Posted on 09/26/2002 9:36:09 PM PDT by sgaspar
The music industry is calling out some of its heaviest hitters -- Madonna, Elton John, Eminem, Britney Spears, Nelly, India Arie, Ludacris and Sheryl Crow among them -- in an upcoming TV ad campaign to persuade young people to stop downloading music from the Internet.
"Would you go into a CD store and steal a CD?" Spears asks in her spot, which first aired Thursday at a congressional hearing on music piracy legislation. "It's the same thing, people going into the computers and logging on and stealing our music," Spears declares.
The multimillion-dollar campaign will hit TV screens in a few weeks, but full-page ads also appeared Thursday in The New York Times and the congressional publication Roll Call. "Who Really Cares About Illegal Downloading?" asked the ad, which was signed by 90 acts, from B.B. King and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs to the Dixie Chicks and Luciano Pavarotti.
But the ads may not hit the conscience of their target audience: young people who use Napster-type file-sharing programs to download music.
"Like they don't make enough money now," scoffed Sean Zupan, 28, a management major at Georgia State University, about the celebrity campaign.
"It won't really change my mind," agreed Jessica Mincey of Stone Mountain, a GSU finance major.
The ad campaign is sponsored by a new coalition of record companies and industry groups called Music United for Strong Internet Copyright (MUSIC), which also is lobbying Congress for stricter laws. It comes as the music industry struggles through one of its worst periods ever. CD sales declined 5 percent last year and are down an additional 7 percent this year. The Recording Industry Association of America, a lobbying group for the record labels, estimates that more than 2.6 billion songs are downloaded via the Internet every month, the vast majority of them illegally.
Efforts to establish an exact cause-and-effect relationship between music downloading and slumping CD sales, however, have been mixed. "The technology is changing," said Mincey. "I download songs to see if a CD is any good, and if it is, I'll buy the CD."
That appeared to be what happened in late May with "The Eminem Show" CD, which was being swapped online two weeks before it appeared in stores. It's thought to be the most downloaded album ever, yet when the CD was released early as a result of the downloading, it immediately went to No. 1 and has sold more than 5 million copies, making it the biggest-selling CD this year.
"If I'm putting my heart and all my time into music, I expect to get rewarded for that," Eminem says in a statement on MUSIC's Web site.
"I work hard and anybody can just throw a computer up and download my music for free. It could kill the whole purpose of making music."
Although the record companies managed to kill off Napster, other services have sprung up using the same technology, such as KaZaA and Morpheus. The labels have started their own legal downloading services, such as Listen and Rhapsody, but they have very limited selections compared with the illegal programs and have attracted few paying subscribers.
"We really look at it as stealing, because to us it's either black or white," hip-hop star Nelly says in the campaign. "Either you pay for it or you don't. And you're not paying for it."
Britney, your so-called "music" ain't worth stealing.
Been wondering the same thing myself. Any answers?
Ho, Mo, whigger, tramp, scamp, (I don't know her) , woman hating closet case, and talentless nobody with her fifteen minute up . . . don't worry, I'm not stealing any of your 'music'. In fact, you should pay me for even listening to your crap.
The only music I really download is stuff you can't get in stores, music I already have in format and want on cd but it's not worth paying for twice, and people who are dead and don't profit from sales. I download a lot of jazz, not crap. Your royalities are safe for sheep consumption.
While I have your very limited attention, I'd like to say something to each of you:
Madonna - Close your legs. It will make you more of lady.
Elton John - Please stop, your music sucks now and no one wants to buy it, much less steal it.
Eminem - Your white trash acting black act was cute for a moment . . . just a moment. The moment passed, time for you to get a job at McDonald's. Leave the chainsaw here.
Brittney Spears - T*ts are not talent. Remember that when you are turning tricks in Hollywood later on.
Nelly - This too shall pass, just ask MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice. The problem with being the flavor of the month is that the month ends. One more thing, don't make any movies . . .
India Arie - I don't know you, now I don't want to know you. You are a pop star, shut up.
Ludacris - I have never seen an entire career launched from a closet before . . . Your woman hating "music" (?) only proves one thing to me and that you really just want to get it on with guys. Tell me if this is true. No, on second hand, shut up.
Sheryl Crow - Too much time on your hands? Don't worry, the nostalgia tour bus will be on the way. You say, "but I'm still making music." Tell that to Lisa Loeb.
Please take my advice, because I care. I really really do. Your music careers are either over or about to be over . . . In the future, the only place you'll be playing is DNC fund raisers.
Peace Out.
BG & 99
< /end rant >
Right. We all remember how the "Rock Against Drugs" campaign completely eliminated drug abuse, I'm sure....Sam Kinison compared it to a hypothetical campaign called "Christians Against Christ", and that skit was the most impact the program ever made.
-Eric
What's the deal with Audio Galaxy? Went away for a couple of months and the new download ain't the same. All that shows up is the chat crap.You're supposed to download the new satellite which has integral spyware....kind of like Kazaa. I'm not sure if there's an "Audiogalaxy Lite" to match Kazaa Lite.
-Eric
Yup, this cannot be said enough! With today's technology the Music Racket is now defunct. I can for a Nominal investment have a fully digital recording studio in my house and rival anything put out on the market today (All for under 10k) I also can distribute my musice WORLDWIDE at a substantial price discount to what Professional CDs cost with comparable quality. And the reason is Downloadable music for fee.
When you consider that I can do all this and charge a buck per download and make a profit even if people exchange music by digital swapping.
Swap sites are gonna go down when the origin price drops and it will drop because you will cut out all the middle man crap that the music industry is strapped with. Only Reason people are downloading music now from Free sites is because CDs are way to high! Period!
How about the money they "steal" from people for seats at their gigs?
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