Swedish Record Labels See Filesharing as Virtue
While the RIAA sues its customers, and blames filesharing for the decrease in record sales, a coalition of seven independent Swedish record labels explores alternatives that make use of the Internet and filesharing technology.
The increase in music piracy is a signal that customers want something that is simply not available. High quality, DRM-free music that they can buy online for a reasonable price. Filesharing is a virtue, and the coalition of Swedish record labels understands this, as they introduce The Swedish Model. They write:
We in the music industry have shown ourselves unable to follow in this change. Some of us have even waged war against those the music is recorded for – the listeners. The rift between producers and consumers has never been bigger. “The truth is that Internet has provided us with a fantastic grey scale of possibilities! Instead of fighting back we ought to obtain learning from the daily newspaper and the computer game industries. They early realized the superiority of the internet and developed new services there.
This sounds like music to our ears. We’ve said it over and over again here at TorrentFreak, The Internet has changed the way people interact with music. Music is more accessible, more popular and cheaper to distribute. Record labels should embrace filesharing and compete with piracy instead of fighting it, and it seems like that these Swedish labels understand that.
TorrentFreak spoke with Henrik von Euler of Flora & Fauna, one of the labels participating in the initiative. We asked him what he thinks the greatest benefits of filesharing are: “Well the first thing is pretty obvious, that you can reach much larger audiences more quickly,” he said. “You bypass many of the existing power-structures and communicate directly with the listeners. It is also a very direct medium where the step from production to consumption is extremely short which is good for creativity I think. In the old days you could have an album ready and have to wait like a year or so to have it released and now you can have your music up online the same day you get the master.”
Henrik told us that he has “no beef” with The Pirate Bay, but he admits that filesharing also has its downsides. “On a personal note I find it hard to choose what to listen to”, he told us “The vast number of sites, bands etc makes me feel stressed out, like I’m always missing something. Speed and accessibility is good because it is fast and accessible but also bad because everything turns more superficial and volatile.”
Henrik was also quite clear about the lawsuits that the RIAA has started agianst music fans: “It’s insane. It can only have bad consequences. I don’t see how they can think antagonizing the listeners will help them secure any of their much desired income.”
“This is great”, says Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Swedish Pirate Party Piratpartiet. “There are creative people who think ahead. These are labels constructing a new business model. The old dinosaurs lobby politicians, sue to the left and to the right and try to control the internet. There is room for the services of a label, few musicians want to do everything themselves. But the labels must serve their musicians and their fans, not the other way around. These new labels have understood that. The future belongs to them.”
The role of the record labels will change in the future, but not entirely according to Henrik von Euler, “I think the role of the label has started to change long ago. It moves towards a more creative role much more like the art curator or such like. And also, just because artists CAN do everything themselves from production to promotion, administration etc doesn’t mean that they actually want to.”
“On another note,” says Henrik “I must add that this is hopefully the last time I will answer questions about filesharing, good or bad. It is there! Live with it. Love it, hate it, I don’t care. But please don’t for a second think that it will go away or that you can solve it like it is a problem.
Previously: MediaDefender Parent Company Facing Liquidation
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yes it is. it says it right on the CD case somewhere. illegal copying/distribution of this CD is punishable by law or something to that extent.
they pirated my music because they DID like it. they’d hear it on myspace, and then ask a friend to send it who either pirated it from someone else or maybe bought it.
the only thing piracy was GOOD for in my case was putting my band in the mouths of a couple people it probably wouldn’t have reached. maybe like +a hundred myspace friends which in reality means what.. nothing?
“yes it is. it says it right on the CD case somewhere. illegal copying/distribution of this CD is punishable by law or something to that extent.” still not stealing.
“they pirated my music because they DID like it. they’d hear it on myspace, and then ask a friend to send it who either pirated it from someone else or maybe bought it.” now ur being arrogant.
