record labels

This is hardly a new phenomenon, but the Wall Street Journal is noting that some bands and some record labels are avoiding putting music on iTunes (or in some cases, pulling music off iTunes) in an effort to force people to buy the full album, rather than just a few tracks.

There are plenty of reasons to dislike iTunes, but it seems hard to believe that this does anything positive for the bands in question.

It's always fun to remember stories like the following one the next time you hear some RIAA exec claim that it represents musicians.

The RIAA represents the record labels and record labels are continually at odds with musicians -- sometimes to extreme levels.

Wired reported that EMI/Virgin Records had sued the band 30 Seconds To Mars for $30 million recently.

The band is apparently fronted by movie star Jared Leto, and is considered something of a success. Its last album went platinum and won some awards.

Ever since it launched, people have waited for the RIAA or its member record labels to go after Muxtape. The site allowed individuals to upload MP3s that they had and create a streaming "mixtape" of music.

It was actually a pretty cool way to hear new music from individuals you trusted -- just like sharing mixtapes back in the 80s.

You might think that, perhaps, the recording industry would recognize how successful mixtapes were back then in promoting certain bands, and wouldn't freak out about an online version.

But, of course, this is the RIAA we're talking about.

When Chinese search engine Baidu first went public, some folks pointed out that the main reason why people used it a lot more than Google was that it had an MP3 search engine, which let people find music to download.

Google, being afraid of copyright infringement lawsuits, chose not to have such a specific search engine. Of course, once it had gone public, Baidu attracted the attention of record labels as well, and was quickly sued.

When challenged on what they're doing, organizations like the RIAA and the IFPI will often claim that they're just trying to help musicians.

That's obviously untrue, as they represent the record labels -- who have a long history of an antagonistic relationship with the musicians they work with.

We're seeing more and more cases where this conflict is being made quite clear as the RIAA and IFPI attacks fan actions that the musicians in question would prefer be left alone.

Earlier this year, we wrote a couple times about how World of Warcraft maker Blizzard was suing a bot maker.

In that case, Blizzard was claiming that the bot maker (which let users automate certain tasks to quickly rise up in experience level) was violating its copyrights first by getting around the copy protection on its own spybot (which tries to prevent such automation) and then by not obeying the terms of the license agreement.

Every time we talk about music industry business models, we get some folks who have to chime in with some claim about how musicians should be able to sell their music just like they have for years.

Of course, the truth is that it's quite rare for any musician to make money from selling their albums, as has been pointed out for years.

The latest to make that point is Lyle Lovett. Reader Rose M.

Virgin Media and the BPI have sent warning letters to people whose IP addresses have been identified as having been used for file-sharing. Both letters are reprinted below.

The ‘legal threats’ section of The Pirate Bay is where record labels, movie companies, software house and general anti-pirates have their complaints posted after the staff on the site have ridiculed them.

A new set of complaints has appeared in the last few days - some of the most cringe-worthy ever.

Joss Stone, who won a Grammy last year, loves music, but hates the the music industry.

In a recent interview she said that - unlike herself - most artists are brainwashed by the industry, and she encouraged people to share her music.