Nettwerk Records creates Save the Music Fan to defend users from RIAA

Previously on this blog, I posted about Nettwerk Records and their pro-user approach to business. They’re paying for the defence of one David Gruebel, who is being sued for thousands of dollars by the Recording Industry Association of America for allegedly downloading music.

This afternoon, I learned that Nettwerk has launched Save The Music Fan, a not-for-profit group that raises money to fight RIAA lawsuits as well as supporting other Save the Music Fan activities.

Company CEO Terry McBride sets out the Nettwerk argument on front page of the group’s site:

The passionate message of music is in the magic of the “song.” The more it’s consumed, the more it nourishes. Music is ubiquitous; it’s a utility like “water,” it’s not a pair of pants and as such we need to stop treating music like a product that needs to be controlled.

This fight is getting more and more interesting…

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2 Comments

erin on 14 Mar 2006 at 11:50

When I worked for Best Buy/Future Shop, I was in the department that was researching their music downloading service, Bonfire (more like in the same room rather than working on that project). Retailers are stuck between vendors that own large content-producing arms like Sony, and customers who want easy-to-access file downloads – and you can take a guess who wins in that fight. But it was a bit astonishing how hard a line the record companies took with the retailer – some serious leverage. I used to get rides home from the project manager sometimes, and he said some serious meetings went down with the CEO on the exact way BBY was proceeding with the project.

Not that you’d expect radical file-sharing ideas from a company like Best Buy, but they are huge and can deliver their own nasty bump on the snout when they want to. And they have made some random moves in the name of customer-centricity – but legal music downloads was not going to be one of them.

They did cement a partnership with the Canadian version of the RIAA over the tariff being charged on recordable media awhile back – trying to mitigate the backlash from customers they were going to get. They spun the whole thing as a way of ‘protecting music for the customers’. Somehow. They also got involved in the initial stages of the Bonfire project as well as I remember.

Rob on 14 Mar 2006 at 23:24

Thanks for that comment, Erin — it’s a great peek behind the scenes!

erin on 14 Mar 2006 at 11:50
When I worked for Best Buy/Future Shop, I was in the department that was researching their music downloading service, Bonfire (more like in the same room rather than working on that project). Retailers are stuck between vendors that own large content-producing arms like Sony, and customers who want easy-to-access file downloads – and you can take a guess who wins in that fight. But it was a bit astonishing how hard a line the record companies took with the retailer – some serious leverage. I used to get rides home from the project manager sometimes, and he said some serious meetings went down with the CEO on the exact way BBY was proceeding with the project.
Not that you’d expect radical file-sharing ideas from a company like Best Buy, but they are huge and can deliver their own nasty bump on the snout when they want to. And they have made some random moves in the name of customer-centricity – but legal music downloads was not going to be one of them.
They did cement a partnership with the Canadian version of the RIAA over the tariff being charged on recordable media awhile back – trying to mitigate the backlash from customers they were going to get. They spun the whole thing as a way of ‘protecting music for the customers’. Somehow. They also got involved in the initial stages of the Bonfire project as well as I remember.
Rob on 14 Mar 2006 at 23:24
Thanks for that comment, Erin — it’s a great peek behind the scenes!