It is with great disappointment that I
recently discovered that Century Media Records has taken the step of pursuing litigation against individuals who have “distributed” releases by Iced Earth and Lacuna Coil via BitTorrent. By “distributed”,
I largely mean “pointed and clicked on a hyperlink” so that they could listen
to an advance, early digital copy of the music contained on the aforemention
artists most recent albums.
I’m not a lawyer (maybe someday, heh),
and I’m not an expert on intellectual property laws or patents, but I do know
enough about where technology is to know that downloading is here to stay,
whether anyone likes it or not. I for
one have embraced it as a way to sample new works by artists that I may not
otherwise ever get to hear. I don’t
consider it a replacement over physical media; I would much prefer to hear the
most recent Insomnium album (one of CM’s current artists) though the CD player
of my car stereo over the washy-sounding 96bit mp3 download I have on my Zune
of the same album. In fact, the most
recent Insomnium album is but one of 139
Century Media albums that I (inexactly)
counted on my shelves. Physical CDs, not
mp3s on a hard drive. Artists ranging
from Arch Enemy and Arcturus to Venemous Concept and Vallenfyre. That’s not to even consider albums that I
bought under their affiliated imprints such as Nuclear Blast or Olympic
Recordings. If we estimate that on
average I paid $12 dollars for each of those Century Media imprinted
recordings, I’ve handed the label approximately $1668 dollars out of my own
pocket over the years just for physical CDs.
Again, that doesn’t include CMR’s affiliated label releases (which may
possibly even exceed my CM albums), or even merch and distro items that I
bought via CMR’s website. That’s a lot
of money from just one fan; now consider how many old fucks like me there are
out there who have spent large sums of money over the years supporting the
label.
Now if one of those old fans, who was
buying the albums and going to the tours since “Something Wicked This Way Comes”,
is suddenly sued for being curious about the most recent Iced Earth album, do
you really believe this promotes good will for your label? Century Media is NOT Roadrunner, with signed
artists like Nickelback and Slipknot and financial support of conglomerates such
as Warner Music to keep them afloat if a small, vocal, and passionate sub-sect
of fans swears off buying Roadrunner albums.
In fact, Century Media, much like Relapse, Metalblade, Earache, Willowtip,
Unique Leader, and other smaller metal oriented labels, DEPENDS on good will
and fan support. As a fan, there’s an
expectation that when an artist emerges from the obscure depths of the metal
scene to be signed to Century Media (or Relapse, etc), that this reasonably
suggests that the band is of a certain expected quality. That the recording is going to sound
professional and not like a Darkthrone practice space recording.
I understand that there’s a business
side of operating a music label, and paying for those professional sounding
recordings isn’t cheap (though it is becoming increasingly more affordable…)
and whoever owns the intellectual property rights to the albums Century Media
releases should have a voice regarding how that intellectual property (albums
in this case) are distributed. However,
I see, and would hope that the record label comes to their senses and
understand that suing fans over downloaded material will result in a pyrrhic
victory; sure fans will settle for a few thousand dollars rather than go to
trial, and Century Media, after legal fees, will temporarily refill their
modest coffers. But the long term damage
will be done; artists who disagree with your business practices will not resign
or extend their contracts, especially if there’s fan pressure against it. Fans themselves in this small metal
subculture will increasingly avoid buying albums or supporting artists on
Century Media. Century Media may be
looking at the case of Metallica, and assume that since it didn’t hurt Metallica’s
career long term to sue Napster, that metal fans will just look the other way,
or complain a lot while still buying their favorite band’s next album that
happens to be released by CMR. That is
not the case here. Lacuna Coil and
Shadow’s Fall may have sold some albums, but even including that if you add up
all of the album sales for every album ever released on a Century Media
imprint, it still wouldn’t come close to what Metallica has done for one album
(okay, maybe “Lulu”.) Metallica is a
dinosaur from a bygone era; Century Media caters to a smaller, more dedicated,
but also more demanding audience.
In short, operating a label in this era
is tough, and I’m not sure what steps Century Media or other independent labels
should take to remain viable, but suing fans isn’t it. Engaging the fans, satisfy them by releasing
good albums by quality artists, offering extras when fans buy physical CDs (“making
of” DVDs work well!) and fans like myself will keep spending $12 bucks at a
time to support Century Media artists.
Then again, I don’t give a fuck about Iced Earth or Lacuna Coil so if
you wanna sue downloaders of those bands, it doesn’t mean shit to me. But you won’t have to worry about me
downloading, paying for, other otherwise supporting the rest of the Century
Media roster, either.
