Web Sheriff 2

Since my musical tastes are officially on Web Sheriff's radar, I thought I should make another statement about it. This is the last time I'll mention it.

This blog does not have a large population of regular readers. It exists only as a cathartic, creative release and a log of things I find particularly awesome and worth sharing with whoever may be out there reading. I don't advertise the blog anywhere or even talk about it or acknowledge its existence amongst anyone other than my girlfriend. My facebook profile lists it as a favorite website but nothing more than that. But while I do not know (or particularly care) who or how many people are reading it, I can guarantee that a person accessing this page will discover something new, however useless that information might be. Mostly this new information comes in the form of me talking about music and then posting a streaming example of the band in question. These are streams that exist for public use on various websites, some more dubious than others. I'm not condoning these websites, nor am I teaching anyone how to download pirated material, but I do find streaming full mp3s to be the only logical way to promote a band I like, and sometimes the only way to accomplish this is through websites like Skreemr or Grooveshark. I think free streaming music is so important that every band should make new albums available for streaming in their entirety before, during, and for a time after the album goes to market. If record companies want us to buy their product, they need to make the product a known quantity. You shouldn't blindly buy Taylor Swift's album because you heard "You Belong to Me" and are keeping your fingers crossed that the rest of her album will be just as good. You should buy it because it's good and therefore you'd like to own it. You get the point. This should include giving fans the ability to share as well as a way to compensate the artist for streams. Right now, literally none of this happens, but Grooveshark sort of gets it, so I'll continue to use their service. The labels still don't get it though.

I mention all of this because while Web Sheriff is being awfully nice in thanking me for "plugging" the artists it represents, make no mistake that his little notes of thanks are in fact thinly veiled threats on behalf of of Columbia records, and I shouldn't have to worry about something like that for being a fan. Specifically, it's lines like this that are confusing:

thanks, also on behalf of the label, management and artists for not posting any pirate links to unreleased (studio) material.

This bit was confusing because as far as I know, Columbia and Monotone do not yet have licensing agreements with Grooveshark, so in essence I WAS posting a pirated link by embedding the song. I have no idea who or what uploaded the Broken Bells song to Grooveshark, so it could very well be an illegal file. My point is that it shouldn't matter. Should I worry because I informed my friends about a band they would not have otherwise known? This type of free promotion can only help Broken Bells or any other band, and so I wish their dogs would be called off. It's a losing battle they are fighting, and the worst part is that I'm sure the members of the band wouldn't stand for it if they had the choice.

If you want to know more about Web Sheriff or just the relationship between labels, fans, and the artists and all else having to do with our rights as consumers in the ditigal age, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been the absolute best source of information. I suggest you start with this article, which deals with exactly what I've just written about.