[00:00.000 --> 00:03.200]  It's a pleasure to be in New York City with you folks.
[00:03.520 --> 00:05.000]  My name is Michael Perkins.
[00:05.160 --> 00:16.880]  I'm an independent recording artist and I operate my own small record label in Dayton, Ohio for the purpose of promoting and distributing my own music.
[00:17.240 --> 00:25.720]  What you're going to hear today is an original essay of mine that I've adapted for a live audience setting such as this.
[00:25.720 --> 00:32.540]  The intention of this discussion is to publicly state my opinion as an artist in regards to piracy.
[00:33.560 --> 00:41.160]  A lot of folks have taken the liberty of speaking for the artistic community as sort of de facto spokespersons about the subject.
[00:41.540 --> 00:51.140]  And what I've noticed is that most of these people are out there asserting that artists are adamantly against file sharing because it supposedly deprives us of our livelihood.
[00:53.460 --> 01:06.600]  My goal today is to present you with a sort of philosophical declaration that strongly opposes that conventional perception that artists and pirates are equatable to oil and water.
[01:07.440 --> 01:12.080]  The title of the essay is how piracy feeds a starving audience.
[01:12.240 --> 01:26.600]  And the term starving audience is used to define a sort of broad concept which is that the global collective audience of music participators is starving in several different regards.
[01:27.240 --> 01:42.060]  One being that most of us can't necessarily afford to go out and spend too much money on these, in my opinion, extremely overpriced CDs, many of which nowadays are more and more containing DRM malware.
[01:42.760 --> 01:59.860]  And so in the other regard is that most of us are starving to hear something new, something fresh, something that is progressive in the sense that it moves music in a direction that we're all eager to witness.
[01:59.860 --> 02:09.580]  I should note that I'm not a legal professional and that my knowledge of the industry extends only as far as my own personal experience, observation and research.
[02:09.840 --> 02:27.700]  However, the crux of this discussion is in that personal philosophy that I'm advocating based on an appreciation for technology and art, which I feel share a remarkable connection in that they both represent and facilitate the progress of mankind.
[02:29.100 --> 02:37.640]  The main points that I'm going to attempt to make today are that the music industry is broken and that peer-to-peer networking will fix it.
[02:39.100 --> 02:48.040]  Also, that it is morally justifiable for the global audience to take that music and do what they will with it.
[02:49.020 --> 02:53.700]  With that said, I'm going to begin by addressing the nature of the music industry.
[02:55.120 --> 03:03.660]  It's pretty much common knowledge that the media conglomerate has made music into a disposable little product like it's a Big Mac or something.
[03:04.360 --> 03:13.460]  We all have to watch as the systematic desecration of the art form is broadcast for us on the radio and on television every single day and in high definition.
[03:14.280 --> 03:26.760]  For a very long time, it's been standard practice within the music industry to create and sell marketable, often superficial, musical products that correlate with whatever the current social trends are at the time.
[03:27.560 --> 03:35.460]  I remember when I was in high school, it suddenly became popular for well-to-do suburban kids to start wearing John Deere hats and overalls.
[03:36.200 --> 03:46.200]  The cars that everyone wanted to drive became these huge four-wheel drive trucks with, you know, get-her-done and Confederate flag decals plastered across the back window.
[03:46.200 --> 03:56.200]  And the subsequent change in their personalities, accents, opinions, political affiliations, and general behavior matched the trend impeccably to say the least.
[03:56.440 --> 04:05.160]  So it came as no surprise to me when almost immediately, contemporary pop country music became the cool thing to listen to.
[04:06.360 --> 04:16.980]  It became impossible to walk through our student parking lot at the end of the day without being bombarded by a loud, muddy, sound collage of Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, and the rest of them.
[04:17.580 --> 04:26.900]  Of course, as quickly as a trend arrives on the social scene, it disappears and is replaced by another equally banal set of cultural standards for the flock to abide by.
[04:27.420 --> 04:31.240]  I'm sure you've all seen this happen firsthand, and when it does, it's no accident.
[04:31.920 --> 04:48.340]  Fashion and media are nearly indistinguishable in our culture, and we can all assume that in a cold, dark boardroom somewhere, a crack team of marketing geniuses is plotting the next package trend to be injected into the cerebral cortex of their target audience.
[04:49.660 --> 04:58.460]  I see this as evidence that, to them, music has about as much value as a pair of jeans or a dim-witted catchphrase.
[04:59.000 --> 05:13.920]  Now, most of us are completely aware of this fact already, but it's important for me to acknowledge it in this context, because that fact has played a huge role in the development of my opinion on the subject of piracy, and why I'm reluctant, flat-out unwilling,
[05:14.480 --> 05:19.060]  to accept the idea that the industry and those who operate it deserve my money or my respect.
[05:20.520 --> 05:30.880]  As an audience, we've gotten used to the idea that the majority of records made today are about 90% filler, with one or two singles that are supposed to motivate us to pay for the entire album.
[05:31.640 --> 05:44.000]  This has been the typical product model for decades, and in Nashville in the 1950s, record companies were shelling out massive quantities of records that contained 100% reissued material from previous releases.
[05:44.620 --> 05:56.520]  They would include one or two hit singles and fill the remaining space on the LP with older, more obscure tracks, and then they would turn around and market the compilation as if it were a full studio release and wait for the bucks to roll in.
[05:57.160 --> 06:07.060]  This practice was a clever way of regenerating revenue from the one or two hit singles on the record, while tricking the consumer into paying the price of a full studio release.
[06:08.320 --> 06:14.820]  And nine times out of ten, the artist whose face was displayed on the cover art had no involvement whatsoever in the decision to release the album.
[06:15.440 --> 06:34.960]  Now, I'll admit that realistically this practice wasn't really all that reprehensible in comparison to some of the schemes that have tarnished the dignity of the industry, but it does serve as a fine example of the mentality that's been evolving on the business side of the music world for a very,
[06:35.080 --> 06:35.800]  very long time.
[06:36.540 --> 06:41.320]  Nowadays, they utilize much dirtier and more elaborate techniques to line their pockets.
[06:41.980 --> 06:55.900]  For instance, at some point in time, they discovered that they could take a cute little teenage television star on the Disney Channel, sit her in a studio and hit the mysterious studio magic button, which is also known as the Antares auto-tune plug-in,
[06:56.060 --> 07:03.100]  which can transform the sound of a calf being slaughtered into the alluring croon of a young Bing Crosby.
[07:03.780 --> 07:10.160]  So, after a healthy dose of airbrush, they noticed that something very peculiar would begin to happen.
[07:11.020 --> 07:13.820]  Millions of dollars would begin to fall from the sky.
[07:15.460 --> 07:27.540]  Who would have guessed that something so powerful, so beautiful, so important as the creation of music, could also be used as a spin-off of a trite daytime sitcom?
[07:28.460 --> 07:34.480]  We've gotten so used to seeing things like this happen that it seems we've all become desensitized and apathetic.
[07:35.080 --> 07:44.980]  I mean, I suppose it's possible that I could be overly sensitive when it comes to music, but I would sooner choose to be openly disgusted by an atrocity than to simply ignore it.
[07:45.240 --> 07:49.980]  And a Miley Cyrus record certainly fits my definition of the word atrocious.
[07:56.680 --> 08:01.540]  One quality of music as an art form that I'm fascinated by is its universal appeal.
[08:02.120 --> 08:04.280]  Everyone seems to enjoy it.
