fading ways music - online media kits

Fading Ways Records & several Toronto Indie Artists protest the shameless sell out of a Canadian politician and potential Minister of Canadian Heritage to multi-national corporations' lobbying interests in extremist copyright laws.

It has now become public knowledge that Liberal MP Sarmite Bulte, a long-time supporter of Canadian copyright "reform" and Bill C-60, has received significant campaign funding support from several industry players including several lobbying groups and trade associations such as Access Copyright, David Basskin's CMRRA and even, sadly, SOCAN. While legal, these political contributions amount to an ethical conflict of interest that should be eradicated from Canadian politics.

The final straw here is that the multi-national major labels' lobbying organization in Canada, CRIA, (the Canadian RIAA) is hosting a fundraiser for Bulte four days before the election. Tickets are $250 a plate.

CRIA, via their statistics-heavy press releases, persist on manipulating opinion polls and numbers to claim that they speak for Canadian citizens and the majority of Canadian artists – nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the interests of intermediaries like CRIA are not the same as the interests of the musicians, songwriters and other creator groups. CRIA can no more legitimately claim to politically represent musicians, than bank owners can claim to represent those who have bank accounts.
Furthermore, CRIA's boast that they represent more than 95% records produced and sold in Canada is misleading. In fact, they represent the interests of the "Canadian" major labels, who are in fact cultural importers (largely of US acts) rather than exporters of Canadian artists. Very often Canadian artists like Danko Jones have to sign to foreign labels in order to export their own music. CRIA's close ties to MP Bulte ("they are my friends", she explained) are questionable and objectionable. Fading Ways Records believes that Canadian Heritage should be controlled by true Canadian cultural interests, not political sell-outs.

CRIA and the majors have launched a massive PR assault to convince the Canadian public that downloading and file-sharing hurts record sales – again, in the independent sector, nothing could be further from the truth. The internet helps new fans discover new artists, and "piracy" is nothing but a scapegoat for the major label's failing business models that date back to the booming 80s. Indie CD sales are up, while major labels' sales are down due to the rise in the DVD market, and the high-price of sub-quality releases they peddle to the masses via huge marketing budgets.

Lastly, CRIA's press release this past week dared to accuse the NDP of "abandoning their traditional support for artists" in order to attack the NDP Parkdale candidate, Peggy Nash. (CRIA candidate Sam Bulte's opponent). Not true – the NDP is the only party that is aware of CRIA's corporate attempt to hijack Canadian copyright legislation, which at this point remains the most balanced and fair copyright act when compared to the USA's DMCA and the EU's IP Enforcement Directive. One particular NDP candidate, Charlie Angus, is an independent musician, author and broadcaster himself.

Bill C-60, which Bulte and CRIA support, and Angus criticizes, is a narrowing, one-sided piece of legislation that will inadvertently cause law-abiding citizens to break the law. It makes copyright even more complex than it already is. Copyright being excessively complex is one of its greatest flaws, and if citizens and organizations without a team of lawyers are expected to obey it then it must be simplified rationally and in a balanced way such as that described by concerned citizens like Michael Geist.
Canadians, and citizens of the world in general, are not "pirates" at all. In fact, piracy is the high-seas act of armed robbery, pillaging, murdering and raping. We at Fading Ways find it offensive that the same word is now used to describe a social act of sharing that has traditionally been part of our culture (home-taping, mixed cassettes, etc.) and deemed acceptable for decades. What CRIA and Bulte would have us live in is an Orwellian State where present and future teens are limited to a mainstream culture of purchased goods with no room for cultural variety, diversification, or free exchange of opinions on what constitutes good music. One example of the type of "protection" endorsed by CRIA and Bulte is the recent Sony/BMG "rootkit" type of DRM (Digital Rights Management) that essentially hi-jacked people's computers and was defined as "malware" even by Microsoft. The EFF has recently achieved an out-of-court compensation for fans whose consumers were affected by the Sony/BMG DRM copy protected discs that they purchased.

Neil Leyton and several Fading Ways Recording artists, as well as several Parkdale musical artists, hereby demonstrate their solidary with the NDP Parkdale candidate, Peggy Nash. Neil Leyton is available to the press for further commenting on copyright, the indie music sector, and the questionable close links between CRIA and the Liberal MP – a strong connection that he had the opportunity to witness first hand at the U of T Law School conference "Copyrights, Copywrongs" held last year.
Canada's copyright laws must not be hijacked by CRIA and Bulte.

