God knows there’s about a hundred million arguments in favour of downloading music for free and, supposedly, illegally. And about 3 against it. Argument number 100000001: the licensing fees they’re asking for are a sad attempt at redefining insane. Take the situation surrounding Pandora, an online music streaming service, as an example. The Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), in its latest attempt to make itself look so hard done by, has decided if the service wants to come to Canada, it’s going to cost them nearly half its gross revenue in Canada to do so. Naturally, in response to the CRIA, Pandora has once again told Canada to go straight to hell. Here’s the kicker, though. According to CRIA president Graham Henderson, it’s not the CRIA’s fault. No, couldn’t be them.
The music industry, meanwhile, says its fees are not the problem. It says music-related businesses are reluctant to enter Canada because of the country’s reputation as a file-sharing haven where music fans can download songs illicitly without fear of penalty.
“Why would you spend a lot of money trying to build a service in Canada when Canadians take so much without paying for it?” said Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, which represents major record labels.
“(Canadians) just seem to have no appetite for a legal marketplace.”
Sorry, Graham, but not entirely accurate. We just have no appetite for being screwed over 6 ways from Sunday by the recording industry, who already gets money from us for things that don’t have anything to do primarily with the recording of music–tax on blank CD’s, potential tax on flash drives, anyone? But best not to let those inconvenient little facts get in the way of your perception of reality. Yep, it’s all the fault of the pirates. Those pirates you could easily be convincing to change their minds–I even told you how. Graham, please, just stop failing. Like right now. You’re only making yourself come off like an idiot.
In the meantime, if you want similar functionality to what Pandora offers–with, I think, a somewhat more useful interface–give Jango a try. It, for the moment, hasn’t been drop kicked by the CRIA. Enjoy it while you can. I think I’ll go fire it up right now in tribute.