by Duke

I call this one “Breaking Music News” because we don’t have a category for “Privacy Laws.”

Last week Hypebot reported on new Tunecore widget upgrades (We’ve got a video of Ian Rogers breaking it down here). One of the upgrades I like the best is the option to collect information from fans. This is very useful to artists (especially indie artists) who want to do a better job of finding and connecting with their fans.

The problem lies in the fact that data mining has gotten a bad rap in recent years. And why not? It’s been used primarily by evil empires to make themselves more evil and imperial. If a tool is used for evil, the tool itself starts to look evil.

Remember when Ronald Reagan used Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” for his campaign? As soon as he heard about it, Springsteen sent his lawyers straight to the campaign office with a “Cease and Desist” notice. This was not a question of copyright; the Boss simply did not want his song to be associated with an organization he perceived to be… well… not good.

Any fan of Springsteen knows the song was still great. Reagan probably would never have used the song if he had listened to the lyrics anyway. But the fact that he tried to use it doesn’t change what the song is.

The point is this: Data mining – like any other tool – can be used for good. I have no window into the minds and hearts of Messers Rogers and Price, but the fact that they want to put knowledge and information in the hands of independent musicians (instead of the more imperial purveyors of music) makes me think their motivations are good. This is not some totalitarian centralized database. It’s just a way for indies to connect with people who enjoy their music.

As Hypebot reports on Jeff Price’s response to the heated debate:

“We wanted to make a media player that artists could make at their discretion that showed videos, band photos, tour dates, twitter feeds, band bio, external link and allowed people to become “fans” of the band.

When someone wanted to become a fan of the band…

We wanted to allow the fan to provide information the band could use, therefore we created an optional “Become a Fan of This Band” link in the Menu of the Media player. When this link is clicked, a person can choose at their discretion to enter any, all, or none of the following: birthday, age, name, hometown zip code.
Sensing there were things I did not know in regards to collecting info on the net, I called our lawyer and filled him in on what we wanted to do. Said lawyer told me that based on state and federal laws, we were required to use the specific legal language he provided.

And that is the reason for the language in the Terms & Conditions that you see on the TuneCore widget

That, and our nefarious plot to take over the world (and arm sharks with freakin’ lazers)

On more serious note, its optional, not required, and if the Terms make you uncomfortable then do not provide your info.

I would rather have that language there and have fewer people sign up then not have the language and somehow have someone feel something happened that should not have.”

Here’s a segment of the policy:

“TUNECORE MAY USE PERSONAL INFORMATION and other non-personal information about you for the following general purposes: to fulfill your requests for products and services; improve our services; CONTACT YOU; customize advertising and content you see; conduct research; and provide anonymous reporting for internal and external clients.

TuneCore may provide your Personal Information directly to the artists that you select. You acknowledge and agree that any such artists that receive such Personal Information (a) may contact you directly from time to time and (b) MAY NOT TREAT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH THE SAME LEVEL OF CONFIDENTIALITY AS THE TERMS OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY.”

Thanks to Bruce Houghton.

And here is Tunecore’s privacy policy in full.

I just hope some jerk doesn’t wreck it for everybody by using the information gathered through Tunecore widgets for a massive spam campaign to sell penis augmentation. That would be using this power for evil.

Technorati Tags: Bruce Houghton, data mining, Hypebot, tunecore, widget

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Music Business, Music Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.