Stop the music industry madness!

Contact: Neil Leyton nleyton@gmail.com 416 721 3566
www.fadingwaysmusic.com
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-- past press releases:

April 20th 2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Toronto's Fading Ways Music, in open criticism and protest of the WIPO's "World Intellectual Property Day", April 26, 2004, celebrates the release of its first "SHARE" sampler.

This CD sampler, "SHARE" Vol. One, is distributed under the Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike" license, that legally enables fans to freely share, copy, upload and download without fear of legal repercussions.

While the WIPO and the world's major record labels celebrate their IP enforcement victories in spreading its unfair, one-sided legislation (via the international WIPO treaties) to nations around the world, Fading Ways Records would like to take the opportunity to raise some real concerns regarding "Encouraging Creativity" (which is the theme for the WIPO's "World Intellectual Property Day" this year).

Citizens of nations around the world that have already ratified the WIPO's treaties remain largely uninformed or mis-informed by massive music biz PR campaigns that have - for years - misled the public in the issues that are at stake.

In particular, we urge the Ministry of Canadian Heritage and the Copyright Branch to reconsider its publically-announced plans to fast-track legislation this year, 2004, to close what it, and many big record companies, consider a "loophole" in the Copyright Act following the Federal Court decision. We wish to tell the Citizens and the Government of Canada that not all record labels feel the same way on this issue.

The tools musicians use to create and distribute music have always been subject to abuse by people that want to infringe on the creativity of others. This is nothing new, and is not a justification to aggressively regulate these tools, as this regulation will cause far more harm than good to present and future creativity. Amidst many other valid arguments in its favour, downloading is NOT piracy unless someone rather than the artist is profiting from it. Fading Ways Records sees it as a plus: it is great promotion for a new artist, and if anything it helps our record sales.

Fading Ways Records is not anti-copyright, nor is Creative Commons; but instead of supporting sweeping legislation that can viciously aggravate the present situation, Creative Commons licenses offer a positive, rather than forbidding, solution. Here are some points to consider:

* The Government, and the courts, have said copyright law is about balance. The Copyright Act should not be amended at the demand of special interests such as big record companies, without a full and open hearing of all the issues. The law belongs to all Canadians.

* The various WIPO conventions and treaties, like the USA's DMCA Act, do not "encourage creativity" ; instead they are a means to the major IP owners' end of over-regulation of IP: in the music industry this means outlawing downloading and uploading of songs, which, as a Canadian Judge has already commented on, should remain legal in Canada. They are also a means to control how and when end users get to access material.

* Creativity would be much better served by artists allowing each other the legal freedom to build on and modify (sample, remix, and generally share) each other's work; giving credit where it is due such as Danger Mouse's "Grey Album". Big Media's ability to dictate how a piece of copyright is experienced or built upon should be reasonably limited, and those limitations should be encoded in law - as used to be the case with the original intent of copyright laws.

* The homogenization of our music landscape (not just via the unfair market share of the majors in North America, as compared to Europe for example) via the mainstream media mergers that have left 5 companies (Viacom, Disney, AOL/Time Warner, Clear Channel, and News Corp) in charge of 85% of our media sources endangers creative diversity as well as political diversity, threatning to turn our open market society into an essentially "closed" market environment that disallows voices, view-points and artwork that is "controversial".

* It's not just the freedom and rights to music downloading and the survival of p2p that are threatened; ratification of the WIPO provisions concerning Technological Protection Measures and Rights Management Information infringes upon the rights of citizens, including the Charter of Rights guarantees of freedom of expression.

The Fading Ways Share Sampler, Volume One, feature the following tracks:

Neil Leyton - shake
Jim Clements - so much confetti
Red Orkestra - still waters
Thee Motion - oilslick love cabaret
Aceface - knock me out
The Conscience Pilate - money & alcohol

It can be downloaded for free via a Creative Commons license at Fading Ways' brand new UK Street-Team site at:

http://www.rockrevolution.co.uk/download.htm

Fading Ways recording artists Neil Leyton, Jim Clements and Johnny Charmer are available for interviews on the topics of Creative Commons, downloading, music industry fairness and any other related issues.

Contact Fading Ways Music PR Astrid Bin at 416.537.3796 or astrid@punchcardmedia.com.

