Tuesday, May 13, 2008
To many musicians, the MP3 trading software isn't a revolution -- it's a rip-off.
Mar 24, 2000 | Ask singer-songwriter Aimee Mann what she thinks of Napster, the ingeniously simple and wildly popular tool for exchanging MP3 music files, and you get a very concise response: "Artists should get paid for their work." It's a time-honored notion, but one that seems to be getting lost amid the Napster buzz.
Ever since it appeared last August as the groundbreaking software created by a 19-year-old college student, Napster -- which instantly connects users to one another's stockpiles of mostly unauthorized MP3 files, free for the taking -- has rattled the record industry. Faced with the daunting prospect of consumers simply downloading entire libraries of music for free, the label's trade association, the Recording Industry Association of America, quickly sued Napster for trafficking in piracy.
Brushing aside thorny copyright issues, many Net users and commentators have rallied to Napster's side in the latest round of the ongoing battle between Silicon Valley start-ups and record companies. Meanwhile, students on college campuses that have banned Napster (its volume of traffic has clogged university networks) have transformed the program, and the ability to illegally swap music, into the centerpiece of a free-speech debate.
But while the start-up lawyers and the record- company attorneys keep themselves busy billing their clients, what do the artists, the content providers, think of all this? How do they feel about Napster and the notion that so much of their music is now being swapped for free?
It's not a question Napster and its supporters have seemed anxious to pose. In fact, the company's normally quotable chief executive, Eileen Richardson, declined to discuss the artist's perspective for this article.
"Nobody wants to look the artist in the eye and say, 'Giving your music away for free is going to make you lots of money' -- not while keeping a straight face, anyway," suggests solo artist, and founding member of the Throwing Muses, Kristin Hersh.
The good news for Napster is that calls to scores of artists and their representatives suggest most still have no idea what Napster is, or how many MP3 files are being swapped every day
"My artists are busy touring, writing songs, making records," says Cliff Bernstein, half of the team that runs Q Prime Management, which represents the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica, explaining why Napster is not yet on performers' radar. "Most are just starting to figure it out," adds Ron Stone, who manages Tracy Chapman and Ziggy Marley. "We send them to Napster and they see all their work being given away for free, and they're stunned and horrified." The fact is, many artists still think of MP3 as a promotional tool, and assume that if files are being swapped at no cost online, that's only because artists OK'd their release.
Yet even those singers and songwriters in the know, the ones who realize that so many MP3s are available illegally, are reluctant to discuss the touchy topic. "Everybody's freaked out about Napster," says the publicist for a multi-platinum pop band, declining to have band members talk on the record about the new software.
But Scott Sapp, lead singer for the popular rock band Creed, says the time has come to speak out: "It has been taboo for artists to speak out concerning the business side of their music. The fear has been that the buying public, as well as other artists, would perceive this concern as greed, and that the artists' sole purpose for creating was the money. This perception has silenced many artists concerning MP3 and Napster. The silence must end."
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