Disturbed lead singer David Draiman thinks the music industry should figure out how to distribute music on the Internet, instead of suing people who download songs.

"This is not rocket science - instead of spending all this money litigating against kids who are the people they're trying to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn how to effectively use the Internet," Yahoo quotes him as telling the San Francisco Chronicle.

Draiman also says the actions taken by the RIAA protect corporate profits, not artists: "For the artists, my ass ... I didn't ask them to protect me, and I don't want their protection."

(Thanks for the pointer, directive : )

1st post!

Kepp speaking out David. The more of us who let them know the better.

I submitted this for the SOLE REASON that this is EXACTLY HOW I FEEL, the MUSIC INDUSTRY IS NOT USING ITS LAST RESORT BY SUEING PPL!

Great pointer directive!
It's like I said in my letter to TechTV this morning. The RIAA knows that the future distribution channel for music is online. And, artists should know they can sell their own product online, generate "Buzz" (interest) online, make sample album cuts (at lower bitartrate, and maybe just half the song) available for fans to see if they like before buying.

But the RIAA doesn't want that. They want, on behalf of the client labels, to keep a steel vise grip on artists and to be able to have their copyrights to songs, and not let the artists keep them.

They are trying to get rid of all the other P2P networks, so that when the big 5 put their distribution network online, it will be the only game in town.
~code

Thank God someone whos an artist has the courage to start the criticizing. I was waiting for this. I am going to go out and buy both Disturbeds CDs after work as a way of thanks.

code,
"They are trying to get rid of all the other P2P networks, so that when the big 5 put their distribution network online, it will be the only game in town."

Good point, and i know you know this WILL NEVER HAPPEN.

gee what a brilliant idea....why wont the RIAA latch on to it??

It's great to hear the artists telling the truth behind what is happening here. The artists aren't being helped here. It's the self-serving suits fattening their already full pockets from these sales. They are the ones who are angry at a loss of supposed sales, when we all know that 90% or more of music downloaded is music that the downloader wouldn't purchase anyway.

The truth shall set you free...

-V.

Hopefully this will be like the classroom effect-- the teacher asks a question and no one raises their hand. Eventually one student does, and slowly others follow. In this case the artists have sat back meekly while the RIAA voraciously attacked the artists customers. Now that Drainman has spoken out, many should follow.

Suikio

Besides, if they did, the government will nail their asses for monopolization and split them like they did with Microsoft (which was partially a good thing.) At best, if the P2Ps go away, it will simply turn into an oligopoly again.

However, as you said, P2P will not go away because it is cheap to maintain and distribute. (In fact it doesn't cost anything. Maybe a small monthly fee for some programs which is good too.) In this case, the music industry (and ptractically every other entertainment industry) will have to restructure to accompany the cheap cost alternatives available to the public or will face certain bankruptcy because of their failure to accommodate to their customers' changing culture because of the loss of sales to other entertainment sources.

mrjake, don't buy the cds, it's as he said, they don't get any money from the sale of cds, the RIAA gets most of it. If you buy the cds, you'll be helping the enemy. Instead, buy something straight from Disturb or tickets to their shows, that's where they get their money.

Like I said before, I'm still waiting to see how much money the RIAA is giving the artists from these lawsuits.

The Full article contains quotes not only from Draiman but others as well:

"Lawsuits on 12-year-old kids for downloading music, duping a mother into paying a $2,000 settlement for her kid?" said rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy. "Those scare tactics are pure Gestapo."

"File sharing is a reality, and it would seem that the labels would do well to learn how to incorporate it into their business models somehow," said genre- busting DJ Moby in a post on his Web site. "Record companies suing 12-year-old girls for file sharing is kind of like horse-and-buggy operators suing Henry Ford."

"Who doesn't want to get paid for their work?" said Wayne Coyne of the indie-rock band Flaming Lips. "But I think it works to musicians' benefit for people to be able to occasionally listen to their music and, if they really like it, go out and buy it."

"I don't know that there's any one factor behind the industry," said Coyne. "Maybe it's downloading, or maybe people just didn't feel like buying so many records. So Metallica makes $10 million instead of $20 million, who cares? To me, the sympathy is unwarranted. Some of this is just the hazard of doing business. It's the nature of the world. At the end of the day, it's just rock and roll. It isn't that big of a deal."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/09/11/MN12066.DTL

Cyne

this is too awesome, my favorite band and lead singer is stepping up and raising a fist at those jerkoffs. About time!!!

