Recording Industry Throws Another Tantrum (Again)

Just when you think the Recording Industry of America couldn’t possibly get any more anal retentive, they do. One of capitalism’s oldest traditions is the free offer, the giveaway. Whether it’s altruistic or just a gimmick for future sales, it’s as American as, well, pick your cliché.

But tell that to the corporate douchebags who rake off 99% of the revenue from every CD you buy (just guessing at the numbers). Prince will be giving away copies of his newest CD, “Planet Earth.” Whether that’s out of generosity or just shrewdness — hey, cool, a free CD from one of the world’s most popular recording artists of the past 25 years. Everybody wins, right?

Ah, but the rules have changed. Free enterprise, under-pricing your competitors, building a better mousetrap — that’s soooo 1900s. Inheritance, cronyism, kissass-ism — that’s how most music industry executives got to where they are. Zero work for trillions of dollars. These fuckin’ leeches make Paris Hilton look productive.

And now Prince has brought the “struggling” recording industry to its knees by giving away his newest CD. The reason the recording industry is “struggling” in the first place is that nobody wants to patronize those assholes. In the 1970s the recording industry was “almost” decimated by those communist anti-American wretches who had the nerve to tape songs off the radio instead of going out and buying the record. After that, used CDs were the culprit that would destroy the music industry as we know it. When that didn’t happen, the blame went to those wicked freeloaders who downloaded free music off the Internet.

Things change, but the one constant is that the recording industry will always blame their own failures — caused by greed and ineptitude — on some fringe group whose “freeloading” is just about to bring them to their knees.

The co-chairman of the Entertainment Retailers Association said: “The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behavior like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores." Well guess what, Shitbreath — long after the Entertainment Retailers Association has been dead and forgotten, Prince will still be well-known and revered. How’s that workin’ for ya?

If the recording industry wants to charge $19 for a new CD, and tries to put the thumbscrews on any store that sells used CDs, that’s free enterprise. But it’s also part of that same free enterprise system when a huge recording star gives away copies of his newest CD. Is this complicated??

Here are the results of a web search for “Prince new album RIAA.” Interesting reading.