HELL, YOU DON’T OWN ME
The below was submitted by Peggy, originally from Hans at We Enhance. Enjoy:
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George Harrison once sang that “the farther one travels, the less one knows.”
If he was referring to what is going on in the music industry, then, he was right.
With all the “new” music around today – more music than ever before and more “musicians” than ever before – no one is any the wiser as to who owns what and where and why and how it’s all a silly game of blind man’s bluff.
Many pretend to have and know the answers, but, as the song goes, it’s only make believe.
Nobody’s right when everybody’s wrong and “contracts” mean very little.
Or they mean making noise outta nothing at all.
It will all come down to who has the loudest voice.
And who has the biggest army of lawyers.
Even then, laws to do with music are so, well, up in the air, they’re not worth the digital space they’re written on.
In a country like China, it comes down to “Law? What law?”
Music companies today are reelin’ and rockin’.
And not from music.
Sales have plummeted.
Once extravagant lifestyles have had severe cutbacks.
The “little people” have been let go so the big boys could play a little longer.
Also gone is the original concept of a music company.
Today, ask what a music company does and you’ll receive the same answer:
I don’t know.
Ask most new artists what a music company can do for them and they’ll answer,
“They can give me tons of money.”
No they can’t.
The Golden Goose can no longer lay any golden eggs.
We have already seen at least one music company Chairman paid millions to just leave.
This, after leaving his former company in tatters.
This after breaking every sexual harassment law.
And with everything swept under the carpet by the Old Boys Club.
We have seen highly-paid newbies waltz in and out of supposed music companies.
We are still seeing some newbies just sitting there and being paid for doing nothing.
We have seen musicians up and leave their former “homes.”
Starbucks is now a music company.
We have seen incompetence rewarded.
We have seen many continue to make ninnies of themselves.
We have also seen Goliaths constantly trying to beat Davids.
And taking what’s rightfully not his.
It’s all being done through bully boy tactics.
But, now is the time for all the Davids of the world to take that slingshot and whack Goliath in the middle of his forehead.
And when he’s down, kick him in the gonads for added satisfaction.
Now is the time for Artists to take Control.
The lunatics must take over the asylum.
If not, music will die as there will be no point producing it.
Forget all this “passion for music” stuff.
One needs to be paid for this passion to continue.
As “Howard Beale” in the movie “Network”said,
I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”"
If a musician, open your windows and shout it out.
Even if not a musician, do it.
It’s time we all did.
Why am I mad?
âcos of the following and a warning of how if something THIS small becomes embroiled in “Rights Issues,” imagine what is happening to much bigger recordings and to far bigger artists.
A music track and video which EMI, the music company I was working for until 2007 are claiming on YouTube that they “own” and have “licensed” the track, “Instant Sharma” by “Artist Extraordinaire,” Mr Sharma, an Indian restaurant manager mate of mine in Hong Kong who cannot sing, yet recorded two “music tracks.”
http://www.myspace.com/instantsharma
This “factoid”â came about as the channel is now going through another new round of growing pains and aches.
The music video for “Instant Sharma” has been on YouTube with no “interruptions” for three years.
It’s almost funny that we can all “own” so many rare Beatles videos.
But how this obscure video by a singing Indian restaurant manager is already “owned.”
In a way, Mr Sharma should feel chuffed as hell.
Blocked everywhere except in these locations:..Huh? Which locations?
Here’s some food for thought:
EMI did not pay for the recording.
It did not pay for the music video.
They do not own the Publishing.
The company had Mr Sharma sign some “contract.”
He did.
As a favour to me.
Mr Sharma has never received a copy of this “contract.”
I should know.
My company manages Mr Sharma.
Checkout: http://www.we-enhance.com/mr-sharma
Also, no one connected with this recording has signed anything with EMI.
In three years, no one has also received ANY payment.
And yet, EMI “owns” the Rights?
I was there when this recording was done.
