CIAARI - What is it?

Well, CIAARI stands for Coalition of Independent Artists Against the Recording Industry. I started it today and got the official site up within a couple hours. It's got all the information you need there. If you'd like to join, click on the link titled 'Join The Coalition' and follow the simple instructions. Sure, this system may be 'ghetto', but I like to keep things simple if it's not my absolute main focus. I'll be adding new members that contact me whenever I check my email. I do this at least 3 times a day.

To sign up (if the site confuses you as it did me), give your name, or your band's name, or your organization's name. Then, if you have a website or more than one, give me all your web addresses and I'll add them to the members page and the links page.

Let's make this the world it's supposed to be.

I forgot to mention the link. It's ciaari.tk.

Also, as soon as I formulated my site and got it up, I had second thoughts about continuing on with it. Although it's easy to update (update news, member list, and link section), I have my other site coming again real soon. It requires a ton of maintenance, and I have to focus on it in order to get where I want in life.

I'll continue to run it until I find someone else to take over who is closer to the issues and whatever. I really want this thing to take off.

chris...good idea, just visited the site

Thanks. I know how to go about this whole thing, but I'll run it until someone else experienced offers to run it. I can't give the domain name or the account at web1000.com, but something can be done.

So if someone would like to run it, contact me and we'll talk about this. Just know that with this comes the responsibility of driving home the point that we need more airtime on TV and the radio, and whatever else. Not just sitting there updating the site. I could help out, but I can't run the site at the same time as my other when my other one confuses me as it is (tough to get organized).

"Join now and help us to expose the recording industry for what they are... greedy capitalists."

now hang on a sec.. i rather like capitalism, and "greed" is a word that usually conveys unspoken jealousy.

there's nothing wrong with wanting to earn some money, and there's nothing wrong with wanting more of it, either. heaven knows i'd like some more funds in my checking account. the problem is when you try to keep other people from doing the same thing, which isn't at all what capitalism is about.

sorry, but i can't go along with you on this ride. or i won't, rather.

That's fine. You're entitled to your opinion, and have the right to choose what you go along with. I respect that. This is how I feel, and I know for a fact that I am not alone. I do my part and am a huge help in the independent music scene, and I want to do more.

My opinion about capitalism is a very strong one. I am totally against it, in any form. I have thought about a lot of this, and that is why I have decide to go this route. The music that not everyone has the opportunity to hear is the best music, and it's time we did something about it.

Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. Under capitalism the state is separated from economics (production and trade), just like the state is separated from religion. Capitalism is the system of of laissez faire. It is the system of political freedom.

^This is not what America is about. It really does not have a place in society. Capitalism isn't just about more money. I'd like that too, but I'm not going to try to dominate some market and shut out everyone else.

I'm very poor and like it that way. I have absolutely no money to my name. I have many expensive products that I bought when I worked, but that's all. Living life one day at a time helps with the free thinking and artistic value of my work.

courtesy of dictionary.com :

cap·i·tal·ism -- An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.

if we apply this to music, then i think that by opposing capitalism in any form, you are in favour of the government owning the rights to all of our music (!!) as well as the means to distribute that music (!!). i can't imagine you'd seriously want that, so i'll assume there's some kind of mistake unless you say that _is_ what you'd like to see happen. please, clarify your position so we can understand the direction CIAARI would be going in.

"The music that not everyone has the opportunity to hear is the best music, and it's time we did something about it."

i agree with that part, absolutely.

please, read the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as well as the Declaration of Independence.. There's really quite a lot said in support of individual rights, including property rights. it is exactly what america is about, though we as a society seem to be forgetting it with each passing generation.

alas, i'd rather not be debating politics.. but to say america isn't about individual rights.. that irks me.

Capitalism which leads to total domination is completely wrong. I take back saying that I oppose it in any form.

I love debating politics, as you may notice if you read the boycott-riaa.com articles dealing with it.

