Everyone (who values music) hates the RIAA now, music is an art…not a business…why the Recording Industry Association of America wants to constantly shut music off from the public is beyond me…oh wait they have AMERICA in their title…that’s why.

….when Paul McGuinness said “how many retail stores in the world allow you to walk in and take their merchandise?” Yes, music is an art. Selling it is a business. Here’s a test: Walk into a gallery and try to take any of the paintings.

@I got turned around: But you can walk into an art gallery and discover and look at the paintings before you buy. Muxtape does (or did) the same thing — you can discover new music in a mix, and you have the option to purchase the song or songs from Amazon.

That alone should save Muxtape, no?

Good read, touchy subject, interesting points for both sides in the comments here too.

my. bum. firmly. on. the. fence.

…..yes. Listening to a sample of a song should allow you to do that. Muxtape is a grey area.

There is only one painting in your example. Copies of a recording are infinite and intangible. To extend your flawed analogy, top 40 radio must be the equivalent of a service that comes to your home or car and hand-delivers you hundreds of free original paintings.

The RIAA is a dinosaur. The strings they once held in their hand are slipping. Thank goodness.

The traditional promote and release a big album still works, but record companies need to diversify. There are so many more ways to make money ESPECIALLY through making things available to the customer via the internet with incredibly low costs. Bandwidth and storage are pennies per GB.

So I have no sympathy at all for the RIAA or for the “interests” of the musicians they are protecting. Just adapt! You can still make lots of money in the music business.

@Willis
Copyright laws exist to keep ruthless individuals or groups from seeking commercial gains from property which is not their own.

But what the RIAA is doing is using poorly written copyright laws to hunt down innocent people and take money from them and just ruin their lives with the excuse of copyright, nothing more.

No Willis, copies of recordings are the equivalent of pictures/copies of paintings. And what the RIAA is doing is hunting down anyone who looks at or acquires (FREE OF CHARGE) a picture of a painting, essentially trying to force everyone to PAY FOR a visit to the museum to see the painting, when you could see it on a book, picture, whatever. IT IS LUDICROUS!!

They are transforming our society into a DICTATORSHIP, using what is supposed to be the tools of our freedom as a weapon against our very liberties.

FIGHT THE RIAA!! OUR FREEDOM IS AT STAKE!!