Tauwan Patterson. [left] Making the RIAA smile one CD purchase at a time.
The RIAA on why they are "hunting for witches", a.k.a. going after illegal downloaders in college:
"...Yet this is about far more than the size of a particular slice of the pie. This is about a generation of music fans. College students used to be the music industry's best customers..."
Before we go any further people let me just say that some of us young folk are an exception to the rule. Let's go ahead and use me as an example. I am no longer in college, yes, [As of May 2006 you could find me shouting the 'Real World is awesome!' from many a bar or house party in Los Angeles]but between 2002 and 2006 I was all about buying new music. At times [and even now] it seemed as if my life revolved around new release Tuesdays. Many a work study paycheck went towards new music, even when I became an assistant music director for the school's radio station,or spent my senior year living with a kick ass roommate with an Oink account who turned me on to the world of torrents. And get this, I even made the trek to the LOCAL record store [shout out to BULL MOOSE RECORDS on Maine Street in Brunswick, ME. Still one of my favorite record stores in the country] on many a Monday night, sometimes in the bitter New England cold, snow, and/or rain. [As was the case when Kanye West's Late Registration dropped and my boy Nardo and I walked to BULL MOOSE sharing one flimsy umbrella.]
Okay now I know that I am just rambling, but there are others like me. Others who like having the CD booklets, appreciate those cheap first week sales, and will even buy a CD we already owned weeks in advance cause it's just that good and worth it, so don't go making all kinds of anger fueled generalizations about my narcissistic, over-sexed, over priveleged age group. That shit ain't cute.
