ITunes piracy turns artist to BitTorrent

In the Russian segment of the network has already passed the news that Flashbulb has posted its latest album on torrent trackers. But his interview with the TorrentFreak portal is worthy of special attention.

The Flashbulb aka Benn Jordan, having learned that iTunes is engaged in the illegal distribution of his music, became enraged and uploaded his latest album to BitTorrent trackers. TorrentFreak contacted Benn to find out the details of his decision not to give distributors and “cocoon-dodged label representatives” a hint of money.

The famous musician decided to get away from the generally accepted ways of music distribution following the example of promoting the album Radiohead “In Rainbows” and made his latest album available for free torrent download on such portals as The Pirate Bay and What.cd in order to get more people to know with him.
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TorrentFreak met Benn, who said that he was not just disappointed, but deeply indignant that iTunes sells his music without permission and, apparently, takes all the proceeds to himself.

TF: Please tell us a little about yourself and how your musical career developed.

Benn: My name is Benn and I am 29 years old. When I was five, I started playing acoustic guitar and since then music has become the only thing I wanted to do in life. More than twenty wild years have passed and now I am writing music in order to get a livelihood. For 14 years I have been publishing albums on various independent labels, and in the last five I started writing music for television, movies and commercials. Music gave me the opportunity to express myself, I travel around the world, I meet many wonderful people. It seems to me impossible that I live in this world for something else.

As for my label, it does not have any specific integrated development plan. Our goal is nothing less than the most appropriate reward of our musicians. This does not mean punishing them by applying sanctions to their fans; rather, it means turning the fruits of the “digital revolution” into our advantage.

TF: Tell us about your relationship with labels and the recording industry: why are you disappointed?

Benn: Fortunately, we always discussed contract terms in detail. As soon as things started to move forward with small labels, the labels tried to approach me bigger, but there were always some dubious reservations that kept me from signing anything.

And yet: with a fifty percent contract from the sale of two thousand albums, I somehow get $ 250. Many people who came to my concerts said that they buy my music on iTunes, and this despite the fact that I did not sign any agreements that allow iTunes to place my music on their servers, and I certainly never saw a penny from them. . So I began to study the statistics from the label, which led to a shocking discovery: the musician and the label receive very little compared to retailers. When I returned to iTunes, the owner of Sublight Records advised me to “leave it as it is.” Everyone whom I addressed seemed to make efforts to ensure that my calls and e-mails were ignored.

When I finally got to the digital distributor (I should note that the “digital distributor” is the most pathetic post I’ve met), I was told that if files once appeared in iTunes, they could not be deleted from there within a year. . So, either Apple has created a hellishly conscious machine that cannot be stopped, or everyone who has anything to do with it, enjoys a dust-free job — preying on musicians like me, and using a pack of Apple lawyers as a deterrent factor.

Even after a lawyer worked on my case, I was able to get only one answer from Apple. Here he is:

"Dear Benn,

I understand that you are writing to the iTunes Store because you are upset that you found your own album “The Flashlight” on iTunes, and that you feel you owe royalty for music that was purchased. I'm sorry it upset you. My name is Wendy and I will be happy to help you connect with competent people who could discuss this precedent with you. ”

So who is the real pirate here? The guy who downloads my album because it is not available in DRM-free format and in addition to this costs 30 bucks on Amazon? Or a giant multi-billion dollar corporation that sells my music for thousands of dollars and does not even recognize it?

I'm not just disappointed, I am outraged, and anyone who has spent money on music distributed in this way should also be outraged. This is how it turns out: we beg people not to steal music, and when they want to honestly buy it, we give them dog shit!

TF: You were a member of OiNK. Could you tell us about those times, and how you used this resource?

Benn: OiNK was an amazing community. As a passionate collector of old rare jazz, I can say with confidence that it was the most complete and versatile music library ever existed. I have satisfied several requests, the gulf on Oink something from the albums. Ultimately, I was alarmed by the fact that one of the users began to send screenshots of my hands to record companies. Based on complaints, the moderator made it impossible for me to communicate with anyone on this network, as well as to comment on the distribution. I can understand such paranoia and severity.

And I just dared to think about what happened and stopped using the resource. When Oink was covered, the only thing that was surprising was that their servers were not hidden in some fantastic country.

TF: Could you tell us about the support you receive from one of the “Oink substitutes” - What.cd?

