Going to prison for burning CDs | Matt Connarton Unleashed

This relates to something we talked about earlier. We had members of the band The Surge on the show with us in the first hour, and we were talking about CDs. Now, if you happen to hear that interview, you might know what I'm referring to, because they're in the UK, and they were talking about how the new album Meow, which comes out in August. Their new album coming out in August, it's going to be they're going to have physical CDs. And this is a subject that comes up a lot on the show. When you're releasing music in the year twenty twenty six, how do you do it?

Do you just do it digitally? Do you just put it out on the streaming platforms like Spotify and band camp and everything? Do you do physical CDs? Do you do Vinyl? Vinyl very popular these days. Actually, what was it a few years ago? What was it, maybe twenty twenty three or twenty twenty four, the first year since CDs came out that Vinyl actually outsold CDs. And I don't know where CDs fall right now in terms of how they're selling, but new music is still released on CD, certainly still released on vinyl.

There's even indie artists putting out cassette tapes, not kidding. You can find them if you don't believe me. So, physical media is still very much a thing. But gone are the days, or at least I thought gone were the days of people burning CDs. Now, if you are old enough to remember, there was a time when you could burn CDs. Burning meaning copying again for you very young people who don't know what I'm talking about, when you take a CD and you copy it, that is, whether or not that's okay or ethical is a subject that's been of debate since I was a kid.

Geez. When I was a kid, we would copy cassette tapes. You know, if you had a dual cassette deck, you know, you could you could put a cassette in one side, press play on the other side, press press record, And sometimes that's how I would get music from my friends and they would get music from me. We would we would trade that way, you know, just I'll copy that tape for you, I'll copy that cassette. But you know, eventually it became all about burning CDs. Anyone who was in a band in say the nineties or two thousands up until I don't know, maybe ten years ago, maybe not quite, but there was a period of time where if you were in a band, you might be burning CDs.

You might be burning CDs to give out to people. You might be burning CDs to give to radio stations. You know. Every once in a while, someone will bring us to CD here, you know, when we have guests in studio, they'll bring a CD, a physical CD. But it's not to play on the air. Even though we do have a functioning CD player here, it's not to play on the air. That's all done digitally. We just everything's online. They email us the tracks ahead of time. But you know, but they'll still they'll still bring in a physical CD and all the packaging and everything if they're releasing it on CD, because it is cool to have the physical met you know, if you're a nerd like me, you like reading liner notes and things like that and have the artwork.

I'll tell you when I first started interviewing musicians, and I've been at this a long time, I'm dating myself, but when I first started, it was not uncommon, not only for a musician to hand me a CD and not email the tracks ahead of time. That's how long I've been doing this where even though the technology existed, rather than emailing me the tracks, a musician who is going to be a guest on a show that I was doing, might actually hand me a burned CD with just a burned CD with and they write on it in magic mark or what it is and then hand it to me.

And then it's not even in a case. This would happen all the time, wouldn't even be in a case, and they would hand it to me on their finger. They would put the CD to put their finger, their index finger through the hole in the CD, and that's how they would hand me this CD and say this is for the radio show or this is for the podcast. Thank god, those days are gone. I have to be honest with you. It never left not that I was ever a jerk about it, but it never left the greatest impression on me. When a guest or a potential guest would hand me their music on their finger.

They would put their the CD on their finger, their burned CD that they wrote on it, label it with magic marker, and then here you go. That never left the most professional impression. But it would happen more than you might think. So I prefer it the way we have it now. Everything is done digitally. If you want to bring me a CD, great, And I love getting CDs from our guests with the artwork and everything in the full package. But I do not miss the days of burned CDs. Many of us. Again, if you're old enough to remember, you might have had one of those CD booklets that you would drive around in your car with.

Right, you got the CD booklet, you're putting the CDs and the CD player, and a lot of them were burned CDs, and some of them you might not even know what they are because the magic marker wore off on them, but a lot of them would be burned CDs. So but anyway, that's a thing of the past, right, even though CDs still exist and they're still making CDs and artists are still releasing music on CDs, burned CDs are a thing of the past. Right. I'm building to something here. And those debates about whether or not it's okay to burn a CD or is that a form of piracy, that's also a thing of the past, right, because no one's burning CDs anymore.

Right. Okay, this is from Digitalmusicnews dot Com. One of my favorite websites for music industry news. Oh by the way, uh, cheap and shameless plug. You can also now with greater consistency, because we're gonna be putting up a lot of content on both ipmnation dot com and on Matt connorton unleashed dot com. You are going to see a lot more content and a lot more articles and blogs. Uh. And that has already started. So just a quick shameless plug if you want some. For example, a couple new articles on ipmnation dot com all about college radio.

They're there, check them out, please enjoy them. You're gonna see more on Matt connorton unleashed dot com, not just the show, but other show related content that isn't necessarily audio, but some articles just want to mention that. Get that in there anyway. Okay, So getting back to this, So Digitalmusicnews dot com has an article titled, and this is the actual title. Yes, this is a twenty twenty six headline. Judge issues two year jail sentence for burning and selling CDs. Now who add that on their big go card in twenty twenty six?

First of all, somebody actually, in any time, in any year, in any era, somebody actually getting in trouble and actually facing some sort of legal consequence for burning a CD. Unheard of. Nobody whoever got caught doing that, whoever got in trouble for doing that? Right, I mean, yeah, maybe some people, but very few. Right, You just don't expect it. Nobody expects to get caught or punished, even if you are caught right for that, for burning a CD. Come on, but actual legal jeopardy like a two year jail sentence for burning and selling CDs in the year twenty twenty six.

