BDx13
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Skrewdriver on iTunes. Thoughts?
http://punknews.org/article/18868
A Punknews.org reader let us know that controversial nationalist and white power group Skrewdriver had made an appearance on Apple's iTunes digital
download service. While the album in question, Hail the New Dawn has been available in some form for years, this is certainly the highest profile
retailer to ever stock the album.
After a little research, we discovered the source of the album was independent retailer CD Baby who allow unsigned artists to sell their records
through retail and through popular download services.
Rather than speculate about how the album came to appear on both CD Baby and iTunes, we opted to go to the source and spoke with CD Baby President,
Derek Sivers. Sivers graciously offered his side of the story.
First, a little background; CD Baby is the project of Derek Sivers, a independent musician who had been searching for a way to sell his own music
without going through a label. CD Baby was the result, and exclusively sells music directly from artists; the site is clear that music does not go
through distributors, but directly from musicians.
The site eventually became the largest seller of independent albums on the web. The site features more than 130,000 self-released titles and also
provides a way for independent artists to distribute their music through iTunes and Yahoo Music. To date, the site has paid out more than $30 million
dollars to independent, unsigned artists.
The discovery of a Skrewdriver record in the site's catalogue - which eventually was pushed up to iTunes - is controversial. The white power group,
which formed in 1977 began as a fairly conventional punk rock band, but frontman Ian Stuart Donalson reformed the group after a split with a new set
of musicians and began openly supporting nationalist and white power organizations as well as releasing records through notably nazi-sympathizing
German label Rock-o-rama.
When I spoke to Derek, I asked him pretty point blank: "Why had CD Baby decided to stock music from Skrewdriver, both notoriously far-right/nazi
affiliated groups."
His answer was actually quite measured and he explained:
The day I started CD Baby I made a firm decision to never censor anything.
At first, that meant quality. No matter what I personally think of an album, I'll sell it if the artist wants us to sell it, because hey - who am I to
judge? Maybe someone somewhere likes it.
So - the day the first racist CD showed up here, we had to make a tough decision on whether to start censoring now, or not.
Two things let to our decision not to censor:
This album came to our attention because of the album cover. If it weren't for the album cover, we never would have noticed. (We can't sit and listen
to every lyric of every song.) Does that mean, then, that everyone with an offense piece of artwork on their cover gets banned, but everyone with
pretty rainbows on the cover does not, no matter what the lyrics inside may say?
After September 11th, we got about 250 albums full of flag-waving dedications to the tragedy, blah blah blah. Many of those, if you listen close, are
actually taking their sorrow into some kind of vengeance against all Muslims, etc. So we sit and listen to those and ban the ones we find offensive?
Or only the ones people complain about?
As you can see it's FAR too slippery of a slope to go anywhere near it. Start with one album, and we'll have to commit ourselves to a lifetime of
deciding, on every album that comes in, if it's offensive or hateful and if we should allow it. We get 200-300 new albums a DAY now, so there's just
no way we can judge them all.
Plus, I don't want to let complainers rule our actions. What if we started getting complaints about Pagan albums? Complaints about Liberal politics
albums? Do we remove anything that lots of people complain about? Obviously not.
So what we decided to do is this:
For every dollar we make selling some obviously racist/nazi/whatever album, we contribute TWO dollars to anti-racist organizations like UNCF and
others. (The guys in the warehouse pick the organizations as they see fit.)
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
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defstarsteve
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For every dollar we make selling some obviously racist/nazi/whatever album, we contribute TWO dollars to anti-racist organizations like UNCF and
others.
well that's better then nothing i guess
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jonnynewbreed
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I think he has a great point.
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serenity
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skrewdriver is still great
it ends
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CR83
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It is a slipper decision for sure but I support the guy. I don't like the white power-ness of the Skew but hey, who is he to decide. I think is
approching it properly.
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DeathByForce
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That's crazy that it's up there.
Although it's going to a good cause in that case.
