[JBC] pat's thoughts on bootlegging
Date: Mon 23 Aug 1999 - 13:34:22 PDT
the following is an excerpted email from pat concerning MP3 trading of JBC
material. i think much of what follows is still relevant if one substitutes
"CDR" for "MP3".
Now, you know that I don't object to cassette trading.
So what is different between the current situation and the trading of
cassettes when the albums come out?
I believe it is this: if you're making an album, running a little "career",
as it were, then you don't mind cassettes flying about because it makes
people aware of the shit. People who get sent cassettes of an album may well
end up going out and buying a copy. (Well, Dave Coverly does, anyway...)
Here, however, we are in a situation where there is no "career" and no need to spread the artist's work around because the poor bloody artist is already effectively (forcibly?) "retired". The publicity factor makes no difference in this situation. Likewise, no one who receives an MP3 of "Girlfriend" is going to go out and buy it. The MP3s are only getting traded because there are no bloody records available to start with! So what to do? I don't believe for a moment that we can get these people to pay me money when they pass MP3s around. Like I say, there is no structure for this. Indeed, if I were to get paid on such a deal, I would be part of the bootlegging process and the record companies which own this shit would have every right to come and whup my sorry ass.
Anyone who suggests paying me on an MP3 trade has not thought it through
at all.
Their offer of sending me money is just patronising. Especially because,once
they've done the trade, they'll realise that there is no earthly reason for
them to send money to an artist who doesn't even know that they've been
trading. It's like suggesting that I get paid a royalty on a cassette trade.
It just ain't gonna happen. All that stuff about "making Pat rich and
famous" is patronising claptrap and I find it offensive.
I fear a flood of MP3 bootlegs over the next couple of years. If this occurs there will be absolutely no point in anybody trying to arrange for the re-release of these albums ever. Everyone who wants a copy will be able to have one. For free. Which would mean that I had already made my last dollar from my record-making career. I can't be expected to be happy about that.
I'm sure that people are already doing this trading. I'm sure that there is nothing that any of us can do to stop it. I'm sure that it would be both impractical and illegal for well-intentioned MP3 traders to pay me a royalty.
i would like people's opinions on this bit:
On a more positive note, perhaps we might think ahead to the possibility of putting up newer recordings on the site, which punters might download for money in the style of Public Enemy. But this would obviously involve "adjective" getting into "e-business" and that, sir, is your business.
Yours, bitter and twisted (spelled p...o...o...r), Pat
xxx :)
-david (del@adjective.com)
700w st c m dj ct v c m nc nv n nt c m htdb rg m r c rcl n c rg s d sw p c m s m s n c c m xp ll n8 c m mustn't offend Received on Mon Aug 23 13:35 PDT 1999