It was my initiative.
It was done on a whim.
It was a group of mates getting together to make something outta nothing at all.
One happened to work for EMI.
Me.
Mr Sharma and Me.
The paperwork for the “work” in question was sloppy.
Most of it has been “lost in the mail.”
And that’s being extremely kind.
Many chipped in to make this track happen.
Morton from Schtung Studios in Hong Kong.
Munir and Trisno in Singapore.
Josh who produced the music video.
EMI?
They did nothing.
They were involved through association.
Their association with me.
And they “own” the track?
Did EMI help to market this track?
Not one bit.
When sent to the UK as a novelty track that might be worth including on an international compilation, there was no response.
A few months later, came what can only be described as a “French” version of”Instant Sharma.”
Whereas we had used an Indian restaurant manager who now runs a Lebanese restaurant in Hong Kong to “sing” on the track, EMI France used a singing Turkish kebab maker.
For the finest fine Lebanese food and wine,
call Mr Sharma +852 2541 8282. Iâm telling you. Think about it.
The song was pretty much based on “Instant Sharma” – and whose copyright is owned by my Publishing company.
I wrote to my “brothers” at EMI France mentioning this similarity.
Non respondez s’Ãl vous plait.
But non surpris as, at the time, the office reported in to one JF Cecillon.
The only good thing he had going for him was a full head of hair.
The man was hardly the smartest light bulb in le maison.
But he was a political survivalist who was finally booted out.
In the end, only EMI India released “Instant Sharma” and another track by Mr Sharma called “Hooray For Bollywood.”
This latter track was bunged onto the same CD.
But, it was the wrong version.
Someone in the office had only sent India the demo.
They didn’t know so they included the track.
Accounting, “Legal,” a nitwit running “new media,” no one knew anything about this track.
No one cared.
When these two recordings were made, all one can say is the accounting “system” at EMI South East Asia was loosey goosey.
It was all guesswork and not paperwork.
There were kids playing with numbers.
Nothing added up.
Exports were flying around the world.
And the results of this mis-management is now being seen.
Hell, even George Harrison’s son Dhani wants his great new band to have nothing to do with his Dad’s one-time recording company.
Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giFtE3SClOM
This speaks volumes.
Those good old days when “Accounting” meant checking to see how much one had spent on their monthly Travel and Entertainment receipts is coming back to bite music companies on their asses.
So-called “contracts” once drawn up by gremlins are now as worthless as paper airplanes.
Words like “Marketing,” “Legal,” “Accounts,” “General Manager” were just titles for a name card.
I was “Executive Director,” but no one could tell me my job responsibilities.
When music companies were caught Napstering and napping, it would affect them in so many other ways than a downfall in sales.
It would mean that the day when who owned what would come into play.
Channels like MySpace and YouTube and everything else have blurred the lines of ownership even more.
Nobody owns what everybody’s already got.
And taken for free.
It’s all one cacophony of sound that is not music to anyone’s ears.
Go back and listen to what Dhani Harrison has to say.
How he compares music companies to banks.
But how they are banks without any money.
And how he and his mates can do a far better job “selling” their music than any music company.
Write to Thom Yorke. Chris Martin. Trent Reznor. Prince. Robbie Williams. McCartney. Eddie Vedder.
They’ll say the same thing.
Then think:
Isn’t it time there was a huge paradigm shift?
Aren’t the four [three?] major music companies left no different from a company like AIG?
Or Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae?
Or the US automobile industry?
Are they also who Dylan warned us about?
You know, when he sang, “Don’t follow leaders.
Watch your parking meters?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srgi2DkDbPU
A Stimulus Package for the music industry will not come.
That left with former corrupt key Execs who ran away with their PAs and town houses.
Plus their tins of biscuits.
And with their golden handshakes and golden parachutes.
What’s left is for Artists to take control of their destinies.
No one else will.
