Another RIAA Rant

I'm not an alarmist, and I'm certainly not a conspiracy nut. But there are some things that I can see have the potential of being nothing but trouble for the Average Joe. This is one of them: Pirate Act Raises Civil Rights Concerns.

The Pirate Act represents the latest legislative priority for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and its allies, who collectively argue that dramatic action is necessary to prevent file-swapping networks from continuing to blossom in popularity.

"We view this as a key component of an enforcement package," RIAA lobbyist Mitch Glazier said Tuesday. "If you're going to try to make sure that you have effective deterrence, then one of the tools you'll need is to make sure that prosecutors have flexibility."

From a cultural perspective, the RIAA is doing nothing to make consumers want to buy their products. They are in total defense mode. Their idea of something positive is an out-of-court settlement with one of their customers who swapped some files online. Yes, file swapping is illegal, but have you noticed that consumers don't care? That doesn't make the file swappers right, but it should make the RIAA notice. It's not like these are a few back alley counterfeiters. These are college students, professionals, and otherwise law-abiding citizens. If that demographic has no problem with downloading illegal music, the RIAA has a bigger problem than just file swapping. Their world is going to come to an end.

When is the RIAA going to learn that suing their own customers is the worst PR move in the history of free market enterprise? In the long run, the RIAA cannot escape the peer-to-peer file sharing networks. They cannot escape people recording music at home from digital sources like satellite radio or HDTV broadcasts. They also cannot escape the negative image they are creating for themselves.

Dear, RIAA: Do you get it now? Don't force me to make a list! Too late. Here are some suggestions:

• Quit suing your own customers and get to know their gripes. Maybe if you fixed some of their issues, you could spend less money on litigation and receive more money from better marketing, PR, and products.
• Reduce the price of music like you promised. People are still angry that they pay $15 for a CD when they can buy a movie for the same price. In addition, you got your wrist slapped for price fixing but nobody is seeing any change in behavior.
• Enroll at your local college and take Econ 101 again. Specifically listen to the lessons regarding supply and demand. You have saturated the market with crap. There are more new bands and performers each year than I can keep up with. It's not because I'm old; it's because it's too damn much. Why don't you reduce the supply to increase the demand.
• While your adjusting the supply, make the supply of better quality. Quit signing on one-hit-wonders with CDs padded with songs my three-year-old could improve. Don't you think there's a reason that file swappers look for individual songs? They like to make their own mix CDs because most "albums" do not hold up to the one song.
• Finally, look into the future where there is a world where artists bypass the recording industry because they can make as much distributing their own songs with you. In that future, the artists are happy and the consumers are happy. Have you thought beyond the next two to three years? You better start thinking about business models and technologies that benefit consumers and artists in the future because if you don't somebody else will.

I'm not saying anything new. I've seen similar suggestions in other places. I just find it hard to believe an entire industry is this clueless.

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