Preface

For some time now I wanted to get a head unit that would be able to not only connect up my iPod, or any other external device, but I was in search for the elusive head unit that could control an iPod at the head unit itself. This search literally began years ago and there were only a couple units out there that could achieve this feat and for those that did they required an additional module to control an iPod.

Now that the demand for this feature is constantly increasing, many manufacturers were finally getting into the game developing head units that have a direct USB connection to their head unit. Some elected for a front panel solution, seemingly good if you wanted a simple way to plug an iPod (or flash drive which seems to be a good solution in this case) but that leaves for a somewhat unappealing dangling cord from the front. Others like Kenwood have developed a rear mounted USB solution which allows for a much more integrated solution if one wishes.

The other feature I was looking for was to have a lot of information from one’s iPod available on the head unit.  While there are a number of head units that have good displays that even show album art, if one was budget conscious you were delegated to 8-12 large LED-style characters.

So my goal was to find a unit that had all the above features, iPod control, rear mounted USB cords, beyond basic equalization, and all for a budget of less than $225. Sounds impossible? Think again.

The Kenwood eXcelon KDC-X693

I happened across this head unit by chance after posting to a couple forums to find a good budget head unit. There were only a couple quick reviews I could find on it but they all were positive. Additionally there were a number of good reviews for a close sibling of this head unit that had Bluetooth on board but it cost nearly $100 more. While the Bluetooth feature was nice, I opted to stay within budget and get the X693. If I would like in the future I can buy modules for Bluetooth, Satellite Radio, and other features which seemingly makes this a great base head unit to work with. So I took a chance and purchased it through Crutchfield for $209.00. While you can get it at Amazon for considerably less, you have to include shipping since it’s offered by a partner business and once you get the wiring harness for your vehicle the price becomes a wash.

Opening the box presented me with the box for the head unit, the cable to hook into the Infinity “Sun & Sound” system in my 2004 Lancer RalliArt, and instructions.

 While this might not be some exotic packing al la Apple, it at least seems they took a little care in packaging this. The head unit is covered completely in plastic so it won’t get scratched.  It also includes what you would expect; instructions, batteries, screws, and wire ties. One thing that I did not expect was a convenient plastic mount that you can secure your USB wire to so you don’t have to have the wire dangling around. Kudos to include something so simple but a very nice option to have for your installation. In this installation the only other things I had to buy was some connectors and some wire loom to tidy up the install.

Pre-wiring

Thanks to a bit more standardization over the years, almost anyone can wire up your harness adapter to your head unit harness. I have done a lot of installs in the past where you had to be performing all of this wiring inside the car so it’s nice to be able to literally plug and play and drive.

As mentioned above I own a 2004 Lancer RalliArt with the “Sun and Sound” system. I will be the first to admit that the stock system really does not sound that bad. While you don’t have discrete audio adjustments, the seven speaker system does an adequate job of reproducing sound at even fairly loud levels.  This is helped with the separate amp located under the driver’s seat pushing out a Mitsubishi reported 310 watts. OK so this is an exaggeration IMO, but it probably does push out a respectable clean 40-50 watts per channel.

One thing I was a little disappointed in with Mitsubishi is the amp only has four discrete channels. I had assumed given that it had a subwoofer that there would be 5 channels. I can only assume that they have some inline crossovers off the rear channels. No biggie in the end. If I really want to I can always remove the current sub and put a replacement sub in with a separate amp.

I spent probably 10 minutes wiring up the harness together. Since I am going to plug into the existing Infinity amp I only have to connect up 5 wires; constant power (yellow), power (red), “antenna power” (blue), illumination (orange), and remote power (blue-striped). Everything else will be connected via RCA to the head unit.

One small nitpick in this was that the constant power and the main power lengths of wire on the Kenwood side of the harness was longer than the rest of the wires. No real biggie, just a nitpick. To tidy up the install I cut a couple lengths of wire loom and stuffed my wires inside.

Installation

Installation was pretty much a breeze thanks to the wiring harness. It just takes four screws to get access to the radio. Another small nitpick thanks to the people at Mitsubishi is there is no ground wire at the OEM harness. I finally found a place to hook up the ground but it’s just a little burdensome that there would be such a glaring omission from a harness.

There is a great spot in the Lancer to place a iPod or iTouch/iPhone and that is in the little plastic tray of the two-chamber center console. Again just two screws anchors it down and after about 20 minutes I fished through the Kenwood USB cable and coupled it with a standard Apple USB cable. The finished product looks like this.

Once everything is snapped back together the installation was finished. I wish the head unit was flush, or that it was slight more risen so you can put the trim ring on. But otherwise this was a pretty easy install.

