Why Everyone Hates the RIAA

By SKillBot September 5, 2000 1:05 AM

     Print Story

Like many Internet savvy music enthusiasts, I have a large music collection, am an avid Napster user, and live near some great record stores.?I'm currently on the road, and don't have much access to any of those.?And now I have more insight into just how crappy the standard music distribution channels are.?

Since I arrived in Louisiana, I've had an uncontrollable need to have the Holy Roller compilation from The Reverand Horton Heat.?That's because I downloaded the first five tracks last week off the Internet.?In Shreveport, one of the largest casino towns in the nation, there are only two music stores.?One of them has a very slim used selection.?The other is Camelot, a big chain that sold me an empty cd case for full price one time.?They were both horrible.?Anyone who lives near here without a broadband Internet connection is screwed for decent musical influence.?

In Portland, I work/live within walking distance of three great stores: Ozone Records, Django's and Music Millennium.?They all have a ton of good used cd's, new cd's and vinyl.?And I've bought a lot of things from all of them.?Camelot, on the other hand, wastes my time, plays crappy music in their store, stocks plenty of the best crap, and doesn't hold an annual customer appreciation BBQ.?

Louisiana is quite a bit different.?In New Orleans, there are a couple of really good radio stations, awesome music festivals, and plenty of places to find decent music.?But the rest of it is pretty lame.?I finally found the cd I was looking for in a huge mall in Baton Rouge (the state capital!).This was the only music store in that mall, and I managed to grab the last copy they had.?It's new, it's not that obscure, and I spent a lot of time tracking it down.?And I didn't see a single vinyl record the whole time!

And I can't help but think of how much this misfortune is due to the music industry's practices.?A huge amount of what one pays for a new cd goes straight to the record company, who decide what radio stations should play, so that people know what to look for in the music stores.?This system keeps consumers numb, their pockets fat, and good artists left behind.?That's the short version, which is only slightly off from the complete truth.?

Things like Napster help anyone download all the crappy stuff they want without buying it.?It also lets you download all the good stuff you want without buying it.?But it helps me feel better about what I'm buying when I do buy something, such as the cd I mentioned at the top of this article.?The cover is really cool, and the story in the insert was fun to readl.?And besides, I couldn't find any mp3's better than 128 kbit of it.?The next time they come to Portland, I'll be old enough to get into their show, which will put a lot more money in their pocket than my insignifigant cd purchase.

Tweet This Now!

Reader Discussions:

Post YOUR opinion too!

RE: Why Everyone Hates the RIAA   reply

Posted by Acheron (denny@dtheatre.com) on September 5, 2000 6:25 AM

well, shreveport just plain sucks for that kind of stuff. New Orleans is really really good. In Baton Rouge, we've got so many of those cds because of the college crowd - they're pretty big here. Oh, damn you for not calling me when you came. Go back to Portland. We don't want you here! ;-)