When Janis Ian wrote her first article on the rather big shop of horrors the music industry has become, she expected it would be read by the usual few fans and industry friends who visit her web site.
Boy was she ever wrong!
Janis was not fully aware of the magnitude of the war raging across the Internet between “us” the consumers (and lowly creators) of music and “them” the parasitic entities of “Big Music”. At the very least she did not expect a huge organized opposition ready and willing to adopt her as a figurehead.
She should have known better and I mean that in a very positive way. Read her response to it all and you will see what I mean. This is one extremely intelligent woman, someone who is far more than a well known songwriter. She understands the business of music and how to make a living off it. She knows how to research, learn and synthesize technical issues in short order.
She’s also a very nice person who took the time and trouble to individually and personally respond to many strangers who contacted her. One of them was myself and she and I had a lovely email chat. We grew up only a few short miles apart in the Ohio River Valley in the same time period and we both started writing songs early on so there is a bit of commonality Of course the difference is her songs were great and she is justifiably famed for them, whereas mine were merely okay and I am perhaps justifiably unfamous.
What is important to those of us who have never reached her heights in the “biz” is her inside knowledge that the Majors are just as sleazy, just as crooked and just as intent on screwing the last possible dime out of the artist as any of us ever imagined we knew.
If you have any interest in music or in keeping culture open, read what she has to say.
Oh, and by the way… go buy some of her records. She’s a really nice lady and deserves your support.
