reminds me of Paulo Coelho ,and his famous book “The Alchemist”.
I hope this works out for Benn as much as it did for Paulo. This new business model based upon free distribution over bit torrent is the right way to go!
This will make people excited about buying something they were encouraged to try for free!!
when i fuck women in the ass they say pinch my nipples and when i do they come quickly, why
[quote comment="282411"]burrr: you apparently did not read this article iTunes is selling his music, they won’t acknowledge that they even have his music, yet they then won’t take it down for a year until the gravy train is over and they have made their money off of him, and not giving him his money owed.[/quote]
it sounded to me that the label he was with made the deal with iTunes and put in his contract that he would recieve royalties only off of retail purchases. leaving that label to collect all the money made off of digital downloads.
Funny, I was listening to The Flashbulb when this story popped up in my RSS aggregator.
I guess artists just don’t get paid anymore, this is why music is starting to lack originality and just sucking all around.
I agree that iTunes is not at fault here. This is the case of an evil record label.
I am an Artist that uses TuneCore and I get $0.70 per track sold (thats more than any other place I sell). They don’t even take a cut. I pay upfront a nominal fee for them to deliver my album to online services. That’s fair. Apple takes $0.29 per track. For that I get very stable service and great exposure on one of the biggest music retailers in the world. Apple has to put a lot of cash into iTunes to keep it running smoothly - especially considering how massive the library and user base is now. Thats fair.
Plus, these are businesses. Everything you do as a business must turn a profit.
One last thing, TuneCore messed one of my albums up - it was missing a track. iTunes had to remove the album, then TuneCore re-uploaded it to Apple. It took about 3 months before the whole thing was cleared up - not fast, but not a year. That record label you used to be on is pure BS.
As a small artist, iTunes (and TuneCore) is the best thing that has happened to me. I stay as far away from Record Labels as I can.
That’s just classic! Now that DRM is fading out, the next issue to be addressed is the pricing model — college students and kids aren’t gonna pay $.99 for songs, so why not cut them a rate slightly lower rate, (price discrimination? the movie theatres do it everyday) and start monetizing these kids.
Benn, would love to talk to you about Grooveshark
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?
‘Cause then calling iTunes a pirate is a smart publicity stunt, except that it’s simple lying. If this fellow wants me to feel sympathy for him, he can start with a little bit of honesty, maybe.
As a programmer, I can tell you for a fact that the story you’ve been fed about it being impossible to remove your record off i-tunes is a blatant lie. I suggest you hire yourself a good lawyer and sue them using that rigged formula they use to make up their losses.
i’d love to fuck a chick that’s as fat as a whale
Something does not add up about this story. Who, specifically, is not allowing the album to be removed?
I know of cases where iTunes has had to make corrections or remove albums and they did so. It just takes a while in some cases.
It looks like the copyright owner of the Flashbulb albums is “Bohnerwachs Tontraeger.” That’s who needs to contact iTunes to get the albums removed.
My suspicion is that “Bohnerwachs Tontraeger” does not want the albums removed from iTunes. Either that, or their digital distributor (IODA) is unwilling to request that the album be removed. I have never dealt with them before, but I would be surprised if this was the case.
Apple really doesn’t care either way. iTunes is an advertisement for iPods.
I hate Apple, iPods, and all of their retarded crap.
fuck APPLE
It’s call a Record Label. Musicians have been getting screwed for years. If this guys believes that iTunes is to blame he is an idiot. Most of the money goes to the labels. Also, look how many people have been “discovered” through iTunes Ads (Fiest and most recently the Macbook Air lady). My take is this guy is trying to get his 15 minutes and ride the Radiohead “give it away free” train. I don’t wish him ill or wish him well either! He just seem arrogant to me.
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.
@13
Funniest post ever…so random…so elegant…so eloquently put…a breath of life in such a serious thread…
what the hell, squarepusher made this music already in like 2004, on “ultravisitor”. i think he just tried to elaborate on it, not very well in some cases it seems.
like all he did was mix together old squarepusher and more recent squarepusher style, with a bunch of aphex twin elements.
decent, but disapointing when you know the history behind it.
benn jordan (aka the flashbulb) is a notorious scammer.
this guy was censored from wikipedia for editing his own page with vast amounts of bullshit about what a genius he is. bloody hell..there was stuff about him being involved in the early chicago ‘acid house’ movement when he was only 12 years old.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benn_Jordan&oldid=80816374
he has taken music equipment to gigs and pretended to play it, only to have people discover that the cords weren’t even plugged in.
he is not above doing anything for attention, and has obviously succeeded this time.
download his album if you must, but don’t donate money to him. he is lying fake.
