If you want to keep buying music without supporting the RIAA (now most famous for suing 12 year olds) it’s worth checking out RIAA Radar, which provides some lists of which albums are not released by members of the RIAA. For a good sample of what’s available, here’s their list of the top 100 non-RIAA albums on Amazon. There’s some good stuff on there, including recent albums by Múm, the New Pornographers (my favourite album of the year to date), Warren Zevon, Super Furry Animals, Neutral Milk Hotel, the Shins, the Waifs and many more.
Thanks to Virulent Memes for the link.
These are excellent and important resources, thanks for posting!
Interesting set of artists. You have some of my indie favorites (including Interpol, the New Pornographers, and Frank Black) sitting alongside some washed-up relics (Michael Bolton and Kenny Loggins; where is John Tesh?).
Brayden,
“Washed-up” implies that something was once good. “Relics” also has the wrong connotations.
“No talent ass-clown,” remember.
Also, as another way to find music without supporting the RIAA, if you search for any album, there is a link under every result called “Find similar albums that are non_RIAA”, which (surprisingly) will give you the 10 most similar albums that are not under the control of the RIAA.
I actually strongly disagree with the RIAA boycott mentality. Here’s why:
Boycotting the RIAA completely only gives them more ammunition to lobby the governments and create more restrictive laws. As well, it reinforces in the mind of the average person that P2P is killing them. If sales actually increased, like they did in the first few Napster years, then the RIAA would have way less ammunition. They would be, in fact, neutered.
What do I say? Get what you like. In fact, if it is RIAA supported, all the better. Let’s INCREASE their sales. Let them explain that in the day and age of P2P. Let them realize that P2P isn’t a replacement for music purchasing. It’s a replacement for the radio for crying out loud. Radio sucks. That’s where the problem is, and that’s why people use P2P. At least most people I know.
Actually, the best thing you can do is support boot-friendly RIAA bands. As well, go to many live concerts, as that is where they do make their money.
What this will do, is take the ball out of the RIAAs court once and for all. Their beligerent actions will only look very silly in the face of increasing sales.
They’re super! They’re furry! They’re AN-I-MALS!
IN my essay sharethemusicday , I explain why the overwhelming majority of mp3’s out there are available for free. Legally! No kidding! Vivendi’s mp3.com charges musicians money to share their files for free. It’s crazy.
I argue for a voluntary compensation model, which admittedly might appear to some as idealistic. But it reduces transaction costs related to shipping a physical product. In a world where the majority of music is available for free, and where barriers to copyright infringement are minimal, a voluntary compensation model offers in my opinion the best hope of compensating artists. As technical publisher Tim Oreilley pointed out, obscurity is the bigger threat to writers (and by extension, artists), than piracy.
So a whole bunch of obscure bands aren’t on RIAA?
Wow.
So, an ignorant sheltered youth who gets all their music from MTV hasn’t heard of any bands that aren’t in the RIAA.
Wow.
Helping someone realize (and only hopefully realize) their flaws by increasing their sales? How backwards is that? I’m going to start directly giving the bully at school my kid’s lunch money, so he will realize what he is doing is wrong and isn’t going to work.
Don’t you think that when the RIAA argues about profit loss and pirating, that it’s point will be moot when proof is shown from thousands of other labels that they are going the opposite direction (in both mentality and profit)?
Commercial break: Included on the list are several albums by my son’s former band, The Decembrists. He only plays on one of the albums and I’m not sure which one. Moody, literate alternative music.
We recently got the most recent Decembrists CD (“Castaways and Cutouts”) at WHPK. It’s pretty good, especially the song “Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect”.
(We can work out compensation for this later, zizka.)
Thank God I can still buy my Neutral Milk Hotel CDs… if they’d ever release another one.
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