First Thoughts

My very first thoughts on the X693 is WOW, this thing has so many options, so many in fact that it took me a good hour plus to acquaint myself with all the features and nuances of the unit. Even things like setting the date took an extra minute because you have to set it in standby mode. That being said I would rather have to spend a little time on such a full features product than to have fewer features.

Everything is customizable. The head unit colors are customizable down to the left and right knob lights. The display can give you a number of different settings and text combinations. Sound is extraordinarily customizable with different EQs, cabin profiles, even speaker size profiles to maximize the sound from your head unit. Unfortunately I can only take advantage of some of the features since I don’t use the head unit amp, but right out of the gate it made the Infinity system sound better, and with some tweaks it sounded really, really good.

The Bad Things

So this is not far from perfect so let’s list out the imperfections of the unit. First the display reflects lot of glare, almost the point that it’s unreadable. Luckily there is a contrast option to help brighten up the display to combat the glare.

The radio presets have no direct input on the face panel. Now this isn’t a big deal since you just select the search function and it lists the six presets per bank (3 FM banks and 1 AM bank), but it is only listed as “Preset 1”, “Preset 2”. It would have been nice if Kenwood would have displayed the station and possibly call letters for each preset.

It would have been nice to have two small FF/RW buttons on the display. This is solved by the right jog wheel but it seems to take an extra push from time to time for it to register.

There might be a way to turn off some of the animation of the head unit but I have not seen that option yet. When you switch between menus or sources it goes through little short animation bursts that I could do without.

The Good Things

There are a lot of things to praise about this unit. The audio sounds above average especially with the price point of this head unit. The direct iPod control seems to be spot on only taking a couple seconds to register songs from a 80GB iPod Classic or a iPhone 3G v3.0 8GB. The radio turner is superb pulling in stations the stock head unit could not and its RDS tagging comes up quickly. There was a comment on Amazon that stated “this is the head unit for geeks” and I could not agree more. While I could see this being intimidating for some, for anyone with a grasp on technology can discover a treasure trove of features and dial in the head unit to act exactly as they want.

Conclusion

While I have only had this for a day now I am thoroughly impressed with it thus far. Far from perfect this unit has features that some units $100, $200, even $300 or more simply do not have, I have had Kenwood eXcelon equipment in the past, namely some V12 amps about 10 years ago and I was very impressed with those amps as I am now with the X693. I will have a longer term synopsis later on this after it’s broken in for a couple months, but for now I will be enjoying my long rides from NY to VA and back with an incredible new head unit.

Over at Ars Technica a thread in the Battlefront has brought the argument of downloads, iTunes, p2p, and other mediums back into the sunlight. I used to be a DJ (radio, clubs) and own a lot of CDs. I have since ripped my entire collection. However I have not bought a phyical CD for myself since the summer of 1999 when Kozmo (the now defunct Blockbuster competitor) where I bought 4 new CDs for a $7.99 special.Personally I have purchased 20 songs off of iTunes. These songs were either remixes or hard to find songs. I found that the ease of use and instant access was paramount in purchasing these songs. I have never bought a full album.

Now I won’t lie. I have downloaded various albums that peeked my curiosity. Do I consider this a lost sale or “stealing”? No. Why? For starters I would have NEVER bought the album in the first place. Few new artists really hold my interest now, and I mostly play from my older collection. Did I “steal” their songs? Absolutely not. To steal is to deprive someone of a physical object. While you may argue that the physical object was money, it was never to be had in the first place. Again I would have never bought it in the first place.

What is funny is before 12/16/1997 the act of distributing music for free was perfectly legal in the US, but thanks to the NET ACT this made it illegal. Coupled with the seemingly endless copyright extensions and heavy handed RIAA pursuits this climate we see here today. What has lacked is serious debate about a number of topics in congress and because of that, things like the NET ACT and other favorable laws have crept into the system and has perverted this marketplace.

RIAA has always been an 800-lb gorilla anytime something changes their business model. Reel to reel tapes, 8 tracks, DAT, CDs, Mini Disc, iPods have all served as some form of catalyst for RIAA challenges. Must we forget when the Rio PMP 300 hit the market in 1998 RIAA tried to make it illegal or that when you purchased a cassette tape there was a tax built into it to compensate RIAA (but not the artists). And for those in previous pages that has been on this “illegal this” and “illegal that” tip, let’s remember RIAA has played a major role in illegal activities like price fixing in downloads and price fixing of CDs. RIAA has not allowed for real free market competition.

The time has come for real reform and a level playing field in the music industry. Let’s investigate copyright laws that reverts back to “limited” ownership. Let’s make works for hire illegal in the music industry so artists control their fate. Let’s make sure that music prices are fair and that all music is available for vendors like Apple.