OK, this is a start, but I'm still not buying the CDs. All that does is help the RIAA. I can wait.

More artists better start picking sides, or there will be hell to pay. I've been saying all along the silent artists are just as bad as the ones denouncing p2p users.

Pretty soon, these guys will start to get the message that we actually DO have the power to make or break them, but it's going to take more than a tiny olive twig by one artist to sway me.

If Draiman is a trial balloon, I better see the sky filled with them pretty soon, it's still no deal.

I want the RIAA gone, and the boycott is the only weapon I have that is proving to have an effect.

Turn it up, guys, make them sweat bullets. They're starting to crack, and Christmas is gonna suck for the RIAA and friends.

see www.slyck.com they have an article about austrailia and that they are taking a whole different approach to the internet music downloading. they are not after suing the music file sharers the way the gestapo riaa is.the riaa is in the stone ages and need to get with it. trying to monopolize the p2p nets is not going to work neither. they nedd to sit down with the p2p nets and call a truce of some sort and meet half way with them, instead of fighting with 60,000,000 and their very own artists, who are not too happy with their actions. just from one lawsuit it has turned into a media catastrophe for them with each passing day. biting the hand that feeds you do that.innovation is the american way of life and as trends change you need to adapt to that change and conform. riaa need to realize that this is a new millenium and they need grow with it.

the title is riaa backlash contiues

I don't really listen to Disturbed all that much and I don't listen to Public Enemy at all, but I have to respect any musician/band who speaks out against the RIAA's thuggery.

I agree with AverageConsumer: musicians speaking out is great, but they need to take action. It would send a great message if breakaway bands could enjoy success without whoring themselves out. To David Draiman and the others: Join us!

I've been saying this since the RIAA shut down Napster.

NOW they are realising it.

i think that if more artists like david stepped up they could put an end to this pretty fast, i doubt any artists even see this forum so theres no point is telling them to speak up or congratulating david

Tomorrow's headline: Rock band Disturbed seeking label & distributor. LOL. But I give this guy all the support in the world for standing up to these greedy scumbags!!!

Yeah, I wasnt thinking, Im going to download all of disturbeds songs instead, and then send them a $10 check! Ha!

I don't even know who this band is, but it's nice to finally hear an artist talking back to the RIAA. About time too. Although he is in a sense biting the hand that (barely) feeds him.

*puts on some disturbed*

Rock on.

mrjake -- Don't buy the CD. If you want to support David Draiman or Disturbed, go to www.musiclink.com and give them a few bucks with the knowledge that David actually get it instead of his record label.

The record industry has always been slow to trend. Its hysterical that in magz like Billboard they come off as the trendsetters when reality they pick up on underground trends and try to mass produce them which never worked (think back to alt-rock in the 90's)

The music companies are dealing with piracy in which software companies have dealt with 15 years ago! How did they survive? They scrapped being hard-core with keys and dongles and produced quality software for the niche market users who are only happy to spend their $ and support for. Microsoft being the xception of course..their revenue are mostly from corporate customers.

If the music companies understood how to find a profit in niche markets instead of cramming shit into people's faces..they might have had a better survival rate. Its too late now

Oh my god..
2 posts from me and not a swear in any of em. Im getting soft

~

Josh - you mean he's biting the hand that dangles the carrot in front of him!!! 5 more albums and they can pay that advance off!!!!

I was having trouble connecting to the link from some of the above posts so I decided to post the entire article. I apologize if it's redundant but I think input from the artists themselves is vital to undercutting the RIAA's arguements. As stated in the article, the music biz is stuffed with too many middlemen who add little value to the final product. When artists such as these speak out it will become increasingly difficult for the RIAA to justify its existence, let alone its absurd litigous campaign. I view this type of artist input as fodder for our cause and I hope it inspires more of us 'little guys' to get involved. Overcome your apathy folks and you might be surprised what we can accomplish. After all, we did manage to kick the British out for excessive taxation. Remember? Write your government representatives and express your rage on paper. Oh and finally, Lars....you suck. Seriously dude...you suck. And now the article...

Artists blast record companies over lawsuits against downloaders

Joel Selvin, Neva Chonin, Chronicle Pop Music Critics Thursday, September 11, 2003

Recording artists across the board think the music industry should find a way to work with the Internet instead of suing people who have downloaded music.

