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This page contains my opinions on some current issues currently in or not in the news. If you agree great, if you disagree, great also, just email me with your arguments.

Paul Lossner

Thursday, June 26, 2003:
Recording Industry What You Should Know!!..

The Recording Industry has announced taking drastic steps to curb MP3 and Movies piracy on the Internet using Peer-Peer Networks!! Kazaa and other peep-peer groups have just been ordered to reveal the identity of all downloaders, so the RIAA can individually sue each one of us who have downloaded music. I am not sure how practical this truly is, but all who download music or movies are at risk of legal action. First let me make one point: I am a member of the Rhapsody Music service which I pay $24.99 a quarter to have the ability to preview, download and legally burn music onto a Audio CDR for 79 cents a song, but my rant is because of the very limited amount of music which is licensed for legal per-song sales. All of this legal action could have been avoided if record companies would have supported 99cent downloads by the song (like is limitedly offered by Rhapsody or Apple's iTunes) but they just want to rape us $20/cd for only 1 or 2 good songs and 50 minutes of shit music.

I am an avid music listener who currently owns 300 CDs and several box sets. At my collection maximum the number was close to 450 (ran out of space) and I was a member of both Columbia House and BMG music clubs. I will have to admit I have downloaded music myself. I like dance music and love the many remixes singles that DJs seem to create from ordinary songs, such as Coldplay’s “Clocks”, and Cake’s “Never There” stuff which most likely will not get much airplay on the radio and is hard to find on CD. But in the 90’s, I also learned many hard lessons about buying CDs, You Don’t Always Get What You Think You A Paying For when buying CD’s. First Example: Solitude Standing from Suzanne Vega: I loved both songs “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” but after the CD purchase I was a victim of bait and switch. The radio played a pop version song, but the on the album there is no background music, just Vega reading the words!!! In 1990 I worked at a Donut shop and with shipping I paid four hours of salary to despise a 3 minute song, correction: reading. In the 90’s this same story was repeated with album after album as music lyrics deteriorated further. I still buy good CDs when they come out, mainly Greatest Hits collections, but there are now no artists that I trust to publish the same type music on the CD as what is receiving airplay on the radio (few Alternative or Hip-Hop CDs come without several explicatives added to the music for extra “enjoyment”, which is edited out for radio airplay). In all other industries this Bait & Switch sales tactic is illegal, but not in recorded music. Investing 99cents for a song most likely I want is much better than paying $17.98 for a CD that 9/10 times only has 1 good song on it!!!

The record companies also have a large part in their sharp sales declines experienced over the last few years through limited promotion of different music types, strong-arming techie MP3 listeners who are in favor of new music delivery system which eliminates costly packaging and CD pressing costs, and forcing worthless albums on us to buy. Lets not also forget that all the major record labels settled before conviction in a horizontal price fixing scheme to keep CD prices artificially high (bet the news never reported much about that!) at between $13-19 even though it costs less to manufacture a CD than either records or cassette tapes !!!! DVDs cost the same but also have video and multi-channels. Maybe the record companies should suck it up that CDs have been replaced by DVDs as the king of entertainment and should lower CD prices, and now allow per song purchases. I will pay 99cents for one song but will never buy music again by the CD!! I do not want to steal, but I will not be Raped!!

Web Tour of Both Sides:
Individual Articles: Boycott the RIAA.com | RIAA Hacking You Back | RIAA-Recording Industry Association of America | RIAA Statistics Don't Add Up to Piracy | How CD Pricing Came About | CD Sales vs Prices | Singles vs Albums | Labels Pay to Settle Price-Fixing Suit | Internet Music Debacle |

CNN.com Articles: RIAA Suing Downloaders | Industry ad snipes at music swappers | Gateway Ads on CD burning

FOXNews.com Articles: RIAA Suing Hundreds of File-Sharers | Music Industry Re-releasing "Improved CDs" | Apple Releases Online Music Service

Monday, June 23, 2003:
Media Ownership Ruling, You SHOULD CARE!!..

The FCC (Federal Communications Commissions) has just loosened the ownership rules allowing radio conglomerates to own still more Radio, TV stations and newspapers in one market. This allows a few companies to form and shape the opinions of all United States Citizens through their news reports, music promotions, and editorials, while at the same time capitalizing on all the revenues. In Atlanta Radio, five companies own all the major commercial stations: Clear Channel, Cox Communication, Radio One, Infinity, and Susquehanna Radio. Are these five sources going to air the opinions for 3.6 million Atlanta residents; I think not. With this ruling even the richest of the local residents will not have the ability to buy or build a radio station. Their voice will only be broadcast through talk radio as long as the radio host and company don’t disagree. I bet you never even heard about the FCC Media Consolidation Debate on Radio or TV, they didn’t want you to know. In the last ten years, companies have rapidly been buying up radio stations doing away with localized talent and instead filling the space with voice tracking DJs or cookie cutter formats which play the same 40 songs until the next 40 list comes along. This eliminates local talent from being recognized (DJs and bands) and radio formats from being tailored based on local tastes. Bet you did not know that Domino on WMAX “105.3 the 80s Channel” is actually located in Dallas, TX. Hope a Tornado does not hit your house here in Atlanta while it is sunny in Texas. This consolidation is also the reason for very little variety in the Atlanta Region. Atlanta has five R&B stations: V-103, Hot-107.9, 95.5-the Beat, 97.1-Jamz, and Q-100 (sometimes), while Atlanta lacks stations serving the formats: AAA, Party Dance, and a Spanish Target station. Instead of individual stations fighting out for ratings through different formats, the merged companies are trashing their own smaller stations with low ratings to capture market share from the larger stations in hopes of bringing up the stocks for the whole company by having a #1 station and gaining that ad revenue. (Ex. Cox’s 97.1-Jamz and 955-the-Beat’s creation to steal market share from Infinity’s V-103 to keep AM-750 on top). Who needs variety, we have to be number one in Atlanta at all costs!! Media Consolidation has hurt the United States and has effected our citizens ability to voice Free Speech!!

Weblinks: Media Ownership and Deregulation Journalism.org | Senate Hears FCC Testimony on Rule Changes | FCC Votes to Relax Media Ownership Rules | Big Media's Silence | Regulate the FCC | FCC Media Rules Will Change | Great Media Gulp


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