Five years ago, the RIAA began what’s been seen as one of the major 21st-century witchhunts.  That being, of course, their rash of personal lawsuits against individuals involved in peer-to-peer music sharing. Wired.com has an interesting look at the arguably infamous monumental crusade, and exactly where it stands right now. Wired argues that despite the power and influence that the organization has and uses to essentially extort settlement fees out of people who would rather avoid legal fees and court, the campaign itself is an utter an expensive failure.

Is it? Consider the continued existence of peer-to-peer music sharing despite the lawsuits, only one of which, against Jammie Thomas of Minnesota, has been successful. And even then a retrial is in consideration, so you have to wonder just how long the RIAA are going to consider keeping this up before either a radical new model for music sharing and distribution comes up, or end up suing everyone in America.

A recent article on Wired.com talked about how the growing popularity of games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have drastically altered some views in the music industry in terms of looking for big moneymakers.  The popularity of both these games and their ability to draw younger listeners and consumers towards older acts has peaked interests in music executives trying to get their bands on games like this, anticipating big payoffs in return.

So now you know kids. Every time you buy Rock Band you’re lining the pockets of major music corporations and are no longer allowed to like Leftover Crack.

Last.fm has announced they will begin to pay bands/artists that are on their site percentages of the revenue they earn from the advertising. They will start doing this on Wednesday, July 16th. It’s a groundbreaking announcement, essentially taking the model that Myspace has made popular, utilizing a social networking site as a homebase/website for a band, and taking it to the next level by paying the artist.

Last.fm is a music-oriented social networking site based out of the U.K. They are best known for being able to interact with your computer’s music library and compose databases of your playlists and favorite artists for you to display in a widget format.

Wired.com has an interesting story listing some of the most elaborate and infamous attempts by the major labels at preventing music piracy over the years.  Some of the tactics are quite inventive but ultimately pretty laughable.  If I had to do some of that shit for a CD to review, I’d probably pirate it just out of spite.  Although, I feel bad that some poor intern probably had to sit there and superglue a dozen or more Discmans closed after putting a copy in and then ship them out.  

Gawker had an interesting article up the other day regarding singer-songwriter Greg Laswell. He identifies himself as an “indie artist” even though he uses a variety of major corporations to get his music out to the masses. After all is said and done, can he really call himself “indie?”

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