Lastly, I started the coalition upon others' opinions on what has been happening for a very long time. It is not only me, so that's why I said that. Notice I did not say capitalists. I said greedy capitalists. That's worse than just the definition of capitalism. I believe I am not wrong at all with saying they are greedy capitalists as long as I put greedy there.

i can't argue that the RIAA isn't greedy, just that i wouldn't use that word as it usually (not always) indicates a feeling of jealousy. the phrase "greedy capitalist", however, clearly implies something distasteful about capitalism instead of about the near-monopoly conditions the RIAA has constructed.

i still disagree, but let me say that i have a great deal more respect for you since you've retracted the "any and all forms" remark.

also we might outnumber them(independents) but they do own 90% of the music sold in the United States. George gave a rough estimate of 7,200 artist that are under RIAA. Hell one minor act on RIAA or Major Labels sells more than this whole site alone. Like Depth Swah(sp?) hell that band sold 5,000 copies of its last album. I would give my left nut to sell that many albums, but considering how much airplay they were getting on the radio. They lost alot of money. Yeah we outnumber them sure but we do not sell as much as them for sure.

Individual music items, not how many total items they sell. They mean that they own 90% of the individual items made and distributed in many copies of that. Know what I mean? With how many independent artists there are, there are many more items (not total copies) than what they own.

well it mentions nothing of items and what the hell is items. It says on your site that the industry does not own 90% of the music sold in the United States. So reverse this sentence In the United States 90% of music sold is NOT RIAA, but Independents. This truely false. I dont see any indies selling billions of dollars of music a year. Like I said before we outnumber them but we do not outsell them yet.

and they won't be outsold until the playing field is even. I do think they are misleading the public with the 90% figure.

I don't like statistics. you can use statistics to prove both sides of an issue. Just because they own 90% of the music sold doesn't mean the own 90% of the music avaliable. that's what we have to get the public to see

exactly... also a factor is when an independent starts doing sucessfully like Godsmack was selling around 4 to 5 thousand copies a week before a label snatched them up.. so you hardly hear about indies being sucessful because they get snatched up by the majors.

But its the artist who signs....Cant agree they are "snatched" up. if no artist signs. there is no snatching. Compmore, you give a good point about statistics.

I'm a greedy capitalist too. It's why I work.

yes with more knowledge of how labels operate and with the internet the labels roster are slowly deteriating or they just snatch up some mouseketeers

Capitalism is one thing and monopolies are another thing. Modern economics recognizes the existance of market failures. Perfect competition may lead to a sub-optimal outcome. This is why we have anti-trust laws and regulations.
The music industry is definately an industry where we don't want perfect competiton to limit varaiety.

so ronnie..

if I can sell 5.000 copies of your CD...

The RIAA site says:

"RIAA members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States."

Some people have miscontrued this statement and think it means that the RIAA is saying that independent artists are not "legitimate". This is nonsense. If the RIAA was saying that independent artists are not legitimate then they would claim the RIAA distributes 100 percent of legitimate sound recordings. Legitimate means sound recordings that are not bootlegs or pirates. Legitimate does not refer to independent artists.

The statement simply means that for every 10 records legitimately produced and sold, 9 of them are from RIAA members.

"But its the artist who signs....Cant agree they are "snatched" up."

Exactly. As long as artists who sell records agree to sign with RIAA labels then there will continue to be an RIAA. There are a few artists who become popular and insist on staying independent - examples include Ani DiFranco (Righteous Babe) and Fugazi (Dischord), but these artists are few and far between.

The good news is that there are places like dmusic and CD Baby where an artist can sell 10,000 copies and still make a nice living, instead of selling a million for a major label and ending up broke.

man dude im glad you mention Ani. I love her music and aspire to play acoustic like her. It broke my heart that Righteous Babe is on the list of labels that support RIAA.

on the snatch thing. What i was trying to say is that when a band starts getting a local following then thats when the A&R people start showing up. Sometimes these people can be very persuasive.

mroop good news indeed. The more indies are successful it shows other bands that they dont need the contract to be successful, but i believe their will always be people who sign to majors because some dont money they wont fame. Being indie will hardly give you glitz and glamour.