\"rap isn\'t music\" - mozart
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defstarsteve
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speaking of i-tunes
metallica just said they would release their first 4 albums onto i-tunes, thet stil hate downloading...
who would have thought you could buy racist crap there, but not 4 of the most important metal albums of the 80's
what a country
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gavin
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i like skrewdriver
sorry
you come at the king....you best not miss
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upyerbum
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| Quote: | Originally posted by MrBadVibes
i like skrewdriver
sorry |
Well, its this place where nobody works, and the pigs don\'t give you any shit. Everyone smokes weed and gets drunk all day. Its a place where
cunts like me and you can truly take it easy and relax. Know what I mean?
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Discipline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by MrBadVibes
i like skrewdriver
sorry |
‘Do you know what a love letter is? It’s a bullet from a fucking gun. Straight through your heart.’
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JawnDiablo
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i only heard one skrewdriver song
back in high school
from this wanna be nazi kid
went somethin like
nigger nigger get on the boat
nigger nigger row.....
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godabandonedme
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He had a good point
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gavin
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| Quote: | Originally posted by juandiablo
i only heard one skrewdriver song
back in high school
from this wanna be nazi kid
went somethin like
nigger nigger get on the boat
nigger nigger row..... |
burnin some stuff
you need it
you come at the king....you best not miss
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random
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The interesting part to me is that they're (probably unknowingly) selling Micetrap's bootleg albums. True, it's kind of hard for Ian Stuart to be
collecting royalties, and Herbert from ROR was known as a scumbag (not paying any royalties) before he died (any truth to that rumor?). But still, CD
Baby is supposed to allow artists to reach the public without the backing of a label... it's not there for scumbag label owners to rip off bands, and
that should be the main basis for objection if they choose not to sell the bootleg Skrewdriver albums.
Other random thoughts on the whole thing:
- Micetrap probably tried doing this somewhat recently since eBay starting banning all the Skrewdriver items that were being listed, and he needed a
new outlet.
- I have more of an objection to the Skrewdriver stuff than the few other Micetrap listings since the others are actual, official Micetrap releases
(not that I'm running out to buy the comp with Public Enemy and Race War on it).
- As far as the objectionable material argument goes, I think CD Baby better be prepared to have a bunch of white power labels start listing tons of
items on their site soon. Probably won't happen, but if the first few items are successful (the Skrewdriver and Empire Falls albums), then everyone
else might follow suit. If that happens, CD Baby will wish in hindsight that they didn't allow it to be listed, since they won't likely get much
support from their traditional base when they unintentionally become a major distributor of white power music. Not that I care for the music they
sell, but it would suck for a self-made company with a good purpose to go down the tubes because of some stupid shit.
In the end, I don't care too much that this is out there. It hasn't been hard to find Skrewdriver albums for a long time, and you can probably
download most of them for free now anyway. Buying it through CD Baby isn't much different from buying it through Micetrap, except that CD Baby will
give some money to anti-racist orgs while Micetrap will attempt to fund the race war (but I think he's not well-liked in the white power scene anyway,
according to the internet). If you like the money going to anti-racist orgs, you're better off downloading for free and sending the two bucks
straight to the org itself... no need to send the other ten bucks to Micetrap. It's possible that someone might download some stuff off of iTunes,
but again, I don't think it's hard to find it for free online.
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CR83
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How prevalent is White Power music nowadays. To me (again, I'm way out of any sort of "scene") is that it died a while ago since you rarely see
skins. Again, i'm referring to St. Louis, MO. It has been years since I have seen a "real" whitepower skin.
How much shit is out there?
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barc0debaby
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There is still a ton of that garbage out there. Resitance records is a big money maker for the National Alliance which is headed by William Pierce, a
real fucking piece of trash. He is posed to make up to a million a year off Resitance alone and has stated that he believes the music can attract
many a trouble youth to the National Alliance. His movement was covered fairly well in a History channel documentary, the guy is fucking nuts.
On a funnier note, this was in one of the articles I found on hate music:
"Violence often accompanies hatecore concerts, which sometimes include "mosh pits" where dancing quickly breaks down into kicking, punching and body
slamming."
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random
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I had a longer reply that didn't get posted since I hit the wrong button.
William Pierce died a few years back, and the National Alliance has been in a steady decline since then. barc0debaby is right about the rationale and
that the NA was estimated to be making over a million a year off Resistance, but I doubt their sales are that high anymore.