[quote comment="282659"]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.[/quote]
Make it avaible to largest audience in the world. For example send it to last.fm or share it on TPB. Larger audience = more chances to be heard, and to get something out of it.
I don’t care what people say, his latest album is outstanding…
First of all, who in their right mind contacts the iTunes store to have their music taken down? That’s the support portal for customers with issues. For the love of God, if you think someone has stolen your music, you get a lawyer and go after the parent company.
Nimwit.
Second, what does DRM have to do with anything when discussing the iTunes store? iTunes effectively dropped DRM except when enforced by the parent label. Meaning, if his stuff was DRM’d, his label wanted it and not Apple.
Does this tool do any research, like at all?
This article is completely slanted to make it appear as though iTunes broke into his home in the middle of the night and stole his music so they could host it. That’s hardly the case. Someone made a deal with iTunes and the artist got screwed. That’s not iTunes fault. As always, it’s the fault of the label and possibly the RIAA. No, I’m going to point the finger at the RIAA because it’s always the RIAA.
STOP hating the distributor. iTunes is one of the reasons that most companies have been forced into releasing DRM free content. All you stupid fools that are commenting “f*ck Apple” haven’t got a clue that you are hating on the company that forced the change from the DRM chokehold to DRM free content. (and before you accuse me of being an Apple fangirl, I’m no Apple fan)
GOD, I hate lemmings.
You want to hate someone and blame someone? It’s the same culprit as always, the RIAA i.e. the labels. Could the rest of you maybe do some research and rely on something other than the word of an idiot artist who is dumb enough to contact iTunes support to have his music taken down? That’s like walking up to the gas station attendant and asking him to lower the price of gas at the pump.
This guy needs to stop smoking crack, hire a good lawyer and go about this the right way. He’s probably not going to win because I’ll bet you he signed a contract way back that stated his label controlled digital distribution and he’s screwed. Contacting some monkey in front line support is going to get him nowhere.
@50
Do you have any proofs for your claims? Or were you directly sent from iTunes? :f
[quote comment="282834"]@50
Do you have any proofs for your claims? Or were you directly sent from iTunes? :f[/quote]
LMFAO
Disagree and you’re an iTunes drones. I love it. I guess the only acceptable response in the forum is “OMGIHATEZtehAPPLE111!!!!” Appling any logic is teh bad.
What do I need to prove? Any idiot can google DRM and iTunes and the proof is in the search results. And no, I didn’t come from iTunes. I called their support staff monkeys. I pointed the finger at the RIAA.
How stupid are you?
This guy is lying just to promote himself. I’m an artist that gets paid good money from iTunes. He needs to sort things out with his label, not Apple.
BS
this is a publisity stunt
publicity*
How the hell can one have a copyright on FICTION? This why I only play and also listen to instrumental music in ALL formats, because it’s just Mathematics!! However, as soon as anyone records a “Song” of any kind with words in it, and then expects to copyright the work so nobody can steal it, they’ve already lost. The reason iTunes or for that matter, anyone, can rip off songs written with words of any kind is, because copyright means just an OPINION!! No different than the 88 versions of The Bible…it’s all copyright, meaning it’s all opinion!! which is FICTION!!
Niggy Tardust is an awesome album!
This article is BS. First, Apple isn’t responsible for paying the artist for each track sold, no more than WalMart is responsible for paying the artist. The artists’ label collects the money and is responsible for paying the artist what is owed. If Jordan is unaware of this fact it can only be because, like all too many artists, he failed to get a lawyer to help explain the 18 different ways a standard label written contract screws the artist. His label, of course, is well aware of this. Why else was he told to ‘leave it alone.’
Second, who the heck does this guy think he is that he can tell his label where to sell an album? What artist has this power. Well, maybe Bono and Mic could say, “Uh dudes, WalMart is out.” But no one else could.
