RIAA Loves iCloud

The online music service craze has recently hit its peak with a major deal signed between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the remaining four major record labels.  iCloud, which is Apple, Inc's newest online music storage service on the market, will launch its service this fall.  The music industry has been trying to figure out for a long time how to remain relevant in the digital age, and very well may have found their answer with iCloud.  The RIAA is a trade organization that supports and promote intellectual property of major record companies.

The RIAA believes that this deal will allow music fans to enjoy buying music legally, and will also make sure that the RIAA keeps the reigns tight on artistic creation.  The "big four"  labels will get 70% of iCloud revenues, which may help the industry get out of the sales slump that they've been drowned in.  This move influences my industry, because of how music content will be distributed online to battle the illegal download problem that's plagued entertainment for years.  The basic point of this deal was to make sure that intellectual property is being respected, which had taken a serious hit through file-sharing services like Limewire and Bearshare.

This very well may be the new method of how online music will be distributed, and will allow music to be shared on multiple devices for each consumer.  This will be an interesting thing to see how the industry itself will survive with this new "big brother" deal.  I'm not sure how I feel about the RIAA's plans with this, but I do know that at the end of the day it's a business.  I understand the industry's trying to make money back from previous losses, but I'm skeptical about how much the RIAA really cares about the fan or the artists involved.  As long as control is the name of the game, it's pretty obvious that money is the only truly important factor in this new deal.  iCloud really sounds like a cool service from what it can do, but illegal music sharing will always exist.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing that the RIAA can do to silence file sharing totally, because if they could then it would have happened many years ago.  The fans will always share music with each other and the industry has always known this fact.  Disc Jockeys at one time were the darlings of the music industry, because it was through us that music was really being heard anyway. With the digital age in full bloom, nearly anybody can be a dj these days.  The technology has been a blessing and a curse for my portion of the industry, but talent will always prevail over button pushing every time. The real djs will always stand out from the folks who just push buttons on laptops.