Pie In The Sky Idea

Lots of interesting Music Industry 2.0 news today. Here’s yet another article claiming that the RIAA has gone too far in their claims over music copyright. In it, the author advocates reducing the duration of a copyright from the current, ridiculously long term of 125 years to 5 years. Although I believe that this one move would alone set the industry straight and get them to focus on innovation rather than litigation, I don’t think it’ll ever happen. Certainly not while Disney is lobbying congress.

Instead, I believe that the inevitable change in the industry has to start with the artists themselves. No changes in law are necessary for artists to simply deny giving major labels artistic copyrights to protect in the first place. The music industry won’t change until the artists themselves decide to change it. After all, the artists are the most powerful force in the industry, not the labels. The major labels simply parasite off that forfeited artist power and use it for their own ends.