In a move which somehow seems to be a last death throb, the Music Industry Proposes a Piracy Surcharge on ISPs. What? Yes, that was my reaction at first.
What do they propose actually? Well, they propose a charge for every one using a ISP, per month. The amounts are not clear, but the article talks about $5 per person per month.
Griffin’s idea is to collect a fee from internet service providers — something like $5 per user per month — and put it into a pool that would be used to compensate songwriters, performers, publishers and music labels. A collecting agency would divvy up the money according to artists’ popularity on P2P sites, just as ASCAP and BMI pay songwriters for broadcasts and live performances of their work.
That would mean a whopping $60 per year per ISP connection. Wow.. is that a way to generate money.
This idea is even more insane than the fact that we allready have to put up with music charges on any blank cd you buy. This is incredible. This would make everyone a downloader of copyrighted songs.. Everyone out there. This has absolutely nothing to do with reality or not. Would this also mean that if you buy a legal download (for examples from Itunes), you get the $5 returned? Because that would be a minimum to do.
I don’t download any songs. I buy cd’s, because i like having them. I copy those cd’s to my ipod and play my purchased songs. Or, and that is something even better, i download songs from Sellaband. Sellaband does everything right that the big music companies are now doing wrong.
What is sellaband:
For the first time fans and Artists can be in business together. Therefore each Artist issues 5,000 so called Parts. Parts cost $10 (plus transaction costs) each. Together Believers have to raise $50,000 to get their Artist of choice in the studio. At any point before your Artist has reached the Goal of $50,000, you can withdraw your Parts and pick a different Artist. You can even get your money back. It’s your music. It’s your choice.
So what do you do? You sign up, and buy parts in independent artists. One part costs $10 and gives you the right to one cd when that cd is made. You can add parts to the same artists, or even remove parts if you feel an artist is not going the same way as you would like. YOU make the artist. And joining them on this great adventure is awesome. Over the last year or so some great artists have come up and succeeded in making their cd’s. I play Cubworld’s and Second Person’s songs often and must say i’m glad i joined in when they were collecting parts.
The sellaband principle shows that people do not mind paying for music.. So why would a $5 surcharge help? This would only drive away those music lovers who feel they are being cheated. Because for me, a $5 charge is just plain theft.. as long as i don’t download. One thing i can promise, if this charge ever comes up.. I’ll be downloading songs 24/7 just to get my money’s worth.
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