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worldwide boycott - take part!

Thaspian	Date: March 12, 2005 @ 12:26 PM " id="128552">http://www.p2punite.net/ The last week in April 2005 - 24th up until and including 30th - show them how much money we are spending on their products by denying them our hard earned income. Do not go to the movies; do not buy any entertainment products during that week. This is not to be confused as saying, "go pirate everything you can find as the production companies are common robbers." Instead, this is a way to show that we are indeed supporting them already, so stop fighting your customers!
BOWILLIE	Date: March 12, 2005 @ 1:51 PM amen to that brother.it makes me wonder though...how many truly fight the cause until they become a signed artist ...
Thaspian	Date: March 12, 2005 @ 3:48 PM Many. http://www.negativland.com/albini.html They make little to no money as it is. I'd rather work at the 7-11 than be signed to a label.
imemine	Date: March 12, 2005 @ 4:06 PM Ok---I’m in!!!!! And now, off to schlep some Slurpees!
undefined22	Date: March 13, 2005 @ 1:12 AM Thanks for that. Come that week I think I'll do some heavy catching up on my CD wishlist.
sinai	Date: March 13, 2005 @ 2:17 AM i don't buy cds or dvds anymore anyway... you just can't beat free.
BOWILLIE	Date: March 13, 2005 @ 11:10 AM aint been signed yet...cant miss what you dont have. and i havnt even listened to a (labled artist in over..i dont know when..turned the radio off when disco stabbed me between the ears...and i agree with thasp..slurpee town!
zedsalt	Date: March 14, 2005 @ 10:46 AM That article should be required reading for EVERYONE, everyone who wishes to make a living making the music they love, right down to the consumer. Thanks for the reminder, Thaspian.
kingo	Date: March 14, 2005 @ 11:14 AM I spent a few years working at a 7-11. As much as I disdain labels and I'd never sign, I'm not sure 7-11 is better. At least when you're signed you probably don't have to argue with old drunk toothless guys over the 50 cents they have to give you because you watched them eat the fucking snack cake and stuff the wrapper under the nacho cheese pump, even though they deny that it happened, and probably are drunk enough that they honestly don't remember.
dkeifer	Date: March 14, 2005 @ 5:11 PM You can't win an argument with a toothless person. That's how George Washington became president. He'd be in some ticklish political debate or what not, and getting bested--then splurp--out come the teeth--and then he'd be all "Dhow adue wid nee buddervuggah!" Toothlessness is the real nuclear option. It shows you're willing to way too far, for no reason at all.
spiralmux	Date: March 14, 2005 @ 7:50 PM Dave, you just killed me.
BOWILLIE	Date: March 14, 2005 @ 8:27 PM that was me halaka...ill mail you the 50 cents..sorry.. i was hungry...
kingo	Date: March 14, 2005 @ 8:52 PM cripes. I'm stuck in the boycott RIAA thread!!
AGenePunckbowee	Date: March 21, 2005 @ 6:18 PM Since I'm always broke, it will be easy.
2step-4eva	Date: March 21, 2005 @ 8:13 PM i dont really care whether we are suporting record companies or not...i dont see why i should give them money when music can be downloaded without costing anyone anything...they only need the support so they can make some multi million pound crap video for britney spears...that said i buy loads of cds anyway but i can probably manage not to for said week
wet1	Date: March 22, 2005 @ 9:14 PM For only a week? That won't really hurt them in the pocketbook at all. If you want to show them you mean business make it a lifetime till they mend their ways. The event of the digital age became the excuse to retry the Betamax decision and put to bed the pesky "fair use" laws. Between the lengthening of copyright times and DRM they have been effective in doing both. I suspect that DRM is illegal for at least one reason. It has no expiration date at which it will fail to work. Therefore it can't abide by the ending time of the copyright terms. The ending term is spelled out in law, even in the wopsided ones that exist today. My boycott of the movies started at the same time as the MPAA got active in doing the same sort of financial terrorism the RIAA has been practicing. Used to rent movies so that the price was 30 bucks a pop. Also used to buy 2-3 dvds a month. I don't do either now and haven't since all this crap started. Get serious, a week is like holding your breath for 30 seconds. Can you do it? Certainly. Where is the long term meaning in it though?
furiousBall	Date: March 29, 2005 @ 1:30 PM I'm thinking about a potato flavored slurpee now being drank by a toothless hobo in a fez
kingo	Date: March 29, 2005 @ 1:43 PM I could avoid downloading mp3s and buying CDs altogether if I just didn't like music. Maybe that's what we need to do, attack the music-enjoying center of the brain.