Panzerfaust is the funny story, where it turned out the owner was part-Mexican and like to fly over to Thailand to have sex with Thai prostitutes...
he also got busted with a tiny amount of weed and coke... needless to say, he's not welcome by the white power crowd anymore, and that label imploded
overnight.
Chris, the simple answer is that it's readily available and there's money being made off of it. But I think the white power element was effectively
separated from the punk/oi/hardcore scenes a long time ago (before my time... thanks to the older folks out there), and you never really see them show
up anywhere. There are a few big distributors out there, but I think the internet makes it seem like it's bigger than it really is.
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confused13
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| Quote: | Originally posted by ChrisReed83
... Again, i'm referring to St. Louis, MO. It has been years since I have seen a "real" whitepower skin. |
Come over to germany - here we have kind of problems with these stupid fucks. Had two fights at the last BFB-show because of these fucking nazi-skins.
I dont like them and i do let them know it :-)
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serenity
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| Quote: | Originally posted by confused13
| Quote: | Originally posted by ChrisReed83
... Again, i'm referring to St. Louis, MO. It has been years since I have seen a "real" whitepower skin. |
Come over to germany - here we have kind of problems with these stupid fucks. Had two fights at the last BFB-show because of these fucking nazi-skins.
I dont like them and i do let them know it :-) |
are you surprised that bfb attracts them?
it ends
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confused13
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| Quote: | Originally posted by serenity
| Quote: | Originally posted by confused13
| Quote: | Originally posted by ChrisReed83
... Again, i'm referring to St. Louis, MO. It has been years since I have seen a "real" whitepower skin. |
Come over to germany - here we have kind of problems with these stupid fucks. Had two fights at the last BFB-show because of these fucking nazi-skins.
I dont like them and i do let them know it :-) |
are you surprised that bfb attracts them? |
Nope - but im kind of pissed that these guys ruin shows for everybody and let end it in serious fights - i just want to join the shows without
visiting hospitals or police-stations afterwards.
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gavin
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| Quote: | Originally posted by serenity
| Quote: | Originally posted by confused13
| Quote: | Originally posted by ChrisReed83
... Again, i'm referring to St. Louis, MO. It has been years since I have seen a "real" whitepower skin. |
Come over to germany - here we have kind of problems with these stupid fucks. Had two fights at the last BFB-show because of these fucking nazi-skins.
I dont like them and i do let them know it :-) |
are you surprised that bfb attracts them? |
whats that supposed to mean?
that bfb attracts them?
on a way smaller level i have had some white power dudes into my band
are you saying it is somehow the bands fault?
maybe im reading this wrong
please explain
you come at the king....you best not miss
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GabeTexasGAMC
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I love Skrewdriver, Im mexican!
hahahah!
I love me some Midtown Bootboys, Brutal Attack, all that shit!
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serenity
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| Quote: | Originally posted by MrBadVibes
| Quote: | Originally posted by serenity
| Quote: | Originally posted by confused13
| Quote: | Originally posted by ChrisReed83
... Again, i'm referring to St. Louis, MO. It has been years since I have seen a "real" whitepower skin. |
Come over to germany - here we have kind of problems with these stupid fucks. Had two fights at the last BFB-show because of these fucking nazi-skins.
I dont like them and i do let them know it :-) |
are you surprised that bfb attracts them? |
whats that supposed to mean?
that bfb attracts them?
on a way smaller level i have had some white power dudes into my band
are you saying it is somehow the bands fault?
maybe im reading this wrong
please explain |
the lyrics are hateful, and nazis are full of hate.
it ends
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godabandonedme
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It's hardcore. What hardcore music isn't filled with hate? REGARDLESS of whatever it is each band is hating. People hate nazi's and skinheads and
racists and think they should not be allowed to do whatever the hell it is they do etc. blah blah blah blah. I'm by no means one of those unite hxc
type people, but c'mon, isn't the shit most people say about them exactly what they are doing? I never understood that.
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JawnDiablo
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on any given day i am full of hate.
it is not always focused, and it is not directed at any one particular group of people in an ethnic catagory.
i could care less who sells or gives away skrewdriver stuff.
not my problem.
not my business
you know what i am interested in?
Yuppicide songs. Cant seem to find them these days.
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