[08:04.500 --> 08:11.560]  Unless, of course, you're plagued by musicogenic epilepsy, in which case it may cause you to experience wildly unpleasant seizures.
[08:12.380 --> 08:15.640]  So I guess I should say that almost everyone enjoys it.
[08:15.720 --> 08:26.440]  But we all have our personal taste for what we consider to be good or quality, and I think it's safe to say that most of us consider music to be an essential element in our day-to-day lives.
[08:27.140 --> 08:41.300]  So it's understandable that throughout the history of the recording industry, the major record companies have gladly capitalized on the fact that the only way people could obtain that crucial, cherished element in their lives was if they went to a retail store and purchased it.
[08:42.020 --> 08:47.940]  This gave those corporations nearly unlimited control of the market and thus control over we, the consumer.
[08:49.360 --> 08:53.020]  Today, the music industry is dominated by what is known as the Big Four.
[08:53.360 --> 08:58.680]  That's Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and EMI.
[08:59.420 --> 09:09.700]  These four companies account for roughly 85% of all music sales in the United States, with the remaining 15% being divided up among all of the independent record labels in the country.
[09:10.400 --> 09:25.740]  Now in 1995, the Big Five, this was before Sony merged with BMG, each adopted what was known as minimum advertised price or map policies in order to squash a seedy price war that had been going on since the early 90s.
[09:25.740 --> 09:36.780]  The competition between retailers had caused CD prices to fall as low as $9.99, which really twisted the panties of several entertainment executives.
[09:37.260 --> 09:45.580]  So they began requiring retailers to charge no less than the arbitrary minimum advertised price, which of course they decided themselves.
[09:46.640 --> 10:00.880]  If a large music retailer didn't comply with this policy, they risked losing millions of dollars in revenue, and because the map policies allowed distributors to raise their prices at will, which imposed unreasonable restraints of trade, as it's called,
[10:01.320 --> 10:04.680]  this practice qualified as a violation of federal antitrust laws.
[10:05.080 --> 10:11.120]  And in 2000, the Federal Trade Commission respectfully asked the Big Five if they would please stop.
[10:11.900 --> 10:33.140]  They reached a settlement agreement that required the majors to discontinue the policy, but unfortunately, however, justice showed up a little late to work that day, and according to FTC Chairman Robert Potofsky, this particular crime ended up costing U.S. consumers $480 million more than we should have paid for CDs over the course of just three years.
[10:34.400 --> 10:47.460]  So in case there was any doubt, this should confirm even further that we are all forced to play by their rules when it comes time to visit the cash register for checkout, regardless of whether or not those rules are fair, ethical, or even legal.
[10:48.280 --> 10:51.800]  And to an extent, I can understand having to abide by their prices and policies.
[10:51.840 --> 10:54.060]  That's just the way a market economy works.
[10:54.420 --> 11:07.500]  But I assume that I'm not alone when I say that the way they play the game, the way they unabashedly disregard any appreciation for the art and for the audience, has always made me feel like I was being kicked around and taken advantage of.
[11:07.740 --> 11:12.000]  And more and more, the evidence leads me to believe that sadly, I'm correct.
[11:13.920 --> 11:25.700]  In Frank Zappa's 1988 autobiography, and keep that number in mind, 1988, it's called The Real Frank Zappa Book, there's a chapter towards the end that's all about failure.
[11:26.720 --> 11:36.520]  And Zappa shares some stories in this chapter of what he considered to be his unsuccessful endeavors from over the years, and one of them struck me as particularly profound.
[11:38.100 --> 11:45.120]  Zappa said that he had once tried to get the ball rolling on an idea he had for a system where people could order albums over the phone.
[11:45.720 --> 11:51.180]  The albums would then be transferred via the telephone line into the person's home cassette deck.
[11:51.180 --> 11:56.100]  They would be able to simply press the record button, and poof, they had their album.
[11:56.920 --> 12:09.100]  Now at the time that Frank Zappa's book was published, this idea probably seemed like a total pipe dream, but it's quite apparent to us now that he predicted almost exactly what would come to revolutionize music.
[12:09.780 --> 12:18.360]  Not only did he eerily predict the technology and our implementation of it, but he also said that it would collapse the recording industry entirely.
[12:19.560 --> 12:24.080]  Today we've found ourselves at the heart of almost that exact revolution.
[12:24.860 --> 12:36.880]  We've witnessed Zappa's technological prophecy unfold and evolve into this amazing peer-to-peer system that's currently opening our minds to new possibilities for artists and audiences alike.
[12:36.880 --> 12:48.580]  A person can now simply sit in a chair, think of whatever album or song they'd like to hear, wiggle their little fingers a bit, and within moments that album or song begins playing.
[12:49.200 --> 12:56.740]  It's almost as if we can sit motionless, close our eyes, and will ourselves to begin listening to whatever we want for free.
[12:57.680 --> 13:02.600]  This is the beautiful convenience that the tech community has created for the world of music.
[13:03.340 --> 13:08.600]  And like many technological advances, it would have been considered science fiction only a few decades ago.
[13:10.160 --> 13:19.860]  As more people began to access the net and this strange new trend called file sharing began to take hold, the industry was really turned upside down and spanked around a bit.
[13:20.440 --> 13:24.820]  And oh, the big four and the RIAA didn't like this new little thorn in their side.
[13:24.820 --> 13:29.640]  As a matter of fact, they called up their most trusted weapon.
[13:30.620 --> 13:43.460]  An epic figurehead of keen intellect and physique, of mythological proportions almost, whose fury is known only perhaps to his mutilated victims.
[13:44.420 --> 13:50.180]  Enter Lars Ulrich of the award-winning MTV reality show Metallica.
[14:02.420 --> 14:02.900]  Hello?
[14:02.920 --> 14:03.400]  Hello?
[14:04.160 --> 14:05.860]  Hey, black boy.
[14:06.320 --> 14:07.980]  You don't think you're doing it, eh?
[14:08.360 --> 14:09.540]  Oh, I could have!
[14:10.920 --> 14:12.240]  Do you even know who you are?
[14:13.080 --> 14:15.320]  You're freaking long gone from a talent truck!
[14:15.600 --> 14:17.320]  I love everything you do!
[14:17.960 --> 14:19.020]  What's up in that bag?
[14:19.140 --> 14:19.640]  Show me all the stuff.
[14:19.720 --> 14:20.120]  You know what?
[14:20.200 --> 14:21.940]  I think I want to have to whore myself out of you.
[14:22.180 --> 14:23.800]  The kids didn't steal my music.
[14:24.240 --> 14:27.100]  Well, we're not stealing, okay?
[14:27.320 --> 14:29.560]  We're just sharing with each other, you know?
[14:29.560 --> 14:34.280]  So it's like if I take a soda can around here, take a sip of it...
[14:34.280 --> 14:34.980]  Oh my God!
[14:35.260 --> 14:38.000]  I'm sharing my soda with Lars Ulrich!
[14:41.500 --> 14:42.460]  Hey, you know what?
[14:42.640 --> 14:45.980]  I'm just sharing ten years of groupies with you, frat boy.
[14:48.880 --> 14:51.180]  I'm starting to like this whole sharing thing.
[14:52.340 --> 14:53.380]  Hey, boys!
[15:04.260 --> 15:05.320]  Hey, boys!
[15:05.700 --> 15:06.320]  Hey, boys!
