I’m not sure the music industry knows what it’s doing. In December I got a takedown notice from the Web Sheriff for posting an Andrew Bird MP3 and then today Amazon offers up the entire album as a MP3 download for $1.99 Noble Beast on Amazon
Web Sheriff Says:
December 18th, 2008 at 3:51 am e
WEB SHERIFF
Protecting Your Rights on the Internet
Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013
Fax 44-(0)208 323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com
http://www.websheriff.com
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
Hi Dave,
On behalf of Fat Possum Records and Andrew Bird, we would kindly ask you not to post copies of “Noble Beast†on your site (or any non-preview tracks from the artist’s new album – street date 20th January).
We do appreciate that you are fans of / are promoting Andrew Bird, but the label and artist would greatly appreciate your co-operation in removing your links to the pirate files in question.
Thank you for respecting the artist’s and label’s wishes and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, “Oh No†is available for fans and bloggers to link to / post / host etc via Pitchfork – http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/146200-premiere-andrew-bird-oh-no-stream also check-out the artist’s MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/andrewbird and http://www.andrewbird.net for details on “Noble Beast†and the artist’s 2008/09 shows … ..
you can also view official Andrew Bird videos at http://www.youtube.com/andrewbirdmusic and, for details of further preview material and pre-release promotions, keep an eye on these official sources.
As you will appreciate, this e-mail is written on a without prejudice basis and, as such, all of our clients’ accumulated, worldwide rights and remedies remain strictly reserved : please excuse this required formality.
With Thanks & Regards,
WEB SHERIFF
Oh, this is too bad. I thought Fat Possum would be a record label that “gets it”.
Was this a form letter or did someone actually know about your blog? I would think if they were paying attention to your blog they would realize you are *promoting* his music in hopes of encouraging people to give MONEY to the artist if they like what they hear. Good grief, why is that so hard for them to understand? “pirate files???”
*sigh*
February 6th, 2009 at 6:37 pm@montag
the internet is doomed. get out while you still can. Before it’s too late.
WEB SHERIFF? WTF? Did people get stupider while I was sleeping? I have to look into this Web Sheriff thing. It sounds too much like TV Sheriff, which was that manic-edit OTHER CINEMA production from a while back…
February 6th, 2009 at 10:21 pmI’m confused…does a label get paid the same for a $1.99 sale download as they would for a regularly priced album download?
February 7th, 2009 at 11:08 am@Bob F, that’s a really good question. Who takes the hit – Amazon, Bird or Fat Possum? Either way I’d say Bird does.
February 7th, 2009 at 12:54 pm“Taking Your Rights on the Internet” sounds more reasonable.
February 7th, 2009 at 5:37 pm@Austin,
February 7th, 2009 at 10:31 pmNot sure what you mean but there is no greater promo than one free MP3 on the ‘net. Seems a shame that Noble Beast came out Jan 20 and by Feb 6th its offered up for $1.99. Bands that have embraced “free” have won big, e.g. NIN, Radiohead. MTV shows “free” videos, radio plays “free” songs, as an artist I don’t get paid for that but the promo is useful….
Amazon is just starting out in the mp3 download business and is a minor player against the likes of iTunes. So right now, Amazon takes the hit.
Either way, I’m surprised Fat Possum came after you.
February 8th, 2009 at 12:04 pmI guess that since they are a retailer, Amazon takes the hit. Once you’ve bought a commodity and put it up for sale on your site, you can charge whatever you want. Even if it wipes out your profit margin entirely. My take on this is that Amazon wants to bump up its sales numbers to prove it can compete, and just get people used to buying their mp3s there. They probably chose the Andrew Bird album because a lot of people want it anyway.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:44 am@Dave,
February 9th, 2009 at 1:52 pmNo no no, I agree with you 100%, I was simply poking fun at Web Sheriff’s ‘Protecting Your Rights on the Internet’ motto. Web Sheriff’s got a long history of intimidating people through e-mail who may or may not have done anything wrong.
@Austin,
February 9th, 2009 at 9:23 pmOh right. yes I’m not sure where Web Sheriff’s jurisdiction lies actually. Are they based in the UK? Shouldn’t Pampelmoose, a USA-based web site, be sent a notice under the DMCA?
amazon is the one that takes the hit on the 1.99 andrew bird sale, NOT fat possum or the artist. also, i’m assuming you posted an mp3 w/o permission, soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo it’s a tricky situation. but i don’t see what a store having a sale has to do w/ you giving away free mp3s.
February 10th, 2009 at 1:45 pmalso shouldn’t artists have a little say in regards to their art and what mp3s they want out there before their albums come out? just saying.
February 10th, 2009 at 1:47 pm@Ben
Artists do have a say actually. I receive submissions/MP3s from 172 PR companies and/or labels and bands each week that give permission to post. They are aware that reaching the 270,000 unique visitors to this blog each month is great promotion. Obviously I don’t post them all as I like to filter what I believe is the great stuff from the avg stuff. I then pick roughly 24 songs a week to play on my New Music Hour on KNRK 94.7FM here in PDX.
If the labels and artists didn’t want to give music fans what they want then they wouldn’t send MP3s to blogs like Pampelmoose, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan etc etc. The Andrew Bird MP3 came to me via another music blog which no doubt got the same web sheriff notice that I did. Fat Possum doesn’t need to pay those guys to get in touch with me, they just need to send an email..real simple and free.
February 10th, 2009 at 2:00 pm@Ben,
February 10th, 2009 at 2:03 pmI found it rather ironical that I post one mp3 for free as promo yet Amazon posts the entire album as non-DRM 256kb MP3s for $1.99. What those rascals who share files on P2P networks will do with those files is anyone’s guess but I sure bet the web sheriff can’t track ‘em all down….