BOWILLIE	Date: April 1, 2005 @ 2:15 PM i think thats called a lobotomy..
kingo	Date: April 1, 2005 @ 2:18 PM Awesome, it's got a name! Let's get to it. That'll show those stupid record... something-or-others... something!
BOWILLIE	Date: April 1, 2005 @ 2:31 PM even better..lets give the riaa a lobo. and sit back and watch them bounce off the walls like teens in a mosh pit!
imemine	Date: April 1, 2005 @ 3:58 PM Or do this-http://news.dmusic.com/article/16385 with music!~
zedsalt	Date: April 2, 2005 @ 10:55 AM "Oh, I'd rather have a bottle in front of me...than have to have a frontal lobotomy..." It's nice to hear that I may be doing something noble by avoiding most major label, major studio, major network, etc. material. And here I thought I was just doing that because they keep foisting such utter crap on us!
Hatsy	Date: April 3, 2005 @ 6:51 PM I'm just wondering how this whole thing is gonna go. And thought it may be worth sharing this with you as it may or may not be related. Right here goes...We got started uploading our songs to mp3 sites in January this year, finding a few sites and tinkering away with our new found tool that could enable our invisible material to be heard. Apart from putting some songs here & some on soundclick & mp3.com.au, we put the majority up at amazon.com because the site had such a massive genre capacity & we could place all our misfits, the list grew there to around 100 songs. Happily we discovered after a few weeks that we occupied top ten places, overtaking established artists who had albums on sale in the commercial sector. So we were more than pleased to give our music away knowing we may be gaining a small fanbase, and if not we knew at least the songs were getting out there. It was great. Then...(I hope you're sitting comfortably ) a few days ago I went into the editing facility to add a song and low and behold there was our name...but instead of 100 songs there was only a naught. A hole, a blank, a nothing where all this material had been. I shrieked! Thinking we had been hacked and our material removed by an unknown perpetrator. I then proceeded to contact amazon several times over the next few days via email, to no reply. I went back onsite several times to try to discover where our music had gone, and found the only people in the 'free' mp3 download section were in fact those who had CD's on sale with amazon. Eventually I worked out that a new system had come into effect, with no notice or prior email/warning to artists such as ourselves, yes, the new, 'Advantage' customer! had arrived. You may have your music available for download if you are being distributed and if you can now pay. No if's no buts, just pay or go away. I finally found that the only way to complain or voice my opinion to amazon about this matter was in fact to email the new advantage customer relations address, and yes, I did receive a standard note telling me that we too could be 'ADVANTAGE' customers if we signed up. 'Join' something that we had already been a part of only days before, for free. There is no free download area there any more unless you sign up and pay. Then you can give your music away! There was no personal message of apology as to where our songs had suddenly disappeared to, along with our chart placings...there was no answer to my lengthy emails in which I stated the distress that had been caused whilst I still believed we had been hacked, no explanation as to why we were not given any advance notice of this sweeping change, which has undoubtedly affected thousands of artists who had been using this site in good faith for probably a couple of years, and a lot longer than us. Nothing. Just goodbye, we want you to upgrade or go away. I just thought I should bring this up as I am now wondering if it may affect other free upload/download sites in the future. Are amazon leading the way to a change in the landscape of mp3 as we know it? And no we are not 'Advantage' customers for the simple reason that we cannot afford to pay I'm really interested to hear your views on this one
BOWILLIE	Date: April 3, 2005 @ 7:22 PM i believe we had a song up there also..i guess its floating around in space too..that suxs..you would think they would have gave some kind of notice..to at least let you delete your own tunes if you choose not to pay ..now for all we know someone has these tunes to do what they like with..i don't know....
GTLive	Date: April 3, 2005 @ 7:25 PM My view is that it sounds like a horrible business practice from a giant company that does not give a crap. I don't know if it signifies a trend, just a thoughtless company. Those about in every industry. It really sucks that they couldn't send out a bulk email or something and tell you in advance of changing their policy. They'd probably get a few more Advantage Customers that way, instead of the take-it-or-leave-it approach, which I imagine would lead to many more leave-its. I guess what I'm trying to say is simply put like this... they suck. They should be paying you, IMHO.
BOWILLIE	Date: April 3, 2005 @ 7:30 PM shady bussiness practices lead to no bussiness...
