Just an open letter to Michael Greene, President/CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences…
Sir,
If anyone is marginalizing this particular less-established artist out of the music industry, it is not that computer geek chimera you’d prefer I lost sleep over during the night.
It’s you and that industry that you represent that do artists like myself the most harm.
People downloading files and trading music only HELPS an unsigned, struggling artist. Its effect on your bottom line is negligible at best. No matter how much you might try to bowdlerize your facts, it seems clear to me that your biggest fear is that your established artists may come to realize what an anachronism your system is quickly becoming.
Don’t ever pretend to speak on my behalf again.
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(The following is a transcript of Michael Greene’s address to the audience at the 44th Annual GRAMMY Awards telecast. Greene is the President/CEO of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.)
Good evening, and on behalf of the Academy, we hope you are enjoying the 44th Annual GRAMMY Awards. Perhaps at no other time in our history have people so passionately turned to music for comfort, solace and sweet celebration, and this year’s Life Achievement and Trustees Award honorees are indelible reminders of the power of music.
You’re tuned in tonight because you are passionate about music, you’re fans of these great artists. That very special connection between the fan and the artist is an historically important partnership, one which enriches and entertains the public, motivating and sustaining the creator. In recent years, industry consolidation combined with the unbridled advance of the Internet has created a disturbing disconnect in our relationship, and trends say it promises to get worse.
No question the most insidious virus in our midst is the illegal downloading of music on the Net. It goes by many names and its apologists offer a myriad of excuses. This illegal file-sharing and ripping of music files is pervasive, out of control and oh so criminal. Many of the nominees here tonight, especially the new, less-established artists, are in immediate danger of being marginalized out of our business. Ripping is stealing their livelihood one digital file at a time, leaving their musical dreams haplessly snared in this World Wide Web of theft and indifference.
You’ve seen glimpses of kids backstage working on computers throughout the evening and are probably wondering what they’re doing. Well, we asked three college-age students to spend two days with us and download as many music files as possible from easily accessible Web sites. Please say hello to Numair, Stephanie and Ed. In just a couple of days they have downloaded nearly 6,000 songs. That’s three kids, folks. Now multiply that by millions of students and other computer users and the problem comes into sharp focus. Songwriters, singers, musicians, labels, publishers – the entire music food chain is at serious risk. The RIAA estimates that – now listen to this – an astounding 3.6 billion songs are illegally downloaded every month.
This problem won’t be solved in short order. It’s going to require education, leadership from Washington and true diligence to help our fans – that would be you – to embrace this life and death issue and support our artistic community by only downloading your music from legal Web sites. That will ensure that our artists reach even higher and, deservedly, get paid for their inspired work.