Benn: The idea that musicians should be involved in the design of the distribution of their own creativity, has become a real find for What.cd. Not only does it benefit the musicians, so here's another thing: I can not imagine that any court would be able to sew a case on the distribution created by the copyright owner.

TF: In addition to distributing your own music, you occasionally took an anti-piracy position on Oink. What caused such a coup of convictions?

Benn: I don’t think that my attitude to this issue has changed a lot. It would be a good PR move to say that I am for piracy, but that would be a lie. I already see news headlines on the Internet: The Flashbulb supports piracy. It is absolutely uncontrollable. How can I support piracy if I distribute my own music with “buy if you liked” postscript?

What I really support is the freedom of a musician to choose what to do with his music, and, more importantly, the freedom of the listener to do whatever he wants with his own computer, mp3 player and Internet access.

After you have gone through the sheer lies of the recording industry, you learn one thing: if you want something to be done properly, do everything yourself. Do you download music to simply check it out, whether the purchase of the disc will follow or not - in any case, I want you to have a version of the album, which I myself listened to regarding its quality.

TF: You say that you do not support piracy, but you downloaded files from Oink and What.cd. It seems that one point of view comes into conflict with another. How do you explain this?

Benn: In my case, the list of files I downloaded would strengthen my position. In fact, most of the music I downloaded is albums that I already possess, albums that I previously listened to and I didn’t like them, or albums that I couldn’t find in a suitable DRM-free format. If we talk about software, then, for example, the TomTom DVDs that I downloaded cannot be used illegally, because in the United States you simply cannot buy the TomTom GPS Unit without software. The thing is that when the tracker is closed, companies consider such incidents as losses.

So, at the time of this interview, my new album was downloaded 6381 times, and this is only on what.cd. If you use this misleading formula, then my losses will be more than 100 thousand dollars. If I wanted to, I could deduct these losses from my profits and get rid of the need to pay taxes on income. Doesn't that make sense from a corporation position?

In addition, iTunes and similar services are unacceptable for me. No company should control a product that I legally own after I bought it.

Oink was the largest music library in the world. People used it not because they were criminals, but because it was without exaggeration better than any other service for which it was necessary to pay. It all happened because of the dull obstinacy of record labels, musicians and the government - they did not allow this music library to have a paid registration.

In the American Recording Industry Association (RIAA) they were afraid that they could not keep people from researching the music world on their own. Their business plan once evolved into something that imposes on people that they should and will want to listen and buy, but now they have to compete with talented musicians. Once people regain control of the market, music will be judged by its essence; music will evolve according to its natural evolution. This is a very interesting time for the music industry ... I hope that the situation with my new album will prove to other labels and musicians that giving people exactly what they want is the coolest way to carry out any activity.

TF: What do you think about the fact that people are punished for distributing music?

Benn: I do not in any way want anyone to be fined or imprisoned for listening to my music. Then there is one more thing: the organization of distribution of its own material leaves a small space of legality, in the opposite cases of the RIAA and the law of most states looks at it as a crime. If someone creates a distribution of my music, then it happens without my approval, but on the other hand, what is more important when the police invades the admin house, no one in me is interested in whether I support the accusation or not.

TF: How do people donate to a musician?

Benn: If you decide that you liked the album, you have the opportunity to reward the musician directly. If you would like to have a CD, you can order it directly through the label. By the way, my delivery department is managed by my mother, and she is extremely meticulous about this work.

Finally, everything related to the content and release of this album is done exactly as I wanted. I hope that the musicians will eventually understand how it liberates. This is definitely better compared to the distribution system we are all used to.

TF: At Radiohead, things went uphill after they put In Rainbows on the network and made it free for download. You have been participating in this experiment for several days - how is it for you?

Benn: It will take time for the rewards to be equal to the amounts from the pre-orders of the CD, but I hope for good luck. Somewhere in a week I will produce a statistical report. For some reason I like to draw pie charts.

TF: I listened to the album “Soundtrack To A Vacant Life”, and I really liked it. Could you tell about him?

Benn: Work on it took two years. Essentially, it was an attempt to write a soundtrack for your own life. Of course, this means that it is more cinematic and less electronic and all the tracks are linked chronologically. Those who have heard my previous albums can find it more melodic, soft and instrumental. I recommend to listen from beginning to end in decent headphones.

TF: Well, I'll follow your advice later. Thanks for the interview!

Download the album from Pirate Bay in compressed format
Download the album from Pirate Bay in the format without loss of quality

via stopcopyright.org
via torrentfreak.com