Nimrod Lev, a prominent Israeli musician, and the leader of RBS Music participated in a panel on "Online Music", organized by the Haifa Center of Law & Technology, which took place at the Faculty of Law, University of Haifa , Israel on November 16, 2004 .
Several days before the panel, the Israeli Music Federation announced its intention to sue users who download music, for copyright infringement. Thus far, August 2005, this has not happened. On the cards is also a bill promoted by the government, to impose a levy on blank media, and to use the money to compensate artists.
Lev's speech was posted online, and received wide coverage and attention in the Israeli media. His arguments, previously unheard of in public from an Israeli artist in his position, provoked many to rethink their stand. Following is a translation of his lecture with minor and necessary changes.
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"Personally, I was never willing to think of my audience as criminals or to turn the people for whom I create music into criminals, just because the music industry is in a crisis. By no means should the public be blamed for this crisis. Therefore, I see the Ministry of Justice's proposed bill, to amend the Copyright Act [to impose a levy on empty media] as a wonderful initiative, that might finally convince the music industry to adjust to the situation it has created, and as I shall point out later on, to better address the real reasons that led to the current crisis.
I would like to begin with the opening lines of the announcement we attached to the song "Vegas" which was played here earlier:
"It does not matter when and how the music and all that is related to it became only a matter of business and commerce. It happened. The love of music became marginal, and in most cases it is not part of the considerations of music products, marketed to the public."
Friends and others responded that I am naïve: "Nimrod, what are you talking about? Love? It is out and does not sell. Today only sex sells. Put two semi-naked models with oversized breasts in a clip. That will be enough".
The music industry treats its consumer as a consumer of sex, not of love, the love of music. Just like everything else: a vacuum without values or meaning. But it is still love that everyone wants and seeks, despite that fact that products are pushed in their faces by means of sex.
We produced Vegas as an experiment that attempts to unveil the real reasons of the severe illness the music industry suffers from, and as an attempt to unite the various forces involved in the industry. We did that so we could call the child by its name and expose the true root of the problem, so that it can be well-treated, instead of using excuses and blame. In modern times every serious industry that loses money, invites experts to analyze the situation and find solutions that will find the way back to success. This did not happen in the music industry. Instead, the consumer was the one who was blamed: the consumer downloads music from the Internet, the consumer burns music discs; the consumer is the problem. But things do not work this way. The music industry avoided responsibility and thus hurt itself. It is very easy and irresponsible to blame the public, and it is possible to go on blaming the public and bringing charges against consumers. But this will not repair the industry. In Vegas we showed that the entire industry is based on combinot. [combina is Israeli slang for "faule shtuck (cunning arrangement)"]. What was most evident in our experiment was that it is impossible to unite the industry to address the real problem, which is the combina system. Everyone agrees that there is an acute problem with Galgalatz [the Israeli Defense Forces music radio channel, which is the most influential radio station in Israel ], which acts in a totalitarian manner and dictated the channels of distribution of a song. It is impossible to assemble all those who are hurt, to find a solution. Each player in the industry quietly arranges its own combina, and is unwilling to do anything to change the bad destructive patterns.
Vegas pointed to one pivotal factor – Galgalatz and its method of censorship – and it is censorship – that caused artists and record companies to produce music according to patterns, pre-dictated by a military radio station. Please pay attention – I experienced the method in real time – I saw exactly how the method was formed. It began at the time when my first album was released, which included the mega-hit "That's all the Magic" – a beautiful song that became one of the first songs to be part of the combina system, without my knowledge.
The record companies and broadcasting entities, including the television, produce brands according to patterns which are copied from large countries such as the United States . But in the US there are millions of people, so there is enough space for all, and there is enough to make a living from both high quality music as well as low common denominator aimed music. But the local Israeli industry relies on a small audience of purchasers, and participates in the combina system. It produces plastic products, shallow and dull, perhaps fashionable, but not durable, creates a fiction which is imposed upon the audience: this is what you like, and hence we give it to you. This is simply brainwashing. People are excited for a short while, but not enough to reach into their pockets and buy the product. We have more ready-made stars. Instead of nurturing the love of music and the artists, and instead of trying to create a long term, deep relationship of admiration between an artist and his or her audience, we get material for immediate, short term satisfaction. Just like sex without love.
Today it is one artist, tomorrow another artist and the audience responds with satisfaction, by downloading and burning. Indeed, why should one buy this product? The audience does not really like it; it was instilled by public relationship and the media. However, with brainwashing you do not buy love. At the most, you convince someone that he needs this plastic hit. So users download music from the Net. In the television entertainment show, Israeli Idol the audience spent over half a million NIS a week on SMS [about U.S $120,000). This is the same audience and music consumers. So how can one expect that they have money left for buying CDs? It comes out of the same budget, the individual's cultural budget.
In Vegas, we tried to raise awareness of the real battle. It is the battle of education and of values. It is not just a rating culture, which is the excuse of Galgalatz and other players in the industry: "this is what the public likes", they say. No. It’s a fact. The public does not like it. Had it been so, the public would also have bought the music. As children we used to record music and records onto audiocassettes. But then we would also go and buy the album. We wanted a continuous and personal connection with the artists. The music vendors knew then what they have forgotten today, namely that we must have cultural heroes: artists that are not cloned in a manner out to get our money. There was an added value with a meaning: someone who spoke to our hearts in difficult moments, and with that someone, we would walk hand in hand for a while. We had loyalty and love, and it all meant something.
