Be Human mp3 The Break Welcome to Our Side …. go to their MySpace
I’m not sure you’ve heard about the latest upsetting practices going on in the world of music blogging, but I thought I’d take a minute to fill you in. Lately Google, which has bought up the popular blog tool, Blogger, has been acting in a draconian manner against some of the more popular MP3 blogs… blogs that rank in the highest rankings of importance, clout, influence and all that in our little corner of blogland. Here’s what Bill, from I Rock Cleveland, has been going through. I’ll refer you to this article at techdirt which lays it out nicely for you and also check out this recent post on Boing Boing. Basically, Blogger/Google receives copyright complaints and is obligated, by law (a stupidly made law wherein the burden of proof is laid on you to prove your innocence after you are punished) to inactivate your post. However, a week or so ago, Blogger/Google didn’t just take down a post or two from these blogs. It deleted the whole blog.
No backup. No warning. No apparent recourse.
Needless to say, bloggers were angry, scared, and panicked. If you’re very interested, there’s a timeline of how it went down, on Twitter. And coverage on Pitchfork and so Blogger had to respond, trying to save face, and eventually some blogs were reinstated and some recourse was made known. Yes, the law exists. Yes, copyright should be respected and artists should be compensated for their talent, time, and energy. But there are good blogs that do follow the rules and there are blogs which really are exploiting artists by leaking albums which I will take a stand against.
So, is this blog legal?
Here at Love Shack, Baby I try to post only tracks that are given to me by artists, labels, PR folk or that I find posted on websites that allow and encourage downloading (those are PR companies or label websites that put up MP3s, not other blogs.) That means that I get stated or implied permission from people to rehost MP3s on a host that I pay for so that you can download a song along with whatever words I write about the artist or album. I do this because I believe, as do many people in this industry, that hearing a song and being able to keep it on your Ipod and play it in your car will lead you to buy the album. Being able to give a copy of it away to your friend, to burn it onto a mix tape for your girlfriend, or being able to send it to your sister who’s away at college is an excellent way to get other people excited about music and more likely to buy a ticket when that band comes to their town. If I make you a fan of an artist by giving you their song, with their permission, I might make your friends and family fans too. And that can result in a lot more album sales and concert tickets than a TV commercial because you actually got something from me, something more than 30 seconds of visual aid. I’m hoping you might read 200 or 300 words about why this music is so fucking exciting to me too. I think that helps.
So yes, for the most part, this blog is legal. I might make a misstep here or there, unintentionally. I try to only post the approved songs. And if I don’t, I appreciate an email asking me to remove the offending track. That is NEVER a problem and I act very quickly to remedy that. And as you saw at xmas, I did throw caution to the wind a little, putting out some rare, naughty xmas songs. The temptation was oh so strong, my dears. Remember also though, this blog always, always, includes information (when at all possible) for where to purchase the album, right up next to the track. You have no excuse to not push that button and support that artist. And I take down all my music every two to three weeks. No one needs to give away their hard work for too long. Each of my posts has one, maybe two tracks. I never post an entire album and I never will. Many new artists will give their EPs and albums away and I’ll gladly link to them for you. If they’re on bandcamp.com, please remember you can always contribute money to them there, you don’t HAVE to take it for free.
So, long story short, we are getting fewer MP3s from the big indie labels and none from the big, mainstream labels. You will see more posts here with widgets, asking you for your email address to get the download, and more posts without download tracks at all, and well… that is the way the world works now. You will also see, however, more posts on unsigned and local bands who are more than eager to have you hear and take their music. I hope my ear for talent matches up with your tastes. Let me know, eh?
Most importantly, if you are or know any PR folk or label people, let them know that copyright holders (who don’t use EMI as their distributor) can submit their permitted tracks to jeremy@ifpi.org to have them removed from their bot list. This will greatly reduce the DMCA notice abuse to blogs like this who post legal MP3s, that is, MP3s for which we have been given permission to give to you, dear readers.
