lfFE ana SLYIE

This is how, you annoy me

Canadian artists aren't getting their,nickel back

 

By Angela Espinoza

hen the current popular
musicians finally broke
into the charts, were they

humble during the climb? Did any of
these people approach an instrument
strictly for the intent of playing it? As
I sit at my desktop, glancing from my
beloved CD collection to my beaten
up acoustic guitar, I can only shake my
head. There are so many wonderful,
beautiful things about music, and
funny enough, it’s the musicians that
are ruining most of those things for
me.

Last Monday I came across an
article on Ultimate Guitar that was
recapping some of the previous week’s
events. Within the lengthy title was the
caption, ‘Nickelback Want Some More
Money’, so I clicked on it expecting a

good laugh. What I found was indeed
amusing, but thoroughly disappointing
on Canada’s part. Making the news
officially on November 25, apparently
over 350 Canadian artists were

trying to pass a levy on MP3 players.
Basically, everyone who would buy an
MP3 player from thereon out would
have to pay an extra tax, similar to
what’s been done with purchasing
blank tapes and CDs. This tax would
supposedly be going back to each of
these individual artists; they’re literally
fighting for fractions of pennies.

Of the many artists jumping on
the bandwagon, including Metric,
Hedley, the Tragically Hip, and Anne
Murray, the group that seems to be the
face of this brigade is Nickelback. The
band that has literally been considered
to be the worst act out there right
now is trying to ‘protect’ Canadian

music. Need I remind you all that
Chad Kroeger has been known to start
random bar fights and perform drunk
(and only slightly better sober) in an
attempt to prove himself as the all-
Canadian bad boy?

Is it fair to mock the guy
personally in the face of this request?
If it were anyone else, I’d say no,
and even though it’s Kroeger, I still
grudgingly know better. He’s an idiot,
and I'll stand by that any day, but
of the more respectable acts in this
situation (primarily Anne Murray), I
still think this is all a silly idea. To be
clear, this levy isn’t so much for MP3
players as it is for adding illegally
downloaded music to your MP3
players. In this sense, it was easy to
understand why a tax was added to
blank CD’s, although I still think ten
extra dollars is a bit much. What it all

 

comes down to is, these artists think
the internet is something that can be
controlled, and it doesn’t surprise me.
For the record, MP3 players aren’t
even a major focus in our old friend,
Copyright Bill C-32 - AKA, that
music law you all feared last year.

The future of the levy, which
requested inclusion in C-32, is not
looking so bright. The essential
consequence stated was that by not
adding MP3 player taxes, Canadian’s
wouldn’t want a place in music.
Shockingly enough, Industry Minister
Tony Clement and Heritage Minister
James Moore, the persons the levy was
addressed to, don’t seem to be phased.
To end on a cheap shot, ‘someday’,
maybe Kroeger will understand that,
even ‘if everyone cared’ about his levy,
Nickelback’s albums would still be
worthless.