The Internet Debacle

Janis Ian has written one of the most lucid and thought provoking articles on the issue of Internet file sharing I’ve seen to date. Although it is an indictment against the music industry, it goes one step further by offering constructive solutions to their problems. I’m guessing the article fell on deaf ears however.

Am I suspicious of all this hysteria? You bet. Do I think the issue has been badly handled? Absolutely. Am I concerned about losing friends, opportunities, my 10th Grammy nomination by publishing this article? Yeah. I am. But sometimes things are just wrong, and when they’re that wrong, they have to be addressed.

The premise of all this ballyhoo is that the industry (and its artists) are being harmed by free downloading.

Nonsense. Let’s take it from my personal experience. My site (www.janisian.com ) gets an average of 75,000 hits a year. Not bad for someone whose last hit record was in 1975. When Napster was running full-tilt, we received about 100 hits a month from people who’d downloaded Society’s Child or At Seventeen for free, then decided they wanted more information. Of those 100 people (and these are only the ones who let us know how they’d found the site), 15 bought CDs. Not huge sales, right? No record company is interested in 180 extra sales a year. But… that translates into $2700, which is a lot of money in my book. And that doesn’t include the ones who bought the CDs in stores, or who came to my shows…

You can read the full article on her website. Also, check out her follow up article entitled FALLOUT.

 

Etree.org

I, along with hundreds, if not thousands of others, have discovered the ultimate way to collect music online. The best part? It’s 100% legal, no muss, no fuss. I am talking about Etree.org.

Etree is a site where live music lovers gather to trade their collections. Etree will only allow trading of bands that explicitly allow taping of their live shows. Believe me, there are plenty. I just got done listening to a hair raising live concert from Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade. Trust me, you haven’t lived until you hear a live rendition of “Who Wants to go to D’s Diner?”.

The site boasts a database of literally hundreds of bands that allow taping. It’s just a guess, but there are probably well over five thousand live shows out there ready for trade.

 

Bluegrassbox.com

Bluegrassbox.com is another music site that deals primarily with…well, bluegrass of course! The simplicity of this site is what makes it so attractive. You simply sign up for an FTP account and you are off and downloading concerts within minutes. I’ve downloaded about 50 shows from this site so far.

 

Whole Wheat Radio

I just ran into Whole Wheat Radio earlier today. Two folks up in Alaska run this “radio station” from a little log cabin in the woods. It focuses primarily on independent music. I’ve been playing it in the background for the past couple of hours and I’m really starting to enjoy it.

The site actually offers some interesting and useful features. You can see and chat with whoever else is listening as well as request and rate songs while they are playing. The site is automated much of the time with a computer taking over all the critical functions. However, while I was listening earlier, the owners of the station were taking calls from a listener in Tennessee as a severe storm was passing through. Not only did we get an audio blow by blow, the owner also posted pictures of the damage to the chat window.

I’m going to stick with this site for awhile I think. The people are downright friendly and it feels just like a big ole’ slice of home.