Don't Play Our Record, You Canadian Bastards

from the release-schedule?--what's-that? dept

I’m almost thinking that this “controversy” is half-drummed up to get attention for a famous musician’s side-project… but, Cliff writes in to let us know about a radio station in Victoria, British Columbia (that’s Canada for those who failed geography) that was playing a song that had been released in the UK and was available for sale on the internet. They apparently got the song and have been playing it on the radio. Part of the confusion is that it’s not at all clear how they got the song. In the submission, Cliff claims the radio station bought the song. In the video on the site, the radio station claims they downloaded it from the band’s site — but as of right now, the band only offers a streaming version, not a download one. Either way, the record label putting out the album has demanded the radio station stop playing the song, and according to the submission, today sued the station — even though they had decided to stop playing the song (along with other songs by the musician). It would be nice if there were a few more details to back up this story. However, it does highlight another issue that record labels seem to be having trouble understanding: the internet makes your business global pretty quickly. Trying to set up different release schedules for different geographies doesn’t work. Plenty of radio stations have been known to play songs released in other countries — so this could just be a record label overreacting, a quirk of Canadian copyright law… or a weird publicity stunt. Either way, we’d like to see some more info on what’s really happening here.


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Comments on “Don't Play Our Record, You Canadian Bastards”

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35 Comments
RIAA says:

Re: Career suicide?

Not at all. RIAA, Sony and the recording industry morons have long been working hard to piss off artists, customers and cripple all new forms of distribution.

Despite absurd lawsuits and failing to grasp the huge market of the internet, treating same as evil plague, people simply find another way to listen.

The good news? Traditonal broadcast is dying under the weight of it’s own greed and people are tuning out in record numbers as they

discover better net speeds and endless content available without

being infested with lawyers and threats.

Oh, and stupid commericals – we sure will miss those.

Yawni says:

Oustanding!

That’s five minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

Way to omit any and all relevant information, names, facts and bring this thriller to a fiesty end by stating the incredibly obvious: The Internet – Huge Circulation Potential.

Who knew?

Do us a favor and just start making up news – and give us a handy URL to make us go somehwere else to get the actual (fake) info.

Mike (profile) says:

Re: Oustanding!

Way to omit any and all relevant information, names, facts and bring this thriller to a fiesty end by stating the incredibly obvious: The Internet – Huge Circulation Potential.

Um. We brought you the *relevant* facts of what happened. The name of the band we left out on purpose, as that would obscure the actual story, and play into the publicity aspect, if this were just a publicity stunt.

Aw says:

Re: Re: Oustanding!

I’m going to pretend you didn’t defend your story – placed here on the hugely circulated Internet for all to read, by saying you didn’t want to call attention to anyone involved. (unless we click on the link you helpfully provided)

And you pretend I’m not really wearing a huge floppy cowboy hat and fishnet hose while typing.

We’ll just agree that it’s all silly.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Oustanding!

in response to #2.

If you wanted to find out more information regarding Mike’s summery , why not click on the link that Mike provided inside his summery? It’s really not that difficult – all the reference tools for more information on the summery have been provided to you.

Noel Coward says:

Re: Re: Oustanding!

Did you ever think that just maybe a man may have vacationed in Ottowa recently where he was mauled by a drug-crazed polar tiger

thus requiring the painful amputation of my mouse hand?

Did ya think of that Mr. Brave Two Hands?

Yeah. I’d like to click a link just like the rest of you…

Suppose you tell me how to do that with a right-handed mouse

and only a left-hand?

bastards.

Adam (user link) says:

this band doesn't 'get it'

the first poster got this right – this band needs to relish in the fact that they are getting airplay in a county miles away – it will inspire sales of their music and popularity, not the opposite.

i wish i had this problem with my music, i give it away free and still don’t get airplay…

-adam singer (www.agsinger.com)

Free Hat says:

Re: this band doesn't 'get it'

Come on Adam. Nobody wants anything free.

Stop giving it away man, you’ll catch something.

Look at Geroge Micheal. I don’t even know what that means

but let it be a lesson to you.

I wanted to check out your link but you just seem way too

over-confident for me. Almost cocky.

If you didn’t sing and just played like, a backup oboe what would your last name be then?

Adam Singer (user link) says:

Re: Re: this band doesn't 'get it'

You need to do some research! My *real* last name is Singer, and I do not sing. I play the keyboard and am a composer/producer of jazz/electronic music, a genre that doesn’t get any exposure except on the internet, XM radio, and through CD’s.

Did this guy really just make the comment of

“If you didn’t sing and just played like, a backup oboe what would your last name be then?”

that’s a joke, right?

-adam singer (www.agsinger.com)

oboe says:

Re: Re: Re: this band doesn't 'get it'

Look man, I was just trying to get you ANOTHER post with

link to your site. We gotta get your name out there baby.

It was all just a clever publicity stunt, see? We major label

record execs do this trickery thing a lot.

But the edgy conflict thing is working – any second now a story

will apear about our very public feud and then I’ll sue you.

We’ll be rich, Adam Oboe. And then we’ll buy you your very own sense of humor.

Anonymous Coward says:

I love the comments on here: the discussion goes from “Radio station issued C&D for playing something they should have been able to play” to “Canadians and Jack White suck.”

While both points may be valid, neither point is really RELEVANT here. Ugh!

Me, I’m glad that this kind of situation’s getting larger exposure; one more brick in the wall, I guess.

Scratch says:

Canadian Bastards

I guess some musicians have the same old mindset as the record labels. Maybe, if this guy was lucky, some big time music producer like David Foster was in town to visit some relatives and heard the song before it was pulled, if he was lucky. Or maybe some other musicians like Nelly Furtado or Hot Hot Heat had a chance to hear it before he shot himself in the foot… doubt it.

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