(Isn’t it crazy that a bot comes round your blog and alerts them as to what files you have that are in violation?! How does it know whether or not you’ve got permission? In a word, it doesn’t. And in Bill’s case, the offending track wasn’t even working for ages.)
By the way, this track that I’m giving you today is from a band I saw last month. They were pretty cool. I was relatively impressed. And then they played their last song and really tore things up and I looked over at my friend Daniel and he looked over at me, and our faces lit up and we couldn’t stop clapping when they finished that last song. It was incredible. These guys really pulled it off! I went up to Sean, the lead singer, after their set to congratulate him and was absolutely floored to see how young he is. This band, The Break, is certainly one to watch for. You heard it here, maybe first.
And yeah, that pic… it’s from a post over on the elbo.ws blog from the first round of Blogger takedowns, way back in Oct. ’08.
Go see The Break:
Mar 5 2010 7:00P Beatles Night Park Ridge, Illinois
Mar 6 2010 7:00P Beatles Night Park Ridge, Illinois
Mar 7 2010 5:00P Subterranean Chicago, Illinois
Apr 1 2010 8:30P Ottos Night Club Dekalb, Illinois
Apr 25 2010 3:00P Reggies Rock Club Chicago, Illinois
Join the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!
Do you actually buy a domain name when you use blogger?
Nice article, Tart.
In this world where radio is all but dead you have to give up a taste of something to get people interested, create a buzz, etc, and the labels are just hurting themselves by walling themselves off and hoping people will just come to them.
Embracing the bloggers would be the smartest thing a label could do. Granted, there are some leak-y, MP3 hosting sites out there (that I wouldn’t classify as ‘music blogs’) that are truly abusive, but I think by and large most of us music-blogging folk have a keen and fair sense of not trying to give away too much, and in trying to get people excited about what we are pumped about. We want to see these bands succeed just like the labels do.
Wonderful post Tart.
Beats me why they’re wasting their time with bloggers who actually care about the music and artists they write about rather than those who post whole albums or a massive list of mp3s with no commentary whatsoever. I would’ve thought they were more of a threat myself.
It’s because the torrent sites & album leakers have far more smarts in their farts than the major label cabal has in their entire legal teams combined & this pisses the likes of EMI right the fuck off. The very illegal sorts who leak shit all over the place are very fucking sneaky in the way they network & counter network & second guess & etc., thereby moreorless staying a marathon ahead of the probe droid & the Storm Troopers with AT-AT Walkers. Even if they do get taken down, they (& there is generally more than one persona submitting links & etc.) have a new site set up in days & their original traffic flow knows about immediately it via Twitter, last.FM groups, Facebook & every other form of social netowrk you care to mention. Google et al would have a fucking impossible task tracking that much communication, which is how the leakers master their dark art so perfectly.
I monitor a handful of these sites to see what;s being posted & as soon as I see anything by people I know I let the labels or bands know straight away. I can’t do it for all leaks I see. That would be stupidly time consuming (know what I mean, Google?) &, frankly, some of the labels don’t even give a shot if their latest catalog number is released months ahead of drop schedule. I know that because I’ve pointed some labels in the direction of some very hot potatoes & they’ve dnoe fuck all. Take down notices & deletions are very easy to organise, eh?
Anyway, the point is, record labels with a mission & Google etc. will never control what is perceived as illegal downloading unless they have control of the entire internet & can switch off connections at a whim. Which, let’s face it, is exactly what they want at the end of the day. Look at how they door slammed their way out of China. Hell, maybe this blog deletion spree is simply their way of ‘taking it out’ on somebody. Anybody. Who knows?
Tart, if it wasn’t for sites like YOURS, we would not be able to hear about 98% of the tunes/bands that you turn us on to. WXRT used to be the place to hear new bands, but they went corporate. If only the record companies would get this thru their thick skulls……..
The Break will soon “break” into the chicago music scene and take it by storm. These 15 year old kids are extremely talented with outstanding chemistry, ive seen them twice and they blew me away.