re: this Black March thing

[manipulant]

I was going to make a snarky poll but decided against it (I can only be that much of an asshole on Twitter, I guess). Basically what I want to say boils down to:

The CEO of BMI will still get his, bros. You know who won't? Booksellers at B&N/cashiers at FYE/ushers at Carmike who're making minimum + .25 an hour. They're gonna get their hours cut

Comments

[estei]

Ugh, yes. Thank you for this post. I have been so frustrated by all this Black March stuff. If you decide not to buy anything for personal or financial reasons, go ahead, but don't do it thinking you're going to hurt the corporations.

1. musicians get more money from merch/tour sales than they do from CD sales. I could go on several rants about this. I work with indie musicians and it drives me how few people get that even "successful" musicians aren't making money, especially not from album sales.

[manipulant]

see, exactly. You know what I'd get behind, instead of this Black March thing? A "BUY SMART/BUY LOCAL" campaign where people share tips on how to make sure actual creators are the ones getting paid. And that the RIAA/MPAA are the ones NOT being paid.

[mrsquizzical]

THIS!

[manipulant]

tbh I've been trying to weigh out the moral/ethical complications of pulling together all the "bleed the beast" tricks I know from my own retail work-monkey experiences and all my friends who've worked retail for YEARS. Because you reach a certain point of bitterness and after that, pretty much anything short of an Outbreak situation seems feasible.

[mrsquizzical]

yes! i like those two proactive things. that is positive. 'buy this! support these people instead!' rather than a misguided attempt to get to people who are tucked away safely in their ivory towers. :/ *sigh*

[manipulant]

I mean everybody could be supporting LOCAL MUSIC MONTH! or USED BOOK MONTH! or something instead of this shit.

[left_of_weir]

Yes, this! But hard to effect for people like me on another hemisphere *woe* If I try to buy direct from the artists who do have merc, their personal websites either don't ship to where I am, or the packages are intercepted by the less reliable customs office or local mail; or if I ship to a friend in the continent where the artist is, there is much waiting until the friend comes over to tote my items home.

[manipulant]

Yeah, I can see where that would be difficult. :\ I...don't really have any solutions, just sympathy, because shit, dude, that sucks.