For more information on Fading Ways Music's CopyLeft licensing: www.fadingwaysmusic.com/mission.html

www.fadingways.com
www.creativecommons.org
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 2004

Fading Ways Records announces a new line of label samplers and its first three new releases of 2004:

The sampler EP series, titled "Share", will feature unreleased new tracks from the upcoming new releases as well as selected treasures from Fading Ways' 35+ title catalogue. The first SHARE sampler, Volume One, will be available in April. It will feature unreleased tracks by Fading Ways' newest artists Red Orkestra, Jim Clements and Thee Motion, as well as a new offering from Neil Leyton.

The goal of the EP series isn't so much sales as it is promotional and fan "reward". Fading Ways is assembling street-teams in three of its fifteen distributed territories, and the fans are eagerly awaiting the EP series - via the Creative Commons license that it is issued under, they can share them legally with their friends, as well.

Fading Ways' first three album releases of the year will be:

FWR036: RED ORKESTRA after the wars - release month: May

Johnny Charmer steps out on his own with a debut album and a band that has rallied behind him (Loaf Pariah, Devin Stoneham and Neil Leyton) to offer the world a political (in a Billy Bragg sense) and melodic (in a Smiths sense) collection of songs that is indeed charming - Johnny is describing it as "urban-folk". Produced by Steve Payne.

FWR037: JIM CLEMENTS kill devil hills - release month: June

Raging angels, world-destroying floods, glass ships, grey-clad virgins, volcanoes, murder, self-loathing, redemption, damnation, and, of course, true(ish) love: the world of James Clements is a strange place to rest for the night. But, with melodies this sweet, you'll have no trouble finding peace of mind. Just make sure the doors are locked, and keep a sharp knife under your pillow...

FWR038: NEIL LEYTON beat - release month: July

Following 2002's acclaimed Midnight Sun album and three overseas tours supporting it, Leyton returns home and records the most poignant new songs of his 10-yr career. His third solo album, "...beat", is a tour de force showcasing Leyton's passionate, energetic and catchy song-writing. His voice is at its best, as exhibited by the power-house vocal performance on Bullet (no edits, no auto-tune here - just an honest soul delivery with softly double-tracked back-ups that evoke Elliott Smith and T.Rex in one listen).

Contact Fading Ways Music PR Astrid Bin at 416.537.3796 or astrid@punchcardmedia.com.

For more information on Fading Ways Music's CopyLeft licensing: www.fadingwaysmusic.com/mission.html
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Creative Commons Announcement
February 2004

Neil Leyton, label manager of Toronto-based indie Fading Ways Music, is delighted to announce that all 2004 Fading Ways CD releases will be sold under CopyLeft / Creative Commons licenses, legally returning to the buyer the options of sharing, copying and artistically exploring their purchased Fading Ways CD title. Fading Ways Music is the first internationally-distributed label to adopt Creative Commons CopyLeft licensing for its new physical CD releases.

With over 30 released titles distributed in 15 countries by over a dozen artists, Fading Ways is Canada's most vibrant young label. Leyton explains: "Put simply, CopyLeft and the Creative Commons licenses means that if a fan copies a CD to give to a friend, they are not breaking the law. Even if they upload an MP3 and share it with other web users they are not breaking the law as long as due credit is given and they are not making any money out of distributing the artists' work."

Established in 1998, Fading Ways Music is built on values of ethical treatment of artists, their music, and those who buy it. Representing 19 of Canada's brightest music makers whose genres span everything from acoustic pop to punk rock, Fading Ways Music is making history in an industry where the traditional values copyright was based on are being unwittingly made obsolete by the actions of the RIAA. The Fading Ways philosophy is simple: Offer the consumer a high quality release, and encourage the buyer to share it with whomever they choose. "Fading Ways will also provide an optional PayPal donations system for fans to contribute funds directly to their favourite artists should they be uploading or copying their music," says Leyton. "Our goal here is two-fold: to counter the RIAA-induced notion that downloading is somehow wrong; and to provide the fans with a voluntary system by which they can congratulate and genuinely reward the artists' work." Old notions of copyright are changing. Fading Ways Music is at the forefront of a new era of quality releases and consumer freedom.

The two first Fading Ways releases to be sold under the Creative Commons license will be two new artist debuts: Red Orkestra's "After the Wars" and Jim Clements' "Kill Devil Hills".

Neil Leyton and Fading Ways Music artists working under this license are available for interviews and comments.

Contact Fading Ways Music PR Astrid Bin at 416.537.3796 or astrid@punchcardmedia.com.

For more information on Fading Ways Music's CopyLeft licensing: www.fadingwaysmusic.com/mission.html
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