Sunday, Jul 6, 2008
And that's where the bad news for Napster begins. Napster may have started out as a labor-of-love project, but it's now a technology corporation -- and as the infant company attempts to grow and form profitable marketing alliances, Napster's going to need support from the artist community, not just unsigned wannabes but full-fledged stars. The problem is, as more artists and their advocates bone up on Napster and agree to talk about it, it's clear there's a reservoir of resentment over what they see as the blatant theft of their work -- their intellectual property -- made possible by arrogant Napster programmers and their investors.
"Napster is robbing me blind," complains Sapp. Black Crowes lead singer Chris Robinson became upset during the Silicon Alley 2000 conference when his panel discussion turned towards Napster, which he railed was ripping him off. At the same time, rapper and label founder Puffy Combs has complained that Napster "abuses" artists and that it should show more respect.
"What disturbs me the most is that artists' rights are never discussed," says manager Ron Stone, who notes most of the Napster press coverage has framed the debate as "an argument between Internet groups and record companies, or the RIAA. Artists just seem to be a ping-pong ball whacked back and forth and nobody gives a fuck about them."
Indeed, a recent Page One Napster piece in the New York Times -- not to mention a recent Fortune magazine feature, a Time story, a Newsweek business column and Salon's previous coverage of the Napster phenomenon -- contained no input from artists on how the revolutionary software might impact their livelihoods.
Stone hopes to air their concerns with a new Artists Against Piracy ad campaign set to run on TV, radio and the Internet: "Artists don't want to get involved in the RIAA's dispute with Napster. They want to take the high road and say, if you care about us, and music is of value to you, then you shouldn't take it for free. It's stealing from artists, and that connection needs to be made."
"It pisses me off and I resent it," says singer-songwriter Jonatha Brooke, when asked about Napster -- and she's no technophobe. Back in December 1998, when her "Jonatha Brooke Live" album was released exclusively online, Brooke became a pioneer among established acts who turned to the Web as a way to communicate directly with her audience as well as deliver new music to it. "It's a great way to access fans, to maintain that intimacy that you have on stage."
But when she looks at Napster and the piracy it enables, Brooke sees only greed. "I spent $15,000 on my Web site. I paid a publicist for a year and a half out of my own pocket. And now some kid's going to tell me my catalog should be free? They're just entrepreneurs setting themselves up to make a ton of money off other people's work. Where's the compensation for the artists?"
This is from an artist who bounced around the major label system, only to leave heartbroken by career promises that never materialized. (Brooke was half of the critically acclaimed folk-pop group The Story, which recorded for Elektra; she then released solo records on labels inside the Universal Records family.) In other words, she's the type of disillusioned performer Napster fans say should embrace the digital revolution.
No thanks, says Brooke. "I know people using Napster are chuckling about kicking big, bad record labels. But as evil as the record companies may be, at least they're paying for your recording budget, and at least they're promoting you, and paying for tour support."
"Our label has been behind us from the start," notes Morgan Rose, drummer for the hard rock band Sevendust. "They work hard for every nickel they make off us. They deserve to be paid. It's a no-brainer." More importantly, Rose says if fans are downloading Sevendust records instead of buying them in stores where their tallies are calculated by SoundScan, the band won't be making records much longer. "If it's not scanned, then the label at the end of the year says so long, and all of a sudden our careers are over, and I'm back at McDonald's."
Stone, who like most managers spends his time battling, cajoling and pleading with record companies on behalf of his artists, says the business is hard enough without having to worry about "blatant piracy" online. "Artists are already at war with corporate mentality at record labels. They piss on us on a daily basis. But to add Napster's blatant music piracy to the battle is unbelievable. Three or four years ago I looked at the Internet as a viable alternative to the major label plantation system, where artists would end up owning masters at the end of your careers. But if the price you pay is to never make any money, well, that's a sad twist. And it turns out Napster's no better than the record companies. In fact they're worse, because they're offering nothing and taking everything."
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