The only thing sorrier than Jordan’s story is the fact that is being reported here by someone who should a) know better and b) have done a bit of checking before printing the story.
All your inspiration have never come from you, but from somewhere else. Don’t claim that you as a human are the owner of such and such.
You’re blocking your creativity insisting that you alone own anything. The more you let go, the more you will recieve.
In the days of the Trovadours, the music and compositions were disbursed to the public freely, and all received it, sang it, enjoyed it, and even tweaked it, thus improved the art.
The control of music has “gone out of control.” Wherein law suits are being brought against the public - and the internet public, that downloads music for themselves, and enjoys it.
A lawsuit is a pretty poor way for an artist to repay back the fans. So that while the artist goes wild, spending freely, traveling, gambling at Vegas, in dissipation, and drugs, alcohol and prostitutes, partying and wild times, - it is the poor sucker fan, who toes the lines, working on a 9-5- 5days a week - NOT including the sweat and anxiety of transit to and fro, and often, at a boring-soul-deadening job - these poor slobs, that buy the music, and enjoy and love the music and artists, giving their energies and souls to the artist, as well as their hard-earned money - which by the way, the recording industry is now charging an unreasonable amount.
I’m really glad that it’s evident, and you are one of a long line of examples, showing that NO one can keep hold of anything and hug it to themselves, greedily.
And this is a trend, that shows that in the future, music will be freely given and shared again. Passed around freely, as a gift of the Great Mind (did you really think God looked like a human?).
And that in giving music and poetry and writings, the artist and author, will be given back, other very valuable things. JUST as freely.
“benn jordan (aka the flashbulb) is a notorious scammer.
this guy was censored from wikipedia for editing his own page with vast amounts of bullshit about what a genius he is. bloody hell..there was stuff about him being involved in the early chicago ‘acid house’ movement when he was only 12 years old.”
I’m also guessing that someone is paying him to discredit iTunes.
Great - so as an artist you give away music and you oppose DRM. My question is how do you propose to make a living? Like it or not, sales are the bread and butter for most musicians, which is why so many are finding it impossible to live from music. What we need is a single, fair, independent, global standard for DRM - the current mess we’re in benefits no one, least of all the artist.
has stealing music over the internet caused concerts prices to go up? anyone have any good links on this sort of thing?
thanks
Yes, I agree with most of the posters that whatshisname has the wrond end of the stick entirely. iTunes pays me fine but it certainly isn’t a living. Self promotion is the the only thing I can really manage and I have long maintained that the only real value of record copmanies was in their marketing power. That said they have been peddling crap music to witless consumers for decades!
I’ve been giving away tracks for years. Some more recent rough and ready tracks as ‘ACEtone ALLstars’ started having pretty heavy download numbers so I decided to make them available at a price. See here…
http://www.acetonestudio.com/acetoneallstars.html
on the same page (at the bottom) you can either listen or download for free or if you like something you can buy an mp3.
This is not intended to be shameless promotion. But I think it illustrates that if you have contol over the music you make you can do what you like with it. If you entrust it to others, you take your chances…
Interesting interview but riddled with misinformation, naivety etc.
[quote comment="283002"]Great - so as an artist you give away music and you oppose DRM. My question is how do you propose to make a living? [/quote]
My keeping the money for himself instead of handing out the biggest part of it to the ML’s?
Besides that his artwork will stay his own this way, too. He can do whatever he want with it, without asking MAFIAA for permission.
typo:
I meant ‘By keeping’
@TF your site accused me of adding too many posts, eventho It was my first one for hours and 2nd today.
sorry, that should have read ‘Self promotion is the the only thing I can NOT really manage…’
Just go to Benn Jordan’s blog - it clarifies a lot. the interview was poorly executed:
http://www.bennjordan.com/blog/
He should DMCA Takedown Notice Apple and their ISPs.
That puts the burden of proof on the hoster, not the accuser.
I agree with the other people here about iTunes not being at fault… my band submitted our album to iTunes through TuneCore, and could never hope for a better means to get our music available worldwide.
For basically $20, and a $20 yearly fee after that, everybody in the world with iTunes access can buy our record… to have such vast distribution is really valuable to us.
