August 3 2010 - Mille Plateaux catalog removed from Beatport!
(August 3, 2010)
As you may be aware through online newsfeeds, the Mille Plateaux back-catalog - including many of my solo albums and compilation tracks - was recently uploaded into Beatport's system through a combination of human and computer error. The files have since been removed. However, I remind you that all of the original Mille Plateaux back-catalog is out of contract, exclusive rights have returned to the original artists, and any sale of such items online is unauthorized. Monies from the sale of those items does not reach the artists in any way.
For an official letter to the press on this subject, including a detailed summary of the problem's resolution, click here.
While my dislike of commerical download distribution is obvious, I wish to clarify that this is not simply the opinion of a person on the outside who is afraid to enter into the digital marketplace, but is the result of ongoing (albeit deliberately limited) business with that market. Apart from the entire Mille Plateaux debocle, over the years I have upon rare occassion conducted many 'experiments' with MP3 distribution - licensing a limited amount of works to other labels who rely on download distribution in order to see how the tracks are managed. These include tracks such as "Get In and Drive" on the Innervisions compilation Muting the Noise 1, and most notably the DJ Sprinkles Midtown 120 Blues materials released by Mule Musiq. Whereas most people are preoccupied with the notion of making things commercially available, I am interested in mapping the ability of artists and labels to freely extract data from commercial distribution. In these instances, the rights for digital distribution of my projects is granted to the labels for limited amounts of time, after which they should be removed from commercial online distribution. It is this removal process which I have little faith in, and which has consistently presented both myself and the labels with difficulties. Distributors and their subsidiaries are often unable to remove the items from all storefronts. There are also problems with label administration, such as a contractual deadline passed and they forgot to remove my track. These label errors are usually resolved within a few months at most. Distributor errors may take years. I am curious to see how smoothly the Mule releases will come down, since the amount of materials licensed represent a new scale in my 'experiments.'
However, because I work alone, and because such 'experiments' require additional administrative time for tracking and follow-up on my side, I have currently limited all of my releases after Mule to physical products in the forms of CD, vinyl, cassette, and data DVD-R. This, of course, has negatively affected my ability to release and license music. Still, I believe this to be a necessary step in understanding the workings of the download industry - a task I feel suits my catalog which is more interested in analyses of socio-economic process than in creativity, artistic expression or public appeal. And the more I learn about digital distribution, the more I feel compelled to try other ways of distributing digital information (such as the 'offline' Dead Stock Archive MP3 collection, or the upcoming album Soulnessless).
While I generally display patience with random one-off compilation tracks lingering online, my uproar over the Mille Plateaux back-catalog uploads gains it's intensity from the facts that 1) the releases were never authorized for digital distribution; 2) the releases were deliberately uploaded by people who knew the releases were not authorized for digital distribution; 3) the terms of the contracts had expired and exclusive rights for the materials had already returned to the artists; and 4) beyond including a large body of my own releaes, the back-catalog represents a vast collection of materials that involves many artists. This places the Mille Plateaux materials in a category of abuse that goes far beyond standard bureaucratic mishaps I regularly experience with my little 'experiments.'
An older post from 2007, regarding the deletion of the first unauthorized upload of my back-catalog from iTunes and others, follows below:
A message from Terre Thaemlitz about MP3 downloads
(May 2007)
I am currently working on a completist MP3 archive containing every track I have ever produced, which will be available at some point in 2008 on a single DVD-R (+/- 400 titles, 224kpbs compression rate, tentative title: Dead Stock Archive). [Update: Revised to 320kbps MP3, +700 titles, release date February 11, 2009.]
Please note that nobody has legal permission from me to sell MP3 downloads of my music - not iTunes, not e-music, not anyone. They are selling my music illegally. They and the distributors they deal with have no contracts with me, and do not pay me a single penny of your purchase cost. They continually ignore my written requests to have my works removed from their profit-engines, knowing that the money at issue is less than the cost of my hiring a lawyer to resolve this ongoing mess. Please do not pay those mainstream corporate assholes for downloads of my music! They complain about MP3 copy protection issues while deliberately and systematically stealing from independent producers like myself - and consumers like you! Make no mistake, they are the music pirates to worry about!
