Punishments for pirates

There is much weeping and grinding and gnashing of teeth throughout all corners of the music industry over the growing problem of piracy.

In this case, piracy is not copyright infringement where artists are upset because other artists are ripping off their stuff. Perhaps they should be concerned about this type of piracy though ... I mean, have you listened to the stuff on radio these days. One song sounds like the next which sounds like the next which sounds like the one played five minutes ago.

More on that later.

Rather, piracy is the plentiful sources out there where folks can get their favorite tunes from their favorite artists for free. Nobody sells records anymore ... folks hear a song they like or their buddies tell them to check out a song. Those folks dig it so they go find it on Limewire or some file-sharing server and download it for free.

Apparently the problem is rampant in Europe where nobody seems to pay for music.

So the industry is crying foul. It wants federal regulations and legislation. It wants punishment for pirates.

Rather than find a way to embrace the trend and build a better mouse, the industry wants outside sources to come up with the better mousetrap. It refuses to do next to nothing to fix its outdated business model.

Instead, it finds something that works and tries to mass produce it. It tries to American Idolize new artists by forcing them down the throats of consumers and proclaiming, "This is the next big thing ... you will love them."

Or, it finds something that works, rides it as long as it possibly can, then moves on to the next big thing.

Quick ... tell me. Who is the great American pop star who started a career in the early 90s and has built a sustaining career that exists today?

There aren't very many of them that's for sure. You might make a case for Green Day. Beyonce, but even she really hit the scene with Destiny's Child in the late 90s, not the early 90s.

Of course, Madonna comes to mind, but she built her empire in the 80s. U2 has been around since the late 70s.

Punishment for pirates is going to be a tough nut to crack, if not impossible. It's very difficult to enforce a penalty for downloading music off the Net. It would seem the trail of evidence would be paper thin because in order to really prosecute.

Perhaps instead of looking for the Internet service providers to come up with the answer, or getting the federal government involved, what if the industry took a good hard look at itself and rethought the way it does business?

After all, the Internet service providers really don't owe the music industry, or anyone else for that matter, a darn thing.

As fans, most are getting tired hearing the same song with different lyrics. Take Carrie Underwood's new tune for example. Miranda Lambert's "Gunpowder and Lead" was a pretty big hit. Rockers and country lovers alike banged their collective heads to that one.

You can sing the words to the chorus of "Gunpowder and Lead" right along with Carrie Underwood's "Undo it." Oh, and Blake Shelton had a hit with a song with a stutter in the chorus of "Hillbilly Bone." So, let's copy it with a stutter in "Undo it."

For years ... particularly in Country music ... the major players find a hot new artist they believe can be the next big thing. They take all of that artist's original material ... if he or she has any ... and put it in the hands of Nashville songwriters who work it over. Or, they tell that artist, "Here's a bunch of stuff we want you to sing."

It's a get-rich-quick scheme. If the labels really want us to stop stealing music, how about they not be so quick to wrest all creative control away from the artist and force them to fit the formula. And, artists need to fight for that control and be true to their music and not be so quick to sell their souls.

The problem is that there's this meteoric rise in some cases and there's no chance for the artist to grow. All of the albums sound the same. All of the songs sound the same.

I realize this sounds a little contradictory to our last post about not forgetting your favorite artist when they start making money. But really, when you stop and think about it, the artists that are being downloaded for the most part appear to be the fresh new stuff ... music that shifts outside the normal paradigms.

I'm of the belief the people will support their favorite artists and will pay for their music ... as long as those artists are continuing to push the envelope and remain creative and innovative. If they truly do sell out, well, then that's a different story.

Case in point: Look what Radiohead did a few years ago. They released an album for sale completely on the Internet. They told fans and music lovers they could pay as much or as little for it as they wanted. If they wanted to download the entire thing for free, they could.

It was an interesting experiment in that the average price for that Radiohead album was $10. People paid for music they loved and supported Radiohead. Speaking of Radiohead, their latest efforts sound completely different than their early singles such as "Creep."

If the industry really wants to stop piracy, it will re-examine it's business model, stop looking for everyone else to fix its problem and stop forcing songwriters and artists into their formulaic box.