The following was faxed to the RIAA on the date below. I am posting this before I get a response, because like Mr. Tom Petty, I too am very pissed off about the ruination of the music industry. The following response concerns Hillary Rosen's comments about Janis Ian's USA TODAY editorial on October 23, 2002.
As soon as she responds, I'll post her remarks. I am very curious as to what she might say about what I wrote.
October 26, 2002
Ms. Hillary Rosen
Chairman / Chief Executive Officer
Record Industry Association of America
1330 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. – Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036
Re: Your comments to Janis Ian editorial (10/23/02)
Ms. Rosen:
As a 41-year-old lifetime lover of music, I am appalled and completely outraged by your response to Janis Ian’s editorial of October 23, 2002, which appeared in the USA Today newspaper. This is especially true as you represent a group of globalist multi-national corporations, the majority of which, are not even owned or controlled by businesses based within these United States.
An article on your website alleges that music CD’s are inexpensive to purchase, and that in the years since their introduction, their cost has decreased. This is complete nonsense, especially in light of the fact that the latest releases carry an $18.98 list price for a single disc. Since the purchase of my first CD in 1987, the cost of compact discs has nearly doubled. It was common for me to pick up a new release for under ten dollars. The new discs of today are almost twice that original ten-dollar cost of acquisition. Moreover, the industry leaders at that time stated publicly that while the initial cost of this new technology was rather expensive, their prices would fall as soon as their production met with our demand. That was nearly fifteen years ago, and the music buying public is still waiting for that promise to be honored.
In these past fifteen years, the cost of producing a CD has dropped considerably, especially as the major labels built more manufacturing plants outside of the United States, which has cost American jobs. While this behavior certainly falls into line with the New World Order globalist philosophy, it has created an environment where your buying public has less expendable cash with which to buy music. While this has been going on, these same multi-national globalist corporations have looked for every opportunity to raise their prices --- even while production constraints or market economics have not supported any such increases.
At a certain point, the public stops purchasing new music. The reduction in sales in your industry is directly attributable to the greed on the part of the large record companies, and has nothing at all to do with peer-to-peer computer networks. The fact is, if SONY created Napster, you would be sending out daily press releases saying how great of a concept it was. However, because Napster was created by a young man named Shawn Fanning in his bedroom, your industry has done everything to kill the concept, even though it would have benefited everyone’s business plan in the long run. Now that you have effectively murdered the idea of an individual who fairly and squarely beat you at your own game, you cannot blame Napster for the industry’s current troubles, because Napster has been gone for well over a year now, and has no bearing whatsoever on the industry’s current fiscal year, where sales are still down.
People have simply stopped buying music, because by and large, there isn’t much worth listening to from today’s new artists. The teen craze has spawned look-alike and sound-alike clones, where everything is largely indistinguishable from everything else. There was a time when the audience decided what would be popular, but that time has long since passed. Today’s music is bland, insulting to most peoples’ intelligence, and offers nothing by means of visceral involvement on the part of the listener.
I have also noticed that today’s music does not encourage political activism, free-thinking, individuality, or creating a proactive state in the mind of the listener. While this might suit the globalist New World Order agenda, it is the worst possible move for your industry. Today’s music contains formulaic, prefabricated sterile beats, which appear to have been programmed or performed via computer noodling, such as with Pro Tools digital software enhancement. While that might help Britney Spears stay in tune, Pro Tools will never create another Minnie Ripperton.
Ms. Rosen, you are the unapologetic megaphone for globalist multi-national corporations who could care less for either their artists or their audience, which enjoy the artists music. This is clear in the type of contracts they continually push upon the newly signed artists, which amount to nothing more than indentured slavery, an attempt is made to sign them for a longer time period than is legally reasonable.
Stop looking for excuses as to why your industry is lagging, and go out and make an effort to locate and sign the next BEATLES. You will then have sales through the roof. Until that time, your only excuse for why the music industry sales continue to lag is due to a lack of listenable artists and prices that have risen beyond my desire to pay, and not whether some or all of your target market also happens to be proficient with their personal computer. Your claim to that effect is infantile and completely devoid of any logic.
You claim that peer-to-peer file sharing is theft. However, what you leave off of that list of alleged theft, is the FACT that your member companies attempt to charge me, a formerly loyal customer, nearly twenty dollars for a disc that costs less than three dollars to produce. That Ms. Rosen --- is a level of theft far beyond what you claim peer-to-peer file sharing to be. However, if the creation of Napster occurred within the walls of one of the companies for which you continue to whore yourself, you would be singing its’ praises, instead of condemning it as theft of intellectual property.
The real crime being committed is your continued raping of the wallets of those who on one hand you call customers whom you want to buy your shoddy product, and on the other hand, you call that same group of people criminals, without one shred of evidence. In this country, a person used to be presumed innocent until and if their guilt was proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Today, a person is considered a criminal when one of your competitors comes up with an idea better than yours, one that threatens your existing business model. A business model that was outmoded during the time of the 8-track tape.
Finally, peer-to-peer file sharing is just that --- sharing. Since no money EVER changes hands, there is no theft. The greedy and unconscionable behavior of the record companies themselves must be considered grand larceny, and it too harbors a simple solution. A solution that I myself am completely in control of, and that is I have simply stopped purchasing your overpriced and undervalued product, and I listen to the 2,500 CD’s already on my shelves. The purchase of which, was made long before Mr. Fanning ever thought of his ingenious idea.
Yours truly and with great disgust,
Kent Daniel Bentkowski
