Rawrb.com - Latest Comments

Re: Certifiably Certifiable.

2nd grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:19:57 -0000

Nice post. Thanks for sharing this information to all of
us.

Re: Shattered Heart Tacos!

2nd grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:15:50 -0000

I
am so much thankful to you for this article. It helped me lot. I am eagerly
waiting for more from you.

Re: I Should Get Paid for This.

2nd grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:14:56 -0000

Thanks a lot!!

Re: The Massive Eternal Question.

2nd grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:13:48 -0000

.
Thanks!!!!!!

Re: Facepunchingly Good Advice.

1st Grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:12:40 -0000

Your
article is just fantastic. It contains so much information that has helped a
layman like me a lot. It was a wonderful experience reading your article.

Re: Slackers galore?

1st Grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:10:56 -0000

Your
blog has provided me with so much information.

Re: Irrational Thoughts about being Rational.

1st Grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:10:20 -0000

This
blog is very much informative. It will help anyone who reads this. Thank you….

Re: Blogging or Flogging?

1st Grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:09:15 -0000

This
is really helpful. I got to know so much from this blog. Thanks a lot!!

Re: No, we can’t ALL get along. Sadly, that’s human nature.

1st Grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:08:05 -0000

I
am so much thankful to you for this blog. It helped me lot. I am eagerly
waiting for more from you.

Re: One. Two Three. Not four!

1st Grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:07:21 -0000

Just want to say your article is as amazing. The clarity in
your post is simply great

Re: Don’t pour coffee in your oatmeal.

1st Grade — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:06:26 -0000

Nice post. Thanks for sharing this information to all of
us.

Re: Accountability is not the ability to crunch numbers.

D-ROCK — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 23:41:19 -0000

Great advice. Funny how this generation tends to always point the finger instead of realize a great percentage of our problems are our own damn fault. Congrats on your endeavors, Rawrb. It is evident that you are a hard worker and value to imput from your elders. I am certain I'd be in a crap hole if I didn't listen. Thanks for your audible enjoyment over the years and keep rockin'. D-ROCK

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Pigbeanis7 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:43:59 -0000

personally i usually download albums before i buy them the reason i do that is i want to make sure i like it and im not getting burned by buying a $15 cd and only like one song if i dont like the the album i downloaded i delete it if i like it i go pick up the hard copy and on another note i just feel like im ripping off the band if i dont pay but if i dont like it then its deleted no harm no foul

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

T.J. — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:12:46 -0000

Indeed, as much as we all don't want SOPA or PIPA to pass, it's an intelligent step forward to be the person to ask "Sure, but why REALLY do you not want it to pass?". In a generation that seems to cherish an irresponsibly high level of entitlement, it's important to make sure we're actually fighting against something, be it legislation or for a common cause, for the right reason. Mad props on being the artist to come forth and put it out there that there needs to be some level of responsibility taken if we're gonna get mad about the government butting in Rawrb. You guys deserve the money I and other fans spend on your merch and shows.

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Alex — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:50:29 -0000

Well said Rawrb. Another noteworthy service is the adaptation of services such as Netflix and Spotify, which gives you an all-access pass to your music and movies for a monthly fee. Spotify pays the artist on a per-listen basis as I am sure you know. I think the solution doesn't rest in stopping piracy, I think the solution rests in making it easier to just pay for the music instead of stealing it.

Morality aside of course.

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Lady_deevena — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:42:01 -0000

Rawrb, you should be president. You make more sense than any politician on the planet. Please run for office!

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Silent M — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:31:50 -0000

Since we are being honest here, I will admit to stealing Psychostick albums, usually if they leak a few days before they get released, but that being said I've always bought them the day they came out. I even purchased a copy of sandwich for each of my friends. That being said, everything you have said is exactly what scares me about being a musician/engineer and planning out my future. Being the type of guy I am, I want to do everything DIY, much like you guys, but sometimes i stop and think to myself what's the point? The type of music I'm writing and creating isn't really all that conducive to playing live, not that I would really want to tour anyway. Which brings me to my point. At what point are we as a society going to realize that pirating music or movies really is no different than going to best buy or wal mart and taking what you want without paying for it. Bring it down to a local level. When you steal from the liquor store at the end of the street, not only are you hurting yourself for being stupid in the first place, but its also taking right out of the owner's pocket. What most people don't realize is that everything in that store is literally owned by that one guy. He purchased it from various distributors or stores and is now charging a (hopefully) reasonable markup to make money to provide for his family. That is the same thing we are doing as musicians. We are spending the time, effort and money on stuff like gear, studio time, producers/engineers, packaging etc. Not so much an issue when you have a multi-billion dollar label to pay for it all but when you are a DIY indie band/artist such as myself or Psychostick, it really hurts. What it all boils down to is that society really needs to step up and start taking responsibility for their own actions, rather than blaming everyone else for the problem getting to this point. I support digital media, when done the right way it can be a great marketing tool (correct me if i'm wrong rawrb but didnt you guys release a couple of B-sides via bit torrent?), or even if the person downloads a leaked album and buys it anyway. I don't have a problem with any of that. The issue is the people who never actually buy the music, be it CD or digital stores.

p.s. See you in flint on saturday night! you guys rock!

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Sicman91 — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:11:19 -0000

SOPA and PIPA started because of, obviously, piracy and stealing, and when people found out what their planning on doing, people relized that, hey, their pushing on us that we have to pay for the things we listen to, watch, read or whatever else we get off the internet becuase what we as the internet people are doing is ripping off great bands, movie producers, and everyone else that is doing this because they enjoy to and also to make money. people dont want it to happen because they want to continue to steal from these creators. I THINK THEY SHOULD PASS BUT THEY SHOULD BE, I GUESS, "GENTLE" WITH IT. YOU KNOW, MAKE PEOPLE PAY FOR MUSIC AND VIDS AND RAIN HELL DOWN UPON THE PIRACY SITES.

