p2pnet - rss feed: Tragically Hip’s money troubles
p2pnet.net News:- Canada’s Tragically Hip have decided file sharing is bad for their wallets.
The group (with absolutely NO help from their label, Universal Music, or the CRIA) point out that during March 30 to May 7 there were more than half a million ‘unauthorized’ attempts to download their new single, Vaccination Scar.
Tragically Hip is one of the biggest selling Canadian bands ever, with all that implies
“The grim economic reality aside, it shows how widespread the practice of downloading has become,” says the band’s Gord Sinclair.
But Hey! “Don’t get me wrong,” he says. “Anything that gets people into music is okay with me, but at some point people have to recognize their role in the creative process. To me it’s an ethical question.”
In the same puff piece, Jann Arden (?) “reacted to the news”, saying,
“Downloading music from the Internet is ironically the hope, and alarmingly the impending decay and destruction, of the music industry. Unless these downloads are monitored and artists are compensated for their work, there will be NO work to download. None of us, as writers and performers, can afford to keep making the music that has always, and will always, make the world a little easier to swallow in troubled times.
“We cannot play if we are not paid.”
There you go.
No pay, no play.
In other words, the musical arts depend absolutely on the dollar. Or franc. Or pfennig. Or whatever.
No way.
The Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson also wades in with, “I’m totally fine with people downloading music, as long as they steal everything that they want. If you want pants, go steal them. If you need gas in your car, you should steal it, because you can. As long as people are consistent I don’t have a problem. As long as they see themselves as thieves in general then I don’t mind if they steal everything that they like. But it irks me that it’s only okay to steal music.”
And to cap it off Brian Robertson, the president of the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America), says grimly:
“It underlines, again, the vulnerability of our artists, creators and producers to the lawlessness of the Internet in Canada and the need for federal politicians and bureaucrats to move far more expeditiously than they have in the past to update Canada’s woefully inadequate Copyright Act.”
But while Robertson & Co are singing the blues, in terms of their careers, “more artists say free music downloading online has helped them than hurt them,” says a Pew report here.
“Fully 83% of those in the survey say they provide free samples or previews of their music online. And strong pluralities say free downloading has a payoff for them. For instance, 35% of them say free downloading has helped their careers and only 5% say it has hurt. Some 30% say free downloading has helped increase attendance at their concerts, 21% say it has helped them sell CDs or other merchandise; and 19% say it has helped them gain radio playing time for their music. Only fractions of them cite any negative impact of downloading on those aspects of their work.
“Some 60% of people surveyed say they don’t think the RIAA’s (Recording Industry Association of America) suits against online music swappers will benefit musicians and songwriters. Those who earn the majority of their income from music are more inclined than ’starving musicians’ to back the RIAA, but even those very committed musicians don’t believe the RIAA campaign will help them. Some 42% of those who earn most of their income from their music do not think the RIAA legal efforts will help them, while 35% think those legal challenges will ultimately benefit them.”
And Oh Yeh - wasn’t Universal Music one of the labels that, following a two-year investigation by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office, was ordered to return $50 million to musicians they’ve had under contract.
Spitzer’s office found many artists and writers weren’t being paid royalties because record companies “had failed to maintain contact with the performers and had stopped making required payments”.
Finally, the CRIA (and, hence, its owners, the Big Five record labels) recently suffered an embarrassing defeat when it failed to convince a Canadian federal court that online file sharing is illegal and is “devastating” the multi-billion dollar music industry.
May 13th, 2004 at 1:29 am
Metallica, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Missy Elliot, Tragically Hip…all of these artists are filthy rich. The people who download their mp3’s are the same people who pay big bucks to go to their concerts.
No pay no play? Well then how about this: No downloads = no fans at your concerts.
May 13th, 2004 at 4:56 am
>>Canada and the need for federal politicians and bureaucrats to move far more expeditiously than they have in the past to update Canada’s woefully inadequate Copyright Act.”<<
that kinda attitude could spell trouble…please no DMCA here in Canada.
May 13th, 2004 at 5:35 am
I have a couple of Hip albums that I paid for. I pay for the right to privately copy them too (thanks to our levy on blank CDs). I have never copied Hip music, so I think I’ve overpaid. I wonder if they will give me a refund.
May 13th, 2004 at 6:34 am
Proposed copyright changes could hit downloaders
FROM CANADIAN PRESS
The practice of downloading songs for free could change if the federal
government adopts recommendations tabled today by a Heritage committee.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1084399810290&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037
May 13th, 2004 at 12:35 pm
Filesharing has once again been villified as the main reason the music industry is facing a financial crisis when there are actually several causes–file sharing being barely the least of them.
Music sales have been inflated with the rise of the CD format for years as people bought to stock their collections, only now are they finally levelling out. It’s just the same as how DVD sales are tremendous at the moment. In fact, DVD sales are cut into music profits on that front and that most major music retailers (ie HMV) are splitting once CD-only retail space with with DVDs. Anyone in merchandising will tell you how shelf space directly co-relates with sales.
Factor in how video games and console games have taken off and the fact that major label music is pretty vapid at the moment for anyone over 15 and you can pretty much ascertain that music sales are more where they should rightfully be at.
Add filesharing to that equation and you get pretty much the same answer.
May 13th, 2004 at 5:14 pm
Who the **** is Tragically Hip?
May 13th, 2004 at 5:21 pm
there were more than half a million ‘unauthorized’ attempts to download their new single
How the hell did they work that one out?
Drugs and booze maybe…
May 13th, 2004 at 7:19 pm
“It underlines, again, the vulnerability of our artists, creators and producers…”
Has anybody else noticed that the labels never mention the HUGE cut that they collect from wholesale CD sales? Producers make some good money on successful releases (more than the artists/songwriters typically) but still FAR less than the labels. AND, if the release is not profitable the artists & producer pick up the tab for studio time, pressings, promo costs, etc…, NOT the labels. $hit, I bet the CRIA/RIAA (depending on where you’re at) cut is as much as many of the artist royalty arrangements and they are nothing but leaches! I am so tired of hearing this crap. Their business is not working right, so what do they do? Adapt? Embrace new technology? Noooo. They dig their heals in, bitch and whine a LOT, oh, and sue their customers! That’s sure to make things better… Then there’s destroying fair use and online privacy rights!
If I had a rocket launcher…
May 19th, 2004 at 7:29 pm
All you retards who steal music should be ashamed of yourselves. Yes, that is right — YOU ARE STEALING!!! If you don’t like it, change the system through legal means — but don’t steal. Stealing is simply wrong. But, if you don’t mind stealing music, I’m going to come over to your house and steal your CD collection because you probably make more money than me. How’d you feel about that?
May 29th, 2004 at 4:37 am
Good, don’t play. Go to hell Tragically Hip, like anyone’s going to miss you!
June 1st, 2004 at 7:46 pm
I think its a bit ironic, that while reading your post, I see to the left - advertisements and links to BearShare and LimeWire.
February 18th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
i understand about momey problems alot.but even when you came to oregon n played it was awsome.so is this do to bad mang. or not .if your one of the biggest record labels in canada ,how do you lose money just how , i dont understand that but!!!! you now jonh lee hooker he once n told me that he put out 350 albumsand on the last8 is were he made the money, so what im trying to tragically hip tay together n hold on titlely n face the music people r always trying to get over on someone ,the nature of the best. i just want to say keep on rockenn have a good one thanks