Every day I read music reviews on the Internet in order to find out about new bands that I might like. Also, I oftentimes check out the tour dates of my favorite bands and... well, always hate to find myself living in this middle-of-nowhere town... No metal band has yet visited here... But, week after week after week, it is enough just to open any local newspaper here and it looks as if we lived somewhere in Africa... There are always at least a dozen reggae concerts or hip-hoppers advertised... It makes me sick.

Therefore, the only real choice I have here is listening to music recordings. But it is not always easy to buy CDs of those bands that I like. Without the Internet it wouldn’t be possible at all. Usually there aren’t many European imports be found at American record stores.

The recording industry here maintains its monopoly by controlling the distribution and marketing of music. In this way it is very difficult for independent musicians to be heard and to sell their music. Television and radio stations are discouraged from playing independent music. Basically the recording industry tells you what to listen to, and most people here tend to buy what they hear on the TV and radio.

That trash is being forced down people’s throats, and the young generation is being brainwashed by corporate marketing into believing this mainstream American “music” is trendy. The kids are being conditioned to shy away from high quality music. They do not seem to care any more. This ugly situation is exactly what the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) wants.

Music and musicians suffer as a consequence. We are not seeing fresh talent in music here. We are only seeing commerce. And so it is that the decline in civilization and culture is reflected in the corrosion of musical creativity on behalf of music producers. This leads to the lack of demand for quality by the average consumer. In fact the modern consumer is barely able to recognize or understand quality music as attention spans shorten. Once it has destroyed the market for quality music and song writing, the RIAA can sell any trash on a scale never seen before. The profits roll in. This is the secret agenda of the music industry.

Therefore, as I see it, American music industry marketing is a dangerous enemy of culture because it is about driving the masses to the lowest common denominator. Keeping the masses obtuse is profitable and that is the goal of the RIAA. And the music industry is doing ugly things to achieve it. If you think this does not affect you, think again. Amongst other wrong-doings the RIAA is depriving us of great bands and great music by strangling talent at birth. Who knows what great bands could have existed without the pigopolist music industry cartel. We are thirsty, we are living in a musical desert and the RIAA is deliberately withholding the water.

Well, they did so, that is, until the creation of file-sharing software programs that allow people now to trade songs, usually known as MP3s, to one another for free. Music fans love this phenomenon because it allows them to hear any of their favorite songs whenever they wish... But, as it had to be expected, the recording industry, of course, doesn’t like it at all. They see only lost profits and a bleak future for their own financial interests.

People have been borrowing LP records, tapes, and CDs from their friends and making copies, for thirty or so years now. Then one day a college kid named Shawn Fanning had a great idea, why not put songs on the internet and if someone wants to borrow they can, if they have some songs they can post them as well and everybody can share their music with each other. He had no conspiracy scheme to destroy the record industry, he just thought it was a great way to share what he had and allow others to do the same. Word got around and before long a lot of people were doing a lot of sharing...

People all over the world were sharing music in MP3 format via Napster. This really pissed off the RIAA who claimed that... the poor artists who made the music were being deprived of just remuneration for their copyrighted work. Using this silly “argument” and the copyright laws, the RIAA went after Napster and were successful in having it shut down.

But then others sites popped up in Napster’s place. People began the think, “Why should it be wrong for me to share my songs with other people?” Defiance began to set in and a file swapping revolution began. You could hear new music by artist you may have never heard before and many people would actually buy the CDs after downloading a few tracks. You could download songs you had being searching for sometimes for years. It seemed like a very good thing for all...

The way that people acquire and listen to music has changed forever. The advent of the MP3 encoding process has irrevocably changed the way the average person listens to music. The genie is out of the bottle, the music business is falling apart...

What the RIAA is really afraid of is that file sharing is destroying their grand racket they’ve got going. The RIAA can’t justify their prices. And, just look at the declining record sales over the past few years. The people have spoken. For many different reasons, people are unwilling and/or unable to pay the prices for music that the industry is asking.

What about the poor artists who maybe were being also ripped off by this process?

Oh, sure, the RIAA says that the “artists must be compensated!” I agree. I don’t want something for nothing. I’m no advocate of not honoring copyrights. I believe that the creators of creative work should always be fairly compensated.

But pretty much everyone knows that the RIAA and its representative mainstream record labels do not do this. They are in music business for their own evil greed only. The RIAA has been always motivated by nothing but unscrupulous greed.

The RIAA talks all about wanting to help the artists who create the music. They say that people who burn CDs are “thieves,” and that they’re “stealing” from the musicians. By “musicians,” they mean themselves.

It has screwed over artists since its inception, giving them a paltry few cents for every $15 or even $20 CD bought. Most of it goes to the record companies. The artists get paid only about 50 cents per CD. Not percentage, CENTS! The rest goes to the Beverly Hills mansions, limos and banquets and lawyers and lobbyists for the record companies.

The record companies are selling us pieces of plastic for the price of gold, and the people creating music on it don’t receive much in return, not even the rights to their songs. Just a few strike fame and make significant money. The rest stay poor the whole time. I'm not talking about some Britney Spears or Eminem or some other MTV-kind of vomit but the one’s who put out music of value, integrity, and are doing it because of a genuine love for the art.