That being said, if anybody here likes Muse, Queen, Franz Ferdinand, or the Cold War kids, check us out: http://www.carlottatheband.com
@72
His blog doesn’t explain what the specific issue is with iTunes “pirating” his music.
The most I could find out about his iTunes problem was that…
“Apple is a sociopathic, greedy, deceitful, environmentally-unfriendly corporation. You know how I know this? Because they’re a corporation…a really giant one”
Great sentiments. I don’t get how that explains what the issue is though!
Until he clearly explains it (no rhetoric, misdirection, unproven allegations, disconnected statements that avoid actually explaining what the problem is) I’m not going to get it.
I’m tired of being manipulated by clever, self publicizing, social-media aware people. If you’re not such a person Benn, just lay it on the line in black and white.
What’s actually the problem?
I saw this guy on another site, I downloaded it and liked it. It’s got so many genres packed in together (the best ones, in my opinion: they go well together) and he seems to have mastered them all.
And he seems like a very intelligent person on his blog, very aware of things.
iTUNES have a stringent and strict upload policy, utilising a metadata form, specification artwork, wav audio and no room for mistakes. They do not accept audio from dubious sources and more to the point they do not host music without having a negotiated deal in place. This deal includes accounting information, i.e. where they are to pay any outstanding monies for sales.
If this guy has signed a record to a label and has agreed the terms in the contract with the label, then based on that agreement the label has the right to exploit each title through any form of media - digital & analogue.
If the label have chosen to use a DSP or Digital Service Provider to work in conjunction with iTUNES, then that is their perogative to do so. It makes perfect sense, but is also sometimes the only way to work with iTUNES as they are extremely difficult to open a direct account with.
Despite his argument, he is very much so in the dark. iTUNES do not turn a major profit from selling products on their store. They do not “pirate” music. Anything live on their store has been supplied by a record label officially & directly or through a digital service provider (digital distribution).
Apple’s core business is hardware. This is blatantly obvious from their unit price of 99c or 99p. After bandwith & storage costs, credit card fees and the agreed split to each label which differs from deal to dea, there are literally only pennies left, which Itunes then put back into the maintenance of their store and brand.
Their accounting procedure is crystal clear, if they sell a record, it is accounted then monthly or quarterly depending on the deal in place to the digital service provider or directly to the label. It is then the responsibility of the label to account to its artists, whether negative or positive.
This just sounds like some guy who signed his records to a label and didnt read the contract (or understand the contract more to the point). The label has then placed his records on iTUNES through a digital service provider (as is standard policy) in an attempt to sell units, his releases then havent sold sufficient copies to turn a profit (at 99c unit price I’m not suprised) and subsequently he hasnt made any money as he never took into account any recoupable costs that the label have had to incur. So in otherwords he has a chip on his shoulder because he’s not made any money and now wants to blame everyone else and ignore his own naivety.
Do you really think that a multinational company of Apple’s stature would risk selling music on their site without it having ticked all the boxes? Get a grip with your anti-establishment paranoia.
@75
OK, I’ll put it less kindly and hopefully more clearly. His blog clarifies much about his attitudes, therefore sheds a little light on the tone of the incomplete information in the interview. That said, facts and details are still missing and will probably remain so.
It seems the thrust of all this is to pump something that people have been doing in one form or other for years - but with the perhaps foolish publicity approach of demonising the evil corporations (probably without just cause) - as if this were something new.
It is a bit unsavoury to use the victim tag as a means to self promotion though, isn’t it? It could be Torrent freak’s fault that it comes out that way because they have…an agenda perhaps?
Hey, my music is on a ton of digital distributors sites and I haven’t seen a penny (except from iTunes and a few others - i.e. the successful ones). I suspect it is because nobody has downloaded the tracks!
I’m sure he’s just as nice a fella as he would like people to think he is…
…on to something else.
Go preview his music at alphabasic.com before getting sucked into this hype
It’s just dated bollox. Sorry, but it is.
Incidentally, Benn feels that the Anonymous/Scientology thing is just Anonymous “exploiting a small religion”. See his blog for his views.
everybody calling him an idiot and sticking up for itunes didn’t read the text that comes with his album download:
Alphabasic is currently in a legal battle against Apple because NONE of our material (Sublight Records included) receives a dime of royalty from the vast amount of sales iTunes has generated using our material.
