from the editor: a love note to the riaa

 

 

Dear RIAA,

I am writing to express my deepest gratitude for all your efforts in lobbying Congress to change the rules governing internet radio. I confess that at first I thought that it was selfish corporate greed that motivated your organization to go after the little guys, who out of love for music, spent their spare time putting up freely available radio shows and playlists with no commercial intent or profit-motive.

I thought your persecution of internet DJs - hobbyists who loved music and recording/transmitting technology enough to spend vast sums and most of their free time assembling programs that were essentially free advertising for musicians – especially shortsighted, as they were not only doing work (i.e. playing and promoting new music) that some of you paid for both legally and illegally but also were doing it for artists that many of you barely promoted at all. I thought your insistence that internet radio stations pay outrageous fees unlike anything charged to regular radio stations (per minute per listener per song, no less) was a not-even-thinly-veiled attempt to force out those who were not big enough to swing profits your way.

Oh how wrong I was!

Now I see that you were really thinking of me and my best interests. Rather than being motivated by corporate greed, you were really concerned about my spending habits, and about my productive writing time. What at the time I thought epitomized the worst of corrupt crony capitalism was in reality the RIAA reaching out to help many thousands – perhaps millions - of people like me: people who spent too much time listening to music, and then spent too much time and money acquiring it.

How did you know about the seconds per hour I frittered away at my desk, glancing at the computer screen and then jotting down the names of songs off of playlists? And the precious milliseconds I squandered by slowing my word processor's speed by running one other program to play music that kept me awake at my desk? And the paper – oh the horror – that I wasted at a rate of a page a week to list the many music purchases I wanted to make?

The time was only the beginning, and it was my financial position that you were truly concerned for, I realize now. That wasted page a week of new CDs to buy was a major part of my expenditures. I budgeted and planned and waited for the chance to buy new music. Was I an addict? Perhaps, but with your help I have put that behavior behind me. I see your point now, and instead of buying CDs based on the tantalizing songs I heard on internet radio, well, I use the money to buy beer and listen to the same old Irish drinking tunes down at the local pub.

And it's not only me you've helped. I know there must be millions of others that your hard lobbying work has clearly helped lead away from excessive spending on new CDs. The July 2005 issue of Rolling Stone shows how successful you've been in helping people break the chains of music buying, and what a sacrifice you've all made (album sales down 7.5 percent this year from last) to assist us in our self-restraint.

Yes, I see now, that you selflessly sacrificed your profits to help me. I am spending less time listening to and less money buying new music. You helped me balance my checkbook and manage my time, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

Yours truly, A Recovering Music Buyer

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