Your chance to come clean to Metallica

April 21, 2000 7:26 AM

Your chance to come clean to Metallica Here is your chance to pay Metallica back for all the MP3's you downloaded illeagally.
posted by remo (8 comments total)

I don't plan to donate (I could care less about giving money to Metallica), but this guy makes some good points about the RIAA's stance on new technology. He also seems to be promoting a new model for distributing and selling music. I'd rather support those groups who are trying to find new ways to profit from new technologies instead of trying to turn back the clock.
posted by harmful at 9:29 AM on April 21, 2000

Hmmm...

Donate money to a bunch of guys who will never ever go hungry, charge $40.00 per ticket for a live preformance, and would play a double bill with the Back Street Boys if it paid well enough and got them on MTV

Or

Go to my local indie music retailer, and spend $13.99 on the CD of a band that played their asses off for a $5.00 cover charge, still carry their own equipment, and after the show, hung out at the bar with us little people until last call.

I hope Lars chokes on his eyeliner pencil. I think I'm going to download a bunch of Metalica MPs just so I can not pay for them.
posted by jennyb at 10:27 AM on April 21, 2000

I actually happen to have bought all the Metallica CDs I wanted. Even the first print of their first album, the one with the two tracks that were pulled from future printings. If I remember correctly they were allegedly pulled due to issues of copyright infringement.
posted by faisal at 10:47 AM on April 21, 2000

Just to make it clear, it is not Metallica themselves begging for money.

PayLars.com is owned and operated by August Nelson, Inc. August Nelson is not affiliated in any way with Metallica or their record labels, music publishers, management companies or agents. We are not affiliated in any way with Napster, Indiana University, the University of Southern California or Yale University. We are not affiliated in any way with the RIAA or any other industry organization.

...and the disclaimer goes on from there. I figure the guy is doing this more for publicity than anything else. Still, the site is worth a look.
posted by harmful at 11:29 AM on April 21, 2000

Probably.

"Chokes on his eyeliner pencil."

I like that, Jen. A *lot*. :-)
posted by baylink at 12:20 PM on April 21, 2000

This site is worth a look only because it's a brilliant idea for viral marketing of Orange Alley. They're basically riding the coattails of the Metallica story, hoping for news coverage (maybe someone will post it to Slashdot, after it being posted on Metafilter, and then Wired News will cover it, and then it will end up on the KRON 11:00 broadcast), and realizing that when no one in their right mind would actually put in their credit card, they'd instead click on the banner at the top of the page.

Genius. Pure unadulterated genius.
posted by msippey at 1:10 PM on April 21, 2000

Wasn't Metallica one of the two major bands (the other being the Grateful Dead) who used to provide segregated audience space for bootleggers? Seems kinda peculiar that they should get worked up over this...
posted by nikzhowz at 3:00 PM on April 21, 2000