I’ve been spending a large part of my free time re-ripping my personal CD collection into iTunes, naturally rating the tunes. So far I have ran into only one CD that literally every song (except the :35 intro) i not only rated, but was rated 3+ stars (out of 5). That CD is Lauryn Hill’s: Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Of course I love this CD, but after relistning to this CD 6 years after its release, it’s still a timeless classic, up there with Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I’ll even one up that, this CD is simply the best CD ever produced given that 15 of it’s 16 tracks are all great works of art and all appear on one CD.

So for those that have not bought and or listened to this CD, please take some time to prevue the songs. I am certian you will draw the same conclusions I have.

Music has always been a passion of mine. I’ve DJ’ed at radio and clubs, and thanks to the wonderful invention of mp3′s, I have 53GB+ of music (personal collection and file sharing) on my HD.

So below is a list of my “quintessential must haves”. 

Best In Hip-Hop
Tribe Called Quest: Peoples Instinctive …
Tribe Called Quest: Midnight Marauders
Public Enemy: Takes a Nation of Millions
Brand Nubian: One For All
Wu-Tang: Enter the 36 Chambers
Run DMC: Raising Hell
Roots: Illedelph Halflife
Notorius BIG: Life After Death
KRS One: The Sneak Attack
Heavy D.: Blue Funk
NAS: Illmatic

Best In R&B
Res: How I Do
Lauryn Hill: Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Mary J. Blige: My Life
Aaliyah: I Care 4 U
Boyz II Men: II
Zhane: Saturday Night
TLC: Crazysexycool
Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life
Mariah Carey: Vision Of Love
Janet Jackson: janet.

Other Greats
Bob Marley: Exodus
Billy Joel: Turnstiles
Beatles: White LP
U2: Rattle and Hum
Rolling Stones: Tatoo you
Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Blood Sugar Sex Majik
Red Hot Chilli Peppers: By The Way
Prince: Purple Rain
Prince: Diamonds and Pearls
Queen: A Night At The Opera
Lenny Kravitz: 5
Police: Synchronicity
Michael Jackson: Thriller
Miles Davis: Kind Of Blue
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew
Jamaraqui: Travelling Without Moving

Preface
This article has been spawned from a thread on the Ars boards about the EMusic service, and more so from the feedback I have been hearing about the not-so unlimited “unlimited” service. Being a person that hates virtually everything RIAA stood for, I found myself at an awkward position of defending the service, owned by Vivendi, a RIAA partner.

The service
For $9.95 a month, EMusic allows you to gain unlimited access to their music library. For its 70,000 registered users and the plethora of potential consumers that want to pay a reasonable price for downloadable music, this is a godsend.

The negative of this all-you-can-eat buffet is it brought out some consumers to essentially rape and pillage the service. A prime example of this is on a C|Net review of the EMusic service, there is a person that loaded 200 CDs in their basket in one night.

EMusic was essentially stuck with either keeping the service literally unlimited, or enacting a more conservative interpretation of the word unlimited. EMusic decided to implement that latter, and doing so is allowing the service to still be profitable.

Read the fine print
eMusic has now set a barrier on the total amount of songs you can download in a month, but according to their TOS, never specifically set a number of total downloads before it would solicit a letter to it’s customers to curtail usage. Their wording is as followed:

Because the Service is designed for personal sampling and use, you are not allowed to use any automated system for the selection or downloading of files. EMusic reserves the right to immediately and permanently terminate your access to the Service if EMusic believes that you are violating such limitation.

You agree that EMusic, in its sole discretion, may terminate your ID, password, account (or any part thereof) or use of the Service for any reason, including, without limitation, if EMusic believes that you have violated or acted inconsistently with the letter or spirit of the Agreement. EMusic may also in its sole discretion and at any time discontinue providing the Service, or any part thereof, with or without notice. You agree that any termination of your access to the Service under any provision of this Agreement may be effected without prior notice, and acknowledge and agree that EMusic may immediately deactivate or delete your account and/or bar any further access to the Service. Further, you agree that EMusic shall not be liable to you or any third-party for any termination of your access to the Service.

So with this new position of the word “unlimited”, EMusic starts to send letters and cut off some subscribers that they believe are abusing the system. Immediately, some outraged consumers start to cry foul for their continued use of the word “unlimited” in their advertising.

Legal use of the word “unlimited”
Their use of the word unlimited is not this huge conspiracy against consumers. Legally, it’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet at your local restaurant. Sure, you can help yourself to three, four, five, or six plates of food, but there is this unspoken rule of enough is enough. And in the spirit of our society of turning everything into a lawsuit, many people tried, and failed to sue the restaurant establishment if their trough got cut off.