And it’s the reason why We-Enhance will shortly launch AIC – Artists In Control.
Artists In Control will mean you now can ask our International panel of lawyers, music execs, journalists, other musicians, even more lawyers and anyone and everyone still connected to the entertainment industry about anything and everything.
It means putting you – the Artist – in control.
It means eliminating the middle man.
It means feeling safe and secure to create music again.
It means giving the middle finger to those who try to take and take.
Without giving.
We’re all the Pirate Bay
The Swedish artist Montt Mardié thought The Pirate Bay needed an theme song, an anthem. So he created one! We like it a lot and hope you like it too. You can download the torrent here, and watch the video as well. We also got the audio files so all you TPB fans can make your own version, your own remix! It would also be cool if you did your own version of the video and post as a video response on youtube. As Montt Mardié put it: ‘To show the world, that we’re all The Pirate Bay..
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Canadian music pirates of 1897
Turns out this isn’t a new concept 
Click here for the Boing Boing, courtesy of our friend MS
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Free Music Archive
PAS sent in a link to the Free Music Archive.
Check it out here.
E M I R I P
Great post by Hans Ebert over at we-enhance:
http://www.helloaudience.com/cgi-bin/mailview.pl?id=385868_hMuE60
Our sentiments entirely.
Losers.
Thanks to PS for the heads up 
Music plonkerisation
Our friends at Resonance Blog posted a wonderful rant:
The Fundamental Issues Surrounding The Entertainment Industry
Read the full post here on Jonathan MacDonald dot com
Excerpt below:
1. The licensing bodies demand fees that are extraordinarily challenging (read: totally impossible) to cover with ‘advertising’ as we know it today – Why? Because:
2. The ‘advertising’ model commonly adopted (pre-roll, post-roll, ham-roll, banners and buttons), is mainly tolerated by people who want free stuff – rather than who want to communicate with brands – hence advertising is remarkably inefficient regardless of what metric is used to cover the tracks (sorry, ‘prove effectiveness’)
3. ‘UK Music’ and several other organisations are unwilling to accept the way the entertainment industry actually is – the manifesto of which you can read in full here
4. We live in a world where those with the loudest voice, sadly, are those who have absolutely no link to reality and come up with utterly ridiculous notions such as thinking a distribution channel (like YouTube) is somehow ‘unfair’ in rebelling against a bloated and greedy industry, clinging onto its 1987 Porsche Targa by its charlie-ridden fingernails
5. Ek (Spotify), Purdham (We7)n and Arora (Google) just wanna find a way of legally allowing people to access the music they love, yet the music industry is unwilling to work symbiotically to make this happen – meaning, ultimately, music lovers lose out
6. This drives more services out of business and more music lovers to seek other access points – in many cases, illegal
7. As services show that ad-funding can’t cover fees, the advertisers become more skeptical and less willing to invest heavily meaning that issue #1 is even more true…
…and the vortex continues to perpetuate.
EMI has a new spin?
Sunday Times Business today – page 7 – James Ashton writes about Eliols ‘fresh business model’.
This, it must be said, is in light of Guy Hands’s write off of half the £2.3BILLION he invested, accepting he is likely to make a loss on the deal.
NO SHIT SHERLOCK.
The ‘fresh approach’ is apparently so position EMI as the content provider and let all others (Spotify are mentioned), monetize in their new revolutionary ways (translation: try desperately to ad-fund tracks + place a premium if you want to avoid the ads)
All is well for EMI then….so long as the other models can financially support the license fees on the music.
All is well, according to Elio, in terms of piracy, so long as the Government legislates and ISPs abide by said legislation.
It seems there is a total lack of personal accountability here.
You can sit around waiting for everyone else to ‘sort it out’ or record companies can be pro-active and find new ways collaboratively – including talking about the elephant in the room that is the vast majority of people who share music ‘illegally’ and will continue to do so, regardless of legislation.
