Piracy has long been a headache for the record industry. Cassettes proved so easy to copy in the ’80s that the compact disc was introduced. Then the digital revolution, complete with the ease of downloading from personal computers, gave birth to Napster. Today, music theft–especially in the world of hip-hop and R&B–is more likely to come in the form of old-fashioned bootlegging. With CD burners that are cheap and fast, bootleggers can make thousands of flawless copies of a recording and sell them to street vendors. The Recording Industry Association of America estimates that record companies lose more than $300 million a year to the streets, where knockoff CDs can go for $2.50. Troubled R&B singer R. Kelly is reworking an entire album after several songs were leaked. Jay-Z, Scarface and Eminem have been forced to record bonus tracks and juggle release dates to compete. Not that those tricks will stop the demand. “Everybody wants to tell their friend, ‘Oh, you’re just now hearing that? I heard it months ago’,” one bootlegger says.
Bootlegging CDs–even albums that aren’t finished yet–is a lot easier than you’d think. Each stop a recording makes in its journey from the studio to the record store is ripe for potential theft. “We’ve had instances where leaks have come from a processing plant overseas,” says Pat Monaco, senior VP of sales at Universal/Motown Records Group. “Someone could just steal a disc off a machine, and before you know it you’ll have copies in a flea market.” The minute an artist announces a new album is in the works, bootleggers get on the job. Not surprisingly, many bootleggers or their suppliers have a regular gig in the music business. “When an artist and a producer go into the studio, there’s also techs, engineers, assist-ants and interns running around,” says rapper LL Cool J. Once the music is lifted from the studio, getting copies on the street takes no time. “My machines copy seven to eight CDs at a time,” says one bootlegger in Washington, D.C., “but I know people who do 20 CDs and make a thousand an hour.” Even the cover art can easily be duplicated. “You could go to a Kinko’s, and no one is going to say: ‘What does this guy want with 10,000 copies of a Nas cover?’ " says DJ Kay Slay of New York radio station HOT-97. “It’s a dirty game.”
Bootlegging isn’t entirely bad for business in the hip-hop world. It helps some artists establish street credibility–thieves bother to copy only popular acts with an edge. Bootlegs also provide free publicity. “If you’re bootlegged three months before, then you’re f–ed, but leaking a few weeks before your album drops helps to create a buzz for the artist,” says Elliot Wilson, editor of XXL, a hip-hop magazine that reviews bootlegs in order to keep up with the latest music. Bootlegs also serve as a sort of early-warning device, letting the streets weigh in on new material. Last February R&B singer Usher was set to release a comeback album when several songs leaked out. The tepid listener response drove him to scrap the entire project. “The [songs] were garbage. It was good for him to get the feedback and go back to the studio. Look at what he came back with,” Wilson says. The result was “8701,” which is now quadruple platinum. Not surprisingly, some industry executives speculate that albums are often “leaked” deliberately. “Everybody always acts like they don’t know where these bootlegs are coming from,” says Jermaine Dupri, CEO of So So Def Records. “I think some labels are leaking. It creates a hell of a buzz, and record companies are starting to pay attention to that.”
As bootlegging spreads, the music industry is trying to strike back. Some labels are placing fake albums on file servers. Others use digital codes–called watermarks–to keep tabs on advance CDs sent out for reviews. Law-enforcement agencies are stepping up their efforts, too. Last year New York City’s Organized Crime Investigations Unit seized more than 3 million contraband CDs. “Imagine the amount of money involved if you have 50,000 CDs in a box going for $5 each– that’s a quarter of a million dollars,” says Sgt. Thomas McFadden.
Meanwhile, artists are turning in recordings closer to the finish line, to reduce the lag time before the sales date. They’re also adding features to their albums that can’t be bootlegged so easily. “The Eminem Show” has sold 5.8 million copies, thanks in part to a DVD featuring interviews and performance footage. “That was a tremendous help,” says Steve Berman, senior executive of marketing and sales at Interscope Records. Well, maybe not tremendous. After all, Eminem still had to push up his release date to stay ahead of the bootleggers–twice.
title: “Heard On The Street” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-28” author: “Susan Martinez”
Iranians both inside and outside the country closely followed the vitriolic reception Ahmadinejad received in New York last week. (One tabloid declared THE EVIL HAS LANDED on his first day in town.) But if critics like Bollinger thought they were demonstrating solidarity with Iran’s long-suffering moderates, they were mistaken. “The Islamic Republic and its president have never been insulted in an official setting like this,” says Mohsen Armin, a prominent reformist politician. Dissident bloggers also came out in support of Ahmadinejad. Other opponents argue that he should have walked off the stage at Columbia in protest. Former president Mohammed Khatami agreed with Amir: “This is tantamount to insulting our nation,” he told the Iranian Students’ News Agency. In an Iranian culture that prizes hospitality to guests—and that loves a good martyr—Ahmadinejad will arguably return to Tehran in a stronger position than when he left.
Prior to his New York trip, in fact, the Iranian president was struggling at home. With oil prices at nearly $80 a barrel, ordinary Iranians expect Ahmadinejad to fulfill his promises to fill their bellies and their wallets. Yet rents and food prices continue to rise, making most feel poorer than ever. Infighting within the government has led to a number of high-profile resignations—forced and voluntary—over the last few months. Crackdowns on young women with too-stylish headscarves, on young men with tattoos and too much gel in their hairdos—even on pet-shop owners—have alienated the middle classes. That’s not to mention the onslaught against feminists, labor activists and teachers.
Several officials close to the Iranian leadership, who declined to be identified discussing internal deliberations, say that in recent months Ahmadinejad has been advised by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to be less combative. Prior to the president’s trip, Khamenei dispatched emissaries to Europe and to Arab capitals to soothe worries over Iran’s nuclear program and its influence in Iraq. In interviews just before leaving, Ahmadinejad also sounded much milder than before. And in any case, Iranians understand that he has far less power than is commonly realized by outsiders—he is neither head of state nor the commander in chief. That’s why many are puzzled by the treatment he received in New York. “Ahmadinejad tried not to be too controversial or instigate anyone during this trip,” says reformist politician Hossein Marashi, the brother-in-law of Ahmadinejad’s archenemy, former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani. The reception, he says, “manifested the weakness of political culture [in America].”
The on-and-off support of Iranians for Ahmadinejad has become a recurring theme of his presidency. And American rhetoric is most often the cause of his rebounds. In this case, Rafsanjani said last week, “the main loser was the Americans. They are being defeated by the psychological warfare that they have started against us.” After decades of superpower interference in their affairs, Iranians are particularly prickly about their independence. Reformists say they would much rather do without the high-flown declarations of support they get from the Bush administration and its conservative allies—the talk only makes them targets. “I just want to say, ‘Shut up!’ " says feminist Shadi Sadr. “How dare you sit in an office thousands of kilometers away endangering our lives here.”
Sitting under a large poster of Andy Warhol’s design for the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers” album cover, which shows the crotch of a man in tight jeans, Amir is as anti-American as Ahmadinejad’s bearded allies. “Listen, as a gay man living in Iran, I couldn’t express myself and be what I am. My brother went to jail for eight years because he opposed this regime. Two of my cousins were killed because they were communists. Despite all that, if one day America or Israel attack Iran, I’ll go back and defend my country. I’ll do that regardless of who is the president and how gay people are treated in Iran.” That’s the voice Washington should be listening to, not Ahmadinejad’s.
