Industry Liabilities

Pirate Bay is a Swedish based company, it is the largest torrent website in the world.  You can download music, movies, games, and much more.  Pirate Bay is under scrutiny for illegal piracy.  According to an article on torrentfreak.com, the co-founder of Pirate Bay is sentenced to serve time in jail.  The Stockholm District Court found three people guilty of contributory copyright infringement offenses.  Two of the men received one-year jail time and a fine of 1.1 million.  One of the defendants did not appear in court the day of sentences, they tried to contact him without success, the Judged ruled and handed down the verdict to him as well, do all three men had to pay millions of dollars in damages and jail time.  The men are taking the case to the Supreme Court; they are convinced that the final decision will be in there favor.

If the courts continue to monitor and convict people who commit piracy, preferably go after the websites that allow illegal sharing, I believe it will eliminate the crime eventually.  Piracy does not just damage the profits that the artist receives, but it takes money from all the team that worked on the project, producers, writers, musicians etc.  In reality, with technology today, you may stop it now but someone will come up with something new and creative to continue pirating others work.

LimeWire is hit with another lawsuit, according to an article that Jaikumar Vijayan wrote.  He said, “ Eight music publishers have sued LimeWire LLC of massive copyright infringement.”  RIAA is requesting that LimeWire be shut down.  The companies that are filing the lawsuit are members of the National Music publishers association (NMPA), EMI music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner/ Chappell Music Inc.  According to the article, Copyright status provide for statutory damages up to $150,000 per violation. 

Like I previously stated, if they crack down on the websites that allows illegal sharing, it would be difficult for other to pirate music, and movies.  Copyright infringement is a very serious offense and shutting down these sites it just might bring some money back into the industry. 

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178209/Music_industry_hits_LimeWire_with_yet_another_lawsuit

http://torrentfreak.com/jail-sentence-for-pirate-bay-co-founder-made-final-111014/

Networking in the music industry

The definition of networking is, a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest.  Networking is the key to success in the music industry, most times its not what you know it is who you know in the business. 

The most effective way to get a artist music publicized, heard, distributed or a artist booked is through people.  Networking allows you to find people who can help your career in different areas.  Its best to find the areas that you are weak in and find the network and resources that can help you turn those weaknesses into strengths. 

According to Dalena Radabough of Entertainment online “the key to being successful in the music industry relies heavily on using the correct techniques to network yourself and/or your artist with the appropriate connections”.

No matter if you are a singer, band, or individual musician you need the help of other people to have a successful music career.  Even if you do everything yourself, you still need people to purchase your music, people to book you, and people to attend your events.

 Social networking is a important part in meeting new people, to get your music heard, from your friends and from friends of your friends and so on.  Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are good sites to begin, uploading your music and posting videos to your site to get reviews from your friends is a great tactic as well.   When networking, try to be around people who work in your field, people with the same interest as you.   Find the centers of influence, Influential people often get that way because they are masters at networking. At any networking event or party they will be the ones with the most people around them. Get to know them, they can lead you to a lot of other people who might be important to your career.  You should always be in networking mode. 

http://www.entertainmentmanagementonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/12/19/3fcc348f2f077

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/networking