A better way to "buycott" the RIAA

When Napster was threatened with being shut down, their CEO encouraged their fans to stage a Buycott - to buy CDs from record stores and write the RIAA to let them know that its use of Napster had not affected their buying habits.

For those simply interested in placating the record industry, this kind of Buycott might have been a fine plan. However, there are some who believe that the Record industry is fundamentally corrupt and unfair to artists and their customers. There are a number of reasons for this, best described by the following articles:

• Negativland's Why CDs are so expensive.
• Courtney Love's now-famous speech.
• The Trouble with music, by Steve Albini.
• An explanation of why he's giving his music away, by The The's Matt Johnson.

With this in mind, I propose a Buycott based on the premiss that record companies do not deserve 95% of the $15 paid for a CD.

It's very simple: next time you plan to buy a CD, download it from Napster (or some other pseudo-illicit location) instead. If you have access to a CD Writer, burn yourself a copy and use it to replace the CD you would have bought. You can even download the cover art and print it out.

Next, find the email address of the artist whose music you have avoided paying for, and send them $5 using PayPal (most artists on major labels get a 14% royalty, at best). PayPal is a service that lets you send money electronically to anyone with an email address. The service also lets you attach a message to your payment.

Dear [artist],

I enjoy your music, but I don't appreciate the monopolistic control that the record industry exerts over the distribution of music worldwide. I object to their exploitation of artists, and their artificially high CD costs.

I have downloaded your music illegally from a site on the internet because I do not want my money to contribute to the existance of an unfair and greed-ridden record industry. However, I wish to see quality art such as yours continue to be produced in the future, so I am sending you $5. It is my hope that someday, artists will recieve fair payment for their work. Should that ever happen, I would buy your music through normal channels.

If you have any questions, comments, or objections to what I have done, please feel free to email me.

Sincerely,

[your name]

It is important that such a note address the specific issues that any individual has with the record industry. Your opinion may be different, but the effectiveness of the internet in bypassing the record industry - for whatever reason - remains.

This proposal is not an solution to any of the issues facing copyright or the use of digitized music. It is a way to promote discussion on the matter, put pressure on the record industry, and distinguish the legal issues from the ethical ones. If many people take part, it will be a small step - but a step nonetheless - to fair payment for artistic work.

On the downside, this proposal more or less ignores that fact that if more of our money went to supporting local musicians and less to buying N'Sync albums, many more artists would earn a living wage to do what they do best.

If you agree that artists are getting the shaft, why not alter your music-buying habits to do something about it?