RIAA petitions for lower artist royalties

Translation:
"We think the guys who put their heart and soul into creating music are getting too much money. We'd like to see more of it in the pockets of money hungry execs with too much cash who exploit these talented people."

The comment #6 by BlogtheBuilder is important. They're helping, but one important thing to remember...
Apple can only be the middle-man because of Apple Records, unless the artist is independent. They can't sell an artist's songs if the big record company already owns the rights to them. It would have to be something new. Coldplay leaves capitol records, and in their wealth, record a new album on their own and release it only under iTunes (unless its a breach of their contract).

They Might Be Giants has an enviable system of them getting 100% profit by hosting their mp3s, and having them DRM free. Awesome guys, those Johns

This is insulting.

RIAA's president said "royalties currently are out of whack with historical and international rates." Um, may I suggest that maybe the RIAA is out of whack with reality, just maybe? It is a roadblock to technical progress!

Artists (and any creative type out there) now have more access to technology that enables them to reach their audiences directly, with fewer steps in between. The sooner archaic - and in many cases crooked - institutions like the RIAA are taken out of the picture the better.

It is high time that a Boston Tea Party should be staged for the likes of RIAA and sundry...

ya i think im still going to download music illegally and just got watch the bands live that i really like.

Here's an idea:

Each artist should set up a PayPal link on their web page or MySpace page. Takes about 10 mins.

Then, everyone downloads music from their peer-to-peer network of choice. For each artist they respect, they send a buck or two to the appropriate PayPal link.

Since the RIAA are paying them around 7c in a dollar or less, this could exceed what they're getting from their record label.

Result: artists prosper, greedy music industry fatcats don't, consumers get music priced at what the technology allows it to be.

WTF!? It can't be too long away that we will be looking at a full-scale direct to consumer musical distribution system driven by peer/customer review (a la DIGG). In the same way that Apple was able to bring professional movie making to the individual, it would be great if they could come up with an individual-based solution for music distribution and marketing.

I thought home tape recording had already killed the recording industry in the 70's and 80's... That's what they were screaming and crying about then anyway. Oh yeah, and then P2P killed the industry again a few years ago. How many times can they cry wolf? What kind of salaries are these crooks pulling in anyway? How much of the money that they make off sales of pop music and ring tones are they turning around and investing in quality clasical and jazz recordings? Make me sick.

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. This is absurd beyond words. HOW can the music labels in association with the RIAA behave like this? This is unacceptable and artists and listeners/consumers alike won't stand for it.

In the old days hiring a studio was the only place artists could record music professionally. These days studio equipment and software is cheap enough for most artists to buy themselves. They can record music on their own and make it sound good enough for most listeners. The labels know this is a fact and is indeed realizing and instead of changing to adapt to this new order is fighting back. The only thing artists need right now is a way for them to distribute and market their work.

Apple MUST rise up to the challenge against the old music labels and sign contracts with artists DIRECTLY. Internet communities and forums is marketing enough for good artists to get noticed. Word-of-mouth is NOT to be underestimated. We have the technology in place, now we just need someone to go up against the old dinosaurs of the past before they ruin everything.

#9 I'm as big a fanboy as the next guy, but I don't want Apple at the top of any monopoly. I want all the artists to be available on iTunes out of self interest, but I'm afraid of Apple becoming like MS or even the RIAA if they take on the role of monopolist. It will be better for me if Apple stays lean and innovative instead of locked in defacto anything.

They make me laugh. It's really quite comical how they champion artists rights and prosecute people for robbing the poor artists. Then happily turn around and screw the artists as well.

WE ARE THE RIAA ALL MUSIC BELONGS TO US.

If you create it we'll tax you if you buy it we'll charge you and if you steal it we'll sue you.

It's amazing that such an insane business model can exist.