Off Hours: Where words fail, music speaks

It was William Congreve (not William Shakespeare) who, in 1697, wrote, “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.” Indeed, music is one thread that runs through every culture around the world; researchers have found it an important aspect of civilizations dating back almost as far as the human record.
In the modern world, listening to music has become increasingly embedded in our daily lives. On the way to becoming the No. 1 leisure activity among Americans, music also became a huge business.
According to yearend data released last week by Nielsen SoundScan, overall U.S. music purchases hit an all-time high in 2009, with sales of albums, singles, digital tracks and music videos exceeding 1½ billion units. That’s up just over 2 percent from 2008. (In a delightful oddity of the digital era, vinyl LP sales grew by 33 percent last year — to 2.5 million units.)
Although both revenue and total units sold are up, the sale of physical products (CDs) continues to slide, and that has label execs apoplectic. Slow to grasp the significance of the Internet and the changing habits of consumers, the major record labels have turned against music fans, sniveling about “piracy” and snooping into private activity to see what’s on people’s computers.
The industry mouthpiece, the Recording Industry Association of America, has sued hundreds of folks, including a Minnesota mom — hit for $1.9 million because her children had acquired 24 songs on the Internet without payment to the labels.
In fact, the sharing of music between fans has always been an intrinsic part of the business, the primary way of building a buzz around artists.
In decades past, the labels themselves passed out many thousands of promotional albums and singles for just that reason, knowing that active fans sharing the music with friends would result in more sales.
These days, it’s not the labels, it’s people sharing music on the ‘Net and talking about artists in online communities like YouTube and MySpace that boosts an artist’s reputation, popularity and, consequently, product sales.
But the major record labels remain top-heavy, with the same big-salaried folks who ran the biz back in the vinyl days. With very few exceptions, the people running the labels have a long and consistent history of exploiting the artists they were ostensibly trying to promote.
Now, they’ve compounded those affronts by exhibiting contempt for the way music fans (their customers) learn about, share and acquire music in a new millennium. These execs seem clueless about how the ’Net has changed the way fans experience music and powerless to change a 100-year-old business model.
The alienation of music fans, formulaic artists, poor product quality, bad marketing tactics and technologies that restrict digital rights are just some of the inevitable reasons physical CD sales are down. Artist royalties and manufacturing costs are less than $1 on a CD priced at $15 to $20; it’s ludicrous for the labels to tell fans they cannot share the music on their purchase.
What the labels term “piracy” undoubtedly helps bolster sales rather than hurt them. Shared with friends and peers online, only a small fraction of the music acquired on the ’Net is free; most is paid for, typically at 99 cents a song.
More than 10.3 million tracks were bought online last year, more than half from Apple Inc.’s iTunes, which accounts for 70 percent of all digital music sales and, with no dedicated U.S. retail outlets still in business, is now the biggest music seller in the world.
With the recording industry’s history of aggressively pursuing and prosecuting folks who share music files, one might assume that they are pretty conscientious about copyright infringement themselves. Not true, however. A massive infringement lawsuit is brewing in Canada, with artists there claiming that the Big Four labels (Warner’s, Sony BMG, EMI Capitol, and Universal) have stiffed them for as much $6 billion in royalties.
Yep, $6 billion. Not for sharing the music with other fans, but for selling — I repeat, selling — as many as 300,000 songs by Canadian artists without permission and without paying a cent in royalties.
Oh dear! Those poor, poor lobbyist-funding, lawsuit-happy, record-industry mafia types! Those poor, desperate, politician-buying RIAA lawyers! Those poor — aw, who am I trying to kid. This is hilarious.
• Steve Bailey of Boulder Creek has spent plenty of time in recreational activities. Contact him at

sb*****@cr****.com











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