From a personal standpoint, I can apply that to an ISP that I worked at. We offered “unlimited” internet access for a very good price, but once enacted we noticed that we had a few users that were consistently on 24/7/365. We would bump them off just to see if they came back on, and sure enough their auto-dialer established that they did. After further research into their accounts, we determined that these customers we essentially wasting our limited amount of dial-in lines. So we sent them warning letters, and when they did not comply to be more sensible in their usage, we cut them off. For a mom and pop ISP, this was critical to allow for a good ratio of users/available dial-up connections. There was a legal challenge and it was ruled that we were in our rights, and we were not falsely advertising “unlimited” access. There have been other challenges to larger ISPs like Earthlink and AOL, all of which were thrown out of court, or ruled in favor of the company.

So what are the limits?
When EMusic began to send out letters and cut off some users, it provoked a response that was inevitable, but somewhat irresponsible. Since back in the days of Napster, many consumers wanted a service that had a catalog available online, offered high quality mp3s, and offered it at a reasonable price. EMusic addresses all these issues, but yet the complaints mounted, such as the following:

I’ve seen alot of responses here suggesting other ways Emusic could change their business or how I should not have expected them to deliver. All I have to say is that if they change their service to either A) limit the number of downloads per month or B) throttle my bandwidth so downloads are slower, then they have LOST a customer. As it stands right now, they’re going to have to work damn hard to get me to renew after my 3 months are up. I can get mp3s from a wide range of sources, most of which are free. So how do they want it? Keep going with a model that will work in the digital age (low per month cost, unlimited downloads) or no revenue at all. Don’t give me they can’t make this work BS. The demand is there, the music companies just lack the will to succeed.
- Arsian Banzai51

Unlimited = without limits. IT’s SIMPLE FUCKING ENGLISH.
Anyone who uses “unlimited” and does not mean “unlimited” should be sued for false advertising.
- Arsian Alpha

So what is their definition of “unlimited”? Many people began to ask what these acceptable limits were of downloads, and On 11/21/2002 a fellow Arsian mhaseltine received this letter from EMusic defining their new limits:

Dear EMusic Subscriber,
I’d like to offer a personal apology for some of our recent communication with you and other EMusic customers. Over the past several weeks, we have implemented some new tools in an effort to identify subscribers that are using EMusic in ways it was not intended. It’s important for us to do this to ensure the long-term viability of EMusic — so we can continue to offer our service to you and the rest of our 70,000 loyal subscribers.

Many EMusic subscribers recently received a letter outlining unusual activity in their accounts. After personally reading through every email sent to us in response, it’s clear to me that we need to rethink our approach. While we need to identify customers who are not using the service as intended, we do not want to do this at the expense of passionate EMusic users.

I want to be as clear as possible about what we consider abusive activity and how we will manage this going forward. Although EMusic is an “unlimited” service, there have to be some restrictions on this policy.

EMusic is similar to a buffet advertised as “all you can eat.” For the restaurant to be successful, it has to have reasonable limitations that apply to people that stay too long, eat more than their fair share — or waste food. The service is indeed unlimited for the vast majority of the restaurant’s customers whose actions never draw attention. The restaurant reserves the right to deny service to any customer.
EMusic was designed to be an interactive service for personal use and enjoyment. Our intent is to allow our subscribers unlimited access to an amount of music that they can reasonably use. We did not design the service for people who want to download music simply to collect it or to fill up their hard drives. This would be not be responsible for us as a business or provide incentive for our label partners to make their music available.

Obviously, the definition of “reasonable” varies by user and many of the responses I have read are simply requesting some definition. Based on our current analysis of typical subscriber behavior, we believe that downloading more than 2,000 tracks in a 30-day period is not reasonable for personal use. Using a 12-track album as the average, this represents more than 165 albums and over 10,000 minutes of music. Less than 1% our subscribers ever approach these levels.

If, for any reason, you do not find this explanation satisfactory, please use the following link: http://help.emusic.com/cu/index.cgi to cancel your
account. We’ll immediately end your subscription – even if you are still in your commitment period – and provide you a refund for the current month.
Again, I apologize for any inconvenience or frustration we may have caused. I can assure you that our team is extremely passionate about continuing to provide you with the best MP3 subscription service possible.

Best regards,
Steve Grady
General Manager, EMusic.com

So now they define that if you go over 2000 songs in a month, they feel that you are abusing the system, and will be warned and then if you don’t comply, cut off.