[15:06.640 --> 15:07.500]  You stole my car!
[15:07.840 --> 15:08.720]  Not the pigeon!
[15:10.220 --> 15:13.740]  Master, sharing's only fun when it's not your stuff.
[15:22.060 --> 15:28.640]  Now this PSA here is a good example of the RIAA's first generation wave of PR attacks on the community.
[15:29.040 --> 15:35.760]  And for obvious reasons, it fell short just like everything else that Lars Ulrich has ever come into contact with.
[15:39.140 --> 15:41.840]  Allow me to take a moment here to make a prediction, if I may.
[15:41.840 --> 15:52.500]  Anyway, one day, several years from now, I predict that Lars will wake up, hazily stumble out of his bed, wipe his sleepy little eyes, and give a big yawn.
[15:53.160 --> 15:56.000]  And then he'll accidentally catch a glimpse of himself in the mirror.
[15:56.840 --> 16:14.640]  He'll ponder for a moment, and then suddenly, he'll realize for the first time that even though he's seen a lot of things, he's been a lot of places, he's had a lot of difficult life experiences, that somehow, somehow, he has still managed to wind up being Lars Ulrich,
[16:14.840 --> 16:25.760]  a petty little manservant to a Warner Brothers CEO, his body scarred by years of being used as a human ashtray at an exclusive Beverly Hills Country Club.
[16:26.220 --> 16:29.380]  And at that moment, I predict he'll throw himself out the window.
[16:30.800 --> 16:31.620]  Moving on.
[16:34.140 --> 16:43.900]  Well, when their hilariously bad propaganda didn't work, they decided to start randomly drawing names from a hat, and suing whoever was unlucky enough to be the next contestant.
[16:44.960 --> 16:49.700]  RIAA investigators began using peer-to-peer clients to search for copyright-protected material.
[16:50.220 --> 16:58.480]  They would then determine the IP address the person sharing this material, and issue a subpoena to that person's ISP in order to determine their name and other personal information.
[16:59.300 --> 17:09.200]  Now, according to the RIAA, their legal ability to force ISPs to turn over their customers' personal data came from a provision within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
[17:09.620 --> 17:12.920]  This is the DMCA that you may have all heard about.
[17:13.920 --> 17:23.280]  Lobbyists from the RIAA had inserted a carefully worded clause, which they interpreted as a green light to bypass any judicial oversight when issuing these subpoenas.
[17:23.640 --> 17:37.400]  So, on September 8, 2003, 261 Americans, including a 12-year-old girl living in the projects here in New York City with her single mother, were sued as a result of these DMCA subpoenas.
[17:38.340 --> 17:47.540]  About two months later, a federal court ruled that this method of obtaining personal information was illegal, which caused the RIAA to change their little course a bit.
[17:47.920 --> 17:52.280]  Of course, this didn't mean that anyone affected by these illegal tactics got their money back.
[17:53.000 --> 18:02.020]  Now, nearly five years later, it is estimated that over 20,000 people have been sued, and many of them financially crippled by the RIAA.
[18:02.020 --> 18:04.640]  That's according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
[18:05.480 --> 18:12.280]  Let this fact be a clear indication that we are very much engaged in a war not without casualties.
[18:12.960 --> 18:20.320]  We can all assume that people are going to continue to be sued because that's about the only offensive measure that the RIAA has in its arsenal.
[18:20.320 --> 18:25.980]  Without their attorneys, they're like a jet fighter without wings, fuel, or ammunition.
[18:27.000 --> 18:29.060]  Yes, the lawsuits will indeed continue.
[18:29.960 --> 18:34.320]  They'll especially keep using their lawsuits to try to shut down peer-to-peer applications and websites.
[18:34.680 --> 18:35.460]  That's a given.
[18:36.180 --> 18:40.180]  However, the uselessness of this maneuver can best be understood by noting its effect.
[18:40.580 --> 18:45.260]  Now, we all remember the old days before new clients sprung up on a seemingly daily basis.
[18:45.880 --> 18:51.640]  One gets slapped with a lawsuit or a cease and desist and shuts down and then ten more go up.
[18:52.060 --> 19:00.760]  Now, we saw this happen when they took down Napster with the nearly instant arrival of a multitude of similar software applications that absorbed all of those Napster refugees.
[19:01.640 --> 19:14.360]  The wildfire quality of technology ensures that the global audience will have lifelong access to new and improved methods of obtaining music and other media, and we are all indebted to the tech community for that.
[19:15.140 --> 19:28.720]  Our antagonists must be well aware that the battle they're waging is already lost, because trying to beat the progress of technology is about as futile as pushing a mountain in an attempt to spin the Earth in the opposite direction.
[19:29.860 --> 19:37.960]  I make it a point to do my best to observe how human beings, myself included, go about our lives, and I've noticed a very interesting repeating occurrence.
[19:39.340 --> 19:50.720]  We humans always take the quickest path between two points, and once that path has been determined, there really isn't much that can ever discourage us from taking it again and again and again.
[19:51.260 --> 20:02.500]  I believe it's this innate human characteristic that fuels the demand for the peer-to-peer system, and that's exactly why it's quickly becoming set in stone as the standard by which we measure our access to music and other media.
[20:03.040 --> 20:18.020]  No matter what digital alternatives the recording industry comes up with, no matter how much they try to scare us into paying for overpriced records, the global audience will always take the cheaper, more efficient, more convenient path, regardless of the slight chance that they may be sued.
[20:19.100 --> 20:24.120]  But that won't stop them from trying to convince you that their digital alternatives are equally or more convenient.
[20:24.120 --> 20:28.480]  Now, I don't use iTunes, but from what I've gathered, you're paying roughly a buck per song.
[20:28.960 --> 20:42.600]  Now, assuming that you exclusively use iTunes to obtain all of your music 100% legally, and let's say you've got yourself a 40-gig iPod that's about 10,000 songs, it's going to cost you $10,000 to fill that iPod.
[20:43.220 --> 20:51.100]  Now, go ahead and compare that figure with the cost of pirating those 10,000 songs, and you'll see why this alternative will never take the place of peer-to-peer.
[20:51.680 --> 20:54.440]  Again, what's the shortest distance between the two points?
[20:54.660 --> 21:00.800]  It doesn't get any cheaper than zero dollars, and something that's free is always way better than something I have to pay for.
[21:02.460 --> 21:08.180]  So what we've established here thus far is that the music industry conglomerate has had a comfortable free ride for decades.
[21:08.560 --> 21:16.700]  It's been strikingly similar to the oil industry in a lot of ways, because they know that we need their product, and they know that we'll pay whatever price they decide to put on it.
[21:17.300 --> 21:26.620]  Furthermore, they'll commit reprehensible acts in order to keep things that way, regardless of who may be caught in the crossfire, or of what principles may be desecrated in doing so.
[21:27.300 --> 21:36.960]  Of course, no one is being slaughtered, and countries aren't being obliterated for the profit of music, so I should make it clear that the comparison I'm drawing here isn't intended to undermine the serious nature of that issue.
[21:37.940 --> 21:42.780]  But imagine if suddenly we were all introduced to a method of acquiring free gasoline.
[21:43.580 --> 21:46.100]  A method that could never be withheld from our disposal.
[21:46.100 --> 21:48.840]  It would grow and grow and grow as time went on.
[21:49.460 --> 21:52.780]  Wouldn't we all end up collapsing the oil industry fairly quickly?