Lad!
@79
I read it. It’s on his web site in one of the early posts, just after the posts that moans that an airline won’t pay him $2000 for some camera equipment that was lost from his luggage, even though the terms and conditions of the contract he agreed with them clearly states that they can’t be held liable.
It doesn’t explain what the problem is though. It’s just an accusation. It would be helpful if he could explain why, when, what the background is, what the specific beef is, how Apple are in the wrong etc - instead of just levelling an accusation without any supporting facts or information
Here’s my unsupported allegation.
>> BENN IS A GAY SCIENTOLOGIST!! <<
Why do I think that, I hear you ask? Well, like Benn, I can’t be bothered to explain why I think that. Actually I can . It’s because Benn is a sociopathic, greedy, deceitful, environmentally-unfriendly person. He just is, take my word for it! Also he won’t pay me my royalties that he owes me. I’m going to take him to court. Also, when I called him to ask him for the royalties he told me that he was sorry but I had to speak to someone else. That proves it, see? He must be a gay Scientologist!
The Flashbulb owns I found his music being a stepmania player I’m glad that now an artist I recognize is finally giving the system the big FUCK YOU.
just how vast are these sales and how gargantuan are the ‘royalties’ he is being deprived of?
Of course if the $$$$$$s are in truth being withheld it is not good. But I still can’t see it being Apple/itunes fault. How could they be paying out lots of $$$ to thousands of artists and not just this one? Or are all of the others too timid to speak up lest the might of Apple’s laywers sues them into the poor house? There has got to be a crooked intermediary between the claimant and the accused in this case. And remember the part where he said “the owner of Sublight Records pleaded with me to “leave it be”.” That sounds like someone with something to hide. I would never trust someone who said that to me in a case such as this. Because if Apple were really ripping them off, the label boss should be the one to go chasing the missing $$$. Anyone?
rofl Zoness
get back to ODI with your stepping of manias
@80
“Alphabasic is currently in a legal battle against Apple because NONE of our material (Sublight Records included) receives a dime of royalty from the vast amount of sales iTunes has generated using our material.”
Is iTunes not paying? Or is iTunes paying someone that is not paying you?
245
and.. who the hell are this guy?
all of his former labels are out of business you retards. they can’t be still making money from places like itunes when they don’t even exist anymore.
“All it takes is a week of mainstream publicity to start seeing results. All Sublight releases have been removed from iTunes, and Apple wants to work things out without legal action.”
There you go idiots
Yet another pissed off, misinformed artist. I’m all for supporting artists, but articles like this, as well as ones from the opposite side (that explicitly support the recording industry, always just irritate me. Basically, I call them the equivalent of ‘idiot technologist’. They know just enough about one aspect of the business/issue to be dangerous.
Ben, at least seems to understand the importance of good contracts, but seems to be clueless about the full extent of what goes into a contract. As he cites, that..”with a 50/50 contract, I’d be selling 2,000 albums and would get $250 for it somehow”, it becomes recognizable that while he understood enough to make ‘percentage profit’ as high as possible, that he obviously didn’t pay any attention to the details of what would be considered a profit, or he would know why he was only receiving $250 on 2,000 sold albums (and that’s very important).
He has a contract with Sublight Records, who breaks out a number of Canadian electronic artists. Sublight has a contract with iTunes. I can practically guarantee you that Sublight is getting their scheduled payment distributions from Apple, so the issue becomes “why isn’t Ben getting paid”. I say, go back and read your contract. It doesn’t sound like he gets paid for digital distributions at all. Unfair, “Hell Yes!” why do you think the Television and Movie Writers are striking???
Labels and studios have reclassified so much of the language around distribution of new media that most artist can’t even tell you if the make a penny from it.
To Ben, you got your 50/50 on retail distribution, but with all things considered, that seems to work out to about 12 cents an album for you; but it seems that you have no agreement for digital distribution, and while you may argue that digital retail isn’t dis-similar from physical retail, I’m betting your label has a full loaded legal definition of each that doesn’t meet your approval.
