The MPA (Music Publishers Association) announced yesterday that they are now going after sites that post song lyrics on the internet. Why in the world would they do that? The number one use for those sites is to look up a snippet of a song you heard on the radio so you can find out who sings it so you can buy the album. If you force all of the lyric sites to shut down, how will people find out who performs a song so they can buy it? I realize that the lyrics to songs are copyrighted, and if the industry really wants to shut down all of the lyric sites, they have the right to pursue it, but come on. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. This has to be the dumbest business decision I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Snippet to find a song you like? Wow… and all this time I’ve been using them to find out what the heck the lyrics really are. I listen to music where …um… ya just can’t understand some of the words?
Case in point, I almost killed myself and my roommate from Atlanta when we were driving back from TN, and she had her Jimmy Buffet CD in… I sang the lyrics as I heard them, and she laughed so hard I thought we were going to run right off the road (or right into an 18-wheeler). I didn’t know the song was called “Volcano” - real lyric: ‘I don’t know where I’m a gonna go when the volcano blows.’ my version: ‘I don’t know where I’m a gonna go with a bald cantaloupe’
At any rate, they print the things in the CD sleeves these days (well, most do)… are they going to stop that too? I’ll agree it’s dumb. I guess I’ll be singing about bald cantaloupes the rest of my life. ;)
Comment by Carrie — December 9, 2005 @ 11:06 pm
You’re absolutely right. There is no real harm created by the lyrics sites, and the ban is unnecessary. Moreover, it is hugely counterproductive to the goal of selling music. In effect, the sites provide very valuable free publicity.
This makes one wonder what the companies are trying to hide. Are they concerned that people will decide not to buy the music after they find out what the lyrics are (as recently was the case for me)? If so, then: 1) they realize they’re selling objectionable material; and 2) their position is, “Spend your money to buy our trash and then decide if it’s objectionable.”
What a great marketing strategy! Burn me a couple of times with that approach, and I’ll stop buying music altogether.
Comment by Dad — December 9, 2005 @ 11:31 pm
It’s good to see that the music industry is still on message, that message being: our customers are criminals who we plan to alienate and enrage. Frankly, these kind of tactics make me look forward to the day when the whole industry transforms or goes belly up.
Comment by Milan Ilnyckyj — December 9, 2005 @ 11:34 pm