Last October, on a Digital Music News post, an anonymous commenter claiming to be a Grooveshark employee stated that company employees at every level actively upload copyright-infringing content to the Grooveshark service. In the six months since, Grooveshark has been slammed with law suits from all four major labels, as well as attacked by large indie distributors and other groups for their anti-artist business practices.
We’ve been watching this ever since last fall with great dismay. If you look through the evidence being presented against the company in Universal Music’s lawsuit, it’s hard to deny that the company’s behavior has repeatedly harmed artists, whether intentionally or not, by blatantly ignoring their rights.
In response to all the heat, Grooveshark founder & CEO Sam Tarantino did an interview last week with Evolver.fm’s Elliot Van Burskirk on the 6 reasons why he thinks recorded music should be free. While we certainly don’t agree with quite a few of his assertions—in particular that touring is unilaterally more lucrative for artists than recorded music—we wanted to open it up to you guys to hear your thoughts. Here are his 6 reasons:
1. Record labels want too much money
2. Musicians already get paid more by touring anyway
3. The music business is too slow and partially broken
4. Grooveshark is modeled on early YouTube (the one that got sued)
5. Grooveshark complies with takedown notices [Ed. note: This is debatable]
6. Grooveshark’s ad platform can boost an unknown band to 500k views in 3 weeks
What do you think? Are these legitimate excuses for Grooveshark not to pay the artists whose work is the foundation of their business? Or do you think this argument merits consideration? If you’re an artist, how do you feel about the way this company treats the artistic community? Let us know your thoughts!
We just came across this “manifesto of modern creativity” on Techdirt, which is getting a lot of buzz around the web today. It’s a beautiful sentiment from curators of an exhibition for Les Rencontres Arles Photographie, though we wonder just how true a few specific aspects of this are.
It’s easy to feel like the possibilities are endless for ambitious creatives these days, and to some extent that’s true. But resources are by no means limitless—certainly not for musicians—and in the creative game, access to resources (particularly financial and social ones) can make or break your career.
What do you think? Have we reached an age of creative utopia? Or are these seemingly endless possibilities creating new limitations of their own?
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The Grooveshark Debate: What Do You Think?
Last October, on a Digital Music News post, an anonymous commenter claiming to be a Grooveshark employee stated that company employees at every level actively upload copyright-infringing content to the Grooveshark service. In the six months since, Grooveshark has been slammed with law suits from all four major labels, as well as attacked by large indie distributors and other groups for their anti-artist business practices.
We’ve been watching this ever since last fall with great dismay. If you look through the evidence being presented against the company in Universal Music’s lawsuit, it’s hard to deny that the company’s behavior has repeatedly harmed artists, whether intentionally or not, by blatantly ignoring their rights.
In response to all the heat, Grooveshark founder & CEO Sam Tarantino did an interview last week with Evolver.fm’s Elliot Van Burskirk on the 6 reasons why he thinks recorded music should be free. While we certainly don’t agree with quite a few of his assertions—in particular that touring is unilaterally more lucrative for artists than recorded music—we wanted to open it up to you guys to hear your thoughts. Here are his 6 reasons:
1. Record labels want too much money
2. Musicians already get paid more by touring anyway
3. The music business is too slow and partially broken
4. Grooveshark is modeled on early YouTube (the one that got sued)
5. Grooveshark complies with takedown notices [Ed. note: This is debatable]
6. Grooveshark’s ad platform can boost an unknown band to 500k views in 3 weeks
What do you think? Are these legitimate excuses for Grooveshark not to pay the artists whose work is the foundation of their business? Or do you think this argument merits consideration? If you’re an artist, how do you feel about the way this company treats the artistic community? Let us know your thoughts!
2012 Vimeo Awards: We’re Nominated for Best Original Series
Wow! We’ve got some great news! Shaking Through is up for Best Original Series at the 2012 Vimeo Awards coming up in June. We are thrilled to see that people are watching and enjoying the work we do.
The Best Series winner will be determined by a panel of judges including Aziz Ansari, Ted Tremper, Edgar Wright, and YOU. So help us take our best run at winning this Award by voting for Shaking Through. You can vote once every day, and the more you vote, the better! The winner will receive a $5,000 grant which will go a long ways toward helping Weathervane continue to introduce you to more great independent artists.
Vote now, and THANK YOU for your amazing support of Weathervane Music!
A Manifesto For Creativity In The Modern Era
We just came across this “manifesto of modern creativity” on Techdirt, which is getting a lot of buzz around the web today. It’s a beautiful sentiment from curators of an exhibition for Les Rencontres Arles Photographie, though we wonder just how true a few specific aspects of this are.
It’s easy to feel like the possibilities are endless for ambitious creatives these days, and to some extent that’s true. But resources are by no means limitless—certainly not for musicians—and in the creative game, access to resources (particularly financial and social ones) can make or break your career.
What do you think? Have we reached an age of creative utopia? Or are these seemingly endless possibilities creating new limitations of their own?