Simon Willison’s Weblog

Janis Ian

5th July 2002

Janis Ian: The Internet Debacle—An Alternative View (via Scripting News). This is an excellent, well researched piece on the problems facing the American music industry by an artist with over 20 albums under her belt.

She heavily criticises the RIAA’s appauling treatment of artists and backwards view of the internet, which could in fact help give thousands of artists free exposure which they would never recieve otherwise.

As artists, we have the ear of the masses. We have the trust of the masses. By speaking out in our concerts and in the press, we can do a great deal to damp this hysteria, and put the blame for the sad state of our industry right back where it belongs—in the laps of record companies, radio programmers, and our own apparent inability to organize ourselves in order to better our own lives—and those of our fans