2000 songs, a good value
Their 2000 song cutoff per month is more than an adequate supply of music for any customer. This is a good breakdown of the value you get

• At a 16 CD track average, you get 125 CDs a month
• Equates to $1900+ if bought at a regular store
• $0.005 per track if you downloaded 2000 songs in a month, even at 1000 songs it’s a penny a song
• For a Giganews equivalent account, you would be charged $15.95 for a 8GB account or $22.95 for a 12GB account
• ~1500 CDs in an entire year

Personally, I use Giganews (I told you I hate RIAA), and I am extremely lucky to grab an average of 3 new albums a day. EMusic’s service allows for a little more than 4 full length CDs a day, and an average of $0.005 a track. My personal collection is only 10,000 songs, and much of that was ripped from my personal collection. If you collect over 2000 songs a month, you are almost for certain just filling HD space for the hell of it, or literally only listening to a song once, and virtually never again. If you really like music, why not download the 2000 song limit the first month, and then another 2000 next month and so on?

Conclusion
So clearly if you are not into the blockbuster albums (i.e.: Brittany), and feel EMusic has a wide selection for your musical tastes, the service is for you. I still don’t know if I will buy into EMusic because it’s Vivendi. I want to know what is in their catalog and determine if it is worth it for me.

This entire service still doesn’t address my other issues with RIAA, like artist treatment, distribution channel monopoly, and their attempt to categorize everyone as a pirate. But this service I would say should appeal to most users looking for an alternative to getting music “legally”.

Pros:

• Gain access to a library available 24/7
• All songs are at least 128k mp3
• All music is mp3 format, so it’s not tethered or DRM’ed
• The first “legal” service
• Music available on demand
• Excellent value

Cons:

• RIAA service (owned by Vivendi)
• “Unlimited” marketing is not truly unlimited

Every now and then I’ll listen to an entire album and be inspired, even in awe that good music still get’s put to wax in this age of sugar-coated pop culture. Res happened to me in a video for “The Say Vision” and I have since been hooked on the entire album. Res incorporates serious lyrics put over some wicked original beats and a genre all their own, this is a CD (or download) that you must get your hands on.

First thing that comes to mind is lyrics, wow real lyrics! The first track, Golden Boys (lyrics), is about the pop star life and how many become frauds in the process. Number two, They Say Vision (lyrics) is their most popular song to date (some heavy rotation on VH1 Soul), which has a nice soulful riff and again lyrics to think about. 700 Mile situation (lyrics) is 3rd up to bat and is the first “slow” cut on the CD, speking soulfuly about long distance relationships. The 4th track is the strongest, titled Ice King (lyrics)

The rest of the album is a musical treat in this boring time of new artists. There are 11 tracks in all, so even in day where CD’s have 24 tracks, 12 are these little :30 skits, Res wastes no time to get to the point and deliver.

Res’s genere is hard to pinpoint. Ususally soft and soulful R&B singing style with a more alternative type beat, Res is anything but ordinary, which is what makes Res special.

This is a must in anyone’s collection who demands originally and songwriting skills. She is on the MCA label which is kind of sad and the only negative of Res, because this is an artist and gorup that can make it on their own as indies.

Preface
“Damn you. Damn you all to Hell!” This seems to be the stance of RIAA and MPAA now that they won some legal battles over the recent months. It seems every day passes, the RIAA and the MPAA want to put more of a stranglehold on all types of file sharing networks.

Decentralized = RIAA/MPAA scared s***less
Ah the Gnutella network, what a wonderful creation. Originally coded by some AOL/Nullsoft programmers, the Gnutella network is a system of decentralized file sharing comuters that come together to share ANY type of file. But naturally the RIAA and the MPAA feel threatened by the free will of individual users to share data. It has gone so far now that the MPAA is going after each individual users:

While many Gnutella users assume they are anonymous when using the software, in fact, they reveal the “IP” number of their PCs, roughly analogous to its telephone number. Anyone with a court subpoena can trace an IP number to a specific person, by name, since the information is stored by Internet-service providers.

That’s the tack taken by the Motion Picture Association of America, which has begun sending out legal notices to the Internet-service providers of Gnutella users caught exchanging pirated movies. – (WSJ)

So Road Runner is going to shut down my IP at the behest of the MPAA? I don’t think so. They get their $39.95/mo from my checking account and they shouldn’t care what traffic is going over my coax. But then if you consider Road Runner in this area is controlled by AOL/Time Warner, then I become a little mad. Mad because a media giant can theoretically control what IP traffic I send and receive, what movies I watch and what music they can force down my throat and over the airwaves.

Arrrrrr, Pirates!
So now they come after the users. The consumers. The people that spend billions of the hard earned money on their products. Most people that download mp3′s or mpeg’s/avi’s ultimately buy the licensed copy.

I personally have a collection of over 500 CD’s. I personally haven’t bought any new CD since 12/31/1999 because of my ongoing boycott over their price gouging and mostly crummy music coming out as of late.

So they label me and millions other pirates. “Kill one person, label me a murderer, kill a million, label be a conquer”. I hope that these millions of pirates, including myself, overtake the RIAA and the MPAA and force better music, movies at REASONABLE prices. I am sorry, but Eden’s Crush new LP is not worth $17.99.

