EMI Weaseling Out On The RIAA - Sounds good, right?
Yes, that picture is of a weasel.
Why?
EMI, the music industry giant, wants to drop their funding for the music industry’s trade bodies, including the RIAA.
Well, I never liked those guys anyway. So why are they weasels?
If we can reform the industry, we need to reform trade bodies and create an industry regulated by those who truly care about the artist.
In the industrial age, it was unions that first gave workers freedom from the most horrendous of situations.
The RIAA and other music industry trade groups purport to be looking out for the needs of the artist. They really look out for the executives in those overpriced black leather chairs.
But a reform of the industry requires that when the trade groups are reformed to enforce fairness and justice, the corporations of the industry are still eating at the same table.
All the corporations eat at this table. When they push in their seats and leave, it takes away yet another opportunity to initiate some reforms in one fell swoop. It means multiple strategies for each corporation for the same goal, instead of just using trade groups to achieve that one goal at once.
EMI will still be as corrupt as always and as self-serving as the trade groups it is leaving behind. This does not indicate any kind of good change for the future. Certainly doesn’t mean they will take an interest in good music at last, either.
A reform of this scale might seem to gargantuan to be true, but if anyone can do it, I think I know just the guys.
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December 15th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
EMI is under new (financial interest) ownership. Be interesting to see what they are now planning.