“the only thing piracy was GOOD for in my case was putting my band in the mouths of a couple people it probably wouldn’t have reached. maybe like +a hundred myspace friends which in reality means what.. nothing?” what..we give u(just an example) free advertisement whats wrong with that. if they like ur music they will buy it so stfu m8. stop being ignorant
75: it’s stealing because when customers should be coming to me to buy my product, they’re taking it without paying.
arrogant? I didn’t make that up. I asked them myself. that’s what they told me. they would check out the myspace, and if they like it, ask a friend to send it to them and think nothing of it. I just lost a customer.
I’m so proud to be Swedish. :-)
I’m not Bolton: no you’ve got a listener and you’ve lost a fucking consumer. Deal with it.
[quote comment="299514"]I wish i lived in sweden[/quote]
Me too, all those fit blondes yum yum!
[quote comment="300114"]I’m not Bolton: no you’ve got a listener and you’ve lost a fucking consumer. Deal with it.[/quote]
QFE
[quote comment="299982"]@63
1) Filesharing isn’t stealing. Even if current laws say it is, it’s just a big mistake in the current laws and nothing else. Such shit happens, you know. Some 150 years ago slavery was legalized too.
2) If you made an album it doesn’t mean anything at all. You can own the original CD, no problem. But it certainly doesn’t mean that you own all of the copies and the whole world is in your debt.
3) You are a musician and you want money? Give concerts, set up a website to sell music to your fans. Umm… what? Ah, you want a Porsche. Well, you can continue to want it, we have no problems with it.
4) Time=money doesn’t work anymore. Learn to live with it. Or die, if you can’t, frankly noone cares.
5) Filesharing causes bad to exactly who? To fat pigs in record labels? Oh, I’m so concerned. To some crappy pop singers who can only lip-synch? Give me a break.[/quote]
;)
[quote comment="299460"]People who download music are always saying “that the music is crap and not worth paying for”. Well for something that’s so damn shitty, people must like something about it or else they wouldn’t download it in the first place.
Secondly, I don’t care how cheap something is, if there’s a free alternative then the free alternative will always win.
People need to get their heads out of their asses. Piracy is stealing and there’s no way to justify it. I’m not like most people that sit around and make petty excuses for why I download games, movies, music, etc. I download it because I don’t want to pay for it. And yes I am stealing what I’m downloading. Do I care? Not at all. Fuck em. Get it while the gettin is good is what I say. I figure that there will always be enough people buying a game, movie, or album that the makers will see some sort of profit. The profit might be less (and in some cases A LOT less) than what it could have been if P2P wasn’t in the picture but again I don’t care about their profits they still have a lot more money than I do. Yes I realize that in the long run that lower profits mean less of a reason for game/music/and movie publishers to produce a large quantiy of quality material, but again I don’t care. Live for today baby. Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow.
And finally, with the exception of a few albums and a few games, 99% of the shit I download I wouldn’t have paid for anyway so I don’t feel as though I’m hurting the industry by downloading. It’s nice to have all my favorite hit’s from the 80’s in my music collection but there’s no way in a million years that I would have bought all those songs/albums. Had P2P not been there to make them available to me then I guess I’d just live without it.
The only exception to all this is sheet music. I do download a lot of sheet music for the piano through P2P. Had P2P not been there then I guess I would have bought most of it. It’s either buy it or learn it by ear.
The moral of this story is that people need to quit justifying P2P use. It is what it is. Stealing. And all your excuses and rhetoric will never change that fact. At least admit it and quit playing games.[/quote]
I think you’re missing the big picture here. The point is, there *won’t* be any more large companies to produce music and entertainment. There won’t be any gatekeepers above us that allow us to share ideas, but only if we have enough money. The newer model suggests that people will be sharing and creating for its own sake, not to create a multi-billion dollar industry which is still not satisfied. We, the consumer, will soon become the producers, and will be able to share ideas across the world, and improve upon other’s ideas. Have you ever hear of FOSS? There’s a reason there’s such a buzz about it, and its the fact that people all over the world have instant access to it that makes it develop at light speed compared to these mammoth corporations that are filled to the brim with filler and apathetic employees who only work to make a paycheck, not a better product.
