Knowledge Oracle

The Noble:
"Keep on keeping on!" -The Redskins

" But punk rock is NOT about money, so let the pirates be. Most important thing is to minimise our participation in their culture of greed. Draw the line somewhere, and avoid contributing to their system."

Agreed, but are we not contributing to their system when we allow such blatant robbery to happen right under our noses? Especially when it only benefits the pirates and NOT the scene, because we all know we could use the money.

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	DIY Knowledge Oracle
	COMMUNION #2 The pros and cons of being DIY The Realist \|The Idealist \| The Businessman \| The Noble \| The Loser \| The Warrior \| The Survivor The businessman: "stand and deliver! Your money or your life!" -The Redskins "If there's a demand then we need to supply it, even when it means resorting to piracy or other illegal methods. It's our job to meet it." Many of us are crying foul over what happened to The Bollocks tape. The band recorded it cheap. "Pay no more than 4 Ringgits [roughly $1.1USD]" , it says on the cover. Awesome. Great music, good lyrics at such a brilliant price. But what happened to the tapes? Since it's popular and people were demanding it, the salesmen, the shop owners, etc. wanted to have it sold at their shops. But when there is no distributor dealing with The Bollocks, they decided to pirate the tape. Blank out the "Pay no more.." tag, print it, duplicate it and sell at the shops for 9 ringgits! But none of that RM9 will ever spend time in The Bollock's pockets. So far, it is estimated that the pirates have sold between 3,000 to 4,000 copies! It's available nationwide, everywhere. So who benefits here? According to some sources, The Bollocks managed to sell 1,000 copies of the tapes through their own DIY way (via distros, tables at gigs and mail order) and that's outstanding. But does anybody think about how much money the pirates made and are still making? Carburator Dung's first album, released in September '93 is still selling. That's 6 long years. So we can see how long these pirates are going to hawk The Bollocks' tape. And how much more money will they make? Imagine if The Bollocks got that money, they would have done more recordings, or help other bands such as 76 Seconds and others. Kuala Pilah could have been a thriving scene. If we don't learn from our mistakes then we are cursed to repeat them, again and again. Personally, I have been ripped off far too many times to lay my arse on the line again. (...) So what do we do? Resign to the fact and be eaten, used, raped and abused alive by these people? Well, we cant afford to be exploited like that. Our music is ours; our sweat, our blood and our tears. Now we are in a quandary. What do we do?
	The Noble: "Keep on keeping on!" -The Redskins " But punk rock is NOT about money, so let the pirates be. Most important thing is to minimise our participation in their culture of greed. Draw the line somewhere, and avoid contributing to their system." Agreed, but are we not contributing to their system when we allow such blatant robbery to happen right under our noses? Especially when it only benefits the pirates and NOT the scene, because we all know we could use the money. - top - - Previous Page - Next Page - - Back to the DIY Knowledge Oracle -