To make matters worlse, several of my CD's use small 4-second tracks as spacing devices to conceal "hidden bonus tracks" under mysterious track numbers, etc. (For example, the album Yesterday's Heroes 1979 contains 11 songs, but the CD is indexed with 79 tracks in all.) I have noticed that most of the online distributors have these silent spacers also listed for sale! Other albums, such as Interstices with its 31 short tracks relying upon continuous play, make absolutely no sense to download track-by-track, sonically or financially. Please don't waste your money on such downloads.
The only way your financial support reaches me in any way is by ordering from this website. If you are unable or uninterested in financially supporting me directly by ordering through this website, I prefer that you share or steal my music rather than pay somebody else. This is not about my anger as an "author" (as many of you know, I am very critical of standard notions of authorship). Personal finances are also not the issue, since my projects are clearly not "hit oriented" and have minimal sales potential. I am more than resigned to my lowly economic standing in this world. This is about my anger at pointless corporate greed, and the ways in which information is controlled and distributed under global capitalism.
Meanwhile, please enjoy the free downloads below.
テーリ・テムリッツからMP3ファイルのダウンロードについて伝言
（２００７年５月）
私は現在、今までに私が作ったトラックすべてを網羅するMP3アーカイブを作成中です。このアーカイブは2008年中に完成の予定で、1枚のDVD-Rに収録される予定です。（約400前後のタイトル、224kpbsコンプレッション、仮題：デッドストックアーカイブ）
（アップデート：320kbps MP3、+700曲、２１年２月１１日のリリースになりました）
MP3ダウンロードについて皆様にご留意願いたいことがあります。それはiTunesやe-musicを含め、誰も私の音楽をMP3ファイルダウンロードで販売する合法的権利を持っていません。いまMP3ファイルを売っている第3者はすべて違法に販売しています。ネット上の配信者、そしてその配信者に音楽を売る販売者は私といかなる契約も交わしていません。またあなたが購入した金額のうち1円たりとも私に払われる分は含まれていません。業者たちは、その商業サイトから私の音楽を削除するよう書面で要請しても無視し続けます。なぜなら現在Web上でダウンロードされる音楽からあがるであろうの私の利益よりも、私が弁護士を雇ってこのとまらない困った問題を解決する費用のほうが高くつくことを知っているからです。
どうかこのような主流にいる企業の馬鹿どもに、私の音楽をダウンロードしてお金を払わないでください。こいつらはMP3ダウンロードの複製問題について不服を申し立てる一方で意図的にそして組織的に、私のような個人（インディペンデント）のプロデューサーたちからーそしてあなたのような消費差からも、盗みを続けているのです。間違わないでください、彼らこそが我々が心配すべき音楽海賊なのです。
さらに最悪なのは、私のCD作品の中には不思議なトラック番号で「隠しボーナストラック」を表示するためなどに、4秒の小トラック（無音）をスペーサーとして使用しているのです。（例えばアルバム「Yesterday’s Heroes 1979」は11曲収録ですが、CDをプレーヤーに入れると全部で79トラックと表示されます）
しかしほとんどのオンラインの業者達は、この無音のスペーサーとして利用されているトラックを販売リストに載せいているのです!
またIntersticesなどのアルバムは31トラックを連続して演奏することによって1曲が構成されているような曲が収録されているのですが、その場合1トラックごとにダウンロードしても、音楽的にも、経済的にも全く意味がないのです。だからこのような曲のトラックごとのダウンロードみたいなことでお金を無駄にしないでください。
あなたの経済的援助が私に届く唯一の方法は、とにかく私のウェッブサイトから注文して頂くのみです。もしあなたが私を、私のウェッブサイトを通して直接経済的に援助できない、またはしたくない場合は、ほかの誰かから買うのではなく、ただどこからかコピーするか盗んでくださったほうがまだ嬉しいです。
私がこういうのは私の著作者としての怒りからではありません（たぶんたくさんの方がご存知の事と思いますが私は著作者という標準的な概念にとても批判的です）。私の個人的な経済的利益も特に問題ではありません。なぜなら最初から私のプロジェクトはヒット指向でないことは明らかですし、ごくわずかな売上 の可能性しかありません。
私はこの世界で、低い経済的基盤しかないことをもはや観念しています。私の怒りは意味のない企業的貪欲に対して、そして世界的資本主義の下、情報が抑制され配信されるそのやり方についてなのです。
しばらくの間、どうかこの下のフリーダウンロードから曲をお楽しみください。
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