Acum [The Israeli Society of Composers and Writers], which originally was supposed to be an organization that supports the artists, instead of exposing citizens – should have led the campaign against the system of censorship and shallowness which the radio and commercial players, namely the record companies, initiated. This should have also been in the interests of IFPI Israel [The Recording Industry Association of Israel] – to manage and support the campaign against the radio, which dictates the shallowness which no one is interested in buying instead of spending so much money to locate the so-called criminals – and I am talking of the audience, of small business owners, a hairdresser that plays music in her salon, and restaurants (and, by the way, I don't receive the money gained when a law suit is submitted in my name; the money goes into a pool that serves many things which I know nothing about, but it does harm my reputation. I instructed Acum not to do that again).
The audience is turned into the enemy, and the source of support is undermined. When I issued the song, many in the industry told me that it was a mistake, to go against Galgalatz, on whom I rely. They are wrong. I do not rely on Galgalatz. My source of support goes much deeper. It is the connection and the love between an artist and his fans.
I would like to go back for a moment to 2001, when I left the Israeli major label Hed Artzi. They told me they market me like a packet of instant soup. I realized that they are putting my love affair with my audience at risk. So I upheld my principles and managed to break my 5 albums contract with Hed Artzi. I found the way to maintain this love by offering authenticity and empathy and my own truth, which is the love of music. Today I experience even more support than I received after "That's all the Magic", which was a huge commercial success for the record company. This is the place to emphasize – it was a commercial success for the record company, but not for me. The practice is that the draconian and inhumane contracts of the record companies start the abuse. Nowadays, the record companies have furthered their abuse towards artists, taking the copyright and performing rights from the artists. My friend on this panel, Mr. Yorik Ben David, the head of Acum can confirm this. He manages the registration.
I fail to understand the amazement expressed by the record companies: if you abuse, and project this abuse and educate for abuse, for the combina and indecency, this is what you get in return. What goes around comes around. So leave the audience out of it. You taught that it is cool to be part of the combina. So the audience has a combina, online, and for free. Can only corporations abuse and steal? When an individual does so, you object. But this is your mistake. The audience is the only player with power. Galgalatz and other broadcasting entities try to take this power away from the audience, instead of providing the real service that the audience deserves. The record companies cooperate. But no one makes money out of this, and the industry is in trouble. It is impossible to force the public to pay. Perhaps you can compel the public to listen to the inferior products produced, but not to buy. One who really likes art, and I am not talking of the high-brow margins, but of popular, communicative commercial art, does not hang a fake Mona Lisa in her living room. This is not a good combina. But here we find no value of music, no love of the artists, love which would drive us as consumers to buy the CD, so we can keep it for years to come. When there is true love of the artists and his or her music, we want to keep the CD, even if we recorded it from the radio, or downloaded an MP3 file; we want to have the cover and the lyrics and the photographs, and we want to know that we have a direct and genuine connection with the artists we like. Instead, we get a cheap, valueless product that changes in accelerated haste. Today it is the model with silicon, tomorrow it's the daughter of a "who and who's", and a 17 year old who tomorrow morning will be too old, and will be replaced with someone else. All these are not intended to sell music, but just to market other products, such as bathing costumes, broadband Internet connections and soft drinks. You cannot sell music and a bathing costume together. The consumer will buy the costume, but will download the music from the Internet. We are not a rich society. Most people do not have money, and unfortunately, the bathing costume cannot be downloaded for free. So tomorrow the user will delete the most current hit, and download the new hit.
We do not have love anymore, only fashion. No art, only brands. So how can the corporations blame others? You created this situation, now you should solve it. And as you do so, please do it gently, so that at the end of the day you will not find yourselves alone without an audience.
As for the law – it might be correct but it might nevertheless be unwise. It is wiser to search and locate the source of the problem, and not settle down for the patch-by-patch system. Cosmetics do not solve the problem. Before we begin the recovery process, the corporations involved should assume responsibility and stop denying the fact that they are the source of the problem. One cannot cure the disease while denying its causes. If we eat high-fat food, it will be useless if we find 1001 other reasons, we will still have a high cholesterol problem. Here is an example that illustrates this denial. A prominent journalist in the music scene, to whom we told the full story behind Vegas (which will be reported soon) responded in the following way: "Hey, it's ingenious. It’s a huge story. But I will be unable to publish it. The newspaper for which I write holds stocks of one of the record companies." - This is an example to the combina I'm talking about. And the combina stands above the public's welfare and the need to cure the music industry.
So, we need to reach a decision that combina leads us to unhealthy places. Perhaps one day the industry will decide that they really want to solve the problem before this entire sector collapses. I have many ideas abut that, but in the meantime, I keep telling my audience that they can download and burn my material, and do whatever they wish with it. This is where we should distinguish between those who download from the Internet for home, personal use, and the pirates who counterfeit the CDs, who, as far as I am concerned are criminals, trying to make money at the expense of the artists.
You know, there is a reason why all this is called intellectual property. Once the intellectual, spiritual, element is removed, there is nothing left. There is property, but it is intangible and cannot be held in one's hand. It can be taken care of in one way only, with love, tenderness and education of values and meaning."
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