But luckily, you still retain some of the rights to your core work, because if you didn’t uploading them to BitTorrent would be a contract violation that, if you were on a major label, would come back to bite you in the ass.
Everyone should read this and get a LAWYER before you sign anything. That’s the lesson.
“http://www.theflashbulb.net/doc/revolution.htm” written by BJ.
Read “The iTunes Scam” Section.
Rather suggests that BJ’s work didn’t just mysteriously appear on iTunes…
“music will be judged by it’s content again”
ITS.
It’s = “It is” or “it has”.
[quote comment="282800"]benn jordan (aka the flashbulb) is a notorious scammer.[/quote]
DON’T LIE.
This guys is annoying. Even if his album is good, hearing him whine doesn’t impress me. BitTorrent is for hentai-addicted, overweight teenagers who are too cheap to buy what they want. The moral decay of our society that tell people that stealing is okay if it is easy to do.
This album is great - so many genres, and he pulls them all of very well.
If tunecore and such can be used, and iTunes deny’s whats to stop people from simply uploading tunes that arent int he itunes and reaping profit, much worse than just uploading it as a torrent, eh?
After all that this guy decides to take it up the rear hole courtesy of iTunes by not suing the corporate pirates? He’s got clear evidence against an anti-piracy ass-raper and he decides to let it go?
I can’t find his albums in itunes store at all.
At least not US store
the guy’s bipolar according to wikipedia, makes sense.
much love to him
lem09
iTunes only makes 7 cents off of each track they sell, it’s his record company, or the digital distributor that’s making the money. Not iTunes/Apple
This guy is full of it. He obviously sold the rights to his songs to the producer, who in turn sold them to iTunes. He valued his money more than his work, and now he wants more money.
Screw ‘em
“Pirated by iTunes” my ass. Way to hop on the sensationalist headlines bandwagon.
This is 100% his label’s fault, not iTunes. It’s the label’s JOB to handle this sort of thing. If the artist isn’t happy with how his label handled it, that’s between him and the label.
Frankly, what all this points to is that artists need to retain full copyright of their work, not a record company or anyone else–in other words, the artist should be the one ultimately responsible for deciding where music can and cannot be used. My band and many others are taking the route of avoiding labels and instead putting together backer money ourselves to produce albums–a harder process, but we retain more creative control and we also retain the copyright to the final product.
As for “he valued money more than his work,” I’d like to know exactly what you think he works for. A man’s gotta eat, gotta pay the rent, and it’s easy for some college kid with no bills to sit in his dorm room and say how we ought to put our work before money. But we work *for* money, that we might work more. Making money means producing more music, meaning more work and the ability to make more money, and on and on. There’s nothing immoral about making money–however, money is supposed to be a product of a vocation, not an object of devotion as it has become for so many.
The entire music industry is in upheaval, and it should be, because it’s operated in a completely ridiculous way that puts both the customer and the producer near the bottom of its priority list. I won’t write the twenty page paper on why that I could here, but suffice it to say, it won’t necessarily be piracy that brings down the old-school music industry, but more generally the ability in the modern world for everybody and their brother to produce and distribute their own works without having to go through one of the big or even small labels. Labels offer a lot of advantages, but they’re becoming more dead weight than anything in a world that wants both mass consumption and creativity. In the future I think labels will be more focused around producing live acts than producing recordings.
This guy is the most arrogant character ever. He talks and talks and talks and all it ever leads to is a plug of his crappy music and how ‘diverse’ he thinks he is with his music and aliases. We have seen it all before you are not Aphex Twin or Squarepusher so drop this gifted story of your life act. It dont wash. You want people to love you personally and listen to your music personally on headphones? then keep quiet and try and make some original music.
Any musician reading this story should be able to see right through the rubbish of this hoax. Who would write an essay as a blog talking boutits the best musical album thats emotional and achingly beautiful and gorgeously talented and all that bollox except a desperate artist who is sad enough to litter the internet with stupidness for any punks who will believe it. This guy actually had a couple of decent tracks in my music folder but because of his arrogance and need to insult my intelligence I have deleted his music.
You are putting people off of what could have spawned into some interesting developments as an artist. Your music has ALL been done before by the best why dont you give up?
Hahah, good, its shitty music
yeah!!! lets give him money!!!
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