"They're protecting an archaic industry," said the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir.

"They should turn their attention to new models."

"This is not rocket science," said David Draiman of Disturbed, a hard-rock band with a platinum debut album on the charts. "Instead of spending all this money litigating against kids who are the people they're trying to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn how to effectively use the Internet."

After three consecutive years of double-digit sales losses, and having lost a court battle against file-sharing Web sites such as Kazaa and Morpheus, the Recording Industry Association of America -- the industry's lobbying arm -- trained its sights on ordinary fans who have downloaded music. On Monday, the RIAA filed suits against 261 civilians with more than 1,000 music files each on their computers, accusing them of copyright violations. The industry hopes the suits, which seek as much as $150,000 per violation, will deter computer users from engaging in what the record industry considers illegal file- swapping.

This unprecedented move brings home the industry's battle against Web downloads, which the record business blames for billion-dollar losses since the 1999 emergence of Napster, the South Bay startup the RIAA sued out of existence. The suits are expected to settle for as little as $3,000 each, but the news was greeted with derision by the very people the RIAA said they moved to protect, the musicians themselves.

"Lawsuits on 12-year-old kids for downloading music, duping a mother into paying a $2,000 settlement for her kid?" said rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy. "Those scare tactics are pure Gestapo."

"File sharing is a reality, and it would seem that the labels would do well to learn how to incorporate it into their business models somehow," said genre- busting DJ Moby in a post on his Web site. "Record companies suing 12-year-old girls for file sharing is kind of like horse-and-buggy operators suing Henry Ford."

Artists are feeling the downturn in sales, too. "My record royalties have dropped 80 percent since 1999," said Steve Miller, whose greatest hits album has been a perennial best-seller since its 1978 release. "To me, it's one of the weirdest things that's ever happened to me because people act like it's OK. "

Recording artists have watched their record royalties erode over the past few years ("My Van Halen royalties are history," said vocalist Sammy Hagar), but, in fact, few musicians earn the bulk of their income from record sales.

"Bruce Springsteen probably earned more in 10 nights at Meadowlands last month than in his entire recording career," said rocker Huey Lewis.

Many artists painted the record industry as a bloated, overstuffed giant with too many mouths to feed and too many middlemen to pay, selling an overpriced, often mediocre product.

"They have all these abnormal practices that keep driving the price up," said Gregg Rollie, founding member of Santana and Journey. "People think musicians make all that money, but it's not true. We make the smallest amount."

The RIAA did not initiate these lawsuits to defend artists' rights, the musicians say, but to protect corporate profits.

"For the artists, my ass," said Draiman. "I didn't ask them to protect me, and I don't want their protection."

Artists also see the opportunities for promotion the Internet offers. Most acts maintain Web sites, and virtually every one features some free downloads. Country Joe McDonald said he posts more than 50 tracks available for free downloads on his site, countryjoe.com.

"Who doesn't want to get paid for their work?" said Wayne Coyne of the indie-rock band Flaming Lips. "But I think it works to musicians' benefit for people to be able to occasionally listen to their music and, if they really like it, go out and buy it."

Many of the musicians pointed to the iTunes Store recently opened by Apple Computers that sells individual songs for 99 cents apiece to downloaders. As diverse a cross-section as Disturbed's Draiman, the Dead's Weir, Moby and the Flaming Lips' Coyne all endorsed the officially licensed site -- run, significantly, by a computer company, not a record label.

"Apple has the right idea with the I-store," said Disturbed's Draiman. "You'd think these conglomerates like AOL Time Warner would have easy ways of doing the same thing, with these mergers between record labels and Internet service providers."

Many other factors along with the Internet are having an impact on the industry's financial slump: the poor economy in general, computer CD burners, the high retail price, and mundane, uninteresting music.

"I don't know that there's any one factor behind the industry," said Coyne. "Maybe it's downloading, or maybe people just didn't feel like buying so many records. So Metallica makes $10 million instead of $20 million, who cares? To me, the sympathy is unwarranted. Some of this is just the hazard of doing business. It's the nature of the world. At the end of the day, it's just rock and roll. It isn't that big of a deal."

All agree that the Internet is here to stay and that downloading files will be an increasingly important delivery system for music, regardless of the music industry's lawsuits. "The focus of the industry needs to shift from Soundscan numbers to downloads," said Draiman. "It's the way of the future. You can smell it coming. Stop fighting it, because you can't."

