dreadedmonkeygod . net

Well, it's not my birthday yet, but when my portable CD player finally died, I decided I'd celebrate a little early. So I bought an iRiver iHP-120. It is kick-ass.

Somewhat relatedly, a friend and I were swapping conspiracy theories the other night, and he mentioned hearing a station advertise itself as "Independent 103!" or some such. Who owns this "independent" station? (Wait for it!) ClearChannel.

Which got us talking. Clear Channel is in the music delivery business. They have bullied their way to dominance by having a stranglehold on radio stations and concert venues. They make money by being the pipeline from music producers to music consumers.

The so-called Big Five labels, under the umbrella of the RIAA, make money by selling as much music to as many people as possible.

Enter digital distribution.

Labels should love digital distribution. No distribution costs. No middle men. An artist can go from unknown to superstardom in a few days. People can swap mp3s of a song around, and then hit Amazon or iTunes to buy the album. MP3s are to word-of-mouth as a raging PCP addict is to your average fuzzy bunny.

Clear Channel should Fear digital distribution. Fear with a capital F. Digital distribution doesn't just make them weaker; it makes them irrelavent. Nobody needs radio stations when you can put an mp3 in the inbox of a zillion people for free. The pipe from labels to fans is no longer the bottleneck.

But it's the RIAA who's figiting against digital distribution. Clear Channel, who should be screaming bloody murder, is silent.

I think Clear Channel is pulling the strings. They can't convince anyone that they have an inalienable right to make money. But the RIAA can defend "intellectual property", and "artists' rights", and sound, well, downright American!

The labels can't resist. They realize that the market for digital market isn't strong enough yet, that they can't pull an end run. They still need Clear Channel so they capitulate. And so Clear Channel maintains the status quo.

So when the EFF goes after the RIAA, they've missed the target. To fix things, we need to call out Clear Channel for the bastards they are.

Finally, a favorite quote of mine:

"I know I don't know nuthin'. I'm just speculatin' on a hypothesis!" -Chief O'Doole, Miller's Crossing