|
This page: Fairness & the Death of Copyright
'I'd rather voluntarily give money to an artist instead of being forced to buy a CD at the label's prices.'
Fairness & the Death of Copyright
Obviously you feel that online file trading has made it necessary to set up some system of compensating artists for their work.
Yeah, definitely. The music scene right now is pretty unfair, and this is a good compromise. Sure, we can protest the record labels and not buy their CDs, but who is that hurting? Well, it hurts the record labels, but to some degree it's gonna hurt the artist. We have to have a mechanism so that the artists will receive money, because at the end of the day they're the ones that music is about. It's not about the record labels; it's about the musicians.
Describe the logistics of setting up and spreading the word about Fairtunes.com.
There was probably two months involved in setting up the company and our bank accounts and wading through all that legal hassle. Then it was a matter of sitting down and making it happen. That took a couple of weeks: We programmed it, got it online, talked about it on message boards -- we still do that today. We got a press release out and tried to contact as many news sites as we could. It's been a struggle.
Why?
Well, it seems that everyone wants to talk about Napster, but it's hard to get them to talk about us as well in the same sentence. But we're making progress; we're slowly getting out there.
Will Fairtunes enhance artist income in the long run, or will it actually match and replace income that is lost through unauthorized distribution?
We'd like this to be the main way in the future. I don't know to what extent we can rely on the consumer to be responsible about this. But I feel that we're all human, and we can all realize that people deserve something for their work, even if that may not be the prevalent view. I'd rather voluntarily give money to an artist instead of going down to a record store and being forced to buy a CD at the label's prices. The consumer has always thought that too, so now we're providing an option for people to pay what they want, what they view as right. I just hope that people will do the right thing, pay the right amount.
You're linked on your site to Boycott Metallica, Screw Metallica, and anti-RIAA sites. Yet you seem to be on their side in believing that artists deserve to be paid for their work.
Yeah, that's very true. The main reason behind the boycott stuff is that they are really popular, they wanted to provide a mechanism for boycotting, and we presented a different option -- you know, "We don't send any of your money to the record labels. Go ahead and boycott, but support artists at the same time." That's why there was a link exchange. Now, Lars Ulrich is correct: We believe in fair compensation. The artists believe in fair compensation. I just have a hard time believing that the record industry believes in fair compensation.
Next Page: Taxes & Technicalities....
|