Hatsy	Date: April 3, 2005 @ 7:46 PM Well I put that to them in an email that I sent after I received the 'standard reply' - that I would not be buying anything from them ever again, since I often bought books from the site, but I don't expect they will care a hoot about the loss of one measly customer. I also said that if we ever got an album out for sale we would not be choosing amazon.com as a place to sell it. Again, I don't think they'd care, but since this thread is about a mass demo I guess it would take the majority of their users to take their material off site, and we all know that will never happen. How often do we hear about major companies not bothering to communicate with their customers, it happens all the time, and you feel like you are really wasting a half hour or so of your life to even bother to construct a reasonably explanatory email of complaint or otherwise, but would it have hurt them, or cost them anything, to have sent out a mass mail on this subject to the thousands of customers that were using their site...NO. But they'll happily take your money and send a nice cheery greeting if you 'sign up' and that will probably be the last you'll hear from them. Until the price goes up or you miss a payment, then bingo! You are null & void, you cease to exist Sad the way the world of business is going.... So competitive it is not fit for human consumption anymore.
Hatsy	Date: April 3, 2005 @ 7:49 PM By the way, what does IMHO mean, and the other one is IMO? I've seen these a lot and wish I knew... Someone please enlighten me, there are other abbreviations but I can't remember them, in fact all abbrev's on site I have no idea about!!
kingo	Date: April 3, 2005 @ 8:19 PM In my humble (honest?) opinion, in my opinion
Hatsy	Date: April 3, 2005 @ 8:39 PM Thank you dear Halaka... you put me out of my ignorance!
BOWILLIE	Date: April 3, 2005 @ 8:57 PM what does bmaa.c mean?
Hatsy	Date: April 4, 2005 @ 2:10 PM
GTLive	Date: April 4, 2005 @ 3:59 PM Big Momma Always Acts Crazy? Bite My Ass And Cry? Bless My Anaconda And Cat? Bears might abruptly attach children? Oh I can have fun with these lil' old acronym posts indeed!
BOWILLIE	Date: April 4, 2005 @ 4:03 PM i like the attacking bears no..it means bite my ass amazon . com.
imemine	Date: April 4, 2005 @ 4:16 PM wtf-lol-btw-fo shizzle-TTFN! http://www.urbandictionary.com/
BOWILLIE	Date: April 4, 2005 @ 4:40 PM what is ttfn? these tits feel nasty?
Hatsy	Date: April 4, 2005 @ 6:36 PM More tea vicar?...
Hatsy	Date: April 5, 2005 @ 4:15 PM Hey this will really make you wince/laugh... The latest news on the amazon deleting all free mp3 artists who do not use the new improved 'Advantage Customer' option 'saga' just got even sillier. A friend of ours who doesn't have music there but uses the site a lot to listen to others also complained to the company, & after a few no-reply days he has since been bombarded with at least 5 standard replies where there is now an 'explanation' insert within the text, which states that...'the decision was made not to inform users of the free mp3 service of this decision....' !!! mmm mmmm, ever wondered if it's you that's crazy and maybe the rest of the world is really A-OK?!!! I give up...Oh and of course there was no return mail allowed on the standard mail out. Just a 'please use our new service & here is where you can sign up...' Are they joking?? I'd rather eat spiders on toast...
JudgeMental	Date: April 6, 2005 @ 10:07 AM I'll boycott anyone you like...but only if there's an alternative way I can earn enough money to pay my bills. Being an indie is tough. I don't see why I should give away all my music/gigs for free - gotta make ends meet. Why is it art is expected to be given for free, yet a plumber always charges you? Doing showcases is all very well, but if you do it to keep a roof over your head...different matter altogether.