The recording industry has been ripping people off for decades now. The record industry has grown fat. Therefore, the biggest group of thieves who are ripping off the artists are the RIAA members themselves who keep most of the money and give the artists a mere pittance. Most of the money from a record sale goes to the label and eventually, also the RIAA. The fact is that RIAA exists only because of their parasitic contracts sucking the life blood out of the artists.

The recording industry sees file sharing as a crime and copyright infringement. They love to use the term “piracy” for this because it sounds more convincing that way. Sharing is not piracy. Sharing is not stealing.

File sharing makes it easy for artists to be heard. Word of mouth is very strong on the Internet. File sharing gives the chance for new and old music to be heard for the first time for lots of people.

The latest development in the recording industry’s jihad against music sharing involves a conspiracy by the RIAA to sue hundreds of people for sharing music files over the Internet. The recording industry seems to believe that the lawsuits will either scare people so much that they will cease sharing files completely, or that targeting those who share the most files will incapacitate the file-sharing networks. The recording industry wants to incite panic over potential lawsuits among those who have taken advantage of the ability to download free music and to scare these people back into music stores.

When there are 60 million people in America alone that are basically doing this the RIAA wants to scare the majority by making an example of a few. Twelve year old girls and eighty year old grandparents have been accused of being criminals because they possibly have songs on their computers that they did not pay for. Take the case of the grandfather where his teenage grandkids downloaded music. He is the one being sued. Simply because his grandkids used his computer when they were visiting. This is just plain WRONG. I am especially disgusted by the RIAA’s attack on that 12-year-old girl and stealing the $2000 from her poor family. The RIAA would sue everyone if they could, just because their immense greed is not satisfied by just ripping off artists and music fans everyday. I hate them soooo much that I wish personal Auschwitzes for each one of them.

Now, if we want to hit them back, we should simply boycott the RIAA by not buying any CDs by RIAA-associated labels. Since the RIAA is about money and not music, let’s fight back by hitting them where it hurts them most: their wallets. Avoid purchasing music from any RIAA labels (namely Time Warner, Sony, BMG, UMG, and EMI)... SPREAD THE WORD!!!

Simply go to you local record stores and tell the manager that until the RIAA backs off, you will not purchase another item from their store. If enough people were to do this, the big distributors would scream bloody murder at the RIAA. Boycott anything that the RIAA tells you to buy, anything you feel would give profit to the RIAA. Research the subject, find out all the information you can. Do not be fooled by a money hungry industry! The RIAA can go to hell, and any artist who willingly stays signed to an RIAA-affiliated label can go to hell also! Their sales are dropping and dropping. And, ultimately, that’s where they will be hurt the most. Without the record sales, the labels hurt. Without the money from the record labels, the RIAA is hurt. Keep robbing the RIAA until they’re dry. Let them rot in Hell.

Most music that I have downloaded myself I would not get in a record store here anyway. I simply don’t listen to American music. Some of the songs I have downloaded I liked so much that later I bought the CDs of those bands by ordering directly off the Internet. I strongly believe in supporting the artists I like to listen to. But I will not buy any music or anything else the Recording Industry Assholes of America would be paid for.

If you want to support your favorite musicians, go to their concerts. And of course, if they are on an independent label, by all means, show your support with your money. If you do not wish to break copyrights, then you simply can always do this — download your favorite artist’s full CD in MP3 format, and send the artist $5 or $7 or $10... and guess what — they’ll make as much as 1000% or more from you than they would from any RIAA-affiliated mainstream record label.

Listen only to music that comes from independent labels not affiliated in any way with the RIAA. Here below are some of my most recommended labels:

Century Media Records is one of the world's leading independent metal record labels, with offices worldwide. They release CD's from an array of artists that span the genres of traditional, goth, death, black, and power metal

Resistance Records is a “white power” music record label that promotes and distributes not only music, but also dissident books, and other items.

Nuclear Blast is a German record label that releases many popular bands of the metal scene, such as Dimmu Borgir and Stratovarius. This website has lots of music videos you can watch and plenty of news and information on the bands that Nuclear Blast releases.

Napalm Records is an independent Austrian record label catering to all aspects of the true underground music scene. They release underground metal/gothic music.

The End Records was started as a Heavy Metal Record label in California, U.S.A, in 1998. It began as a small underground label and concentrated in releasing quality and artistic music. Within five years the scope of the label has grown and has been extended to even ambient and gothic styles but they always stay within the dark realms of music.

Dangus (The Lithuanian word for "Sky") Productions is a record label releasing pagan/black/darkwave/ethnic music CD's by bands that are from the Baltic Sea region (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus)

Spinefarm Records is a Finnish record label that includes the sub-labels Spikefarm, Odor, Ranch, and Ranka. Spinefarm releases black, gothic, power, and folk metal.

The Cold Meat Industry is a Swedish record label label hosting different Scandinavian bands that play dark ambient, noise industrial, and dark medieval folk music.

Cymophane Productions was a Swedish record label that produced heathen black metal, and it was first begun by Varg Vikernes of Burzum. However, it has now ceased to exist, so all CD orders must be made from Heathen Front website.

Tesco Organisation Germany is a label which works in the fields of industrial/noise/ambient/experimental music. It was estabilished in 1987 by two members of the industrial assault act Genocide Organ. Nowadays Tesco Organisation has its own distribution channel (Tesco Distribution) and a North American branch (Tesco Distro).