Napster not the problem, RIAA not the enemy
Napster is like the unguarded entrance to a great big parking lot full of cars. At the entrance to the parking lot is a big sign, which reads -- "Some of these cars are brand new and left here by the owner, some were stolen and others are old and abandoned. All of the doors are unlocked. Help yourself to whatever you want". The entrance to the parking lot is Napster. The cars represent the hard drives containing thousands, if not millions, of various music files. The creator and owner of the music uploaded some of the music files. Many others were not.
I am not here to talk about whether RIAA or Napster is right or wrong. For me, both sides of the argument have some merit. For some, the publicity and exposure provided by the Internet is a godsend, an opportunity to hear new material or present new material to an audience that did not exist a few years ago. On the other, hand, many artists have deals with publishers and records labels and depend on the RIAA to regulate the industry so that they are ensured their little piece of the pie and their intellectual property is protected the analog way. Many artists sign these deals because they do not want to deal with the business of filing papers, promotion, distribution, chasing their paychecks or getting on radio station play lists, etc. They just want to create. There are benefits of having a major record company, a management team, publicist, and people wearing suits and cell phones all working behind the scenes to break a major act. After all the work put into breaking an artist or band, and the money spent for all that goes with it, these people do not want someone driving their car into the Napster Parking Lot and leaving it there for all to ransack.
On the other hand, independent artists who wish to make their music accessible should by all means take advantage of this technology. I would not advise giving it all away, but I see no harm in giving some of it away. If I'm not mistaken (and a trip to any large music store would bear this out), any serious artist spends almost 1000 bucks on a decent guitar -- some spend a lot more. Then of course there's the amp, or maybe a keyboard, a workstation (between 4 and 48 tracks), a nice microphone and countless hours writing and rewriting and recording and overdubbing and mixing and on and on.
Maybe they don't play an instrument, so they have to pay professionals to do all the work. Six months to a year and thousands of dollars later, they have their first CD. Now they have to spend another few thousand dollars making copies of the CD with full color inserts in order to sell at their gigs or from their Web sites. Maybe they put a few samples of their music online, maybe even a few songs in their entirety. They might even make a song or two available on Napster or MP3.com. But if a rabid fan buys the CD and takes it upon him or herself to freely distribute the whole CD, you know very well it is the wrong thing to do. If you go to an artists Web site and see a few songs available for download, then go to Napster and find access to the others, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the artist is being ripped off. Do these independent artists not deserve to recoup their investment of time and cash somehow?
Napster is not the problem. Nor is RIAA the enemy. It's the 'attitude' that stealing across the board, that any car in the lot is fair game because the door is unlocked -- that's the problem. There is so much free stuff on the Internet; people have adopted a blind policy of entitlement. The technology itself is akin to nuclear energy. We have the means to incinerate the entire planet at the push of a button. Does that mean we should? Napster merely created the means to exchange music in mass quantity. Pandora's box is all ready opened, because we all know that it does not end with Napster, it begins there. I personally practice restraint because I am morally obligated as an artist myself, and as a person who knows right from wrong. The debate will go on for a long, long time, but stealing will always be a criminal act.
Hal Cohen is a singer and songwriter as well as Founder of 'Li'l Hank's Guide For Songwriters.'
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