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Steve — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:05:18 -0000

Rawb, I would firstly like to thank you for putting the idea of SOPA, and PIPA in it's correct perspective. They're extreme means to an end created by an extreme lack of personal accountability by all of us at some point, and for those that haven't done such downloads my hat goes off to you.

I think the piracy problem simply comes down to the thought process of "Out of sight, out of mind." Society's getting progressively lazier in regards to just about everything ranging from fending for themselves in regards to making their own food, to exerting themselves to a craft or job in order to morally aqcuire items from those setting the very example that they are either intentionally, or unintentionally insulting by not following suit.

I hope more people see this perspective, and begin to understand that as an artist out current attitude regarding their time, and effort is extremely hurtful both creatively, and financially.

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Cory — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:18:44 -0000

Vindication +5

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Rawrb — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:16:52 -0000

Haha, no worries man. I wasn't trying to shovel guilt, I just wanted to open some eyes up.

Electronic hugs for everyone's face!

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Milwaukee's Beast — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:13:02 -0000

The problem is, most file sharing *is* stealing, because it's never given back. With access to near perfect (or even bit perfect) copies of audio and video, etc. there is no impetus on downloaders to buy their own copy. So they download a copy of something they didn't pay the right to have in the first place, but they have it in perpetuity until they delete it or lose it or whatever, just like someone who did. To an extent, the argument that people who pirate "weren't going to pay anyway and thus it's not really a lost sale" holds very little water. Sure, it can't be counted as a lost sale (depending on the gymnastics involved), but it doesn't magically justify the obtaining of something they shouldn't have. So coming from that perspective, I understand and acknowledge the issue of piracy/sharing hurting things, though my care is more for the artist than the studios, since they make disgusting profits year after year, sales being down or not. The number of fucks I give if $record exec can afford one less McMansion this year would be less than 0 were that possible.

On the other hand, I see how things would be if everyone had to pay what things cost these days, or not have anything. There'd be a very large percentage of folks with little or nothing at all, because they couldn't afford it if they tried. That doesn't help the artists or companies earn anything either. Hell, I wouldn't have nearly what I do if I hadn't downloaded a lot of it. I mean, I own a fair bit of music, and I am one of those that prefers to own it for the cover art and all that that comes with a physical copy, but I realize that if I only had what I could afford, I'd have very little. That's not too appealing either.

In the end, I agree with Rawrb's conclusion, it's really quite sensible and not asking too much at all.

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Cory — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:10:39 -0000

Rawrb, I will have you know that I guilt-bought the albums that I've stolen (off of amazon, and in person during your sandwich release tour. I did download the sandwich leak before release. I'm sorry about that [Can you hate me for wanting the deliciousness?]) and I would like to formally apologize. I'm sorry for stealing food from your plate, and fuel from your tank, and sorry for being a douche-bag pirate, and stealing an indie diy bands music.

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Tim — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:40:36 -0000

Ryan touched upon this subject, and I would like to continue and ask how you, as an artist (not a label or corporation) feel about this; Currently piracy is considered stealing, because every copy pirated is viewed as a lost sale by lawmakers. There are a good majority of people however, who would not have bought an album if they couldn't pirate it. I personally heard of you guys from a friend saying to check you guys out, so I downloaded "We Couldn't Think Of A Title" via torrent. I liked it enough that I grabbed Sandwich when it came out (via torrent as well). Since then, I've seen you guys live, bought two shirts from you, and *purchased* "Space Vampires VS Zombie Dinosaurs in 3-D,". Wouldn't it stand to reason that you made a profit from my piracy?

That is the point I would like to get at, While I realize piracy definitely does decrease record sales, it can get you something more valuable; fans. Before the days of rampant piracy, a lot of album purchases were made based off of suggestions from friends, listening to a friend that had purchased's tape or CD of a band, or from simply buying it and taking a gamble or not on whether you'd enjoy it. The amount of exposure torrents get bands are greater than the loss of record sales over an extended period of time. While you will get more record sales if piracy was out of the picture, there would be a good amount of people who would not be satisfied with the purchase, and would not continue to support the band. However, the fans gained from free exposure will continue to support the band in a longer scale, and eventually, will surpass the amount of losses. I find this to be especially true in the metal community.

Essentially, legit record sales will net you more money in a shorter period of time, but fans gained from mass free-availability of the music will result in greater profits in the long-run. The one big down side though, is that piracy makes new start up bands harder than before, but the potential is greater than it's ever been as well (more risk, more reward). I believe bands and labels need to change and adapt to the new ways the internet have brought, rather than fight it. As you mentioned, putting a strong emphasis on a live concert experience, something that cannot be pirated is one of the best things you can do. Offering larger options for digital downloads for LESS than a physical copy is also another must. When I want to acquire music from a band I like and my options are the following, it really discourages me to purchase it:

1. Go to a store that sells music (closest to me that sells UNCENSORED music [Walmart, Y U No uncensor music?] is an hour away.) and spend money on gas to get out there and back, and buy the album.
2. Purchase a digital copy, in lossy quality (MP3), from the comfort of my home for the same general price as a physical copy (which is lossless).
1. Download via torrent, with lossless quality, from the comfort of my home (best of both the above) for free.

Re: SOPA, PIPA, and other downright painful acronyms.

Konigvonkrahen — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:30:58 -0000

Rawrb, I'm happy to say I've bought all your albums through either Itunes or Zune Marketplace (as I've recently switched to zune). As a matter of fact all my music is 100% bought and paid for. My bill is probably like $5,000 but it was money well spent on heavy fucking metal.