Recording Industry Association of America RIAA

[Pirate515]

Originally Posted by Gatchaman

The RIAA is a bunch of douche bags! Services such as Google Video, YouTube, etc. only help to promote these artists. I really wish that someone would bring down the RIAA and stop their strong arm tactics.

I agree as well. Their strong-arm tactics are one of the reasons why I've been boycotting their products for quite some time, the other one being that their "manufactured" pop stars such as Britney just plain suck. As I might have mentioned before, one of the reasons why Alizee hasn't been promoted here in the U.S. is to protect all these so-called American "artists" who are released under RIAA-affiliated labels. Admit it, the puts most of them to shame, and think about the dent she would make in record sales of all these "manufactured" pop stars.

The interesting thing is that Alizee is (or at least was) affiliated with RIAA herself. Polydor (the label that released her first 2 albums + live CD/DVD) is owned by Universal, which is a very prominent member of RIAA. With that in mind, there is a possibility that Alizee may have indeed wanted to do promotion here, but Polydor/Universal kept her from doing so. Looking from the business side of things, even if everyone here ended up loving her, they can only sell so many of her albums. On the other hand, if they promote a few dozen Britney clones, although individually each one of them will undoubtedly generate less money than Alizee, together they will generate a lot more. So business-wise, Polydor/Universal might have felt that promoting her here was a really bad idea, and Alizee had no choice but to go along with them and say that she wasn't interested.

It would be interesting to know the label under which Alizee is recording her upcoming album. I hope it is an independent one and not a member of any of the Big 5. At least this way she can get a bigger share of her record sales instead of getting cheated by her record company, which is something that happened to a handful of other artists.

[General Patton]

Originally Posted by Pirate515

I agree as well. Their strong-arm tactics are one of the reasons why I've been boycotting their products for quite some time, the other one being that their "manufactured" pop stars such as Britney just plain suck. As I might have mentioned before, one of the reasons why Alizee hasn't been promoted here in the U.S. is to protect all these so-called American "artists" who are released under RIAA-affiliated labels. Admit it, the puts most of them to shame, and think about the dent she would make in record sales of all these "manufactured" pop stars.

The interesting thing is that Alizee is (or at least was) affiliated with RIAA herself. Polydor (the label that released her first 2 albums + live CD/DVD) is owned by Universal, which is a very prominent member of RIAA. With that in mind, there is a possibility that Alizee may have indeed wanted to do promotion here, but Polydor/Universal kept her from doing so. Looking from the business side of things, even if everyone here ended up loving her, they can only sell so many of her albums. On the other hand, if they promote a few dozen Britney clones, although individually each one of them will undoubtedly generate less money than Alizee, together they will generate a lot more. So business-wise, Polydor/Universal might have felt that promoting her here was a really bad idea, and Alizee had no choice but to go along with them and say that she wasn't interested.

It would be interesting to know the label under which Alizee is recording her upcoming album. I hope it is an independent one and not a member of any of the Big 5. At least this way she can get a bigger share of her record sales instead of getting cheated by her record company, which is something that happened to a handful of other artists.

Wow I never thought about it that way. Good job pirate

[Matrix]

Originally Posted by Pirate515

At least this way she can get a bigger share of her record sales instead of getting cheated by her record company, which is something that happened to a handful of other artists.

This is precisely why Alizee has severed her business relationship with Mylene and Laurent and Universal/Polydor. She saw the majority of the money go to them. She wants a bigger percentage, and who can blame her.

You know its not a big deal if your album is mediocre, but when your album sells 4 million copies, its huge! And you wish you would have signed a different contract.

But who knew? Alizee had no idea her first album would be so huge, neither did anyone else. They were all stunned by the phenomenal success of her first album Gourmandises.

I wonder.... I wonder... if Mylene or Laurent didn't give more money to Alizee "on the side" from their share which must have been substantially larger than Alizees share. Something to think about.

[DJ_Greg]

Originally Posted by Matrix

I wonder.... I wonder... if Mylene or Laurent didn't give more money to Alizee "on the side" from their share which must have been substantially larger than Alizees share. Something to think about.

I doubt it. I don't know, of course...I just doubt it.

[Pirate515]

Originally Posted by Matrix

This is precisely why Alizee has severed her business relationship with Mylene/Laurent and Universal/Polydor. She saw the majority of the money go to them. She wants a bigger percentage, and who can blame her?

You know its not a big deal if your album is mediocre, but when your album sells 4 million copies, its huge! And you wish you would have signed a different contract.

But who knew? Alizee had no idea her first album would be so huge, neither did anyone else. They were all stunned by the phenomenal success of her first album Gourmandises.

I wonder... I wonder... if Mylene or Laurent didn't give more money to Alizee "on the side" from their share which must have been substantially larger than Alizee's share. Something to think about.

First and foremost, I would place 99% of all the blame on the greedy record company executives, as they are the ones who usually pocket most of the profits from record sales. Believe it or not, but creative forces behind every album (such as authors and performers) only get 2-3% of the profits (4-5% if they are really lucky). Given that Mylene and Laurent have worked with Polydor/Universal for quite some time now and made them a lot of money, they might have been able to negotiate a better deal for themselves, but one thing is for sure: Alizee got much less out of it than they did.

Getting back to the subject of RIAA, the reason why they use their strong-arming tactics is to attempt to regain control over both their artitsts and customers that they are losing at a very alarming rate, and rightfully so, as they've been screwing both for decades. Lately, I keep seeing more and more artists leaving their record labels and going independent. With recording equipment getting cheaper and easier to use as well as independent studios popping up who are willing to work with artists directly and the Internet being a great promotion tool, who can blame them? If Alizee is doing the same with her next album, I only have more respect for her.