[21:53.140 --> 21:57.580]  More importantly, wouldn't we all be morally justified in doing so?
[21:58.340 --> 22:04.580]  After all, we were silent for so long as we allowed ourselves to be victimized by their wicked money-making agenda.
[22:05.020 --> 22:17.140]  Wouldn't we, in that situation, be entitled to make use of that free gas method, if for no other reason than to show the megalomaniacs how it feels to be defenseless against a force much larger than them.
[22:23.490 --> 22:26.870]  Indeed, what's been established here is that piracy will never be defeated.
[22:27.250 --> 22:34.170]  Because convenience is a sort of human psychological imperative, the means to access free music will always exist within our society.
[22:34.490 --> 22:39.310]  For the audience, this basically means an opportunity to justifiably stick it to the man.
[22:39.930 --> 22:53.270]  For artists, however, it means being plucked from the old world and dropped smack dab in the middle of an unfamiliar crossroads where they are faced with a decision to either play by the old rules or start adapting to the new.
[22:54.470 --> 22:58.350]  Because that whole piracy hurts artists' ideas based around one thing.
[22:58.970 --> 22:59.490]  Profit.
[23:00.130 --> 23:08.010]  The logic is that if an artist spends $1,000 to make a record, he or she must make that $1,000 back before they can turn a profit, right?
[23:08.690 --> 23:12.410]  Well, how are they supposed to accomplish that if people aren't buying their records?
[23:12.890 --> 23:21.090]  Now, it's important to keep in mind that for an indie artist, their total cost of making a record may end up being a few thousand dollars and, of course, that depends entirely on the circumstance.
[23:21.590 --> 23:32.710]  But for a major label artist, that figure could be hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars provided, of course, by the artist's label, which intends to get that money back in one way or another.
[23:34.350 --> 23:35.950]  So, people ask this question.
[23:36.510 --> 23:41.670]  If an artist isn't making a profit, how can he or she afford to feed themselves and pay their rent?
[23:42.330 --> 23:46.270]  I think the trick to figuring this out is by looking at how that question is being worded.
[23:46.530 --> 23:57.430]  That very simple question has been distorted ever so slightly to the point where now it has become if an artist isn't selling units, how can he or she afford to eat?
[23:58.330 --> 23:59.690]  That, to me, is the problem.
[24:00.510 --> 24:03.870]  The logic that they're using is that units equal profit.
[24:04.010 --> 24:09.810]  But if you simply choose to word the question differently or look at it from a different angle, you get a drastically different answer.
[24:10.970 --> 24:12.350]  Here's how I choose to see it.
[24:12.930 --> 24:15.610]  Cost, in this situation, determines profit.
[24:16.150 --> 24:24.870]  How much you spend to make your record, to make your product, is what determines when you get to make your profit.
[24:25.470 --> 24:33.370]  If, instead of a few thousand dollars, I only spend a couple hundred dollars, my profit is obviously going to start rolling in much quicker and much easier.
[24:34.170 --> 24:37.910]  Now, when I mentioned earlier that artists are going to have to adapt, this is what I was referring to.
[24:38.450 --> 24:45.790]  The artists and companies that are going to be detrimentally affected by piracy are the ones that continue to play the old game on the new playing field.
[24:46.330 --> 24:54.090]  If you're an independent artist, I think that your mission should be to cut spending as much as possible to allow for an easier accumulation of profit income.
[24:54.790 --> 25:08.470]  If I've only spent a couple hundred dollars to make a record in my bedroom, instead of a couple thousand dollars to make a record in a professional studio, then I'm not so concerned with making sure that everyone who is listening has paid for the privilege to do so.
[25:11.400 --> 25:21.880]  The music itself then becomes less of a product and more of a tool for the accumulation of a fan base, which can then also produce income from merchandise and or concert ticket sales.
[25:22.400 --> 25:26.920]  It also allows you to use a free digital download as an incentive for folks to purchase items.
[25:27.120 --> 25:34.660]  By saying, buy my t-shirt and get a free digital copy of my record, you can justify charging a few extra dollars for the t-shirt.
[25:34.660 --> 25:36.180]  Your fan won't mind.
[25:36.200 --> 25:38.760]  In fact, they'll probably see it as a completely fair deal.
[25:39.020 --> 25:45.840]  And I think that this is the key to starting a trend that will benefit the audience as well as the artist and those involved with the production of the music.
[25:46.960 --> 25:56.960]  It baffles me to watch unknown bands charge fifteen dollars for their CD, which no one has heard yet, while refusing to provide the ability for potential listeners to download their songs.
[25:57.760 --> 26:07.760]  To me, it completely defies logic for anyone whose goal is to build a fan base to essentially hold their own material hostage by requiring people to pay a ransom in order to hear it.
[26:08.660 --> 26:11.080]  Perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to show some patience.
[26:11.460 --> 26:15.060]  Worry about the quality of the music first, and then your exposure.
[26:15.460 --> 26:19.940]  And then once people are willing to pay you money, you can start worrying about your price.
[26:21.000 --> 26:28.820]  Artists desperately need to avoid greed at all costs if we want success to be determined by the quality of the music and the merit of its creator.
[26:30.620 --> 26:37.520]  When starving musicians fantasize about hitting the big time, they dream of signing a huge contract with a major label.
[26:37.740 --> 26:42.740]  Six figures, ten albums, hundreds of groupies, like Lars was saying up there.
[26:43.520 --> 26:55.580]  For over half a century, musicians have had it drilled into their brains that the Road to Easy Street is lined with A&R representatives, armed with ballpoint pens and super cool suits and hairdos.
[26:56.220 --> 27:01.340]  Getting signed to a major label is thought to be the highest accomplishment that a musician can try for.
[27:01.600 --> 27:07.920]  And so most artists will say anything, wear anything, do anything, if they think it will somehow get them closer to that objective.
[27:09.200 --> 27:18.840]  Now, however, with more and more signs pointing to the notion that yesterday's method of producing music is inefficient and will soon be obsolete, maybe we can begin to set a new goal.
[27:19.500 --> 27:25.260]  How about a goal to create music with depth and originality that represents the individuality of the artist?
[27:25.700 --> 27:28.680]  That's a foreign concept to a lot of people today.
[27:29.740 --> 27:42.280]  In the music world today, the mainstream standards for style, sounds, production techniques, image, and pretty much every other aspect of the art form is set by a handful of men in suits who base these standards purely on marketability.
[27:43.040 --> 27:53.940]  When the industry falls apart as a result of piracy, which I'm certain that it will, surely these men in suits will no longer be such important factors in the public perception of musical value.
[27:54.720 --> 27:57.580]  This idea is at the core of my opinion of piracy as well.
[27:58.620 --> 28:07.320]  What's to stop us then from witnessing the growth of groundbreaking techniques and new genres that were never before possible, let alone accepted as legitimate?
[28:08.380 --> 28:18.820]  We've established that this trend of technology-aiding music is unstoppable, so I think it's safe to assume that any artist not willing to adapt to it and help promote it will ultimately be left behind.
[28:20.140 --> 28:28.940]  Back in October of last year, Radiohead's In Rainbows was released on a payment-honor system where fans could set their own price or pay nothing for the record.
[28:29.620 --> 28:33.160]  Now, Radiohead was not the first band to do this, contrary to popular belief.
[28:33.160 --> 28:36.500]  They're just the first enormously popular band to do it.