I bet if the RIAA started charging $9.99 for CD’s there would be less file sharing use of the masses. Not everyone, but many would flock back to CD’s.

As for the MPAA, they shouldn’t fear the Gnutella network that much. Most people don’t have the patience to spend hours downloading a very inferior copy of a movie. I personally don’t have any, so don’t try to go after me.

Sales figures. An illusion?
RIAA’s quote on numbers not too long ago show stated a huge decrease in album sales but what they fail to mention is the details of the sales:

Despite a very strong first half of the year, the market for recorded music, measured by what manufacturers ship to retail, sharply declined in the last six months of 2000. However, the mainstay of the recording industry, the full-length compact disc, continued to grow in dollar value, according to a report released this week by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

While full-length CDs increased 3.1% in dollar value over last year, manufacturers saw their bottom line drop nearly 7% in unit shipments, while the dollar value of those units declined 1.8% from $14.6 billion in ’99 to $14.3 billion last year.

This decrease is largely attributed to a dramatic reduction in shipments of CD singles which fell 38.8% in 2000. This one-year decrease in CD singles shipments is preceded by a 200% growth between 1995 and 1997 and flat growth in ’98 and ’99. – (the full RIAA sales article)

So who cares if Full length CD sales slipped slightly. Overall prices rose 3.1%. RIAA overall lost three million in total value. How RIAA came up with this “huge decrease in sales” was in sales of CD singles down 50%.
This is a great thing for consumers because CD Singles are priced from $2.99 – $8.99, for one song! Outrageous! If $14.3 billion in sales is hurting, sign me up, I want some of that money.

RIAA also fails to take into account that overall consumer sales in the 2nd half of 2000 were miserable. So combine all those factors, and their outright hatred against file sharing and volia, they come out with a scathing report that Napster is killing CD sales. How nice. Maybe I should send them a food basket while they weep over their $3,000,000 loss this year.

Conclusion
If all honesty, I hope the RIAA and the MPAA come after individual users. This way the government can see how these industries are bulling the common consumer and take action directly against them.

Personally I hope both the RIAA and the MPAA die a most horrible death.

The following is an article from Eric Boehlert, a senior writer at Salon and I have been granted permission to publish the article in it’s entirety.

If you have to pay $10,000 to shut your boss up, goddamn it, you pay. — A major-label executive

For an industry that has been bedeviled by federal investigations in recent years, the music business would seem like an unlikely one to call for serious governmental overview. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening.

Concerned about the pervasive and costly pay-for-play independent-promotion system that has become entrenched at commercial radio, some are wondering if it’s time for federal regulators, in effect, to save the industry from itself.

“There are lots of brilliant people who’ve gotten out of the business because they’re sick of it,” says one broadcaster who’s both owned stations and more recently managed a cluster of influential music stations in a top-10 market.

“They’re tired of people making an obscene amount of money — and that is the right word, obscene — and the obscene amount of abuse that’s going on. It’s just wrong. We need regulators to look at it, someone who stands up and says this stinks. Because the airwaves belong to the public, they’re federally licensed. You can’t do anything you want with them.”

The question has become more pressing with the announcement that industry heavyweight Clear Channel Communications, which owns 1,200 radio stations, is on the verge of finalizing an exclusive agreement with the independent promotion firm Tri State Promotions and Marketing.

As a recent report in Salon detailed, record companies pay the independent promoters, or “indies,” hundreds of millions of dollars each year to ensure that the records the companies release get played on the radio; the indies, in turn, slip the radio stations a large chunk of this income in the form of on-the-books “promotional expenses.” With a partnership formed, the rivers of money start flowing between labels, indies and stations.

Sources say that the money goes to the stations below-board as well: They say that broadcasters get money in different forms — in vacations at hotels and on cruise lines, and in American Express gift certificates, all of which leave no paper trails. In the end, it’s doubtful that even the extraordinary sums the record companies admit they’re paying equals the actual amount of money changing hands.

- – - – - – - – - – - -

The pending Clear Channel-Tri State alliance, the industry worries, will give Tri State extraordinary leverage and the clout to charge record labels even more money for station airplay. And it will solidify a system that awards the airwaves to the highest bidders.

“It’s outright bribery and extortion, and it’s nothing more than payola,” complains Bernie Cyrus, executive director of the Louisiana Music Commission, part of the state’s Department of Economic Development charged with promoting the state’s $2.5 billion music industry.

Prompted by Salon’s recent investigation, Cyrus contacted Rep. Billy Tauzin, a Republican from Louisiana, and Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican, urging congressional investigations into the pay-for-play system: “The radio market is now clearly driven by greed and corruption rather than creativity and talent. Something must be done to bring attention to this, and I strongly believe that swift federal action is necessary.”