E-mail the writers at jselvin@sfchronicle.com and nchonin@sfchronicle.com.

Maybe you should turn that into an article, bud?

"If you don't stand up for what you believe in, then you're bending over"

This applies to artists who just sit there and don't speak up as well as us, if we just say stuff and don't take action by flyers and public education and spreading the word.

To make this effective, we are going to have to make our position known. Take 10 miniutes, and write a letter to your Congressman, be civil, but DEMAND that Congress investigate the actions of the RIAA.

http://www.house.gov/

Also go to Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property,

http://www.house.gov/judiciary/submembers.htm

Take the time to write a letter to each member, and request that the subcommittee investigste, and hold hearings into the actions of the RIAA.

As for artists, e mail the big groups who are associated with the RIAA, tell them you can no longer support them as long as they are associated with an orginization that gets perverse enjoyment out of terrorizing children and senior citizens.
Let the artists put pressure on the RIAA from their end. If we don't let up, the RIAA artists will have to make some decision, I'm sure they will realize that being associated with the RIAA and their harassment tactics will not do their careers any good.

We have the momentem now, people are now starting to look at the whole story. It's time to put pressure on the industry, and make the government do the job we elected them to do.

Dave

Love it! Especially the part about not asking for the RIAA's protection, and implying that that's not what they're even really about!

you guys recognize a pattern. They got and control people's money. They want to find a way to get more and that's what they worship. Congress got enough problems spending 87 billion on the war. They just like Enron they bout to go out of business baby!

In regards to an article post by cyne and one by mrjake.

The problem I see with what D-Rainman (Draiman) and Moby said (i didn't read the rest) is that they really are not blasting the industry, they are in fact still supporting it.

What they have been quoted as saying is essentially like you telling your friend you didn't like what they did, but they are still your friend.

What needs to happen is the RiAA needs to be banned from expanding into the internet. The RiAA needs to back off from its massive monopolization of music in America and beyond.

We need to have musicians leave the current recording industry. We need listeners, not music consumers, but listeners in mobs to take every "illegal" music transaction possible. We need to make that which is illegal, legal.

We are bigger than the music corporations, we are just scared. We need to start making our own music, even music about the corporations and how they suck.

Fight the Fight, Fight the Fight, Fight the Fight.

:Brought to you by the URA of Olympia, WA, Earth

Well, regardless of what Draiman and Moby siad. The fact that they said it was wrong at all means that we get more exposure for our cause right?

True, True, atleast it is a step in the right direction.

I have read comments that the RIAA should start their own Internet Download Site for music, and a lot of people have asked why the RIAA hasn't done so yet! This thought just occured to me: Maybe that is exactly what the RIAA is planning on doing, and these lawsuits are their way of making US pay for them to build it....and then make us pay for the songs, too!!! Just a thought.

whoa one of my favorite bands speak out against the maggots. i agree what he says. and what Coyne said. the RIAA needs to realize is that big industries will have big growing pains and you'll only make the problem worse if you do something horrendous. you need to ignore these pains and focus more on the industry's future. cuz right now RIAA is only making this problem worse. RIAA didnt have a clue that yes, consumers arent weak. WE WILL LASH BACK AT YOU FOR YOUR INHUMANE MONOPOLY.

and i had an idea. how about it if the big 5 made websites where you could PREVIEW a CD via streaming. then if you like you go out and buy it. but nooo these morons had to take the hard way and blame thier troubles on us.

RIAA: go to hell with Enron

Wait to go David. I have heard Disturbed's songs and they are pretty awesome. Too bad more musicians dont speak out like that.

I see the question asked here again about how much money the artist's are getting from the suits , not a dime its all going to more enforcment ( except what they can skim off the top ).

This does hurt thoough, i feel bad for downloading disturbed now. Guess its time to order a T-shirt, something they might actually get money from.

How about a working link to that article, not just a quote?

