comprak.net

One of my biggest computer related projects is fixing our small-ish music collection (3400 songs) of singles, records, and everything in between. It’s been an extremely tedious process, as there’s music from before Napster’s time, error riddled Kazaa tracks, and our growing CD collection, lovingly ripped as we find time between house endeavors.

Most specifically, I just finished ‘fixing’ our Ani Collection, a patchwork of badly tagged files and mislabeled everythings. It’s not quite done, as Ani just released a CD (which we will be buying shortly, of course) and some tracks are missing from other CDs.

One fateful night, Lisa just arrived from D.C., exhausted from her trip (I believe it was her very first one). She had taken all her CDs. Unfortunately, we opted to leave all the CDs in the car and simply take the laptop. That very same night we were robbed, and well over 200 cds were taken (which included mine that were still in the car).

Of course the notion of being robbed was the furthest from our minds, which is why we did such a boneheaded thing. It was late, and we both had long days. We were about to move (September 1st, in fact, the day our new lease started), so hey, let them sit, right?

For us, downloading music we had paid for from Kazaa and elsewhere did not have any morality implications. We paid for those CDs, and had no way of recouping the several thousand dollars in losses (we didn’t have renter’s insurance, either – we learned from that mistake).

However, now, there’s a war brewing between filesharers and the RIAA – and it comes to light that even ripping CDs for backup purposes is stealing. If the RIAA came to our door, I would’ve simply shown them all our empty jewel cases and our intent (not that would stave them off, but could sound convincing in court, right?).

Fixing these 200+ songs gave me pause. Lisa and I tend to listen to the same music, not at the same time, but in different vehicles or places as the needs determine. Based on the view of the music industry, we (personally) would have had to procure four copies of every CD to be considered ‘legal’ – the CD itself (for the best, studio quality), digital versions for each Mp3 player, and for archival purposes on our server.

I find this incomprehensible, quite frankly.

Further, I find it distasteful that CDs still cost over $14, even though the cost to press a CD has gone down over time. Even further ridiculous, the actual artists don’t get very much of the proceeds – the money they earn is from concerts and paraphernalia not related to CDs.

And of course this all leads to DRM – Digital Rights Management – a fancy phrase to describe the music industry’s mantra ‘what’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine’. DRM strips the rights of end users in how they can transfer music from one device to another. That, and it kills mp3 player battery life.

Thankfully, the market is demanding a move away DRM, and these stupid practices, but the music industry is only going along kicking and screaming, and suing anyone and everyone they can in the meantime. Not only is the market moving, but artists are finally getting the hint, too.

The only way, these days, to retain your rights are to spend money – or not spend it. Use iTunes? Consider eMusic or Amazon (both DRM free). Don’t buy major label CDs for month, and tell your friends, too.

Or better still, support indie bands – they make all the proceeds from their CDs, don’t they deserve your money?

In seriousness, it’s not just about DRM. It’s about music. There was a time where you could pick up a CD and get several, really very good songs – now, one if you’re lucky (this shift happened right after the music industry killed the single… remember those?). How is that fair?

End rant.

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