Cyrus’ concerns are being looked at by staff counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which Tauzin chairs, according to Tauzin spokesman Ken Johnson. The practice, Johnson says, has “raised a lot of eyebrows. I’m a former broadcaster and I had no idea how really mercenary [indie promotion] has become.”

Inside the industry, where indie promotion remains a taboo topic and is rarely discussed on the record, some wonder how the current system, which revolves around federally licensed airwaves, has avoided close regulatory examination.

“The Justice Department has never really stuck its nose in this far enough,” complains one artist manager, a 30-year industry veteran. “Damn it, if I have to pay off [indies] in order to promote my record, that’s restraint of trade.”

A veteran of the promotion business agrees: “I don’t know what exactly will trip the [Department of Justice's] trigger if it hasn’t already been tripped. There are certainly enough smatterings of improprieties in this ordeal. If an investigation happened, we could once and for all put this whole thing to rest, and the industry would be better for it.

“Instead, it’s ‘Hey, everybody’s doing it.’”

The Federal Communications Commission has jurisdiction over any payola complaints; it would pass along matters to the Department of Justice if enforcement is needed. But the FCC acts only if a formal complaint is filed that someone at a station is receiving illegal payments.

Since the new pay-for-play payola has become a profitable part of the day-to-day business at nearly every pop music station in America, who’s going to complain?

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Here’s how the lucrative, back-scratching system works:

Record companies need radio to play their artists, but legally they’re prohibited from paying stations directly. (Technically, payola laws bar only nondisclosed payments, but for obvious reasons, neither record companies nor radio stations want on-air announcements that the airtime is being bought.)

So the companies employ middlemen, the indies. In this age of consolidation, disc jockeys and increasingly even local program directors have little input over playlists; that comes from above. The indies form alliances with a station’s general managers (or the corporate owners) and cut deals, typically guaranteeing a station in a medium-sized market $75,000 to $100,000 annually in what is termed “promotional support” to buy a station van, T-shirts, billboard ads, etc.

The annual promotional payment secures the indie as the station’s exclusive point man, the only one (or at least the first one) its programmers will talk to about playing a new single — an “add,” in industry parlance. The indie becomes a high-priced toll collector. Once that indie has claimed a station, he (it’s almost always a he) sends out a notice to record companies, letting them know he will invoice them, on average $1,000, every time the station adds a new song to its playlist. If indies don’t get paid, the songs don’t get played.

Considering most current music-based stations add roughly 150 new songs each year to their playlist, that translates into at least $150,000 worth of adds for that station’s indie.

A small indie, working out of his office with just one or two employees, might have a dozen claimed stations; that makes for an annual income of at least $1.5 million. For larger indies like Tri State and McClusky, multiply that $150,000 by several hundred stations to get a sense of the amount of money changing hands annually behind the scenes — even as the radio stations themselves continue to boast to listeners they’re hearing “the best new music.”

For the record companies, the system costs big bucks. Launching a single at rock radio can cost between $100,000 and $250,000. If the song’s a hit — if it gets played at hundreds of stations across the country, with added charges for multiple plays a day — the costs skyrocket. Appearing on a panel at the South by Southwest music conference earlier this month, Mercury Nashville president Luke Lewis told attendees his label spent more than $1.5 million on promotion for a Shania Twain single that crossed over to pop radio.

The exclusive station deals were pioneered during the ’90s by indie Jeff McClusky, whose firm became the leader in the Top 40 promotion business. The practice, adopted by competitors like Tri State, has become common at R&B as well as rock radio, and even extends into niche formats, like the so-called Triple A (for “adult album alternative”) stations. Now, after years of fighting the exclusive, pay-for-play approach, country radio may be the final format to succumb. That was the recent talk among industry attendees at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville last month: that Clear Channel country stations will soon be using Tri State only.

With that sort of commodities approach applied to music, it’s no surprise that songs come with a price tag — and that it’s not even a well-kept secret in the industry. TVT Records recently sent out a typical directive to indies informing them that playlist adds for Bosson’s cheery dance-pop single “One in a Million” would be worth $2,000 in the country’s top 50 radio markets, $1,000 in markets 51 to 125, and $500 in the remaining smaller markets. Meanwhile, when record labels submit their weekly lists of new singles to radio trade magazines, the correlating add prices are often included right next to the title.

“Radio’s not about the music anymore,” laments Glenn Gardner, operations manager at rock radio WJJO in Madison, Wis. “And it’s becoming less special every day in many places.”

Says one major-market broadcaster: “I was approached many, many times” by indies looking to secure exclusive, six-figure deals. “I didn’t do it,” this source says, “because it’s morally and ethically distasteful. You cannot serve the general public and have the decision-making influenced [by indies], yet not disclose that to listeners. Because that’s what these people are trying to buy, influence. It’s an ugly situation.”

