So how could this fantastic tool be responsible for the death of the music business?
Its simple. Here's how it works:
Record companies sign artists to recording contracts. Every penny spent by the record company on the artist
is deducted from the money due the artist before the artist will get paid a royalty for their recording.
Every record company has always included a "free goods" clause in their contracts with the artists over the years.
Free goods are the promotional copies of the artist's work that the record company sends out to radio stations,
media, promoters, and the like. Artists do not get paid for free goods, they only get paid for product sold-and then only
after all record company expenses are deducted. Also, a small fee is paid to the songwriters of the songs recorded by
the artist-but usually not on free goods.
So enter the MP3 format. Last year, all the big record companies jumped at the chance to use
this format to start giving away promotional copies of music recorded by their artists.
Little that the artists could do about it, since promotional goods are part of the free goods clause.
Who wouldn't want the exposure of their music to millions of fans, right?
Unfortunately, now that people have the technology to get CD quality music for free without paying,
or buy the whole CD or single from the record store, consumers (especially young ones) are not buying music.
People who can afford to get a computer and get on the internet are downloading free music for hours at a time.
I know from talking to my nephew, the kids of many of my fans, and from fans around the world that there is
a growing opinion that music should be free, and that it should have always been this way. Some people are now burning CD's of composer's copywritten work with fervor, and computer companies are encouraging this on national tv ads.
So what is wrong with this? Its simple: The artist and songwriter are not getting paid.
Consumers listen to one song from a CD without buying the whole CD and move right
on to another artist since they can get that music free. Huge libraries are being amassed where consumers
have just single songs by hundreds of artists. Federal law is supposed to prevent the unauthorized duplication
of copywritten creations, and the penalties are (were) stiff. However, since it is the record company giving this music
away now in this new format, that takes the responsibility off the consumers to pay for the product.
When no one pays for the product, the record company does not recoup the expenses of recording and promoting their artists.
When the record company doesn't recoup, the artists and the songwriters don't get paid.
When the artists and writers don't get paid, they can't pay their bills.
When they can't pay their bills, they do not create anything.
This is a lose-lose proposition for everyone over an extended time period.
While it seems great to everyone now, the frustration for artists and songwriters grows and grows.
Here's a simple analogy for you: Microsoft's copywritten works. Every time Windows 2000, MS Office, or any other Microsoft product is copied, there is a fee paid to Microsoft because they are the owners of the work. These copyright fees
have made Bill Gates one of the richest men on the planet in the past few years. Imagine if Microsoft did not get paid for their copywritten work, and it was given away to every person who gets a computer. Bill Gates would have made about $100,000
and then had to go back to the drawing board to find another way to make money.
Microsoft OWNS their software which gives them the rights to control its use. Sadly, recording artists do not own their work, the record companies do. Songwriters own their work, but not the master recordings of it in many cases.
So the net result here is that in the constant rush to get people to buy new music by giving it away,
record companies using MP3 have now killed their own business by putting free CD quality music into the hands of the public.
Consumers expect new recordings from new artists and for those recordings to be free as well.
Young people have large libraries of music they freely copy and distribute just like they are their own record labels
even though they have created nothing on their own- as they are just computer owners and users.
It's a sad state of affairs that there is yet another way to hurt the recording artists and songwriter's of the world.
Sure, there are a few artists at the top of the sales pile who this doesn't hurt as bad as the rest of us.
But for those of us making a living composing and performing music around America, this is the beginning of the end.
You won't find any MP3's at planetmullins for the above reasons. You can however BUY music from us that took years
of experience to create. Music that was conceived with love, passion, knowledge and blood , sweat and tears.
Every time you buy music, you support the people who give their lives to creating beautiful things for you.
And as any recording artist or songwriter will tell you-its not as easy as it looks.
Rob Mullins
Los Angeles, CA
May 17, 2000