Doug Miller linked to my download announcement for the first online BlueDeceiver track. A Kind Of Sky II was incredibly well-received.

Here's what Doug had to say about the RIAA:

Between Vlad, Jeffrey, and Cesare, there’s really no need for me to give money to the recording industry anymore. I’m certainly getting more of my music from these fine musicians than I am from the RIAA thugs!

Doug's description is exactly what the Recording Industry Association of America has become: suing parents of children for file-sharing, forcing ISPs to turn over online traffic records and customer information, limiting your rights as a purchaser of music to methods of playback which safeguard their revenue stream, installing malware/spyware on your computer without your permission.

The only other business I know of treating its customers as poorly as the RIAA does is the Administration currently holding our highest office.

I will not sign to a major label, and it's unlikely I would sign to an independent unless I could be absolutely certain none of their business would go into the coffers of a major for anything: no production and distribution deals, no major sponsored tours with "established artists," no "joint artist development" farther down the line.

Our entire culture is being remade by technology. The pain we're suffering at the hands of thugs like the RIAA is the tearing away of new world from old. Just as you would never believe the archaic, old world view of the Earth as flat, why should you continue to believe music must be owned and parceled out as product by giant corporations? I no longer have to write on paper to be read by thousands... why should I sell my soul to Sony to be heard?

Anyone can now distribute music online to all who wish to listen. With a little more work, you can set up your own online label and sell directly to your listeners, and even enlist an independent distributor for stocking brick and mortars. Online artist cooperatives can consolidate listeners and boost potential income without a large, unnecessary corporation taking most of the pie. Semi-enlightened solutions like Apple's iTunes Store are a step in the right direction, but cannot go all the way until they are free of the failed business model of the RIAA.

The parent companies behind the Recording Industry Association of America are going down, and they know it. Their current tactics are known as "gasping for air."

By not purchasing their "product," we can send the RIAA a pointed message: you need to change. It's voting with your dollars. If you take half the money you would spend on a a major label CD and give it to a web releasing musician you like, you've just given culture a little freedom from its corporate overlords.

Music is returning to the people.

In the new world, there's no-one between musician and audience, no-one between music and you.