Music and entertainment as a part of human culture started well before the MAFIAA, and will not stop when it is gone. If anything, they will be a spot on the human history timeline that we laugh at in the future: “Haha, we had our own culture for thousands of years, and then let big businesses sell it back to us for a hundred or so years before we realized what the fuck we were doing!” Fuck that, I refuse to buy back my own creativity.
http://guzel-msn-nickleri.blogspot.com/ ’s admininstrator loves sweden and torrent .!
to those arguing about whether distributing files illegally online is actually stealing… Does the technicality really matter? For an independent artist, file sharing can be both a godsend and a curse… while it can get your music heard across broad audiences, it takes a lot of money to make a record, a lot of money to tour, a lot of money to promote, etc. If you have a huge fanbase, but zero money, what are you going to do?
If a band who is unsigned is having their music distributed illegally over the internet, its taking valuable money away from the artist… money he/she will use to payback the costs of their record, to tour to support their record, and to promote their record in order to reach a broader audience.
If you take the money out of this equation, youre left with a group who has recorded an album, but has no means (aside from free distribution), of reaching a broader fan base due to lack of tour support/promotional capabilities. Furthermore, often this will put a band in debt due to the cost it of making the record in the first place. Of course, with a major label artist, this money and promotion comes from the label, so why its still vital for them to sell records in order to satisfy the record company, its not as vital as it is to an independent artist.
Basically, while as an artist I’d absolutely rather have a million people who love and connect with the music than 2 million who buy it but dont like it, its just impractical.
Im in an indie band that has just recorded our debut album… we’re definitely in debt from the recording process and pressing of our album, and we’re scrapping for money, trying to get whatever we can together to get out on the road and start getting a bigger fanbase.
I dont think illegal file sharing has played any sort of significant role in taking away from our sales… all im saying is that having sales is 150% vital to us. Without record sales, we will have to stop making music because we’ll be completely broke.
That being said, if any of you like muse, queen, franz ferdinand, or the cold war kids, check “Carlotta” out: http://www.CarlottaTheBand.com . Gawd… talk about shamelessness :p
sorry, did anyone else notice that this union of Swedish labels never really mentioned their plan? They call it “The Swedish Model”, but nowhere in it can you find an actual business model for how to incorporate file sharing into making money in the music business.
I completely agree that we need to incorporate it and I clearly see the distribution power of P2P. I’m just saying: this “Model” is more of a “we’re okay with P2P! Yay!” than a “here’s how musicians can actually make money whilst incorporating P2P”.
Or perhaps the idea is simply for musicians to begin to view their recordings as advertising for concerts. My friend’s band recently played in Moscow and he explained to me that, while they’ve made little or no money in record sales there, bands stand to make a killing on concert ticket sales because… well, you can’t replicate the feeling of a live show and distribute it on P2P. (save it, jerk: bootleg vids and audio of the live show don’t count. I’m talking about BEING there.)
So maybe musicians need to continue to focus on publishing–getting their songs played in films, advertising, TV shows, etc–and playing live shows.
>I’m in a recording arts degree
>program. I’ll be in the industry
>within a couple years. I’m trying
>to spark discussion amongst the
>people doing the actual stealing
Copying isnt stealing. You may be confident it is, since you are working and not getting paid as much as you’d like, but your business failure does not make copying stealing. Copying is copying. In real world, your extremist luddite opinion does not count. If people do not think copying is wrong, it isnt wrong. Its not very wise, business wise, to live denying simple facts of life.
>to see what can be done to fix
You wont fix anything. There will also be no “compromise” to be reached. Massive filesharing is here to stay. You’ll adapt to people freely sharing your work on the internet, or you will disappear. Living in denial may only hurt you in the long run.
>what’s happening.
Nothing is happening. People are using technology thats available to them the way they like. They exchange information. They communicate. You wont stop anybody from using technology in order to get money for manually delivering copies of music. You just wont. All you can accomplish is pissing people off, so they surely wont attend your future concerts, let alone paying you for useless plastic copies.
I’m sure you know that.
