"The greatest treasure of a man enters the greatest treasure of a woman to create an even greater treasure." - Darryl D. Smith
Welcome to the 7th edition of The Blogger. The quote was something I just thought of while pretending to do a standup routine. I know, I'm crazy. Anyway, in this edition, should the United States help Africa...again? Luther Vandross passed away this weekend, my thoughts on that. The RIAA strikes again! Is it REALLY worth paying for downloads? And, how was my 4th of July weekend?
With the recent Live 8 concert, it was dedicated to help send millions of aid money to Africa. Once again, people analyzed have we done enough for Africa as it is. My opinion on this is yes. We have done enough, in regards to aid money. However, no country has really stepped up and helped set up a stable government for the African countries. While they are wasting time, effort and money on sending aid, they need to start looking at making Africa a financial institution, so it can make its own money and become prosperous. Therefore, I think the United States and other countries have done enough money-wise. They need to set up a good government, as Africa could become one of the most beautiful countries in the world with the right formula.
This weekend, the world lost one of its greats by the name of Luther Vandross. His death surprised me, as I didn't know he was still suffering from his stroke. It was wierd to know that he died, especially after he had just came out with a CD a while back. I've never bought any of Vandross's CDs, but I did love his music. It's sad I may not be able to add to my collection, as the RIAA is acting up again. Anywho, make sure you remember Luther. Pour that liquor out for him, as he was a great man when it came to R&B.
While on the topic of the RIAA, they recently won a battle as the Supreme Court ruled that if a file-sharing company encourages illegal fileswapping, they can be sued. I am highly against this, as it will kill many artists' careers. Let me explain how. If R. Kelly comes out with a remix to Trapped in the college with Ludacris, and it's not available in stores, where do you get it from? They want us to pay $0.99 per song. OK, let's do the math. A CD generally comes out with around 12 - 16 songs, but for this argument, let's say 12. You'll end up paying $11.88 for a whole CD. Now, I know they will offer the "deals," but those are not deals. Most CDs have been lackluster as of late, and that's why CD sales are failing.
I am a victim of lackluster CDs, as last summer, I bought Nelly "The Dirrty Versions," a Mike Jones CD, and some other CD. All three of those CDs sucked. I wasted over $60 on crappy music. Now, they want to tell me that I have to pay to download music. You crazy. That's the same as paying for a crappy CD. Now, what I do now is download the CDs, listen to them, and if I like them, I go buy them. That saves me a lot more money than just going to the store wasting money on a CD. Is this really a win-win situation?
Now, let's look at the other side of the deal. Certain suppliers such as MSN are offering that if you buy one song, you get five others for free. I thought that was cool, but after researching, it's not. When you do buy these songs, you can ONLY burn them five times. Now, if you're a struggling college student like me, you burn mixed CDs on the side for a little extra change, even though you don't charge as much. Now, I remember Missy Elliot saying on 106 & Park that she didn't care if we burnt her CD. She makes what she loses in sales back at a concert. So, I'm thinking that it's cool to download music. However, about two years later, she, Timbaland, and Magoo release a song saying "Cop That Disc," their way of telling bootleggers to stop. Talk about hypocritical.
So, we are not supposed to burn CDs on the side (which I've stopped doing). Let's look at it another way. You have a huge family. The cheapest present is buying some blank CDs and songs to put on a CD for them. Cool right? Nope. Since you can ONLY burn each song five times, you will end up spending more money doing this than going to the store and buying the CD. However, the RIAA claims that it will benefit the customers. Please. A group at my school did an intensive research and found out that nationwide, with the help of a recent study, that the reason CDs are failing does NOT contribute to piracy (bootlegging). So is the RIAA pulling one over on us?
Technically, it's the record labels who win and the artists who lose. With the songs being sold for cheap, the artists won't really benefit from these "royalties," which the label takes a huge chunk of. Filesharing is what makes an artist hot and more in demand. Therefore, the artist could turn around and demand a higher contract or go elsewhere. The record label, however, will still benefit from the CDs the artist made with the company. Cash Money Records is still living off of Juvenile's "400 Degrees." All of this crapola about the artists losing is not true. Don't let the RIAA fool you. The record companies are the ones who are benefiting the most off of artists. That's my thought on that.
Yesterday, people all around the nation celebrated what was called Independence Day. It's a day of BBQing, chilling with the family, and remembering lost ones. Well...none of that happened with me. I ended up going to work, just because. I had the day off, but I didn't want to sit in a house all day being bored, as I've finished off X-Men Legends after having to start over due to my memory card being stolen. At any rate, I should've stayed home. The reason for this is my car was broken into and my radio was stolen. I wasn't really tripping anyway, as the robbers got burnt on the deal. My radio/CD player was old, and it didn't play the full CDs as it is. What makes it even better is that the office is willing to replace the radio with the SAME brand, only it'll be newer. This proves once again that crime doesn't pay.
As I end the column, I hope ALL of you had a nice 4th of July weekend! It was an interesting weekend as it was a SLOOOOOW news day. Not too much trouble went down on the 4th, which is a good thing. Big ups to NASA for hitting that comet! Well...I'm about to sign off. As always, be careful and stay out of the sun!!! Peace!
Posted By: Darryl D. Smith
Tuesday, July 5th 2005 at 2:25PM
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