December 30th, 2011

Yup! Say goodbye to the CD! Once again the industry has moved to show their might in the industry. Just check out these links!

Time To Kiss The Compact Disc Goodbye

CD Format To Be Abandoned

Netflix: No more renting DVDs from streaming devices

Free for All: The end of physical media

btw…

Don’t believe for a second that this is one companies fault… they decide on these things together at a table that all of the heads of these mega corporations sit at, to then decide what they should do and how they should lead us(the people) to believe it was our fault or the blunder of one sole company… in this case (netflix)

I must start by mentioning that I’m not necessarily a fan of the Compact Disc. I don’t think it’s a problem or selling much less for American Classical Music or European Classical and other non-pop genres but i do see the problem when it comes to pop musicians and the mainstream market. That being said….. the move to stop production of CDs will force and push EVERYTHING to be web based. Making us more dependent on this cyber reality that is replacing all of our lives. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s very exciting  but I do see the problems when the control factor really sets in…. globally. Once the CD is out of circulation amongst new releases.

The first thing I notice is that it will take the power from the musician to sell his or her merchandise and or CDs at the gig. On a table to the side of the band stand or “under the table.” Everything is tracked traced and taxed. And yeah… the last thing a musician needs in another micro management nanny that can put them in jail.

Secondly, it will make the CD much more expensive for the non-pop musicians to replicate and produce CDs because they will not be mass produced like before. For those of you who have produced your own vinyl records…you know what I’m talking about.

Third, it’s going to take a while before the average fan replaces their car stereo with an iPod. In that down time, what are they supposed to do. I should also mention that it’s very easy for the majors to make the switch… they own the media platforms! (blue ray, dvds, CDs, and flash drives) Have you realized that Sony Records also makes “Sony” DVDs and CDs lol. …probably…

Fourth, what then when they start policing the internet like they police the streets, and like the corrupt police officers, there will be corrupt cyber police. I’m not being opinionated on this matter, control will set in place which in some situations is needed. But  when it happens, everyone should be held equally accountable and because that doesn’t happen in “real life” I don’t see that happening in our “cyber reality.”

What does this have to do with music and TRR?

That’s a great question… everything. Take for instance the issue of SOPA …in this case Steven Colbert makes fun of it but it is far from a Stop Online Piracy Act. If you can get past his insane behavior I think this guy I think he lays out the facts pretty clearly. Mike Mozart

I don’t think we can actually stop this law but we could have it revised if enough people are aware of the situation. The internet downloading “problem” was, in fact, created by these corporations like Clear Channel, Universal and Disney; creating and distributing these download and bootlegging programs that most people use for file sharing. 99% of the time, it’s people in their own companies releasing the media that gets pushed and distributed around the net. Why isn’t the law just more severely expanded to go after them? Better yet… let’s prosecute the companies that are originally responsible for the problem in the first place?

This new act is even more targeted against the independent film and music industry. Once internet distribution is limited and YouTube is “killed,” it will be much harder for independents to get their media noticed. Here are TRR we use YouTube and file sharing networks to get recognized, produce advertisements, and more while hoping one of the videos can go “viral.”

I know it looks like people against SOPA want things to stay the same and the Majors want to “evolve us,” but it’s exactly the opposite! We would like to see the industry move more into a “free” movement and evolve in that direction.

The natural direction.  It’s the direction that the people want!

They don’t want to pay for a single track but will still pay for an experience! This is something that the major labels are working on…they can’t do it. They don’t have the soul and the passion the independents do. They realize they have to stall the inevitable.

This is an important issue and you should research a bit about it. Come to your own conclusion but here… we say SOPA needs much reforming before it gets implemented but we won’t hold our breath.

Check out these sites for alternative views on SOPA

http://www.howtowindows.com/2011/sopa-protect-ip-act-for-internet-censorship/

http://www.naturalnews.com/033130_Protect_IP_Act_websites.html

http://www.infowars.com/sopa-endgame-is-total-internet-censorship/

http://blog.name.com/?gclid=CPis9oWbq60CFUOo4AodBFaLmQ