Jennae if you sell five thousands albums for us. YOU can have both of my nutz

I didn't know Righteous Babe was affiliated with the RIAA. Oh well.

What would be the best for independents is to get rid of "independent promotion", also known as legalized payola. If indie artists could get on mainstream radio without paying hundreds of thousands of dollars then you would see some indies start to sell big.

I think I read on this site that a congressman was going to investigate independent promotion. If they would outlaw this practice it would be a boon to good music.

I think you're talking about Jonathen Adelstein, mroop, one of the five FCC commissioners. The article can be found here: http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/8834

Suikio

sorry mroop. you're wrong. talk to george. he gave me some figures that show just the opposite. The RIAA has a history of giving false and misleading information.

Suikiogiaz - that's it, thanks!

Compmore - What am I wrong about? I'm not vouching for the RIAA's 90% claim, although I suspect it is close to accurate. It gets a little old reading posters who claim the RIAA says indie artists are not "legitimate" because these posters obviously have a reading comprehension problem. If you are suggesting that the RIAA sells only 10% of units sold and indies sell 90% then that is just crazy. Take a look at the Billboard Top 100 and tell me how many indies you see on the list.

I've never said indies sell more than 10%. I said indies produce way way more than 10%. The reason it's not being sold is the monopoly the recording industry has on distribution but indie bands outnumber industry groups 10 to 1 from the data George has posted. Indie bands write, produce, record and perform their own music and if the outnumber 10 to 1 then it's safe to assume that avaliable RIAA music is only around 10% of all total avaliable music. I don't play words games with the RIAA. they are lawyers and know how to use words and language to mislead and present false assumptions without actually lying

Well if you look at it that way then I'm sure you're right. CD Baby alone has 50K artists. You are counting the number of individual releases, while the RIAA is counting units sold.

both of you are right..

also George said one time that 80 to 90% of new releases never sell over a thousand copies.

i e-mailed you about joining

captialism. communism. Market driven economy. Monopoly. Monopolist.These are all terms of the political economist, a rare breed. I like the idea undeath, and I like that you are hitting THIS site often enough to answer to what people are saying. My point is that it IS your opinion, and oddly enough, that's one of the problems with this whole riaa thing. Freedom. It's not about the money, I mean come on, if we all had enough, there'd be no reason to fight with the riaa. A large part of it is about the distribution of money, a very different animal.
As to the numbers? The riaa has spin doctors that can make any number look good. Just a few days ago, they said sales were up 30% or some such, but they were still losing money. They talk about how many records they had availale in 99,00 and 01, yet the lie was put to that when George did the research. I don't pretend to understand how they came across those numbers, and I really don't care. Be it 90% or 999%, there is STILL that 10% out there that's NOT giving in to the bullshit that's being hyped, and trying to carve themselves a bigger piece of the pie by bucking the status quo and standing up by(for) themselves.
Undeath, good luck with the site. I won't sign up as I don't have time what with school, work, and other activities. I come in here when I can (try daily, but that doesn't always work) and I'll continue to read what I feel is relevant. It's nice to know that while I"m out on the streets on the 1st of every month with my 1000 fliers, there are others doing something on a different level.
So..
Get educated. Boycott. Vote. Make a difference.
ttmmm

I've changed what you people have a gripe with. Also added members. I've also decided to keep running this as loing as I can. It's not too difficult to keep this and my other site going.

Also, signing up doesn't require that you do anything. It only shows that you support us. If you do something at the same time, so be it. But you don't have to.

for some reason, it didn't occur to me last night, but it seems so obvious now..

without capitalism, you _can't_ be an independent artist.

How's that? Is it not completely possible to have free concerts in fields and other places that are made free for people? I mean, what have I been doing? What have some of the bands I know been doing?

Unless you mean without the industry we can't be "independent". I can argue with that, too. Independent means free of restraints and whatnot. You can be free of restraints without there being an industry basically controlling a lot of music.

And not depending on others to make our music for us, set up concerts for us, or doing ANYTHING for us.