Slap a Compressor on Music Piracy

As an artist, a musician, I have been trying to get my head wrapped around all of these opportunities I have before me in this tool: the Internet. I am also deeply concerned, and even a bit afraid, to put my music out in digital form. Will I sell that one copy for $0.99 and there she goes, shared and copied and forever lost to me? Some will say, "but you'd be so lucky- Dude that means people actually like your songs." Well, I want to take a swipe at that and in addition share an idea that may work.

First off, my music is worth something. I don't know about Lady GaGa or TPain, but when I write music it hurts. I spend days, nights, and family time trying to create a work of art that will be worthy. My fingers hurt, my back aches, my butt is sore, my song sucks and probably no one is going to like it. My voice cracks while recording 'cause the song means everything to me. Well, I dedicate to my work as much suffering and passion as a roofer or entrepreneur. I have invested years of effort developing skill and ability and it costs. Its like a pro football player: behind the glory what you don't see is that he can't get out of bed on Mondays. Sure, being a musical artist is fun but it costs.

"Today people expect free music", "Fans want your music for free." I DON"T CARE. I want stuff for free too. I'd like a free paperback before a plane ride, and a real haircut would be nice (its always scary when the wife says "oops, uh I can fix that", while holding the clippers). Let me make this clear: they are not fans, and they're not friends, and they're not supportive if they don't want to compensate me for my art. I don't need fans like that.  Of course people want stuff for free, but the only thing given for free is love.  Wait, I'm gonna use that in a song.

Copying songs for personal use is bad. It turns into burning a copy for your Mom, and then her best friend, etc. See, if you want copies for each of your iPods- then buy two copies. They're ONLY .99 apiece! C'mon, if you want two Jr. Bacon cheeseburgers then you buy two. I own the rights to copy my art work, do not put it into your double tape deck  machine and dub it. This is back where the ball got dropped. Now our art just zips through the ether. But I want us to rewind and get back to a method of protecting our copyright privilege.

I propose a "Music File Passport". Just as when travelers arrive from a foreign country and they go through customs and have their passports inspected before going through, I want my music files to have a passport flag attached to them. I propose that ISPs be held responsible for disallowing flagged traffic from traveling through their pipes. When I sell a song to a customer I can attach a ticket which unlocks the passport and allows the file to make this single journey. I'm the first to acknowledge that I don't grasp the intricacies of DRM. But I do know that codes can be embedded into music files such as watermarks or IRSC  codes. I do know that organisations such as ASCAP or BMI could make available to members some sort of MP3/passport encoder with which they can encrypt their songs prior to registering them for publishing management. I do know that ISPs want to maintain Internet neutrality, but they will filter out the sharing of torrents of spreadsheets or other "sensitive" files so they certainly could screen out something that has an embedded industry standard flag. So, ISPs- don't let music files go through your pipes without a passport. Publishers- make available a simple tool your members can use to lock up their art from thieves. Artists- slap a passport on that baby just like you'd slap on a compressor, and lets US squeeze out piracy.

Ara Eissler
www.aratunes.us