Hatsy	Date: April 6, 2005 @ 6:14 PM The trouble is it is such an impossible task to actually get to a point where you are earning a cent out of the music business & sometimes the only way to get noticed is to let people sample your material for free. I agree with Judgemental, in no other business in the world would a skilled worker be expected to work for free, but unfortunately the music business is like no other business in the world. Fixing a pipe, building a wall, etc., is an exacting job with little or no misrepresentation (for want of a better expression) you do the job after fixing a price, you get paid. The competition will undercut you if they can but that's life. Music is open to all kinds of distortion because of the fluctuating nature of such a multi million pound concern & there are so many variations on a theme, everyone who ever wrote, sung or played a note wants to be noticed/recognized for their talent, that's human nature to want to share creativity. In the main it goes with an artistic temperament that you wish to forge a living from your craft, you can do it and do it well so why not be able to use this skill & make money from it? In an ideal world we'd all be able to, but there are only so many places you can try for a slot, gigs, cuts on records, pitching songs to the famous, TV jingles, songs for films, you name it there are an elite that are already running the show and doing very well out of it thank you. Why would they wanna let anyone new into their comfortable nest? This is where it gets tough, so many clever music makers, so much talent, only so many places on the gravy train. And a lot of gravy between a few. The old saying's crop up 'It's not what you know, it's who you know...and blah blah' This can be true & it definitely goes on, after all if you were in with the 'in' crowd and you had a good friend who wrote a fantastic song and had no way of peddling it wouldn't you want to help? I'd say if you need to make money from your work to live on then research every avenue, go at the challenge with as much knowledge as you can gain, treat your material as you would any other commodity that you would sell, push it all the way with whatever resource you have at your disposal. If you believe you have something others want to buy then you have to market it in a way that it is eye catching, as well produced as possible & good enough that they will want more. If music is just a hobby then have fun with it. There are only a tiny percentage that will just land in the right place at the right time, they're mostly teen dreams with a short shelf life offered to a mass market that will move on very quickly. The rest of us are in for the long haul. I like the fact that so many are refusing the buy the bum deal but it ain't gonna be easy to turn the tide. The good thing is no one has to suffer alone, there is so much info available, you can put out a CD far easier now than ever before, you can get on the road and go play your music & sell a copy of it to new audiences in every town. You can set up a website, there's never been a better time for communication but there's also never been so much competition. If you're in a working band there is no way you should be playing your socks off for zilch, if you are reasonably good at what you do and can entertain a bar full of people then don't accept that you will play for beer, set your price and if necessary get it in writing and fulfill the engagement. If you are completely unknown & you're asking for a gig & can't get in the door I'd say only if there is massive competition & the place will give you good exposure offer one free night and after that they pay or you don't play. You need the exposure, you don't need to be taken for a ride. We'd always start on the down side of the going rate but if we were soon packing the place out we'd ask for a raise, most venue owners will agree to this if they are turning people away at the door. Support slots are another ball game, don't expect to sound good on your first few outings as you will not be allowed much of a sound check in most cases, the main band gets all the time they need to tune their instruments to perfection, you'll be lucky if you even meet the sound tech or have enough time to drag your amp on stage, the opportunity comes when you still manage to blow the main band away despite these disadvantages! If you want to pitch to publishers for film/tv/jingles you have to give them something they want, check out what they are already using & make sure your offering is as good as, if not better than that. Send a short friendly cover letter & make sure your production is faultless & if you have to excuse any part of your recording in that letter, i.e. sorry about the hiss on track 3....imagine a female singing this one....etc., then you're not ready. Send the best you've got for the right market & move on, don't bother ringing these people they don't appreciate it, keep at it & one day if the goods are good enough, or your work is suddenly what's needed you could win through. And if you don't want to give it away then don't. I always think if you can't be heard nobody knows you are there, why create an invisible masterpiece. You can always hold back some work until you've tested the water... Gotta go my cat's shredding the couch!!
azhazhellfire	Date: April 15, 2005 @ 4:03 PM thaspie boy... why did you post this here? this is dmusic. we don't buy cds.
Veracohr	Date: April 15, 2005 @ 8:23 PM Sure, screw the label, but what about the artist who could be making money off you? Anyway, I stopped buying major label albums around a couple years ago, I just find the practice of suing your own customers unconscionable. Luckily there's very few major label acts I would be at all interested in having an album of, so I'm not missing much." id="131307">"i dont really care whether we are suporting record companies or not...i dont see why i should give them money when music can be downloaded without costing anyone anything" Sure, screw the label, but what about the artist who could be making money off you? Anyway, I stopped buying major label albums around a couple years ago, I just find the practice of suing your own customers unconscionable. Luckily there's very few major label acts I would be at all interested in having an album of, so I'm not missing much.
Hatsy	Date: April 21, 2005 @ 8:58 AM Just wondered if anyone has taken up taking part...??
TameasDust	Date: September 15, 2005 @ 7:13 AM
RobertMcDade	Date: September 19, 2005 @ 9:49 AM
K3VIN	Date: September 20, 2005 @ 3:14 PM slurpees are awesome, cept when i get the double gulp size sometimes it makes me like mad
LilV99x	Date: September 20, 2005 @ 7:14 PM ^^^^^
Intergalacti...	Date: September 23, 2005 @ 3:17 PM I don't fully understand the whole hating RIAA and P2P thing someone note me about it? I sort of have an idea but need to know the fundamentals ya know?

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