Sunday, April 20, 2008

Lots of progress has been made

As we browse the blogs it's very satisfying to see how much progress has been made, and even from people that haven't joined our group.  Many pirate blogs are now gone, tens of thousands of songs have been removed, but more importantly is the people who went from pirates to advocates and have started new blogs in cooperation with the labels and artists to do reviews and give songs away with permission.  This is the direction we wanted to help move things and we're seeing results that are positive for the artist and the consumer.  Many people said we couldn't make a difference, but we've made a difference, even if it is only in our small corner of the music galaxy.  Sales are up, awareness is up and piracy is down.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

You must be joking. This is the fastest way to push prog back into obscurity. That's where it came from because there is no way to get exposure EXCEPT from blogs.

The customer is not wrong. Get a grip. This is not about money.

One for the Vine said...

Actually prog had made a fantastic come back in the 90's and early 2000's before the blogs, it's the blogs that have killed off the sales, and to correct you on something: when you steal something, you are not a customer, you are a thief.

Sophie-Claire said...

Why thief don't assume their identity and post answer anonymous ?! ;-) Well said Pirate Killer.

Anonymous said...

I'm too lazy to register anything but an opinion, so I'll stay anon for now...
Downloading is THEFT, unpure and simple!
Being in a reasonably well known prog band myself (our first disc was in 1991 and we're still alive...barely) I will gladly join Martin Orford, formerly of I.Q., in knocking out cold any downloader dumb enough to admit his theft to my face. My band and many others are hanging on by a thread in large part because of sticky fingered cheapskates, and not due to lack of presence in the blogosphere! It's due to THEFT!

If you call yourself a fan of a band and you didn't pay for the music you enjoy, then get lost. Kick rocks. We don't want you or need you. You're no help to us and all the other struggling bands out there.

Oh, by the way. When you park you brand new car in front of your house tonight, I'm going to stop by and take it for a very long drive. If I like it, I'll keep it and send you the money for it. Promise. If not, I'll keep it anyway and won't pay you a dime. Sorry. That's the new reality. Get hip to it.

And don't forget to keep making the payments...

Anonymous said...

It´s not that smart to insult the fans that buy the music. We now what we want. You obviously don´t.

One for the Vine said...

wow, it all makes sense now.

What in the hell are you trying to say? We've got nothing against people who buy music at all, we don't like people stealing it, how can you not get that?

One for the Vine said...

How can you come to this site and still not understand what is going on? We exist BECAUSE you people are stealing our music. One of our latest additions have a brand new CD, you can't even get it yet, only promo copies have been sent and it is already on pirate sites, so don't tell me you only steal 60's and 70's prog (which isn't an excuse anyway).

Anonymous said...

Can you explain what "your" music is? I don't think that "your" music was located on sites like "prognotfrog" or "lost-in-tyme" or others sites specialized in music diffusion. A certain kind of music that doesn't belong to you. It belongs to everybody. I repeat: sell your neo-prog shit to your friends, families, daughter and sons. Learn the difference, learn the history. Don't worry, we don't steal shit. Simply, we don't steal.

One for the Vine said...

I don't know anything about lost in tyme, but the prognotfrog music forum was pirating a bunch of my music, so yes, they were pirating it. However, even if it isn't mine, if you didn't pay for it, and you didn't make it, it does not belong to you, it belongs to the artist that created it, or whoever financed it. If you have music that you didn't pay for and wasn't expressly made available by the label/artist/copyright owner, then you have stolen it, and that's a simple fact you need to learn.

Anonymous said...

Adriano,

It is sooo tireing to read your comments. It's obvious that you are what we call a "prog police" (someone who tell others what is "right or wrong prog") and that you are, as all greedy downloaders do, motivating your greediness with stupid arguments.

Why don't you create your own perfect prog and give it away for free?

It's ok if you want to give away your work without getting paid but...don't steal others.

Stop wining.
Be useful.

/Hansi

Anonymous said...

Hansi, the "Hanszun Blog" owner, right? The biggest troll on the blogosphere, the most useless websurfer in the world. It's you Hansi? The biggest deleter, the perfect troll: Hansi.
But one day, we will find you, and we'll make you to pay.
On your blog, you uploaded everything, along years. No deleters were boring you. Now, what you need to shut up forever?

@pirate killer: are you a musician? Are you prog musician?
Prognotfrog uploaded your LP'S? "Your" means: album that you created as author. If not, you have no rights, simply. If yes: you can ask to delete the posts with your albums. You have not other rights more than this one.

Hansi go fishing!!

One for the Vine said...

You are confusing Hansi with someone else. As for myself, yes I am a prog musician and a label owner and prognotfrog had loaded albums from my label that I paid for and my artists wanted deleted, so yes, I have every right.

I just tried an experiment again last night and asked a blogger to remove the 2 albums he was pirating from me, let's see if he does it.

Anonymous said...

Adriano,

I have no idea what you are talking about. You can see who I am on the list of musicians against piracy.

It's interesting to note that you are threatening to "find me and make me pay". It's obvious that you and your likes are involved in more criminal activities than illegally downlöoading/uploading other peoples works against their will.

