Music/GPL
June 8, 2007
I saw this article about Q101, a local “radio rock” station somewhere. I say radio rock, because that is the only general styles of rock which they play, and exclude many other good styles, not because I got hit in the head and forgot how to use syntax. NOTE: This article is somewhat slanted and slanderous, which seems to distract from the overall message.
In short, Electra, a DJ played a super pirated version of the White Stripes album Icky Thump on her q101 show, breaking the street date and promo date, to stay on ‘the cutting edge’. Her actions were defended as being common practice (referencing recent NIN and Linkin Park promos). However, the station seems to skip whether or not this is standard industry practice (it’s not) and the role of each individual band’s stance on music pirating/promotions.
NIN took the use of digital media to the extreme, supporting a copyleft style promotion, using BitTorrent and other p2p networks to promote them, as seen on the Diggnation and Pitchfork media.
I’m unsure about the newest Linkin Park release, but they protected Meteora very heavily, so only the images and notes that the label wanted to show were seen. Here, the bands differ.
The obvious point to almost any copyright observer, is that the work was used in a public setting without permission, yet radio has never really been responsible in terms of paying for the content they use. Is Electra wrong for not respecting the artist’s wishes, or even coming close to respecting their copyrights? Maybe, but then the factor of THE INDUSTRY come into play.
This is what I had in mind when I read Nixternal’s blog about the GPL and the death of linux. In particular, I liked the line:
If we continue to pollute Linux with non-free software, then in fact we are shrinking our sword to the point where we will have nothing more than a butter knife to try and fight for free hardware.
Here is a point that I saw in the q101 fiasco. If we don’t protect the right to choose under copyright, and if we mix up our stance somewhere between freedom and proprietary restictions, than we will all lose.
-Eddie
EDIT: I hear from the grapevine that q101 is also playing the newest Lupe Fiasco single even though not all the artists on the track have given the station permission. Details will be Gnu-Googled and are forthcoming.
Radio is very much responsible for the content they play. They submit playlists to various organizations and pay for the music they play after the fact. Most of the time, no one cares where the source recording came from as long as the playlist reflects what was played and royalty can be collected.
I wonder if it’s a publicity stunt also. Artists bend over backwards to stations, as that is their promotional arm for all intents and purposes. The worst thing that could happen to them would be a boycotts of their CD by a major station like Q101.