[28:36.500 --> 28:49.200]  But, although the exact figures are the subject of some debate, GigaWise.com, citing a source close to the band, stated that they sold 1.2 million copies at an average of $8 a copy in the first week.
[28:49.780 --> 28:52.940]  And that comes out to about $10 million in sales.
[28:53.220 --> 28:57.740]  And from what I read, this was even before the box set and the physical CD went on sale.
[28:58.460 --> 29:07.320]  Now, obviously, the average working band isn't going to come anywhere near a figure like this, but it's clear that this method works for major mainstream artists with an established fan base.
[29:07.940 --> 29:14.080]  Like so many other signs and indicators, it points to the idea that record companies and distributors are becoming obsolete.
[29:15.120 --> 29:22.300]  Radiohead proved that major artists can own their masters, have virtually no distribution costs, and make their own rules.
[29:23.000 --> 29:31.300]  More importantly, though, it demonstrates that people, when represented, or rather, when presented with a fair display of respect, will pay accordingly.
[29:32.040 --> 29:39.600]  The people who have bought that record did so because they appreciated being given the option of having it for free if they wanted.
[29:40.020 --> 29:48.440]  And a lot of people took advantage of that ability and downloaded it without paying, and that's okay, because the people who felt they could afford to pay a little for it made it up for those who couldn't.
[29:48.880 --> 29:54.540]  This is where I start to draw comparisons between this new method of distribution and the open source movement.
[29:55.100 --> 30:02.900]  The community maintains its own ability to access the information, thus creating more convenience and stability for the whole.
[30:03.880 --> 30:06.160]  Now, that's mainstream artists, but what about the little guy?
[30:07.280 --> 30:22.220]  Well, in the interest of answering that question and helping to promote this new model that we've been discussing here, I set out to demonstrate that it was, in fact, entirely possible to create a full-length record that was entirely self-produced and that cost virtually nothing to create.
[30:23.040 --> 30:26.600]  Six months or so later, it's finished, and here's how I did it.
[30:27.700 --> 30:33.820]  First, I enlisted the help of a few friends who were supportive of my musical ambitions and who were willing to do what they could to help me out.
[30:34.660 --> 30:46.660]  Associating yourself with kind and generous people can be a valuable resource in situations like this, and so I highly emphasize the importance of positive networking for independent artists.
[30:47.480 --> 31:00.400]  An engineer friend of mine, for example, loaned me an assortment of microphones and other various mid-range studio equipment, and I used an old Tascam 4-Track cassette recorder as a mixer and some software, such as Audacity, to digitally edit the recordings.
[31:01.220 --> 31:10.560]  I made every possible effort to save money by doing things like making my own pop filters out of my girlfriend's pantyhose and using every piece of old equipment I had.
[31:11.620 --> 31:20.760]  I live in an apartment, so recording drums was definitely an obstacle, but again, a family member helped me overcome it by allowing me to use his basement to track all of the percussion and loud instruments.
[31:21.420 --> 31:31.600]  Any parts on the record that needed to be played by musicians other than myself were performed by close friends of mine, thus allowing me to avoid the hefty fees involved with hiring session players.
[31:32.560 --> 31:44.220]  Next, I put the last three years of trial and error education to use by performing all of the mixing and engineering tasks myself, using what I'm sure are taboo production techniques that most engineers would cringe at the sight of.
[31:44.220 --> 31:55.380]  However, I'm proud to say that this record seems to verify the notion that engineering doesn't necessarily matter all that much so long as the songs are relatively well composed and well executed.
[31:55.880 --> 31:58.080]  And that's not to say that it sounds shoddy at all.
[31:58.260 --> 32:07.860]  I've discovered that with enough patience and toying around, it's possible to make the whole thing sound remarkably cohesive and at times even indistinguishable from professional studio recording.
[32:08.620 --> 32:15.440]  The means of promoting this record in accordance with this experiment also had to be extremely cheap or completely free.
[32:15.840 --> 32:22.500]  So I used Google Pages to create a pretty looking website and bought a domain name that redirected to it for $6.
[32:22.920 --> 32:27.540]  And I promoted the record on MySpace and with physical flyers and advertisements locally.
[32:27.840 --> 32:39.000]  I also contacted some local websites and media outlets for interviewing and other promotional measures, which funneled substantial amounts of traffic to my site without having to pay any sort of large sum of money.
[32:40.100 --> 32:53.000]  So if you exclude the cost of the 4-track cassette recorder and my PC, both of which I owned well before taking on this project, the total cost of making the record came out to $12, which I spent on an RCA cable at RadioShack.
[32:59.190 --> 33:06.230]  That means that any money over $12 that I make from the sale of this record goes directly into my pocket.
[33:06.230 --> 33:13.210]  I can then save that money and apply it to the funding for my next project, which I intend to execute the exact same way.
[33:13.690 --> 33:14.530]  Why not, you know?
[33:15.110 --> 33:24.970]  Keep in mind that because the record is being released entirely in digital format with only a few limited edition CD pressings being sold, there is no distribution cost.
[33:25.250 --> 33:29.270]  Not a single penny has to be spent in manufacturing a physical product.
[33:29.590 --> 33:33.150]  Not a single penny has to be sent to ship and package it.
[33:33.410 --> 33:34.750]  Not a single penny.
[33:35.890 --> 33:42.690]  Although in listening to the whole thing, one would not be able to tell how little money was spent to make it unless they were a really critical engineer.
[33:43.470 --> 33:51.210]  I'll also say that to an extent, the imperfections of the production lend a certain level of honesty and emotion to the record.
[33:52.010 --> 34:01.290]  Any more mainstream standards, you know, are to make your recordings as loud as possible, often at the expense of the credibility and organic nature of the music itself.
[34:02.130 --> 34:14.090]  There's a noticeable difference between overproduced, squeaky clean recordings and a natural raw element that I think the majority of what I call the global audience is ready and willing, even eager to accept.
[34:15.050 --> 34:26.270]  If independent artists begin to utilize this method of creation that I'm describing, I'm hypothesizing that we'll all start to see more character, originality, and realness emerging from the artistic forum.
[34:26.550 --> 34:36.590]  All as a result, let us not forget, of the walls and barriers being broken by technological advances and their availability to artists with empty pocketbooks.
[34:36.590 --> 34:40.310]  I find that concept extremely exciting and moving.
[34:41.790 --> 34:46.530]  This is the kind of trend that the musical community can really take hold of and embrace.
[34:46.530 --> 34:52.270]  And if we do, then we've got a real chance at bringing integrity back to the music business.
[34:53.270 --> 35:04.790]  And it's in the hopes that I can do my part to push things ever slightly in this direction that I chose to release the album for free under Creative Commons license that allows anyone to copy, distribute, and share it.
[35:04.790 --> 35:17.350]  My website has been set up with what I call the digital gatefold, where people can view the lyrics to all of the songs, complete with the links to websites that explain the inspiration for them, as well as view or download the album art.
[35:17.490 --> 35:22.170]  This gives the sensation of having a physical product that you might get from buying a CD.
[35:22.490 --> 35:33.630]  But it's advanced, more highly evolved, in the sense that with the, you know, capabilities of the Internet, one can go deeper and deeper and deeper into the liner notes.
[35:33.630 --> 35:36.190]  And this is something that you can't do with a piece of paper.
[35:37.250 --> 35:40.190]  And they can download the album and or stream it if they like it.
