I can’t answer for others, but I think there is a huge difference between commercial music, where artists receive close to zero payment for sales of music while the record label rakes in cash for creating little to no value, and this transaction which was directly between the creator and consumer.
That’s very different if you tell someone “I have this thing, there is only one of this thing, and I have certified that I have made no copies”
Cory has a whole book on this subject. Art and creative works are artifically scarce on purpose to allow them to be used to make money. In this case it’s not the original artists making the money, but the owner of said work. Just like someone reselling a collectable or a rare book or something, we generally want people to be able to do this, because often these rare or limited-edition works initially start with a greater return for the artists.
The thing is, none of that matters. The fact that it is rare matters, and if Shkreli signed a doc that said “I will not destroy the rarity of this work” then subsequently went and destroyed the rarity of the work, that was the value of the work, the genie can’t be put back in the bottle, and he’s going to lose this bigtime.
Walter Benjamin’s insights on art and mechanical reproduction still applies in general, and doubly so with music which is so much easier to replicate in the modern age, making this experiment by Wu-Tang all the more interesting… what is art and what is commercial entertainment?
I always read about this Wu-Tang Clan stuff and remember about Jean-Michel Jarre’s Musique Pour Super-Marchè
Good thing is that they played this stuff on Radio Luxembourg (even with the right moment to change the K7 side).
Shortly after the auction, Jarre allowed Radio Luxembourg to broadcast the album once, in its entirety, and encouraged listeners to record the broadcast with the words “Piratez-moi!” (Pirate me!)[1]
I have what is allegedly the files from this record and, if legit, it is without a doubt the worst Wu Tang album ever released.
Regardless, fuck Martin Shkreli
… how is the audio quality
Is it just a bunch of 128k mp3s or what
Part of the contract he signed reads:
“The buying party also agrees that at any time during the stipulated 88 year period, the seller may legally plan and attempt to execute one (1) heist or caper to steal back Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, which, if successful, would return all ownership rights to the seller. Said heist or caper can only be undertaken by currently active members of the Wu-Tang Clan and/or actor Bill Murray, with no legal repercussions.”
This whole thing is Art.
At least Musique pour Supermarché was broadcasted “officially” once in LW radio, and the multitrack tapes weren’t destroyed and some songs were used on later albums.
In a better timeline, Bill Murray and RZA would’ve already completed that heist, and pharmabro would’ve discovered that he was left with nothing but a rickroll.
You have made me sad
BTW, that was in the book (that the clause was BS), as it pretty much everything about the production and contract for the sale…
Same.
Well, that’s restored my faith in… I don’t know what, actually.
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