Free speech does not include or protect slander, defamation, bullying, threats, racism or child porn....
all of which are found on these interwebs.
the basic purpose of the internet the sharing of ideas, like minded people for a common purpose and as a tool for knowledge and growth I can agree with.
and seriously you think the internet has helped the music industry? Seriously? Yea musicians are certainly staying afloat on the 10 cents a song they make off itunes. If a local band doesn't get MAJOR sponsorship they can't afford to tour. there is no money now...who knows if they'll ever be.
Record companies never moved with the times. They didn't anticipate the internets possibilities. They thought they had the only product. So they consolidated till all there's left are a handful of companies and the only thing they will invest in is a sure bet to make money.
The music industry is dead and all you have at it's wake is Lady Gaga and American Idol shit...
Bullying, threatening, slander, child pornography, etc., occur every day, all day, internet or not. I'm not gonna start calling the human existence in America as we know it "crap" because there's slander, bullying, and child porn in a society with free speech. With all freedom, you have to take the good with the bad, and deal with the bad within the context of the law. Further, being a racist, or using racial slurs, is not illegal, and should never be.
Anyway, I never said that the internet has "helped" the music industry. The "industry", or whatever that means, seems to be hurting, but the power has shifted back to the bands/musicians, and that is a GOOD thing. As a recording band, STP has never made great money. The biggest portion of their income comes from songwriting and touring, and it always has. The $0.10 per song on iTunes is actually equivalent to a damn good record contract, about a $1 per album. Most bands don't even have it that good. Profit comes from songwriting and from touring.
If you're a musician today, you can record at home for a fraction of the cost of a big studio and stream it or sell it on MySpace essentially for free.
If you want to be on iTunes, you don't need a major label, just a distributor. I live in a podunk town and there are 4 local artist CDs that are currently on iTunes. You just need a bar coded CD to sell, and then let Amazon or CD Baby sell it, and iTunes will sell it. The labels hate iTunes because the prices are so low. Wholesale cost on a CD is $12, so a band that had the good $1/album contract would get their $1, the label $11 from every CD sold. But iTunes charges $9.99 and keeps about $0.33 per dollar. After the artist with the good contract gets their 1$ per CD, the label is left with $5.70, or basically half of what they were getting for a CD.
I have a friend who booked and financed his own tour from a minimum wage job. The first tour paid for itself, the second tour paid for a new EP to sell. They will be getting the bar code treatement and put it on itunes as well. It's not easy, but it can be done. If you want to be completely independent and make a living, you probably can. If you want to try and make it big, if a label sees you making money, they might want a piece of the action.
But because of the internet, consumers are free to choose what they like. I can find more music than ever before. I can watch a band on youtube. I can probably purchase mp3s from their website if I like them, and then maybe catch them for $10 when they come through near my town--all without label help, if they want. And these guys are making more money than they would as a no-name band on a label.
Good for music, good for musicians, bad for labels. From the point of view of established bands, they're gonna have to tour a lot to continue to make money as album sales drop due to theft. But more musicians can get their music heard, and there are more choices for how to hear it and purchase it. THAT is good for US.