Re: Zoe Keating in NY Times article.@borisfx.com

[JC <jcmg@earthlink.net>]

Hi Rick

I don't know much about Itunes or Spotify.
But I do know a lot about Pandora.
The way I see it, it's one of the best things that have ever happened 
for niche musicians like us.
It's not the best for big million selling artists, but one of the 
founding principles of Pandora is to create a musician middle class.
In other words, it provides a way for small artists to reach their 
audience.
And it is slowly working for many indy artists.

JC Mendizabal
Black Note Music
http://www.blacknotemusic.com
http://soundcloud.com/kyron
http://soundcloud.com/rfcl
https://soundcloud.com/prospero2013

Other Sites
http://rfcl.tumblr.com/
http://www.radiofreeclearlight.com
http://maddogmagick.blogspot.com/
http://secretsareeverywhere.blogspot.com/


On 1/30/2013 3:44 PM, Rick Walker wrote:
> I get a lot of 'quit crying over spilt milk'  kinds of responses
> to my own anger about the way that music and musicians have been so 
> devalued
> in our culture due to the new paradigm shift of downloading (and the 
> demise of the CD)
>
> I know it's not going to change (though I have some powerful friends 
> who are attempting to
> come up with a new paradigm---more on that later),
> but what I've noticed is that people are really uncomfortable about
> anger being expressed openly in a public forum,  but they seem completely
> okay with the major companies being completely usurous and exploitive.
> It's a sort of <shrugs shoulders> "regretful but that's the way it is 
> and we
> are powerless over it."
>
> At the same time,  major corporations spend millions of dollars trying to
> improve their images through the media (look at BP after their Gulf of 
> Mexico
> debacle)...........the major corporations DO listen to public opinion 
> and they
> do respond when there is a grass roots surge of protest.  Even the 
> largest company
> on earth, currently,  Apple,  is suddenly scrambling
> to try and bring some of their manufacturing back onto US soil because of
> universal public displeasure at the disclosures about the slave wage 
> conditions
> of their Chinese manufacturing sites.
>
> At one point in this country in the last century,
>   the major industries heavily exploited their laborers and they rose up
> against them and the Labor Unions were created and Child Labor laws
> were created and the 40 hour work week was established............all
> humanizing and positive influences in our culture.
>
> It took,  however,  major displeasure by the government and industry
> and a lot of indignant anger and organizing to forge those changes.
>
> iTunes,  Spotify,  Pandora and their ilk are 
> exploitive..........period.   point.   dot.
> Apple went from a cool 'underground'  artsy company to the largest 
> multi-media
> (indeed, purely the largest) company on the planet,   partially 
> because of their
> technological innovation and partially because of this very exploitation.
>
> Why don't we all just say "NO,  not any more"  to these people?
>
> It has nothing to do with being an old fart.