Pirated by iTunes, Artist Turns to BitTorrent
Straight from TorrentFreak: “The Flashbulb, aka Benn Jordan, became so outraged when he discovered that iTunes was effectively pirating his music, that he uploaded copies of his latest album to BitTorrent. TorrentFreak caught up with Benn to learn more about the decision to stop distributors and ‘coked-up label reps’ from getting all the cash.
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Luckily, my record contracts were always negotiated well. Once things started moving with small labels I was approached by some larger ones, but there was always some seedy stipulation that prevented me from ever signing.
Still, with a 50/50 contract, I’d be selling 2,000 albums and would get $250 for it somehow. Many people that i’d meet at my shows would say that they bought my music on iTunes, yet I’ve never signed any sort of agreement allowing iTunes to host my music, and I’ve certainly never seen a dime of money for my albums hosted there.
So I started investigating the numbers from the label, which led me to some shocking revelations about how little the artist and label was getting in comparison to the retailers. When I got around to asking about iTunes, the owner of Sublight Records pleaded with me to “leave it be”. Everyone else made an extraordinary effort to ignore my calls and emails.
When I finally got a hold of the digital distributor (I must note that “digital distributor” is the most pathetic job title I’ve ever heard), I was told that once the files are in the iTunes system, it literally couldn’t be removed or taken down for a year. So, either Apple has created a self-aware doomsday machine that cannot be stopped or reasoned with, or everyone involved is just enjoying the gravy train of ripping off artists like myself and using Apple’s backbone of attorneys as an intimidation factor.
Even after having a lawyer working for me on this matter, this is the one and only response we’ve EVER been able to get from Apple:
Dear Benn,
I understand that you are writing to the iTunes Store because you are upset about finding your own album “The Flashlight” and some of your other album as well on the iTunes Store, and that you feel that you are owned royalties for this music that his being purchased. I am sorry that you have to found this upsetting. My name is Wendy, and I would be happy to link you to right people to talk to about this issue.
So, who’s the pirate I should go after? A kid who downloads my album because it isn’t available in non-DRM format and costs $30 on Amazon? Or a huge multi-billion dollar corporation that has been selling thousands of dollars worth of my music and not even acknowledging it?
I’m not disillusioned, I’m outraged, and anyone who ever spent a dime on buying music through these distribution methods should be outraged too. Here we are pleading with people to not steal music, and then we hand them dog shit when they go out of their way to buy it.”
Wwwwaaaaaaa!!!! Cry me a river, Choppy! Here’s the deal, you make your music, sell it online from your own website or a company website at a fair market price that people are willing to pay for, then I MIGHT care. Oh, and if you want that 2009 Dodge Viper complete with kitchen sink and you can’t afford it because you aren’t making enough money from album or DRM or Touring sales? Then get a second or third job like the average person would have to do.
Its pretty obvious that the Music Industry is pretty F**KED UP. Just one example of this: The Industry conspires together to sell their product. They won’t lower prices because it is the “industry standard”. They don’t follow the Free Market system, they won’t allow Free Enterprise. And they’ll sue your butt off if you try to screw with their product.
Now, if you think about it, another industry that is also pretty F**KED UP is the Healthcare Industry. And this F**K Up makes the Music Industry look tame in comparason.
FOLLOW ME HERE AND TELL ME IF I’M WRONG: Even if you tried to comparisson shop for medical services, say getting treated for the flu, its still going to cost you an arm and a leg every where you go. Why? Because its the “industry standard” to charge high prices.
Did you know that per Salary.com, the median salary for the 25th percentile of base Physians is $123,000? THESE ARE THE DOCTORS WHO SUCK AT THEIR JOBS AND THEY’RE MAKING SIX FUCKING FIGURE SALARIES!!!! THESE AREN’T THE TOP 1% OR 10% OF THEIR INDUSTRY, THIS IS THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL!!! God only knows what the specialist and top of the industry is making.
HELLO!!! ONCE AGAIN, AN INDUSTRY IS INTENTIONLLY CONSPRIRING TO KEEP PRICES AT A HIGH LEVEL, EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORDING INDUSTRY!!!
If a Doctor just decided to take a reasonable salary (AND NO, TWO HOUSES, CHILDREN IN PRIVATE SCHOOL, AND $20K A YEAR ON UPKEEP OF A RARELY USED BOAT IS NOT A “REASONABLE SALARY”), if the doctor took a reseonable salary, maybe Healthcare could be reasonably affordable and we wouldn’t need high priced Health Insurance.
Prescription drugs: The majority of the cost of the drugs comes from R&D, either for past R&D or future R&D. Again, whats the highest cost of R&D? Doctors.
Doctors use to be able to charge such a high price because they had a lot of knowledge but there were few of them. Even then, they didn’t charge near unpayable billings. But now a days, doctors are near a dime a dozen. Yet low and behold, prices are still astronomical.
Warren
February 8, 2008 at 5:05 pm
lol’ing so hard at “Warren”.
Anyway, sorry to hear it mate- looks like you got the short end of the stick when it came to distribution rights and royalty fees. Definitely a f’d up system, but maybe you should look into getting a new distributor? Looks like they’re screwing you more than apple, really- apple just sells what they have the rights to, which your distributor gave away too easily.
Rational
February 13, 2009 at 3:49 pm