So, a week ago from yesterday, I turned 23. To celebrate, I made up a little Perch Mix of birthday related songs along with “I’m old” related songs. Now, Perch Mixes have become something all my readers wait for every week because it’s basically me saying here’s 12 or songs I absolutely love at the moment and everyone usually finds one or two songs in each mix they really just love and end up going out and checking out that band because of it…you know, exactly how things should be. Well, most of you may remember the story Charlie posted here on the LemonDrop blog a while back about how bands like the New Pornographers are hiring some Web Sheriff site (may be just one guy, who knows) and that it’s bad for the music industry because all he does is hunt down bloggers and tells them only to post songs they approved. Fair enough. But long story short, I posted a New Pornos track simply because it had the word “old” in it and three people even wrote me saying “oh, that’s what they sound like. They’re great and I’m going to check them out now”. I just did my job as a blogger unintentionally and promoted the New Pornos, getting them new fans without them asking me to. Something I live for. And how do I get rewarded? With this comment on my blog from the “web sheriff”:

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Hi PerchMusic,

On behalf of Matador Records and The New Pornographers, we would kindly ask you NOT to post newly released New Pornographers links on this site / thread.

We do appreciate that – of course – you are fans of / are promoting The New Pornographers but, by the same token, you must also appreciate that, by posting a pirate copy of the album or tracks from the album pre-release / upon release (or linking to pirate copies), you are potentially causing considerable inconvenience and we are sure that you would not want to be personally responsible (or liable) for all of the resulting damage and disruption.

Thank you for respecting the artist’s and label’s wishes and, if you want good quality, non-pirated preview tracks, “My Rights Versus Yours” and “Myriad Harbour” are being made freely available to fans off the label’s and artist’s official web-sites, (check-out www.matadorrecords.com and www.thenewpornographers.com for full details), which you are most welcome to host / post etc. Unfortunately, the tracks that you’ve selected are not designated, preview tracks and, as such, it would be greatly appreciated if you could remove them asap / substitute them with either or both of the above tracks.

Whilst writing, we’d add that The New Pornographers and Matador Records are not at all against free music BUT, at the end of the day, it should be (and is) the artist’s decision as to whether or not they effectively allow the unauthorized distribution of their album on-line before / upon its release – as it’s THEIR MUSIC !! Thank you, again, for respecting their wishes.

As you will appreciate, this e-mail – containing, as it does, a position that is potentially prejudicial to our clients’ open / formal position – is written on a without prejudice basis and, as such, all of our clients’ accumulated, worldwide rights remain strictly reserved : please excuse this required formality.

With Thanks & Regards,

WEB SHERIFF

I was going to just go off on here because I was really angry about this, but once I took the song down, the web sheriff thanked me and wished me a happy birthday. So, I couldn’t get too mad, but the point here is that as a blogger, I’m one of the best fans a band could have. I go out of my way to expose people to your music, and word of mouth is the music industry’s best friend. Yet, time and time again, labels’ refusal to adapt to new technology and more importantly, adapt to the new tech-savvy fan is hurting them and they still wonder why. I’m never out to get into trouble either at my blog or here with my rants, but LemonDrop is all about fan involvement, blog interaction, and using word of mouth to spread our music. We’re not giving away our music free as a gimmick. We’re doing it because we firmly believe that fans will support an artist and their music if they feel an actual connection to the artist, and we’re doing that through the fan community we’ll be building around our bands. I’ve got connections with bloggers, so we should have no trouble spreading an album around the net in a matter of days since anyone can post any song they want, but the real point is that the days of attacking fans (even if it’s in a respectful “take that down now, thank you” sort of way) are over. Bands won’t make as much off their music as they used to, but that only because more bands are making a little money off their music as opposed to only a few making millions. It’s inevitable and hiring people like the web sheriff to hunt me down, even though I have proof you have new fans because of my post, just makes me super angry and I can’t say I’ll ever be too enthused to support the New Pornos ever again at my blog.

Enough ranting. I just found this video of Trent Reznor that I found interesting. I’m not the biggest fan of NIN or Reznor’s solo stuff, but he has been taking a big stand against the ridiculous prices tacked onto his albums and it seems like he finally got fed up with it at one of his latest shows.

Trent Reznor ’s reaction to his record label ripping his fans off

Also, file sharing used as a marketing tool?! Get out! Kind of like my fan A&R idea, with the fans dictating who we should sign from their feedback, only on a huge level where the labels check data on leaked tracks and pick the next single based on the song that’s being downloaded the most. Of course, the RIAA is still suing people left and right, so they must not have gotten the memo.

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