At the Digital Hollywood Conference in New York on Tuesday, co-keynote
speaker Sam Donaldson explained how the conference's organizers brought him
to the event, "When they said you'll be on the same platform as Courtney
Love, I said, 'I'm there.'"
After a few snafus with the paparazzi ("I thought this was a digital
conference not a press conference"), Love settled in and delivered a speech
of her own that clocked in at just under an hour. Love addressed everything
from Napster, the RIAA, ending her contract with Geffen Records and getting
back to the DIY punk ethos. "It's become quite fashionable lately for artists
to express outrage at music piracy, and I'm a fashionable gal," Love began.
"Stealing artists' music without paying for it fairly is absolutely piracy,
and I'm talking about major-label recording contracts, not Napster."
Sometimes reading from a well-prepared and researched speech and sometimes
speaking off the cuff, Love's view was more encompassing of the whole
industry and more thoughtful than either Metallica's "Napster bad" or Limp
Bizkit's -- and most fans' -- "Napster good" platforms.
"Stealing our copyright provisions in the dead of night when no one is
looking is piracy. It's not piracy when kids swap music over the Internet
using Napster," Love argued. "There were one billion music downloads last
year but music sales are way up, so how is Napster hurting the music
industry? It's not. The only people scared of Napster are people who have
filler on their albums and are scared that if people hear more than one
single, they're not going to buy the record."
And with that, Love spoke about her decision to leave Geffen Records. "I want
to work with people who believe in music and art and passion," she said. "I'm
leaving the major-label system . . . It's a radical time for musicians, a
really revolutionary time, and I believe revolutions are a lot more fun than
cash, which by the way we don't have at major labels anyway, so we might as
well get with it and get in the game. Everyone's been calling me, from Sheryl
Crow to Beck to the Beastie Boys. I don't know anybody that isn't watching my
case and not really excited about what's going to happen."
What is happening is that Geffen Records will not back down quietly. Last
January the label filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Hole for
unspecified damages, maintaining that the band owes the label five more
albums. Hole contends that California's personal service contracts limit the
term of contract to seven years, and therefore the band is no longer
obligated to record for Geffen. If Geffen wins, the band would not be allowed
to record under the name Hole for any other label.
As the band's Web Site, www.holemusic.com, proves, Hole are already forging
ahead without a label. The site offers MP3s, videos, updates on band member's
side projects as well as Love's picks for everything from music to books, to
other Web sites and an "Ask Hole" forum for fans to post questions to each
band member.
Love concluded by restating her newfound love for DIY: "If these major labels
aren't going to do for me what I can do for myself with my nineteen-year-old
Web mistress Brooke [Barnett], which is drive millions and millions of people
in less than a month by just doing that Web site, and providing real content
for that Web site, than they can go to hell."