The nanosecond cassette players had two decks, one with a record and play function, the industry as we knew it, died.
Will the likes of EMI ever read and understand the Manifesto?
We doubt it.
Will the industry work out like Terra Firma would like it to?
Absolutely categorically not.
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But then I guess, we shouldn’t judge a man until we have walked a mile in his shoes.
Mind you – by then, you can judge, PLUS you are a mile away, AND still have his shoes.
The RIAA is great at screwing itself
Read the TechDirt and Slashdot.
We love the Gloria Gaynor-esque suggestion by one commentator:
At first I was afraid
I was petrified
Kept thinking they would never let
Our plastic disc sales slide
but then Napster came along
And I had to find a way to make govn’ment cheese
And I regret
And I learned how to suck money using legaleese!
And so we’re stuck
The business has sank
I just sued my customers
And I have the legal system to thank
I should have made it competitive
I should have listened to customer woes
If I’d have known for just one second
They could force my doors to close
Go on now go
Get Hypnnotized
Just take the backcatalog now
‘Cause it’s no good in your eyes
I was the one who tried to condem
With a slice of DRM
Did you think I’d stumble?
Did you think I’d let that deal die?
Oh no, not I
I will survive
Oh, as long as I have DRM
I know I’ll stay alive
We’ve got all our bonus stock
I’ve got so much more to mock
And I’ll survive
I will survive, hey hey
Government Seeks International Strategy On Illegal Downloading
From here.
The below from The Guardian:
The culture secretary, Andy Burnham, is aiming to have the framework of an
international strategy to combat illegal internet downloads agreed with the
US and European partners by the autumn.
Burnham’s ambitious plan, part of a five-pronged strategy to bolster the ailing music industry, was outlined by the government minister at a
parliamentary reception last night involving groups including the BPI,
which represents UK record companies.
The ultimate aim of the plan, Burnham told MediaGuardian.co.uk, would be to develop a memorandum of understanding with other governments that would make the UK’s own initiatives to combat internet piracy more likely to succeed. Burnham said that the government is seeking a 70% to 80% reduction in illegal downloads with its plans in the UK.
“I am working towards an international memorandum of understanding, it is
time for much more serious dialogue with European and US partners. No solely national solution will work. It can only be durable with international consensus,” he added.
Burnham is hoping that if all parties can be galvanised into action, there
is a chance that the “Davos for creative businesses” world conference that
will be held in Hertfordshire in late October could be used as the stage
for developing an agreement on tackling illegal downloading. At the least,
he is hoping that by the time of the event a consensus on the issue of
internet piracy will begin to have emerged.
However, he made it clear that success would require the industry, from
internet service providers to music companies, to work together to offer
compelling legal download alternatives and the vigilance to crackdown on
piracy.
Burnham said he is aiming to “bring the threads together” with a
five-pronged strategy to help the UK music industry. “It is an incredibly
important industry to this country and perhaps it has not been focused on
in the way it should. There is a strong sense that this is the year we have
to bring this stuff off, we have a head of steam, a bit of momentum,” he
added.
Other key music-related initiatives Burnham highlighted at last night’s
parliamentary reception include the extension of the copyright term on
sound recordings from 50 to 75 years, the creation of more rehearsal spaces
across the UK, a schools programme and the nurturing of talent and apprenticeships.
In Lord Carter’s interim Digital Britain report, the government said that
legislation would be introduced to force ISPs to notify illegal downloaders
that they are breaking the law.
ISPs will also be asked collect anonymous data on the worst offenders along
with personal details, on receipt of a court order, so that rights holders
can seek to take legal action.
The interim Digital Britain report also recommends the creation of a rights
agency, funded by the ISPs and the media industry, that would set out a
strategy for defeating illegal internet filesharers, including the use of
technologies such as digital watermarking of copyrighted content.
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My take?
http://musicindustrymanifesto.com/the-manifesto/
Say no more.