[35:41.170 --> 35:45.470]  And if they have a buck to spare, they can donate it to fund my next project or don't.
[35:45.870 --> 35:46.810]  That's fine too.
[35:47.390 --> 35:56.710]  If they don't like it, they can have the satisfaction of hearing that paper crumpling noise from their recycle bin without feeling any regrets of having spent money on it.
[35:58.390 --> 36:05.270]  I've admired and respected for years what the tech community can do to keep us all moving towards a better and a brighter future.
[36:05.510 --> 36:14.970]  And I'm very grateful to the energy and the talent that's been channeled into creating something as revolutionary and so beneficial to the audible art form as the peer-to-peer system.
[36:16.170 --> 36:22.590]  So in closing, I'll offer a final prediction, the image of which gives me a great deal of hope and optimism.
[36:23.630 --> 36:29.110]  I predict that in 25 years the record industry as we know it today will be a laughable legend.
[36:29.870 --> 36:36.550]  We will have won the war and the CEOs will have packed their briefcases and Botox kits and fled like rodents back to L.A.
[36:36.710 --> 36:45.430]  which will quickly sink into the Pacific Ocean under the weight of their massive egos and pocketbooks with a splendid and long overdue celebratory splash.
[36:54.340 --> 37:02.250]  The group of suburban kids in their parents' garage banging away on their untamed instruments will look to themselves rather than MTV for inspiration.
[37:02.790 --> 37:05.960]  They'll make their music and they'll give it to anyone who wants to hear it.
[37:06.520 --> 37:16.630]  These artists of the future will accept that once they have created and released their work of art into the world for all to interpret, it becomes the property of the collective audience.
[37:17.230 --> 37:22.050]  And they'll readily push the boundaries of the conventional perception of what can be done with that.
[37:24.050 --> 37:38.670]  I predict that out of the ashes of the entertainment conglomerate will come a new generation of artists who will create music based on their own refined tastes and influences, drawing from their own moral and philosophical observations, who will usher in a creative awakening for all.
[37:39.150 --> 37:58.000]  And perhaps most importantly, the music fans of this future will seek out exciting new sounds and build a new user-supported pseudo-industry based around the principles of the open-source movement, which has proven to be a more efficient, effective, and highly evolved means of sharing information within our society.
[37:58.840 --> 38:08.570]  And I predict that this unborn audience, as well as these unborn artists, will all be grateful to us for their ability to do so in a way so brilliantly and masterfully.
[38:09.590 --> 38:26.550]  You, the seeds, the leeches, the developers, have sent a clear message to the suits who have attempted to force-feed you their shallow, pre-chewed, candy-coated product that they are unwelcome in our hearts, our minds, our homes, and in our headphones.
[38:27.130 --> 38:47.860]  And in doing so, you're paying an unprecedented homage to Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, John Cage, Duke Ellington, John Lennon, Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, David Byrne, and everyone else who has dedicated their life to furthering our perception of what it means to make sounds.
[38:48.710 --> 38:54.110]  The development and use of peer-to-peer technology is more than a trend, and it's more than a movement.
[38:54.110 --> 38:55.860]  It's justice.
[38:56.500 --> 39:01.790]  It's a solemn tribute, the likes of which have never been paid to such a remarkable extent.
[39:02.380 --> 39:21.690]  I am certain that as peers, you will go down in history as the heroes who fought and took back mankind's hijacked music, who set free the spirit of our innate creative instinct to make for a more glorious and beautiful celebration of the world that we may use as the pallet for creating peace,
[39:21.980 --> 39:25.210]  love, human brotherhood, and social progress.
[39:25.460 --> 39:26.400]  Thank you very much.
[39:35.860 --> 39:40.820]  I'd like to open up the floor now to anyone who has any questions or comments or anything they'd like to share.
[39:41.580 --> 39:42.260]  Yeah, go right ahead.
[39:43.520 --> 39:45.300]  First, I want to thank you for coming out.
[39:45.740 --> 39:46.520]  Great talk.
[39:46.660 --> 39:47.120]  Thank you.
[39:47.680 --> 39:50.400]  I am going to play devil's advocate.
[39:50.800 --> 39:51.260]  Go right ahead.
[39:52.520 --> 40:04.500]  First, I have a comment, which is, I think describing peer-to-peer technology as unstoppable is a little bit far-reaching.
[40:04.500 --> 40:05.120]  Okay.
[40:05.620 --> 40:11.200]  I highly recommend, if you have a credit, blessing work, particularly for a viewpoint.
[40:11.980 --> 40:13.440]  I think it can be stopped.
[40:14.140 --> 40:21.780]  And through the proper regulation, if you want to call it proper movement, I think you can see it banish fairly quickly.
[40:21.960 --> 40:22.520]  How so?
[40:24.460 --> 40:29.800]  So, blessing work describes a number of different ways that you can regulate cyberspace.
[40:31.300 --> 40:39.980]  And I think, to a certain extent, the spaces that can be developed online can be regulated in such a way.
[40:43.320 --> 40:45.740]  Excuse me for not remembering it off the top of my head or twice.
[40:46.060 --> 40:46.840]  Yes, you can be able to read it.
[40:46.940 --> 40:47.080]  Sure.
[40:50.560 --> 40:51.600]  You put me in the spot.
[40:52.920 --> 40:54.680]  Well, technically, it's you that put me in the spot.
[40:59.340 --> 41:03.340]  I understand what you're saying, absolutely.
[41:03.600 --> 41:09.580]  And it is possible that through malicious regulation, I consider it to be malicious.
[41:10.380 --> 41:11.100]  As do I.
[41:11.380 --> 41:11.940]  Agreed.
[41:12.040 --> 41:12.260]  Yeah.
[41:12.440 --> 41:13.060]  It's malicious.
[41:13.380 --> 41:15.460]  It's downright dirty and evil.
[41:15.900 --> 41:15.980]  Right.
[41:16.940 --> 41:35.840]  However, what I've witnessed through just observing the open source movement is that, you know, what we've got here, for example, is a crowd of people, you know, a group that is willing to stay on the underground below that regulation or above it, depending on how you choose to look at it,
[41:35.940 --> 41:42.920]  and make sure that although they may try to regulate it as they have already, that they will fail at it.
[41:43.000 --> 41:45.700]  And I have more confidence myself, and I'm sure you do too.
[41:45.700 --> 41:48.400]  I'm not challenging your, you know, your integrity in the least.
[41:48.660 --> 42:00.540]  But I have more confidence in the hacker community than I do in the abilities of the government or any special interests to regulate something as profound and wide-ranging as the Internet.
[42:00.780 --> 42:05.960]  And I think that it's... but it's still a fight, it's not something that's given.
[42:06.100 --> 42:06.580]  Certainly.
[42:06.740 --> 42:07.080]  Absolutely.
[42:07.260 --> 42:20.620]  That's what, I mean, that's what we're all doing here, I think, is manifesting that fight, advertising it a little bit, and making ourselves known to those, you know, powers that be, to say that we're not going to stand for that.
[42:20.820 --> 42:31.420]  And then, not to take too much more time, but my question is, you seem to extract music away from other forms of media when it comes to looking at how copyright plays out online.
[42:31.740 --> 42:35.600]  And the things that you're talking about, I think, of course, would work for music.
[42:35.760 --> 42:37.420]  I think it's a good model for music.
[42:37.420 --> 42:42.760]  But I think that also, you have to extend the same type of model into other forms of media.