Here's a THOUGHT!!! WE ALL know the 5 big label's under report sales to artists so they can screw them out of their FAIR share of monies the RIAA under reports the amount of radio play for the same reason " up to 40 to 60%" OFF. BUT ONLINE SALES that are recored by computers of third party's they can't get around that one.THIS maybe WHY they don't fancy the IDEA of doing this!!!!!!!! TELL ME FOLKS why are the 5 big ones whinning about how BAD things are in MuSACK land when the big 5 posted a 1.9 BILLON yes thats BILLON with a B profit last year??????? GEE maybe we should take up a collection for the prez of Captiol Records so he can pay the house payment on his MILLON dollar HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excellent points, directive and codewarrior. Of course the RIAA wants to be the only game in town. That's how they are. We've already seen how they act: fixing prices and the like. They're just a giant monopoly. We need to do our part by keeping independent P2P free from RIAA control and alive.

DOWN with the RIAA!

:-:~ PhantomGhost ~:-:

>>Artists are feeling the downturn in sales, too. "My record royalties have dropped 80 percent since 1999," said Steve Miller, whose greatest hits album has been a perennial best-seller since its 1978 release. "To me, it's one of the weirdest things that's ever happened to me because people act like it's OK. "

once the musicians figure they can make more money without the RIAA the better off the artist, and we the consumer will benifit.

WHY don't the big 5 labels show the music fans of the world the contract's for some of their artists??????? I guess they would die of embarassment!!!!!!!!!

WHAT did you have to give him JR "A bottle of wine 5 bucks and a Hooker" CHEECH of CHEECH and CHONG replying to a question of what it took to sign BLIND MELLON CHLIN to a record deal ha ha ha !~~~~~~

Good to see some big name artists backing us up. About damn time. Loves what Chuck D had to say too.

"File sharing is a reality, and it would seem that the labels would do well to learn how to incorporate it into their business models somehow," said genre- busting Moby in a post on his Web site. "Record companies suing 12-year-old girls for file sharing is kind of like horse-and-buggy operators suing Henry Ford."
I hate Moby to death, but good for him.

"If we make shitty music the fans won't buy it. If Limp Bizkit were to release crappy music I would want the fans to not only kick my ass, but I would want them to download all of it for free." (Looks like Fred hates em too I guess)

"So Britney Spears wont be able to spend her week at a suite in The Galapogas islands for 5 million dollars. These artists are overpaid for the little of talent they offer and the fact that the RIAA is suing minors is a sign of evil in these corporations, stated Rob Zombie during a promotion for his movie "House of 1000 Corpses" that recently was released on DVD

Hey Viral, let's just say I can't stand Moby's music. Don't know the guy (he is a media whore though). Someone stated above that these artists need to break away from the RIAA affilated labels. Often, that's impossible. These contracts are next to impossible for the artist to break, full of loopholes for the record company to back out or break if your sales stink. So if you are an artist that consistently sells a large chunk of product, you are not walking away from your contract without one hell of a lawsuit (notice how anytime the RIAA companies get mentioned , lawsuit gets mentioned?). So don't expect these people just to jump ship even if they want to. Sometimes a first born male child is at stake in these contracts(sarcastic, yes but far from the truth?). It's not as easy as walking into your record company and saying--you guys suck, I quit.

Meant to say, I can't stand Moby's music either!

And whos fault is it for a bunch of dumb shit artists to sign these contracts in the first place? MINE? HAHAHAHAHA....
I dont give a fuck whether michael jackson gets scraped off the tarmac at JFK, or EMINEM gets peeled off the upholstry of his ghetoo-mobile after a nice drive bye shooting (GOD I HOPE THAT HAPPENS SOON), or even if my favorite band SLAYER ends up dead in a firey bus crash. I work for a fucking living, and im smart enough to look a gift horse in the fucking mouth before i decide what to do about it. There are no free rides, there are no mega millions, unless there is a catch. The artists find that out later on by being naive morons, and i for one, do not feel sorry for them one bit.

Yay, 1337.

Another thing those corporate dummies don't understand is how much more efficient downloading music is, instead of distributing millions of compact discs, and tapes. Try and figure out how much cheaper it would be for the artist if they could sell all of there albums online rather then paying some distributer tons of money to press a million CD's, because a audio dosen't have to be reproduced to sell millions of them. Its obvious why the RIAA dinosuars don't want this being there job is distribution, if you take out the cost of distribution artists keep a larger amount of the profits, and the riaa gets jack shit, because they have been effectivly removed from the loop. So its obvious that there claims of protecting artists is complete Bullshit. They never have cared about the music or the artist. The only thing those money whores care about is profit. They have been ruining music for a long time, and its about time we tell them to FUCK OFF!!

p.s Punk Will Never Die!!