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FREELOADER for Free and legal music downloads
for personal use only
Upon the official launch of Stock and Roll all
music and videos from the S&R label will be available for free
to anyone who wants to download them, without any type of
restrictions or fees. In fact, you do not even have to become a
registered user.
Stock and Roll has found a way to give the music away for free,
while still protecting the artists and providing them with
alternative streams of income. As there is no legal way to end
the free servers such as Kazaa, and as the public had
demonstrated their desire for free music, Stock and Roll will
only sign Artists who understand the value of “giving away”
music. This philosophy stems from a desire to help the artists,
not frustration about the technological advances of the
internet.
The current music industry has a single goal -- to sell the
music. Although this is of course a goal of many musicians,
their more important calling is to gain a loyal following of
fans. The Grateful Dead proved that giving the music away was
the best way to ensure long-term fan loyalty; we have adopted
this model to create loyal fans and to address the concerns of
the digital age. And because you have demanded it.
WHY GIVE THE MUSIC AWAY?
Recent advances in technology have provided the consumer with
free music downloads, and frankly the consumer is delighted.
Napster, the first and most infamous peer to peer file swapping
server -- which at its peak was one of the most popular web
sites on earth -- has changed the face of digital music.
Typically, these "free downloads" are not authorized by the
artist and are therefore illegal. Although the industry has been
successful in some of it's legal battles against these companies
(i.e. Napster), there are legal stumbling blocks remaining. To
date there are approximately 175 other peer to peer servers
which perform substantially the same service as Napster
provided.
A major legal stumbling block to preventing the transfer of
copyrighted material is the legal theory of “fair use.” Fair
use is a doctrine which states that “if the technology (server)
provides a legitimate use (i.e. swapping a non-infringing file)
that does not violate or infringe a copyright it must be
allowed.” Another more complicated legal issue is that many of
these peer to peer servers do not run on a central server as did
Napster. The lack of a central server means that there is no
way to identify or block a particular/restricted file swap.
With these and other legal battles facing the industry, it may
be a long time before they are able to stop all 175. At this
time we must also point out that the industry also has one legal
battle that it could not possible win. The industry could never
actually enforce a judgment against a fileswapping server if it
were located in a jurisdiction that does not adhere to copyright
standards as adopted by the world community.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the
record companies have claimed that offering music for free
reduces overall sales. However, even the industry's own data
has proven that offering free music did not in any way reduce
album sales. In fact sales of CDs actually rose during the
Napster days.
The record companies have also attempted to secure the music
prior to sale by creating the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI).
The first initiative or secure code, which took a year and
countless millions to develop, was defeated within one hour of
its release. The new "copy proof" CD's can easily be foiled
with a felt tipped pen. As the music industry futilely
struggles to maintain their current business model, Stock and
Roll will offer a new more equitable alternative to both the
artist and the fan.
Based on the Napster statistics (60 million users, trading 3
billion files per month) and the current 92 million Kazaa users,
with over 350 million registered users for these services
worldwide, the consumer has spoken -- and they want free music.
Stock and Roll is the only digital music business model that
gives the consumer exactly what they want while still protecting
the artist. By embracing the consumer's desire for free music
Stock and Roll will offer the fan a more attractive alternative:
"artist authorized" and therefore free and legal music.
Further, by offering free music downloads, Stock and Roll can
gain instant notoriety and worldwide press upon launch. Stock
and Roll will quickly gain a large base of loyal users (former
Napster users), who will actively return to watch the broadcast
and search our sight -- as we are the only site to offer what
they are seeking -- free and legal copies of the music. More
importantly owning shares in the bands gives the consumer an
incentive to buy into the music instead of stealing it.
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