We here at Music Revolt have talked a big game about changing the music industry, ranted and raved about our own opinions regarding the direction and ultimate demise of the current music industry, and after racking our brains and having numerous sit downs together to formulate a plan, we feel this is by far the best route to go. What is our plan exactly? It’s pretty simple really. We want to create change by gathering and fostering the best ideas here in one place from industry professionals and the fans alike, because change, we feel, can only be achieved when everyone works together by sharing ideas and putting the best ideas into action. And that, my friends, is what we plan to do.
The “2020 Vision” essay contest is simple in premise, but should be a powerful catylist for change when we bring all of your ideas out in the open for discussion. The details are below, but we plan on reviewing the multitude of essays we undoubtedly will recieve, and picking the top three for the cash prizes that not only discuss the four main points most effectively, but also present truly amazing solutions to our dying music industry problem that Music Revolt can later work together with its readers to actually put into action. It should be exciting and here are the details for the essay contest. Good luck everyone!
2020 Vision – An Essay Contest for True Music Revolution
Presented by Music Revolt and the Kirby Foundation
Deadline: May 22, 2010
Requirements:
Write an essay (no length limit) that discusses the current state of the music industry in your opinion, where you think the music industry will be in the year 2020, and present your best idea for a new business model for the music industry that could replace the current major label system and fairly compensate fans and bands alike. Here are just a few starting points to guide you, and the rest is totally up to you!
1. What power and control will labels and the RIAA have in ten years? Will the fans and artists gain more control in the music distribution process?
2. Have record labels as they’ve functioned from 1960-1990 become obsolete?
3. What is the most effective way to get the right music to the right audience?
4. Should music be free? Why? If not, what is a good solution for compensating artists in our digital age where access to free music is available to anyone with a computer?
Here’s the exciting part. After we recieve all the submissions, we will pick the top three essays and give them…
1st Place – $1,000 grand prize (best essay and idea)
2nd Place – $650
3rd Place – $400
Email your essay to kevin@musicrevolt.org, or Oskar@musicrevolt.org with a phone number and the best email for us to reach you at should you win. Be sure to include the subject line in all caps: “2020 VISION ESSAY CONTEST ENTRY - Your Name“
The best of luck to all of you and check back Saturday, May 22nd, 2010 for the results. Winners will be notified.
“Rock ‘n’ roll has its place among the colored people. The Elvis Presley Hound Dog music, with his animal gyrations which are most distasteful to me, [is] violative of all that I know to be in good taste.” - Emmanuel Celler, Attorney General of the United States.
Take a second to read and, since it’s short, re-read, the sentence written by the man who spearheaded The Payola Bill of 1958. What is amazing about the sentence is that its from the man’s heart; his racist, ultra prejudiced heart. Because The Payola Bill – which ended business interaction between radio and records in the late ’50s – is directly responsible for the chaos we have today in the music industry. The Payola Bill is rooted in racism! Celler is not saying that Black people playing Rock N’ Roll is in “bad taste”. He is saying that Elvis Presley playing Rock Music is “distasteful” and in bad taste. In essence Celler is proclaiming to the world, “HOW DARE A WHITE MAN PLAY A BLACK MAN’S MUSIC… WE MUST PROHIBIT THIS!”
The law he proposed accomplished nothing but to STOP business synergy between the people who make music and the people who distribute music. Because if Celler and his pack of Right Wing Anti-Innovation Reactionaries had stayed OUT of the music industry the first people who would have seen the potential of the internet would have been The Radio Industry (which in a very short time would have morphed into the Internet Radio Industry).
Because broadcasting companies like Infinity, CBS and Clear Channel would have made millions distributing music on the net and would have viewed the net as a natural way to gather information about individual music tastes, sign bands themselves AND sell music. But since Celler et al forbade them from making a living off music this never happened and what we are left with is ITUNES and their brethren: Illegal stores who fix prices and aid in ripping off not only artists but fans as well.
In the year of our Lord 1957 B.P (.before Payola), the music and radio industries were beginning to forge a workable business dynamic and preparing to join the ranks of other modern communication based industries. What was known was simple: Record labels had audio productthey wanted exposed. Radio exposed audio product and needed the money that record labels were willing to give them for that service. What could be more simple?
In fact the possibilities of a Music Making/Music Distributing tandem working together in harmony and synergy were endless.Of course that glorious union never materialized and we have a racist pack o’ politicians in Washington DC to blame for derailing destiny. Led by New York attorney general Emmanuel Celler this group thought that the new breed of rockers led by Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly could potential upset the Jim Crow Apple Cart as it were and they were prepared to come up with any excuse possible NOT to let that happen. Because if Presley and Holly, who were squeaky clean and WHITE, didn’t play the kind of cheese blintz music that Pat Boone played and that Celler approved of, but rather, dark, rhythmic JUNGLE MUSIC, the same kind of music that Black Barn thumpers like Muddy Waters played. In fact the implications of that bastardization were too horrible to even ponder. Celler figured that he could force DJ’s to play music “of good taste” if they fashioned an appropriate law and this leads us to.. THE PAYOLA LAW OF 1958.
The great American author Upton Sinclair once observed that, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
This statement accurately sums up WHY the American music business industry is being sabotaged by shortsighted tyrants who still operate as if CDs and Vinyl Records held sway on record label shelves. Of course we all know differently. But here is why it is so convenientfor the record label rank and file to look at the music industry in such antiquated terms.
If the labels acknowleged that their two main jobs, manufacturing and distribution were now no longer necessary they would be forcedto also acknowledge that MP3 music files are too expensive AND that the artist deserves a far higher percentage of the dollar return thanthey are getting! Former Dead Kennedy’s lead singer and front person Jello Biafra hit the nail on the head when he declared “You may take from the big labels, because the only thing they do is steal from both the artists and the audience.”
Other activisists such as the former Mrs. Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, have echoed Biafra’s declaration. It is time to revolt. The labels are an organized cabal who have broken numerous laws and no longer possess the right to subjugate artists and fans.
If the President, Congress and Senate of the United States are spending mega hours and months of time trying to fix our health crisis, which while admittedly sick, is still alive and ticking, what should they be doing to and for the music industry??
It is not inaccurate to say that the music industry, as we have known it for four decades, is far beyond being merely “out of sorts” but is in a coma and close to death.
What MUSIC REVOLT wants is MAJOR REFORM! We want to go back to the basics and figure out what music makers and music distributors need from eachother, determine the most utilitarian way to get those elements (audio, information and money) circulated amongst the respective camps and empower musicians and music fans.
But in order to do this we MUST break the stranglehold of the RIAA and The Major Labels. For one thing the labels are crooks and should be treated accordingly. PEOPLE WHO BREAK THE LAW SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO MAKE THE LAW and the labels have broken the law.
JOIN MUSIC REVOLT AND SPREAD THE WORD. You are NOT required to agree with us on all or even most of our points. But you must agree that the music industry is on its death bed and needs the same attention to resurrect it as our government is giving the Health Care Industry.
THAT BEGINS WITH YOUR INVOLVEMENT.
MusicRevolt.Org is:
1 – A consumer Activist Site > comprise digital music alliance
2 – A Think Tank > comprise digital music alliance
3- A Music Polling Service
4 – A Musicians Alliance