[42:42.960 --> 42:43.140]  Certainly.
[42:43.260 --> 42:52.860]  I wonder if you consider, to any extent, how what you say about music would then move into spaces of, you know, movies and certain software.
[42:53.140 --> 42:53.420]  Certainly.
[42:53.620 --> 42:54.020]  Absolutely.
[42:54.280 --> 43:12.560]  The difference, I think, between music and a movie, for example, is that the quality of the product, you know, if I make a movie in my bedroom, for example, it's probably not going to look very good, assuming that, you know, I'm using mid-range equipment as I did with this record that I was referring to.
[43:13.320 --> 43:24.920]  And so, there's a little bit of discretion when it comes to music, that you can almost mask it as a professional recording without it being one, whereas it's extremely difficult to do so with movies.
[43:25.180 --> 43:27.080]  Software, on the other hand, is very similar.
[43:27.480 --> 43:28.160]  Very similar.
[43:29.000 --> 43:36.000]  Yes, I have considered it, but my area of expertise is music, and I don't know anything about making a movie.
[43:36.120 --> 43:37.310]  I don't know anything about writing software.
[43:38.560 --> 43:44.740]  And so, I shouldn't, you know, take the liberty of commenting on that without, you know, being educated on it completely.
[43:44.740 --> 43:47.300]  But I completely understand what you're saying, and I agree entirely.
[43:47.800 --> 43:48.060]  Thank you.
[43:49.340 --> 43:57.140]  I just want to say it's great to hear your viewpoint on this new wave of technology and music intervening.
[43:57.140 --> 44:00.000]  And I've been following independent music since I was 14.
[44:00.940 --> 44:02.900]  But I am also going to play devil's advocate.
[44:03.400 --> 44:06.220]  And you claimed that it was $12 to make the record.
[44:06.300 --> 44:06.520]  Certainly.
[44:06.860 --> 44:11.100]  But you also had the benefit of knowing people who could lend you things.
[44:11.400 --> 44:11.680]  Sure.
[44:11.740 --> 44:13.560]  And you had people who were willing to offer their time.
[44:13.700 --> 44:18.360]  So that's one thing I wanted to bring up, is the element of time as a musician.
[44:19.440 --> 44:20.200]  It's important.
[44:20.200 --> 44:20.680]  Yeah.
[44:20.860 --> 44:27.380]  I was into photography, and whenever I first saw photographs that were $150 on the wall, I was like, how can they charge that?
[44:27.480 --> 44:27.540]  Right.
[44:27.540 --> 44:35.740]  And now I would spend 10 or 15 hours in the darkroom, and I realized I was only going to pay $10 an hour if I sold that image for $150.
[44:37.200 --> 45:02.780]  So I'm wondering if you can, if you bring in all your income from your independent record company and your music that you create, and if you really see this as a feasible means for people to get off the ground and become something like Radiohead, which already has a wide enough band base to bring in $10 million dollars.
[45:02.800 --> 45:03.540]  That's a good point.
[45:03.740 --> 45:14.020]  And what I always talk about when people bring this up, is that the reason we refer to bands like Radiohead, or The Beatles, or Pink Floyd, or whoever, you know, is because they were groundbreaking.
[45:14.020 --> 45:17.580]  It was because they did something that had not been done before.
[45:17.740 --> 45:25.180]  They moved progressively in a direction that elevated the global audience to a point where we hadn't been before.
[45:25.180 --> 45:33.860]  And so I think that quality in this system plays a huge part, whereas in the current system it doesn't necessarily play a part.
[45:34.100 --> 45:43.560]  You know, they can use, like I referred to earlier, the Antares Auto-Tune plug-in and just, you know, throw some pretty little girl in the studio, and all of a sudden she's a musician, and they call her an artist, right?
[45:44.460 --> 45:52.420]  Now, if we start to embrace this system, I think that the crap, so to speak, will weed itself out.
[45:52.420 --> 45:55.440]  I mean, there's not going to be more crap as a result of this.
[45:55.600 --> 45:58.360]  It's already out there, and there will always be garbage, right?
[45:58.780 --> 46:07.160]  But the good stuff, the really good stuff, I think it's possible in this system for that to take hold, where in the other system it isn't.
[46:07.220 --> 46:09.900]  And so I see this as the only hope we've got for that.
[46:10.740 --> 46:20.660]  To address your question about the time involved with making the record, I spent over a hundred hours of studio time, me personally doing everything involved with the production of the record.
[46:21.220 --> 46:24.160]  And yes, time, as they say, is money, right?
[46:24.860 --> 46:33.480]  What I've found is that I've managed to work forty hours a week, still doing this in my spare time, often, you know, up until eight a.m.
[46:33.560 --> 46:34.480]  in the morning to do it.
[46:36.020 --> 46:43.500]  You know, and I did have an opportunity, I got my stimulus check from the government, which really came in handy because I could take some time off work.
[46:43.500 --> 46:49.600]  I didn't use that money to go directly into the production of the record, to buy equipment or anything like that.
[46:49.780 --> 46:55.260]  I simply paid my bills with it so that I could afford to take a little bit of time off and focus a little bit more time.
[46:55.980 --> 47:08.740]  If you can save a little bit of money, take a week off, and just, you know, go balls to the wall and just do it, that's one way of avoiding that scenario where your time is costing you a lot of money.
[47:08.760 --> 47:11.140]  And I completely understand absolutely what you're saying.
[47:11.140 --> 47:17.940]  It's a difficult task to manage between working so much and having this project that's going to take you a long time.
[47:18.100 --> 47:31.660]  Now, if you've got five guys in a band and you guys can each split, you know, the responsibilities to an extent, then that can sort of minimize the time that each individual respective member has to spend on that.
[47:31.780 --> 47:36.120]  Now, I don't have a band and so I'm just kind of in my own boat paddling quickly.
[47:36.120 --> 47:38.220]  So, but yes, good point.
[47:38.420 --> 47:38.720]  Definitely.
[47:39.060 --> 47:39.340]  Thank you.
[47:41.400 --> 47:41.800]  Hi.
[47:41.980 --> 47:42.620]  Hi, how are you?
[47:43.500 --> 47:45.240]  I'm just going to talk about how's that.
[47:46.180 --> 47:47.860]  Radiohead was such a huge success, right?
[47:47.960 --> 47:48.080]  Sure.
[47:48.320 --> 47:50.500]  And why did they cancel the program after the program?
[47:50.700 --> 47:52.640]  Okay, I knew somebody was going to bring that up.
[47:52.840 --> 48:00.300]  And what Radiohead, to me, their intentions in releasing their record, I can't comment on because I'm not a member of the band.
[48:00.300 --> 48:06.800]  However, what it demonstrates is independent entirely from the intention to begin with.
[48:07.060 --> 48:09.900]  So, they did, you know, cancel the digital download, right?
[48:10.280 --> 48:17.140]  And I believe that their manager came right out and said, you know, this was a marketing thing, you know, we're trying to push this out there, we're doing something new.
[48:18.200 --> 48:23.500]  But regardless of that, you know, Metallica could have done the exact same thing and if they had made $10 million in the first week.
[48:24.060 --> 48:24.760]  Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
[48:24.820 --> 48:29.840]  They've begun to sort of embrace that ideology that they were so adamantly against before.
[48:31.360 --> 48:32.400]  But, like I said, but...
[48:32.400 --> 48:33.000]  Let me stop right there.
