[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]Thursday, January 26, 2012
by paul
Major label executives always assume the party line, right? Well, dig a little deeper into the ranks, and there's frequently heavy opposition to corporate-level policies. Case in point: a lot of artist marketing executives were seething after the shutdown of OnSmash, an important promotional outlet for rappers and urban artists.
Now, someone's saying it out loud about SOPA. In a surprising 'AMA' [or, 'Ask Me Anything'] forum on Reddit, Capitol Records (EMI) Vice President of Urban Promotions Craig Davis had this to say in response to the question,
"We already know your company supports them, but where do you stand personally on SOPA/PIPA/ACTA?"
This was the answer, posted and then removed within 24 hours. The rest of the discussion is still live.
"Personally, I feel that the method they're using is incorrect. All it will do will cause headaches and issues for everyone. However, I do believe that a person should be compensated for their work.
"I feel that piracy is a big issue, and things like Spotify will assist in combating this problem."
"Gabe Newell is correct, it's a service issue not an issue of money. Sales have gone up from sales concerts and merchandise, it's obvious that our fans still love music. We're just not giving them their music in an easier way."
The reference to Gabe Newell, of course, concerns Newell's regular speeches about how you compete with piracy by providing a better service -- something Newell's Valve has done quite well over the years.
Davis has it exactly right here. The only thing that's been shown to work over the years as a method of dealing with widespread infringement is to offer a better service. Things like SOPA/PIPA/ACTA will cause lots of problems... and won't do a damn thing to slow down infringement. EMI is in the process of being swallowed up by Universal Music, so who knows what happens here, but if I was in charge at Universal, I'd give Davis a nice promotion. Tragically, however, in my experience, the folks who do get these things from within the major labels frequently end up outside the major labels before too long....
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