Yet the system today seems to adhere to the letter, if not the spirit, of the payola laws, no matter how badly out of date or irrelevant they are to today’s marketplace. (They were passed 40 years ago after pioneer rock DJ Alan Freed was convicted of taking payments from record companies in exchange for airplay.)

“The labels, through their attorneys, have found a way to be one step removed from the money,” explains one industry source. “You go through Capitol Records, and all those indie invoices are for services rendered. That’s nothing but good, solid business practices. They’re clean.”

Some insiders suggest if investigators did some digging, they would find plenty of questionable practices imbedded in a promotion system drowning in money.

For instance, the six-figure “promotional” deals the indies make often don’t go to the station’s promotional department. In fact, industry watchers say, sometimes they don’t even go to the station.

“I’ve heard stories where indie arrangements have been made with the GMs and the payment goes directly to GM in scrip,” says one manager, referring to the age-old radio term for coupons or gift certificates handed out by hotel chains and cruise lines. In this case the scrip is purchased by indies in bulk and shipped out to client radio stations. “There’s a Top 40 station in the Midwest that did a deal with McClusky and after he made the arrangement the GM went on three or four vacations every year. Theoretically those trips were for promotional purposes at the station, but the GM decides to take his family instead.”

Or, recounts another source, “It’s like the West Coast station where Neiman Marcus gift cards with money on them [provided by an indie] were used for promotions. The station was going to give them away, and the morning show gave away two, but where did the rest go? Seems that a lot of merchandise was purchased at Nieman Marcus by management. There is no tax implication there, no paper trail to deal with. Just $15,000 worth of value on those cards.”

Sources say American Express gift certificates have become the currency of choice among stations looking for something in exchange for playlist adds. “That’s the way [stations] want to be paid by us, because they can’t be traced,” explains one record company’s head of radio promotion. “They can buy whatever they want; it doesn’t have to be station-related. They can go out and buy themselves fishing poles.”

The question becomes, are those indie payouts reflected in the station’s (or the managers’) bottom line? “If not, isn’t that something the IRS may want to know about?” notes one indie promoter. “That’s the Achilles heel of this whole system.”

Meanwhile, there is strong suspicion that individual stations receive additional payments from indies above and beyond the agreed-upon annual “promotional budgets.”

For instance, imagine that a label desperately needs an add; it offers the indie $6,000 to get it done and the station makes room for the song on its playlist. Will the station see a portion of that $6,000 payment? Says the head of promotion at one label: “I guarantee you. Otherwise, there’s no incentive for the station to make room.”

Adds another indie: “You can’t see it, but you sense it’s out there; the kickback.”

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The extraordinary amount of money spent on indies has another, perhaps, unintended effect: locking small labels off the mainstream, commercial airwaves. “The only people who can play that indie game are the ones with the deep pockets,” says the head of promotion at a independent label. “There’s no way we can compete.”

Consider this hypothetical situation: If a small label releases a single that becomes a runaway hit and is added to Top 40 stations across the country, almost overnight the fledgling record company would face a potentially fatal financial crush — invoices for playlist adds from indies totaling nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Because of the established rules, even if the indies never even heard the song, let alone pitched it to programmers, the invoice would be sent out once the song was added to their stations. And if the label didn’t pay promptly, indies could do their best to get the song yanked off the air.

So why do the major labels pay the extraordinary fees and vest so much power in outside sources like indies? That complex relationship has been forged over years. But the bottom line is the music business is wrapped in rampant insecurity and revolves around one simple, short-term question: Where is the next hit coming from? Period. And the strain internally at record companies to make those hits happen is immense.

“You have no idea what the pressure is like Tuesday at 3 o’clock, if you’re VP of promotion at a label,” says one person who has held that post at a major label. He’s referring to the weekly ritual when radio stations inform labels — and indies — which new songs will be added to the playlist. Those adds will determine whether a song continues its rise up the charts, stalls or begins its descent. In a business built on perception, either of the latter two are considered the kiss of death.

If a single seems to be cooling, programmers nationwide often suddenly lose interest. Without airplay, the chances of CD sales diminish greatly. So labels are desperate to maintain momentum behind new songs, often at any cost. And the indies know it.

“How’d you like to have [Columbia Records president] Donnie Ienner in your office screaming at 3 o’clock on Tuesday?” asks the promotion veteran. “If you have to pay [an indie] $10,000 to shut your boss up, goddamn it, you pay, let me tell you. You’re looking for every scrap of information to give you the edge or to give to your boss. And if Tri State [is] able to do that, and you have to pay a premium, so what? It’s not your money.”