We officially have beef.

We officially have beef.

With all due respect, the music industry as we know it will cease to be before the end of 2008 due to economics, the unavoidable decline of the “album” format and the record labels' insistence on badgering web portals of the best intent as their infrastructure bleeds to death.

We at PopDose are very conscious of the ruin illegal downloading has wrought on music consumption and monetization. That's why we do not, nor will ever, post albums. We are a proper web magazine providing a small sample of what is out there, much of which will be shunned by mainstream media portals. But let us make one thing thoroughly clear, while we play by the rules and work toward spreading the knowledge of worthwhile new music to a larger (hopefully) paying audience, the songs in question are being traded away as a full album download somewhere in Internet-land. It is the old radio-taping argument being levied against us while someone has snuck into the warehouse, stolen the master tapes of “Consolers Of The Lonely” and are giving them away free on the corner of Google and Yahoo.

We have complied with your request. However, I cannot in good conscience let it go unsaid that this particular occurrence is (in my opinion) frustratingly futile and antithetical to purpose.

Sincerely,
DwD

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Hi Taylor / PopDose,

On behalf of XL Recordings and Warner Bros Records, we would kindly ask you not to post copies of “Consolers Of The Lonely” on your site (or any individual tracks from The Ranconteurs' newly released album).

We do appreciate that you are are promoting The Ranconteurs, but XL and Warners would greatly appreciate your co-operation in removing your links to the files in question. If you / your readers would like a good quality, non-pirated, preview clip, a widget of the promo video for “Salute Your Solution” is available for you (and fans and bloggers) to embed at http://www.theraconteurs.com/widget.html .

Many thanks for respecting the artist's and label's wishes.

As you will appreciate, this e-mail is written on a without prejudice basis and, as such, all of our clients' accumulated, worldwide rights and remedies remain strictly reserved : please excuse this required formality.

Regards,

WEB SHERIFF