Bummer…Muxtape Went BOOM!
Posted on 18 August 2008, at 6:35 pm, by Judie Lipsett
Hopefully it’s temporary, but as I was sitting listening to one of my favorite streams, the Muxtape stream went dead. Refreshing my page brought up this message:
For those of you who haven’t yet dabbled with Muxtape, it’s a site where you can upload a mix of songs (they must be from different albums) for other users around the world to stream; a link is provided under each song to Amazon, where you can download the MP3 if you want to own it. I’ve been wondering how Muxtape managed to keep the RIAA at bay; perhaps their luck has run out. :-/
This was also just posted on the Muxtape Tumblr, so maybe all hope is not lost…
Hopefully they will get their issues sorted soon.
Link: Muxtape
Link: Muxtape Tumblr
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August 19th, 2008 at 4:24 am
Like you Judie, I’ve long wondered if they were operating in agreement with the RIAA and paying royalties to the artists involved. Looks like that wasn’t the case after all.
I think it’s a great idea for up and coming bands and stuff, but if established artists aren’t getting paid the royalties they’re due, then it’s understandable that the RIAA want to get it sorted out.
August 19th, 2008 at 5:58 am
I love the concept of Pandora and Muxtape and all the other online streaming applications.
The big problem is that when you slice through the technology – they make their living off someone elses work.
Long term music probably has to progress to the point of where songs are considered commercials for bands – and money is made in other ways – licensing to film/tv and touring.
Aren’t we already seeing the impact of file sharing in the price of concert tickets? It wasn’t so long ago when I was in college and the price of a ticket to the Police was $20 (which we considered abnormally high). Now $100 per ticket is passe (though the highest prices seem only to stick for established bands).
If I were in a band, I would absolutely hate that instead of collecting royalties I were forced to constantly tour away from home.
Unfortunately I think this is the new model.
If they ever succeed in taxing broadband connections so that a portion goes to the music industry I think that will be a big mistake because you’ll see every “affected” interest group (think travel agents, software companies, book publishers, movie studios) come out of the woodwork looking for a tax of their own.
August 19th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Wayne said: “Long term music probably has to progress to the point of where songs are considered commercials for bands – and money is made in other ways – licensing to film/tv and touring.”
That is the way it has been since the beginning. Terrestrial radio stations have never paid royalties, they were “promoting” the band. They even received payola to feature certain bands. The music business is totally broken now, they need to do some radical re-thinking. I don’t know how they are going to do it, but when your major revenue stream comes from government interference in business, it can’t be good…..
August 19th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Have I mentioned I hate these guys?? The RIAA exists for one reason only: to make their members richer. They don’t care who they target, go after, attack or ruin in the process. They also don’t give a crap about the artists. They represent one set of interests – the recording industry’s.
August 19th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
I think most artists today get their money via appearances/touring/etc. They don’t make a much from record sales unless the record makes it really big because, generally, the record company “loans” them the money to make the record which they are expected to repay. But I’m not sure that model can last.
Even touring has gotten harder what with venue insurance costs, etc. Ticket prices went up in support of that and then as that continued to skyrocket in came corporate sponsorship and big artists became corporate shills. Yeah it’s turned into an ugly business unless you stayed independent.
The radio stations, and theaters, arenas, etc. all pay fees to NASCAP and BMI for the right to play recorded music. Supposedly this money makes its way back to the artists and recording companies.
The RIAA doesn’t really represent the artists, they represent the “recording industry” meaning the big 6 record companies. They are trying to “recapture” what they view as revenue lost to theft. And let’s be honest – much as we all dislike the RIAA and the greedy record companies, at the end of the day it is still theft if you take a recording without paying for it.
I still basically agree with you Wayne – a better model has to come out of this. Digital music, in whatever form, can’t continue to viewed as the “enemy” of artists. It is simply one of a number of communications methods – nothing more.
Steve Jobs broke open the digital vaults by getting all of the big 6 record companies to agree to sell digital music. That was huge, but the price we paid was DRM. Now that is slowly going away, but nothing has really back-filled for those protections or the perceived “lost” revenues, hence the RIAA strong-arming more people.
How do we resolve this? I don’t think totally relying on touring is going to work because of the increasing costs of touring, especially insurance, and trying to find corporate sponsorship (which carries it’s own burdens). I’ve heard suggestions of taxing broadband connections, further fees imposed on blank CDs and DVDs and storage cards, and a variety of other mechanisms to get someone to pay. What suggestions do you guys have and how do you make it fair?
August 19th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I, for one, am totally against any tax on connections or storage media or any general tax. I don’t own a single CD and the only mp3 file I have is a 20 second ring tone. I listen to satellite radio exclusively so being taxed because of these magical “lost” revenues is absolutely unacceptable. If I am forced to pay an unfair tax like this because the RIAA considers me a pirate, I’ll be forced to become one just to get something for my money…..