So just keep insulting the people you want to get money from. I’ve heard its working great for the RIAA. :)
[quote comment="300272"]>I’m in a recording arts degree
>program. I’ll be in the industry
>within a couple years. I’m trying
>to spark discussion amongst the
>people doing the actual stealing
Copying isnt stealing. You may be confident it is, since you are working and not getting paid as much as you’d like, but your business failure does not make copying stealing. Copying is copying. In real world, your extremist luddite opinion does not count. If people do not think copying is wrong, it isnt wrong. Its not very wise, business wise, to live denying simple facts of life.
>to see what can be done to fix
You wont fix anything. There will also be no “compromise” to be reached. Massive filesharing is here to stay. You’ll adapt to people freely sharing your work on the internet, or you will disappear. Living in denial may only hurt you in the long run.
>what’s happening.
Nothing is happening. People are using technology thats available to them the way they like. They exchange information. They communicate. You wont stop anybody from using technology in order to get money for manually delivering copies of music. You just wont. All you can accomplish is pissing people off, so they surely wont attend your future concerts, let alone paying you for useless plastic copies.
I’m sure you know that.
So just keep insulting the people you want to get money from. I’ve heard its working great for the RIAA. :)[/quote]
QFE.
if we follow up on how piracy is evolving in sweden its going to be free on the internet and the live concert is going to cost moneys. best idea ever.
[quote comment="300012"]
it has everything to do with the attitude of the people. not feeling like paying $10 for a CD is what we do every time we go to mininova and get what we want. I don’t know many people in real life who actually buy their music.[/quote]
Strangly the problem with the attitude of people seems to generate more money than ever for the music industry in total. So the people seem to spend more money on music than before. I guess they are cheap and egotistic in a weird way. Or maybe it’s just that the _recording_ industry have a failing business model.
[quote comment="300012"]
it’s a loss because more people pirated my music than bought it just because they didn’t feel like paying. I asked them myself and got the answers. it had nothing to do with how ‘good’ the music was.[/quote]
So they actually said, “I would have bought it if i hadn’t donwloaded it for free.” I cincerly doubt that. They might ha told you it is as good as other music they bought before, but thats not the same thing by a longshot.
I my ears thats like saying that you’d rather that people that haven’t got any more money to spend on music should avoid listening to your music. Then everything would be fine and dandy. Bizzare.
going no where as usual so I’m going to stop replying
>going no where as usual so I’m going
>to stop replying
You shouldnt have started commenting in the first place, since practically all of it was extremist bullshit. You cant force the world to spin the way youd like it to.
People need to realize, filesharing isn’t going away no matter how bad you think it is. Use it to your advantage or shut the fuck up with the whining.
For all those stealing music - may you be bummed to death for your pathetic attempts to justify it with a 15year old “anarchist” stlye of argmument . Get a grip on reality and be brave enough to say you are a thief not hide behind a childs rhetoric .
There’s only so many articles on the net that hired media-defender guns can spend their time on. After all they are so outnumbered they are like a piss in the ocean.
So obviously that Bolton guy has to leave for more urging pastures, what else was expected? I still can’t believe that so many people can be lured into feeding an over-obvious troll like that…
Copying itself is not a crime, but to prove that it is stealing, you’d have to prove intent, as well.
Since it is extremely hard to prove intent, It’s also very hard to prove copyright infringement, since whatever ‘evidence’ the prosecutor wants to use against you does not accurately prove the intent.
In order to enforce something as banal as copyright, you’d need to either know everything or live in an Orwellian society. Or be a hive mind. Since neither is possible, you can’t enforce copyright. Because in order to prove intent, you’d have to know the intent of the accused at the time of the infringement.
Assumptions go nowhere. Evidence can prove you were at the scene of the crime, but it cannot prove intent.
Until we can prove intent, the RIAA is fighting a losing battle.
i dont make music to give to you retards becuase your all obviously fucking idiots from the statements your making here. not all just most of you…
[quote comment="300822"]i dont make music to give to you retards becuase your all obviously fucking idiots from the statements your making here. not all just most of you…[/quote]
wait..what.. sharing is here to stay, copying is here to stay, filesharing is here to stay, internet is here to stay. artists come and go .. fuck them
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