Music Tank do standup comedy

It’s often scary when an industry education-focused organisation starts to simply spout the corporate PR. But it can be funny too.

I receive emails from the Music Tank people, and I occasionally go to their seminars. So naturally, I also get their mailouts. They started life being all ‘What should we do about DRM?’ and ‘How do we make money from ringtones’, but they’ve moved on.

Now it’s ‘Let us celebrate the honourable major record labels and their mighty crusade against the evil pirates’. Believe it or not, the following is a direct quote from an organisation that works in, for and with the music industries:

This week saw the RIAA gain its first victory in what is proving to be an epic industry war against the global menace of illegal filesharing. In fining Jammie Thomas (will the irony of her name ever carry over the pond?) a whopping $220,000 for 24 of the tracks she made available on the Kazaa network, the industry has issued its most severe warning yet to the worldwide illegal filesharing community: “get you’re a** to iTunes… or you might be next”.

The first sentence had me in stitches, and the last line (spelling error and all) finished me off. Their cheap-shot joke in brackets in the middle suggest they may not be the comic geniuses the rest of the note suggested — but then perhaps they’re not trying to be ironic.

And, I’m sorry, is iTunes the only record industry cartel approved site for authorised music downloads? Aren’t there other people Music Tank’s constituents have contractual agreements with?

They started to lose me when they started agitating for copyright extension (despite the overwhelming objections by the music industry people in the room at that particular seminar) and higher prices for music downloads across the board (higher?! are you insane?!!!).

The scary bit, of course, is that these guys are owned and run by the University of Westminster. Remember what universities used to do? Critic and conscience of society. Not corporate mouthpiece.

Music Tank are never having any more of my money, and I’m appalled that Westminster are allowing this sort of thing to go unchecked.