NETLABEL FESTIVAL 2007 - Going Nowhere

Last weekend the 2007 Netaudio festival took place in the RAW Temple in Berlin. Lots of people
from the scene from all over the world met in that awesome location to hear and discuss at
workshops about the current state of affairs and to have a party afterwards. While the general tone
sounded like everything is just splendid, „we“ revolutionaries are fighting „them“ evil Major-GEMA
dudes successfully with the Creative Commons license concept and that this generally will be the
future I think it's also time for some honest criticism. A thing essential to overcome problems and to
improve in general. And a thing totally missing at such a key convention. Which was very strange to
behold.

First off the main problem was that everybody was talking about what a great accomplishment the
CC license is – but nobody even mentioned the REAL thing netlabels are about: the music itself.
Netmusic is not just good because it's released under a free license, although most seemed to think
different. Somebody seriously came up with the suggestion that during parties there should be a
visible sign whether the music you're just hearing is CC or not, so people are aware of that fact
while dancing. Aha. Astoundingly that crap idea found wider approvement in the audience. But let's
be honest: the only thing that counts in the end is what's coming out of the speakers. Nobody on a
dancefloor will really give a shit about the licensing model or the lawyer talk around the distribution
of that music. In the end it's either interesting music - or it isn't. And in most cases, sorry to say,
it isn't.

So why nobody at a Netaudiofestival discusses about the lack of ideas and variety within the scene?
The main advantage of the Netaudio-CC-thing is that music can be released without having to deal
with the hurdles of the music industry. The hope coming from that was – and maybe still is – that
finally new, ground-breaking stuff will reach a wider audience, which was impossible before without
a record deal. Wow, so we got the freedom of ideas now and can show the „evil music industry“ the
middle finger. But what comes out of it?

Well, that party night was really an eye opener. There were three different floors in the RAW. Huge
floors. The organization, especially the technial side, was downright amateurish. Total chaos,
mistakes happened that wouldn't have happened to us 10 years ago when we were organising
parties, being merely out of our teens. But that's not the point. The point is that on all three floors
Minimal Techno was being played. Simultaneously and all night long. id.eology's Dual Perception,
HattiVatti from Qunabu, YukiYaki's Scaff and, well, the Jahtari sound being the only exceptions.
Really stunning to see the complete lack of variety and new impulses within the netlabel scene. Don't
get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Minimal Techno. Most of it was proper and OK quality
too. But most of us have seen these kind of parties since years and we have heaps of records with
that same sound at home since long. Furthermore ten years ago that kind of music was called „DJ
tools“, played inbetween the real smashers. To run a whole floor with that sound is a bit
questionable in itself, but running THREE floors and a whole festival with it is completely beyond me.

I could go to several of these events every weekend in any club here. Without them being, „Wow,
that's free music!“. So what the hell is so damn special about it? Don't we have anything more to
offer, with all our new ways of distribution and a well-working worldwide artist network? I really
missed some discussions about that. CC is nice, but what do we do with it? Spam the harddisks of
the world with more of the same old stuff?

Another thing very obvious was the lack of knowledge about the realities of the music bussiness. It
all came down to „selfless Netaudio“ vs. „greedy Major companies“. Which is total crap. It's not that
you're either a bedroom musician releasing under CC - or a multimillion dollar star playing in the
same league with Madonna. The biggest part of relevant music lies in the middle. What about the
everyday label pressing their usual 500 vinyls? There are hundreds of Techno records being released
on wax every damn month of the year. And that's only one genre of many. But only a very small
percentage of those is really in the GEMA. A thing we learned is that practically 90% (!) of the music
in the so-called indie sector (Electronic or whatelse) is released under „COPYRIGHT CONTROL“.
Meaning the artists don't tell some GEMA lawyers to look for their rights but they take care of it
themselves. Which comes down to the same protection you'd have from a CC. Furthermore no
lawsuit involving CC material ever went to court so we don't even know how well it works in real life.
It also means that since long years the normal club parties are events where most of the music is
non-GEMA anyway. The music you heard there is just as free and just as restricted as any CC music
you know from the net. So again, what's so special and new about netlabel events? It sadly isn't a
mass of new ideas and visions – but it should be.

Don't get me wrong, there definitely are some netlabels who really come up with really interesting
stuff, in great quality and far off any mainstream. They're important and much good will come from
them in the future. But let's face it: the chances of finding something different there or better
compared to the stuff you'd find in your average record store around the corner are pretty thin.
Only in a record store you'll get something nice to look at and to hold it in your hands, you'll get it
in maximum quality and you'll get it nicely mastered.

Maybe you observed it with yourself, the net just isn't enough as a source of new musical impulses.
In the end you'll go back to the store. And you definitely should. With the knowledge that you
support the artists, help to keep good quality coming in the future, and that most likely – unless
you buy any Major label stuff – you won't even pay the bloody GEMA.

I think it's important to keep in mind that music, however immaterial it became with MP3s, still
possesses a value. So what's wrong with paying for it? In real life you pay for everything where
people invested time and effort. You pay for your bread, you pay for your car, you pay for using the
net. You pay for going to the cinema or for renting a DVD. And you pay without complaint, because
it's the most natural thing in the world to give for something you receive. You also expect to getting
payed for whatever job it is you're doing in real life, in order to survive, don't you? That's just the
way our society works, if everybody only takes and never gives a lot of good stuff will vanish soon.
So: why not pay for music?

No way around it, most mechanisms of distribution of the money just suck. But within the CC scene
it almost sounds like a sin, like greedy sell-out, to have money involved. But keep in mind that
without any money going to the indie sector the whole sector itself, labels and distributors, will go
down the drain eventually. Remember the death of Hausmusik lately, or EFA three years back and
let it be a warning to you. Because with the all-for-free attitude the net scene is propagating it will
eventually lead to that futuristic horror scenario it proclaims, of having only Majors on one side and
the net musicians on the other. The Indie sector, the one and only true engine for musical
innovation since decades, will be dead by then. Killed by the same people who actually came to safe
it.

So let's discuss more about these problems, bomb us with mails or bomb each other with opinions
at forums. Leave out the CC issue, all has been said on that topic, rather talk about the only thing
that really counts here: the music.