Remember that unpopular battle cry from the early '80s? Turns out that home taping didn't kill music after all. A better slogan might have been, "Home Taping is Killing Record Label Executives' Christmas Bonuses" but I digress. In 1983, the Musician subsidiary of Elektra Records went on the offensive with an open letter from its artists. Here's some background press followed by the open letter itself. Offered up here for historical information only, the words of the Cash Box editorial and letter are solely those of the respective authors and do not reflect the opinions of MFD (because I might have worn out my tape machines dubbing LPs back then, but I admit to nothing).
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| Cash Box, April 23, 1983 |
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| (click photos to enlarge) |
Love this.
ReplyDeleteSome of my favorite Billboard magazine Letters to the Editor are the ones by record label executives and retailers complaining the sky is falling due to the scourge of home taping. Little did they know what the future would bring.