The logic at play here is woeful, to stop the mass transferring of MP3 files Metallica decides to take Napster to court. It is kind of like a band of vegetarians deciding the way to eradicate the consumption of meat is to sue McDonalds. Sure McDonalds is responsible for providing a lot of people with a lot of meat, but even if you could make it disappear a thousand more fast food restaurants would take their place, and people will still buy and cook their own meat. Want to stop the consumption of meat, then go to the source, the fact that people are used to and want to eat meat. If you want to stop the transferring of MP3s then go to the root, work on why people are doing it, and figure out what you can do about it.
By taking Napster to court, Metallica placed a gun to the head of the comatose body that was Heavy Metal’s credibility, and then called in some lawyers to help them pull the trigger. The band that talked endlessly about being "all about the fans" proved themselves rocks hypocrites of the minute by effectively taking them to court. Some time you want a laugh go ahead and see if VH1 is doing the Metallica behind the music story again. See how many times they talk about being ‘all for the fans’, they say it, journalists say it, managers and the like say it. Irony anyone?
A million Internet column inches have been spent on this topic, some positive and some negative, but we here at Indie Monkey decided it was time for us to give our opinion, and as always seek yours. If you have got this far you cannot help but guess we are against it, and strongly so. We normally focus on small and unsigned bands, the type who are using the Internet and MP3s to help raise the worlds awareness of them. Paradoxically they are also far more at risk than major bands of losing sales to people obtaining MP3s rather than buying their product. Yet how many small bands are whining and threatening to get their Lawyers? None would be my guess, they realize that they need the publicity that they won’t get from the likes of VH1, but also maybe they realize that used correctly MP3s can make you more money, and also most importantly that standing like Knute at the shores of the ocean, demanding the waves go back, makes you look really, really stupid.
Metallica’s argument is all about money, they claim that by people transferring electronic files of their recorded music; they are losing the sales that they should get. First lets ignore the fact that any single member of Metallica will make more this year than the combined incomes of every single person who reads this article (we get a lot of hits from Universities and Eastern Europe!), lets also ignore that they are rich enough to never really need to earn a penny again. Instead lets look at the flaws in their reasoning. First a large amount of the MP3s are of obscure B-sides and live tracks, tracks that are impossible or very, very difficult to obtain legally. The only people losing money on these are those people who sold bootleg tapes.
Another large group are the people who just want that one track they ‘kinda like’, a few years ago they would have taped it off the radio, now they find the MP3 instead. Still not any major money lost. Then there are the major Metallica fans (remember them guys, they are the ones you are doing it all for) they already own just about everything it’s possible to own, but their obsession pushes them to download Metallica stuff anyway. Then there are the real young kids with no income to buy albums who are downloading stuff; if they end up liking Metallica they may just start buying albums when they get that first job. So far does anyone see any major money being lost here?
Of course I am not claiming that in pure sales terms it cannot be seen as a loss, but don’t they realize the increased publicity and word of mouth in places as diverse as Latvia and Peru doesn’t in the end more than balance the scales? Are they that blind, is their thinking that corporate. Answers on a postcard to Metallica.
Let me for free, that means I am not charging, or attempting to make money, suggest an alternative way Metallica could have approached this whole issue. A way that would have fit into their image of being a ‘fans band’, would have helped them keep control of their music and also have made them money. Of course the plan I outline below is more complicated than calling your Lawyer collect, but hey remember rebellion, didn’t Rock ‘n Roll have something to do with that at one stage?
Anyway why not create an online version of the Metallica Fan Club. Charge a fee, for a year’s membership, say $25. The fan then gets a unique username and password, he can visit an exclusive chat room that features other huge fans, and as often as possible members of Metallica, or a Manager or a Roadie or whatever. So that the fan for his $25 gets a sense of being closer to the band, ‘Hey I got to ask Lars about his underwear last night man, it ROCKED!’
Also give the member x amount of downloads for free as part of their membership. This way someone just can’t give out his or her username and let everyone download everything. If you want to be really paranoid pay someone to come up with an alternative compression method so regular MP3 players can not read these files, and they will have to use a branded Metallica player. This also makes it more difficult, although far from impossible, for the tracks to be mass distributed across the net.
In your download section include b-sides and live tracks exclusive to your site, as well as new features and interviews done in an audio style. Also allow those who have used up their allowance to purchase more downloads from you. Not only do you control the distribution, you are making money, doing something for the fans, and also guaranteeing a large captive Internet audience. Ask someone who knows something about Internet advertising what that is worth.
The plan I outlined above is really not the best way to approach the net and MP3s, in my opinion just let it go, in the long run you won’t lose any substantial amount of money. If you are determined to be a corporate rock band though then doesn’t my plan do a lot more, for you and the fans, than just asking for Johnny Cochran’s phone number?
As always feel free to give us your response, or better still write an article, am I right or wrong? Send us an email to opinion@indiemonkey.com or visit our Forum.