A guy swipes a few CDs and walks out of the store. A security guard comes racing after him: "Wait! Wait! Here's your gift coupon! You get 20% off on your next purchase!"
Yeah. The security guard hands the thief the coupon, and lets him keep the CDs. But then he yells, "Oh, wait! One more thing! Here's your free raffle ticket so you can win MORE FREE CDs. We want your business!"
Crazy?
Welcome to MUZIT, the latest psycho idea in coddling pirates. If you're an established touring group like The Mavericks, or you represent the wealthy estate of the late James Brown, you hire THESE guys to track pirates. The pirates are then e-mailed all kinds of lovely offers of discounts. And, of course, they get to keep their booty. LOL!
As Mr. Dylan sings, "Gotta change my way of thinkin'" and that's just how The Mavericks feel. They drink the Kool-Aid and they grin from ear to ear. Wow, man! Piracy is GOOD! 200,000 people are stealing our music! Surely every ONE of 'em is going to come to our shows! They all live right next to the theater. If they download free and have a 2TB drive full of other stolen music, surely they're now die-hard fans of ours! Money well-spent in having Muzit coddle these cheap fucks!
Let's watch the hypnotists at MUZIT and the moronic MAVERICKS jump up and down crying "WIN! WIN!"
If you're a struggling indie artist, if you're an old-timer relying on back-catalog sales, if you're retired and can't tour, or if you're just some band that meanders along with threats that your label will drop you any minute...roll the dice and get a bank loan so you can pay MUZIT to help you.
They claim they can track down everybody who downloads (oh, really?) and have access to all their e-mail addresses (oh, really?) and they'll alert all these potential fans where you'll be playing and they'll all become die-hard fans (oh, come now!)
Don't we know that the vast percentage just download everybody's music free and never buy?
Many artists believe the exact OPPOSITE of Muzit and The Mavericks. They either admit that piracy is a menace, or rationalize that piracy doesn't matter because the ones who download WON'T buy the stuff anyway and so they aren't losing sales!
All I know is that I'm on the mailing list of the artists I support. I buy their stuff. Even if it's not so good I might buy the next one hoping for the best. I go to shows if I can.
If I download something off a torrent because a reviewer said it's worth hearing...chances are it isn't, and I don't feel badly downloading something I'll never play again. If it's great, fine, I'll buy the next one without needing Muzit to send me a fucking t-shirt.
It's not likely I'll read an e-mail from them anyway. I'm more likely to think it's a pfishing deal or a dangerous spoof.
PS, Muzit doesn't rep movie studios or TV networks. What do they say about piracy involving movies and TV shows you download, watch, and delete? That it's ok, because these are people who wouldn't buy it anyway?
With Piracy vs Pollyanna, Pollyanna will always have some Stockholm-Syndrome brain-damaged reason to view Piracy is a GOOD THING. It is not. Well, unless you own Kickass, Web Sheriff or Muzit, maybe. None of those are creative artists.
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