In the human body, cells go out of control and become destructive. These are cancer sells. On the Internet, people go out of control and become destructive. These are bloggers.
Just maybe, just MAYBE, Randy would have had some extra savings in the bank if his early major label record albums were given attractive CD re-issues. But we know that re-issue labels have faltered and failed because piracy is rampant and the Internet culture has declared "music should be free." I found, having pitched re-issues (with bonus tracks) for some of my well known singer-songwriter friends, that the answer at the labels became, more and more, and then permanently, "No, we can't even break even anymore."
When the re-issue label needed only 500 to 1000 copies to make it worthwhile for all concerned, the deciding factor was often "how many blogs are already giving away downloads," and how many FEWER people would have followed the blogger's rote remark, "if you like it, buy it." How about leave it alone so there's buyer demand? How about posting ONE song only, so that people might actually take a gamble that the rest of the album would also be good?
Bloggers have been giving away Randy Burns for years...and we're talking about someone who ain't McCartney, and doesn't have, obviously, a huge bank account so that piracy doesn't matter...
You get the idea...the excuse used to be that posting whole albums on Elvis or Buddy Holly didn't hurt anybody but the "BAD GUYS" who run the evil record labels. Then EVERYBODY became fair game. As in "my blog can beat YOUR blog," and "hey everyone, look at ME, look how many comments I get, it's like I'm in the music business! I'm so KEWL! I'm The Music Man, dig? I use a password so nobody can steal MY hard work, I hide my links so bots can't remove them, and I'm now using Filecrypt because I get royalties. PS, gimme a Paypal donation!"
It's gotten to the point where no excuse is needed for downloading entire albums or discographies. It's just...the Internet. It's lawless. Ho ho. Go to a forum or a shoutbox and if you don't see what you want, say "Anybody GOT?" Somebody will help, because the important thing is for everyone to save money on music and spend it on beer. So far there's no way to anonymously download beer via the Internet.
On Randy’s website, http://randyburns.net/music.html he has a few of his newer CDs for sale. NOT “sharing” as free downloads. Gosh, why is THAT? He’d like to get PAID for his work? But there are anonymous people relentless upping and re-upping even the obscurities of Randy Burns, making it impossible for authorized re-issues, with bonus tracks and researched CD notes, to EVER get made.
But some guy in Redneckville who can't get laid and spends all day adding to his whole album blog, or some nobody for whom English is a second language, and who can barely say "I do this for FUN," they know better, huh? They figure that not only should Barbra Streisand be pirated because she's got money, but hey, do Randy Burns and his colleagues, too, whole albums, because...uh, because...because record store owners shouldn't own a business they love and be able to "talk music" to real music loving music buying customers? They should sell t-shirts or smoothies instead? That's as "logical" a reason as any. Maybe.
My experience, in actually BEING in the music business, as well as knowing plenty of musicians as well as blogging, is that maybe 5% of artists don’t mind their entire album being given away. This is usually the case of an album "lost" due to some complicated rights issue. For example, I know of a woman who got an indie re-issue on CD. She was proud. It was well done. Great album notes. It sold out its printing of 1000 copies. Guess what, because she didn't own the music (Universal, owner of MCA and Decca did), she had no say when Universal REFUSED to license another 1000 copies. Who knows what they were thinking. Maybe, "Hey, if they sold 1000 so easy, let's charge them DOUBLE this time." Whatever, she is one of the artists who would rather people get her stuff free than not at all. But that's the small 5%.
Most artists don't like the parasites on the Internet, but are afraid of being hacked and harassed for “spoiling the fun" by complaining. They also know how easy Google makes it to get another blog, or for people to hide in obscure forums, or to use torrents based in Putinville. "It's whack-a-mole," they say, knowing the spread of their music can happen as swiftly as a cancer diagnosis telling them they've got parasites eating their healthy blood cells...and that it'll cost a fortune to stop the hell.
It seems most stoppages of music piracy involve the latest albums by Taylor Swift and that bunch. Don't fuck with Taylor Swift...but plunder Connie Francis. So why doesn't Connie fight back? She’s going to risk threatening e-mails, a break-in, or some other abuse? She’s had enough in her life already, as some might know, and she’s quite elderly now.
She expresses how she feels about being exploited and used here: HERE IN THIS MESSAGE Too bad that artists such as Connie Francis, or Randy Burns, are like Mom and Pop stores that can't do much against professional shoplifters. They either accept the "shrinkage" and live with it, and live modestly, or go out of business. Or beg on GoFundMe or Kickstarter.
Randy Burns was on the esp label (they also signed The Fugs and Pearls Before Swine) back when he was playing on the same bill with colleagues Tom Paxton, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Andersen, Phil Ochs and Carolyn Hester. What bloggers can do, in dialing back their abuse and their egotism, is WRITE about the artist, and post one link, or the link to streaming music on YouTube.
Here's a vintage Randy Burns track. WHEN DAYLIGHT COMES IN EVERYTHING was originally on the ESP album “Evening of the Magician," which is now controlled by CD Baby for sales and streaming, with Randy getting a royalty check. Streaming the songs on YouTube is honest, and so is providing a link, as you see below. It's a lot more ethical than being part of the anonymous jerks who make people shrug "the Internet is lawless...and nothing can be done about it." Is that lack of civility what we need more of, in a world where people yap on cellphones, blast the music all night, let the dog shit on the sidewalk, have graffiti sprayed all over, insult the elderly, use up natural resources and don't recycle, and brag about cheating?
It's a dark world that accepts corruption. selfishness and bad behavior as the norm. WHEN DAYLIGHT COMES do you notice it's just a little dirtier and grayer than the day before?
Randy Burns: WHEN DAYLIGHT COMES IN EVERYTHING. A legal link to the music. Big thanks to those who have given to the RANDY BURNS GoFUNDMe
A big "what the FUCK" to the people who think it's "kewl" and it's FUN and it's "sharing" and it's "loving the music" to toss entire copyrighted albums and entire discographies around via free links and free blogs and free forum memberships. The excuse is the same as the ones chavs use when they steal a busker's hat full of coins and run away with it: "I felt like it. Ha!"
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