[48:33.120 --> 48:33.340]  Okay.
[48:33.340 --> 48:34.600]  It wasn't adamantly against that.
[48:34.720 --> 48:38.440]  They were adamantly against not being able to control where the music was distributed through.
[48:39.880 --> 48:43.820]  In what sense do you mean distributing through, as far as, like, an individual company?
[48:44.040 --> 48:47.200]  Is it your choice to have the music distributed on Amazon?
[48:47.700 --> 48:48.200]  Well, yeah.
[48:48.360 --> 48:52.080]  But, I mean, that's definitely, that's a huge factor in the whole idea to begin with.
[48:52.360 --> 49:02.140]  I mean, the peer-to-peer system and its detrimental effect, as they say, includes that factor as well as, you know, your IP laws and things like that.
[49:03.020 --> 49:03.540]  But, you know...
[49:03.540 --> 49:04.880]  So you don't think IP laws are fair?
[49:05.440 --> 49:07.980]  I'm not saying that I don't believe IP laws are fair.
[49:08.200 --> 49:22.620]  I just believe that if we want integrity to be restored to the music industry, we need to embrace things like Creative Commons from an artistic level, where we can set our own rules rather than just generalizing and making everyone who wants to hear it without paying a criminal.
[49:22.860 --> 49:23.880]  And that's fine for you.
[49:23.980 --> 49:28.000]  But who are you to argue that other bands shouldn't get paid the way they want to get used?
[49:28.120 --> 49:31.580]  Hey, you know, if they want to play by the old rules in the new system, they can go right ahead.
[49:31.680 --> 49:32.840]  But I'm not going to do that.
[49:32.940 --> 49:36.780]  And while we're at it, why should you care what other people listen to and enjoy?
[49:36.780 --> 49:39.160]  I don't care what other people listen to and enjoy.
[49:39.320 --> 49:40.940]  You can enjoy crap if you want.
[49:41.340 --> 49:43.320]  But, you know...
[49:43.320 --> 49:43.860]  That's not the best thing.
[49:44.060 --> 49:45.320]  If you call crap, that's fine.
[49:45.480 --> 49:50.660]  But if somebody wants to go and spend $10 on a Miley Cyrus, whoever the hell she is...
[49:50.660 --> 49:50.900]  Right.
[49:51.300 --> 49:52.280]  What's the point?
[49:52.400 --> 49:53.520]  What do you care what they do?
[49:53.780 --> 49:58.380]  Well, I mean, you could word that question as, what do I care if people vote for President Bush?
[49:58.380 --> 50:00.380]  It's something that I feel passionately about.
[50:01.080 --> 50:07.660]  It's something, you know, I advocate this system because my life is centered entirely around the art form.
[50:08.340 --> 50:15.640]  And so, if someone comes out and, you know, makes a record and calls themself an artist...
[50:15.640 --> 50:18.660]  See, how poor are you to define who an artist is?
[50:19.100 --> 50:20.640]  No, seriously, that's so...
[50:20.640 --> 50:22.040]  If someone...
[50:22.040 --> 50:23.760]  Okay, I've got one minute.
[50:23.840 --> 50:24.920]  I'm going to address this really quick.
[50:25.200 --> 50:28.260]  I'm not one to define who an artist is.
[50:28.260 --> 50:33.560]  However, I can define the value of the quality for myself and not you or anybody else.
[50:33.560 --> 50:37.200]  But for me, if I hear a Miley Cyrus record, that's garbage.
[50:37.540 --> 50:38.380]  It's absolute garbage.
[50:38.520 --> 50:44.900]  And it has no artistic merit because it is designed and promoted solely to sell units.
[50:45.140 --> 50:49.100]  It's not there to do anything to benefit the art form that I live for.
[50:49.520 --> 50:51.320]  So that's why it's crap to me.
[50:51.820 --> 50:52.500]  To me.
[50:54.700 --> 50:56.280]  Looks like I've got to...
[50:56.280 --> 50:58.720]  So, I love your presentation.
[50:58.920 --> 50:59.120]  Thank you.
[50:59.140 --> 51:01.520]  I've spent many drunken nights at Canal Tree Taverns.
[51:01.520 --> 51:02.060]  Wonderful, yeah.
[51:02.840 --> 51:03.820]  So, Dayton, Ohio rocks.
[51:04.020 --> 51:04.400]  Yes, it does.
[51:04.640 --> 51:05.580]  One thing...
[51:05.580 --> 51:16.400]  Well, one thing that's really, really interesting is that there's a documentary on Frontline that's called Manufacturing Cool, which actually speaks to the explicit nature of how the music industry is a secular process.
[51:16.780 --> 51:21.700]  And they essentially just pull themselves constantly to manufacture this particular music industry.
[51:21.700 --> 51:21.860]  Sure.
[51:22.360 --> 51:32.180]  And one particular thing is that I would also love to point you to Jeremy Keith, who made a presentation in Copenhagen at Reboot 10, which is about the transmission of tradition.
[51:32.700 --> 51:34.120]  And music is tradition.
[51:34.360 --> 51:35.260]  It is about passion.
[51:35.500 --> 51:38.940]  And none of us would be here if it wasn't for our passion and that we're following.
[51:39.840 --> 51:40.240]  So...
[51:40.240 --> 51:40.940]  Entirely, yes.
[51:41.080 --> 51:43.560]  And, you know, great work.
[51:43.820 --> 51:44.100]  Thank you.
[51:44.280 --> 51:47.860]  And if you didn't have the passion, you shouldn't be doing whatever you're doing.
[51:47.920 --> 51:48.200]  I agree.
[51:48.400 --> 51:49.020]  Thank you so much.
[51:49.060 --> 51:50.200]  It looks like we're out of time.
[51:50.200 --> 51:51.240]  Thank you all for coming.
[51:51.440 --> 51:56.260]  If you guys get a chance, check out the RIAA litigation speech that's going on.
[51:56.860 --> 51:59.780]  That guy, his name slips my mind, but he runs an excellent blog.
[52:00.660 --> 52:01.700]  Thank you all for coming.
[52:02.380 --> 52:02.980]  Thank you.
[52:03.280 --> 52:04.340]  I really appreciate it.
[52:04.600 --> 52:04.780]  Thank you.
[52:06.060 --> 52:06.860]  I appreciate it.
[52:07.620 --> 52:08.040]  Thank you.
[52:08.200 --> 52:08.420]  I appreciate it.
[52:08.540 --> 52:08.860]  Thank you.
[52:09.860 --> 52:13.820]  The album isn't released yet, which is why I didn't talk about any figures when it came out.
[52:13.960 --> 52:14.900]  It's August 1st.
[52:14.900 --> 52:17.060]  I think it's a really great talk today.
[52:17.600 --> 52:19.540]  It's an excellent website.
[52:19.980 --> 52:20.180]  It's a really good website.
[52:20.180 --> 52:20.640]  Uh...
[52:20.640 --> 52:20.660]  Yeah.
[52:20.980 --> 52:21.140]  Thank you.
[52:21.400 --> 52:22.980]  Whiskey-Breakfast.org.
[52:23.260 --> 52:23.280]  There.
[52:25.320 --> 52:26.840]  That is the MySpace page.
[52:26.960 --> 52:27.660]  This is out of date.
[52:27.820 --> 52:28.620]  It's on this.
[52:28.920 --> 52:32.820]  The domain is whiskey-breakfast.org, the Longest verse that we create a college place.