You obviously have lost all sense for right and wrong and I bet that you feel that no-one has the right to own anything...but yourself, of course.

Anonymous said...

Pirate Killer, you are a prog musician? List me the works you made in sixties and seventies, and tell me in wich blog your works are posted. Then tell me your contemporary works, and where are posted.
The same for all this blog's owners.
Because I have the suspect that you only want to be noticed by someone. Otherwise you should be forced to live in the grave of the obscurity...

Get a life, get a real job.

One for the Vine said...

I already told you I was a prog musician, and I've shut down most blogs that have my material now, but that is only part of the point. If you would actually read this blog, you'd get it. here is the short list of people involved:

http://progagainstpirates.blogspot.com/2007/12/we-undersigned-are-against-piracy.html

there are hundreds of other artists comprising thousands of albums. It doesn't matter if it is 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's whatever, just don't steal it.

One for the Vine said...

You have it backward my incoherent friend. WE are the ones that pay to put music out. YOU are the ones that do NOT pay to get it. What's really laughable is your threat of physical violence when you post as anonymous, what a sad little creature you are.

Anonymous said...

The dawn of Prog's reflourishing coincides pretty much exactly with the rise of Napster (98-99) and then continues as other file-sharing solutions take its place (MP3 blogs being the least of those). While correlation does not prove causation, you may still want to ponder that.

File sharing is not Prog's enemy. Narrow-minded thinking is (and always has been). Adapt and grow. Be a luddite fear-monger and whither on the vine.

If file sharing kills sales, why did the Arctic Monkeys - one of the most file shared bands at the time, whose debut had been online for weeks - have the fastest selling debut album in UK history?

Answer me that.

Anonymous said...

"If you have music that you didn't pay for and wasn't expressly made available by the label/artist/copyright owner, then you have stolen it, and that's a simple fact you need to learn."

Actually, that's not true. Most Western nations allow copying for fair use, which actually includes among friends (how "friends" is defined varies somewhat, but it's usually restricted to a circle of five).

You really need to read up on these things if you're going to be blogging on it.

One for the Vine said...

You are absolutely wrong, the resurrection of prog pre-dates napster by a good number of years, the rise of napster can demonstrably be matched to the drop in sales. Do a little homework.

No idea about the Arctic Monkeys, you can find a corner case for anything if you look hard enough, but it sure as hell isn't true for the 99.9998% of the music community.

One for the Vine said...

You are totally and completely 100% wrong, it is not in any way legal to give copies to friends in western nations. If you'd like to name one of these western nations and the specific law, I'd be happy to look at it, but it sure as hell isn't legal in the US.

Anonymous said...

I'M RAFAEL MARTÍNEZ FROM MÉXICO. I APPEAR AS ANONYMOUS CAUSE I DON'T HAVE ANY ACCOUNT. I DON'T WRITE TO BLOGS AT ALL. IN THIS CASE I'LL MAKE AN EXCEPTION: WHATEVER YOU DO IS JUST AN EXERCISE OF FUTILITY. I DOWNLOAD PROG AND LET ME TELL YOU: I MADE A LOOOOONG LIST OF ALL PROG BLOGS FOR DIRECT DOWNLOAD BEFORE I GREW TIRED. I HAVE A LIST OF THOUSENDS AND EACH ONE HAS LINKS FOR 20 OR 30 MORE. JUST TRYING TO PAY A VISIT TO EACH ONE HAS TAKEN 3 YEARS OF MY LIFETIME. I'VE DOWNLOADED THOUSENDS OF PROG (MOSTLY) CDS FOR FREE AND I'M SERIOUSLY ADDICTED TO IT. I JUST CAN'T STOP. I FELT THAT I NEEEDED IT ALL, BUT NOW I SEE THAT IT'S USELESS. I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO DOWNLOAD ALL THE PROG THAT EXISTS IN THE BLOGOSPHERE, AND THAT'S MY DISGRACE AND TRAGEDY. I APPRECIATTE THE EFFORT YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS PERFORM TO SAVE ME, BUT FOR ME IT'S TOO LATE. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE. YOU WILL NEVER SHUT DOWN ALL THE FREE DOWNLOAD PROG BLOGS THAT EXIST RIGHT NOW, MUCH LESS THE OTHERS TO COME. EVERY TIME YOU SHUT DOWN ONE, THEY CREATE 3 MORE. THIS IS SAD BUT TRUE. BELIEVE ME, I'M NOW ON YOUR SIDE. I'M HORRIFIED OF THE AMOUNT OF MUSIC THAT I HAVE DOWNLOADED AND BURNED I CDS. I'LL NEVER LIVE ENOUGH TO LISTEN TO ALL THAT STUFF (IT JUST FEELS RIGHT TO HAVE THEM AND KNOW THAT I COULD LISTEN TO THEM IF I WANTED). SO...WHY DON'T YOU USE YOUR TIME TO HAVE GOOD SEX WITH YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER; OR HAVE SOME QUALITY TIME WITH YOUR CHILDREN OR ANY HUMAN BEINGS YOU DON'T DISLIKE INSTEAD OF CHARGING AGAINST WINDMILLS LIKE DON QUIJOTE?