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RIAA Uses P2P for More Than Just Suing Users

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 19 2005 8:21 PM

Submitted by Shalome. Edited By Shalome.

We all know that the major lable music industry is screaming to lawmakers and courts that peer-to-peer filesharing networks like Kazaa and Grokster are cutting into their profits, costing them millions and millions of dollars as people trade music online for free.

It turns out that those money-grubbing assholes at the RIAA are actually using peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa and Grokster to determine what the next big hit should be and to figure out a new artist's best target audience in order to sell more CDs.

That's right; the same people that the RIAA has been suing for copyright infringement are being used as a test audience to help the RIAA sell more music. The company that's helping them do it is called BigChampagne.

On top of tracking who swaps what from what location, BigChampagne also searches the libraries of everyone who's online. If a new artist starts to gain fans, you can tell what else those fans listen to-- whether your new Lindsay Lohan is a bigger hit with teen girls or with their moms, whether it makes sense to push a new singer-songwriter through Starbucks, and on and on. Compare this to a few years ago, when you could sell a record to someone at a store and not even know what other albums they bought that day; now, entire libraries are laid bare and ready for dissection.

"You can get a really good psychographic profile of a listener base by just looking at the collections of people who download this or that," says [Eric] Garland [of BigChampagne], "And that becomes tremendously important, because early in the life of a record, labels don't necessarily know who the audience is. They just know they've got something great."

Of course, the same industry that's paying to watch people steal music just went to the Supreme Court to stop them from doing it. When BigChampagne opened, record execs often hired them covertly, or even took meetings across the street from the office to ensure that nobody knew what they were doing. Some labels feared that paying BigChampagne would legitimize filesharing, or even hurt the legal actions they were taking against Napster and its successors.

Don't actions like hiring BigChampagne and using data gathered from peer-to-peer networks as a marketing tool undermine the RIAA's claims that filesharing is hurting the industry, as well as the lawsuits the RIAA keeps mercilessly bringing against peer-to-peer filesharers?

8 Comments

ortho7117

Charlotte, NC

April 2004

SEP 19, 2005 08:48 PM

Everybody always wants something for free.

One_Pure_Thought

East Greenwich, RI

October 2003

SEP 19, 2005 08:53 PM

If you need to find motivations in this just look to the almighty dollar.

Huck

United Kingdom

July 2004

SEP 20, 2005 08:04 AM

yes!

MisterSatan

Portland, OR

August 2002

SEP 20, 2005 08:11 AM

Holy shit, what a bunch of evil bastards. I think anyone majoring in marketing in college should be branded with a nice big "M" on their forehead, left breast, or the back of their hand. Seriously.

fiendish

Brick, NJ

December 2002

SEP 20, 2005 10:19 AM

well since they can't possibly stop it not why not make some good of it for the labels for the time being.

what i don't understamd is RIAA doesn't sell records they protect the record labels copyrights.

why would the riaa care what people listen to
they get paid whether u listen to polka or rap.

unless maybe they are trying to distinguish between which genres has the most theives?

[Edited on Sep 20, 2005 by fiendish]

Shalome

MODERATOR

Los Angeles, CA

SEP 20, 2005 10:23 AM

fiendish said:
well since they can't possibly stop it not why not make some good of it for the labels for the time being.

what i don't understamd is RIAA doesn't sell records they protect the record labels copyrights.

why would the riaa care what people listen to
they get paid whether u listen to polka or rap.

unless maybe they are trying to distinguish between which genres has the most thiefs?

[Edited on Sep 20, 2005 by fiendish]

The RIAA is/does more than that.

http://www.riaa.com/about/default.asp

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry. Its mission is to foster a business and legal climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality. Its members are the record companies that comprise the most vibrant national music industry in the world. RIAA members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate sound recordings produced and sold in the United States.

In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect intellectual property rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists; conduct consumer industry and technical research; and monitor and review - - state and federal laws, regulations and policies. The RIAA also certifies Gold®, Platinum®, Multi-Platinum™, and Diamond® sales awards, and recently launched Los Premios De Oro y Platino™, a new award celebrating Latin music sales.

xLusTx

Madison, WI

August 2005

SEP 20, 2005 10:27 AM

Fucking hypocrites...

kherpuppet

Portland, OR

June 2005

SEP 20, 2005 10:10 PM

it's a nonsensical argument anyway, since profits to the majors have actually gone UP considerably since P2P became large-scale, according to their own annual statements. This is a reversal of a trend that started when used CDs became a huge part of many record shops' business. If these hypocritical fucks attempt to sue anyone, all it takes is a public defender to shut them up. They have *no* legal merit to their attacks, and more than a few US courts have sided with the defendants against them...

At least there's some justice to be had still. The majors are playing on consumers' fears about litigation. As far as I'm concerned, bring on your lawsuits, you greedy motherfuckers...

- kher