[MLUG - DISCUSSION] rant: deaths of industries -- good for Everyman

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I am pretty sick of all the complaining from the multi-billion dollar 
industries that control which songs and films we are exposed to.  The fact 
is that the centralization of power in these industries is harmful to us 
all and it must come to an end.

Industry moguls will continue to try to manipulate our feelings by 
claiming that loosening their grip on power will be hurting all the 
"little people" who work behind the scenes to make films and CDs.  I don't 
think so.  The little people can continue to work just as they always 
have, but they will not be working for giant corporations.  Musicians will 
still record music and filmmakers will still make films.

Major recording studios seek out naive young people who will sign multi-CD 
contracts and lose massively to the corporation.  If we were to look at 
all the CDs being made in America today we'd probably find that about 1% 
are made by major companies because small-time artists are making their 
own CDs these days.  But the little guys are being drowned out by the 
giants.  Are our nationally-unknown local artists really not as good as 
the people we see on the Grammy awards show every year?  Well, they aren't 
as good on average, but you can someone in nearly any city of 100,000 or 
so who is a better musician than at least *some* performer you'll see on 
the Grammy show, but they are unknown and will stay that way.

The film industry is like that too.  To the industry, an actor is a 
product to be promoted.  They manage to convince most of us that these 
"stars" are something superhuman, but I think that for every successful 
Hollywood actor there are 1,000 people who could perform just as well 
after a little training.  Hollywood also dumps billions into marketing and 
advertising of films.  They need to convince us that they have a good 
product (film or actor) because we would'nt see it on our own.  Many of 
their high-priced films (is it really worth $20 just to watch a movie with 
a date?) are total rubbish, but they have the same ticket prices as the 
good films.  On the other hand, hundreds of films are produced every year 
that are excellent but we'll never see them because they don't have the 
massive funding required for their promotion.  Is this OK?  I don't think 
so.

Both the film and music industries are destructive to their respective art 
forms.  As film writer/director Garson Kanin once said,

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0437717/bio

    "So it can be seen that the trouble with the motion-picture art was
    (and is) that it is too much an industry; and the trouble with the
    motion picture industry is that it is too much an art. It is out of
    this basic contradiction that most of the ills of the form arise."

The music and film industries does not encourage music/film as art forms 
unless it helps sales.  The decentralization of the industry is now 
possible and it will be better for artists.

Digital technology and the internet allow music and films to be 
distributed widely inexpensively.  We once needed industries to handle the 
distribution problem, but that has now been solved.  In the old days, a 
recording artist had to go to a studio, be recorded by their engineer, 
have the tapes made into metal plates for pressing vinyl albums which then 
had to be packaged and distributed to retailers.  Now, a recording artist 
can set up his own home studio, make is own digital recordings, produce 
his own CDs or MP3 files and distribute them himself on the internet. 
Choosing between fame and fortune, I'd choose fortune every time. 
Recording artists today can make more money with their own labels and 
avoid an industry which would sell more of their recordings but give them 
less income.

The film and recording industries are much less useful now than they once 
were.  They need to find a new way to convince me that they are 
worthwhile.  I rarely go to theaters anymore but I watch more movies than 
ever.  I rarely buy CDs anymore and I listen to just as much music as I 
used to.  Even if we get rid of every movie star and every huge rock star, 
and every Hollywood movie studio and every big music promoter goes out of 
business, there will be lots of great music and films left for me to 
listen to and watch.  I don't want the big shots telling me what is good 
and I don't want them controlling who succeeds as an actor or musician. 
Instead of a small number of giant stars we should have a much larger 
number of people who make a decent living but don't become rich.

Mike
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