Couldn't happen to a nicer organization.

Laying off 100 employees is a "bloodbath"?

I used to work for a company that would lay off thousands in an afternoon.

Sob....sniff...whimper.

This is so sad....NOT!!!

i'm not going to celebrate people getting laid off; that's not a good thing.

however i do hope they are able to find jobs with organizations that aren't as despicable as the RIAA.

Due to an increased number of people purchasing digital songs online, the RIAA's role of suing individuals for illegal file sharing is reduced,

There's a stretch. "More people are buying digital music, so we don't need to sue file sharers as much".

Isn't it more like "Every attempt we've made to attack file sharers has been met with hostility, venom, and pure hatred, and, oh yeah, any time someone hasn't rolled over and played dead, we've had our asses handed to us in court. Ergo, we're killing that part of the association."

I sure hope these issues don't cause the labels to 'forget' to pay the artists their 3 cents on the dollar taken in.

Testudo - to get all Wikipedia, please cite your sources. Unless you have a particularly poor lawyer / manager you should be getting at least 12% from combined mechanicals/publishing.

Yes, I know that still sounds way low, but bear in mind that an artist on an indie will be on something closer to a 50/50 deal . . . on relatively low sales. A Madonna/U2/Jackson league artist will also have a deal weighed in their favour (historically they were known as prestige artists - they didn't make much profit but they helped with the prestige of the label, back when labels competed to sign artists).

The whole reason that someone can get you to sign away over 85% of your income is because they claim they're going to deliver millions, not thousands, of sales.

This is pretty much the same way any business works - Walmart demand you sell to them at practically cost price because they will give you volume.

And if you think that's bad, just wait until you see what replaces it, as recording becomes a promotional cost - the people who can deliver 'Top 10' success are still going to take big cuts. Consider something like the X-Factor as model for the type of business replacing the old model.

While I hate to hear about anyone being laid off these days, I hope these folks see this as some kind of karmic justice for working for such a vile organization as the RIAA.
Do something better with your lives than working for a greedy org that sues everyone in its sights and treats e even its paying customers as criminals. Maybe you'll do better next time.

Not saying all corps aren't evil in their own way, but the RIAA holds a special evilness rank if you ask me.

Let's hear you squeal!

be naiveNYer. If you think the RIAA's only function was suing file sharers then maybe it's time you did a little research. There are many musicians who support them, but not because of the file sharing suits.