All right, well, let's see again. This is from Digital Musicnews dot com. A UK man. Oh, it's funny too. This happened in the UK. I didn't preread this. I didn't have time. This happened in the UK. And you know, we were talking earlier to the Surge members of the band The Surge, who are from the UK, and we were talking about CDs. So all right, A UK man has received a twenty six month prison sentence after pleading guilty to the unauthorized mixing and selling of CDs in violation of copyright law.

Now, I don't know, maybe they're strict about that in the UK. That would never happen in the United States. I don't think it would. Maybe it hasn't. I just don't know about it. But again, in any era, can you imagine somebody actually being sentenced to prison for twenty six months over burned CDs? It just wouldn't happen, right, I don't think it would. Am I wrong? All right? It says here. The article goes on, if you thought the headline was from two thousand and two, you'd be forgiven. Instead, it's twenty twenty six and a man in the UK has been sentenced after pleading guilty to the unauthorized mixing and selling of CDs in violation of copyright law.

Forty seven year old Mark Kerns was issued a twenty six month prison sentence, which will be suspended for eighteen months. He must also carry out two hundred and fifty hours of unpaid community service work. Oh mute the mic for a second. Speaking of allergies, my nose is getting very itchy. All right, Well, at least so at least this sentence is suspended. I assume when we say suspended sentence, I know what that means in the United States. Not from personal experience, mind you. I've never been in any trouble.

But I know what that means. In the United States, if your sentence is suspended, you're not going to do any time. The only way you're going to do any time is if you violate parole, if you get into some other kind of trouble, then that sentence can become unsuspended pretty quickly. But so it sounds like he's not actually going to prison if it's a suspended sentence, I assume, Oh, wait a minute, no, I misread that he was issued a twenty six month prison sentence which will be suspended for eighteen months.

So the twenty six month sentence, but it's suspended for eighteen Now I'm a little bit confused. What does that mean?

So is it suspended for eighteen and then when he gets to month nineteen he has to go to prison for a few I don't know what that means. I guess it doesn't matter. I'm getting bogged down in details that are not necessarily relevant to the heart of the story. Continuing on again. This is from Digital Music News dot Com. Kerns pleaded guilty to a number of charges at Whole Crown Court and was sentenced on Thursday. The sentence follows a lengthy investigation that began in mid twenty nineteen after the British phonographic industry became aware of the offenses in twenty eighteen.

A warrant was issued in September twenty twenty two. Again, maybe they're much more strict about that. I mean, the laws exist here, but actual enforcement maybe they're more strict about that in the UK. Can you imagine here in the United States, police show up a door, They've got a warrant for your arrest. You've been burning CDs. I mean, it's unfathomable, is it not? So? A spokesperson for the Yorkshire Council said, quote, this activity enabled him to commercially exploit protected material, generating income at the expense of legitimate artists and businesses within the music industry.

Unquote. Maybe I don't know, Maybe it's that he was selling them. If he had just been burning them, he probably would have been fine. But was he But how much could he have even been prop Like what was he doing? Was he burning them and then just selling them? Like? Where was he selling these? Again? It's the year twenty twenty six. Who's buying these? Who's even buying these from him? Who like what is the market for this? So this guy's I get it. He's burning the CDs and then he's selling them to make money.

Who is buying the burn CDs from him? Is he selling them to people on the street? Is he like the guy like you know, you'd see this, uh, like on seventies TV shows or something, you know, like like on seventies Buddy cop shows like Startski and Hutchet or whatever. You know, you'd see the guy, the guy on the street who's selling stolen watches. You know, he opens his jacket and you see all these stolen watch It's almost comical, right, it is kind of comical. You see all these stolen watches on the inside of his jacket.

He's trying to sell you a Rolex or something, or a counter or their counterfeit watches something like that. Right, Is that what this guy was doing with the CDs? Is he on the street and he's just like opening his jacket and saying, hey, do you want to buy a burned CD? Is that what this guy was doing? Because because who's buying these from him? That's what I don't understand. I mean, if you're going to make money at something, be it a legal and legitimate or something illicit like you know I list quote unquote like burned CDs.

There has to be a market for that. Who Who is the market for this? The more I think about it, the more bizarre this gets. But according to the spokesperson for the Yorkshire Council, this guy was commercially exploiting protected material. Ugh, let's see. Cabinet member Lynn Healing said, quote counterfeit and unauthorized goods undermine fair trading and can generate significant illicit profit. We will not hesitate to take robust enforcement action where offenses are identified and the sentence sends a clear message that such activity will not be tolerated unquote.

I'm stuck on the phrase generate significant illicit profit by selling these to who? Who was buying That's what I want to know, And I have a feeling we're not going to learn the answer in this article. Who was buying these? Where was the profit coming from? Is there a website you can sell these on burnedcds dot com. I'm sure it would cost more to mail it than what anyone would pay for a burned CD. Oh you want to you know, if you want a copy of Elton John's greatest hits. It's gonna cost you ten bucks at the music store.

I'll sell you a burned copy for fifty cents plus shipping. It doesn't sound like a sound business model. I don't know how this works, all right? Getting back to the article, Oh, here we go. Interestingly, sources failed to identify whether Kerns was selling CDs online via social media from a physical product I'm sorry, I have a physical market stall, or perhaps from the trunk of his car old school style. However, his CD burning and selling business must have left a significant and traceable commercial footprint for the UK government to have gotten involved to such an extent.

Yes, is that even possible? Says here. The fact that CDs are not an entirely abandoned physical medium probably further added in his getting caught. As the vinyl boom has been hit with production snags, the CD industry has remained smaller but still notably bustling since its initial popularity over forty years ago, particularly in the K pop and J pop scenes. CDs and cassettes remained popular among fans for their ability to include limited or unique alternative album covers and photos. To that end, artists like Taylor Swift have continued to find success with the medium alongside vinyl in the West, despite streaming having largely taken over physical alternative alternatives over the past two decades.

That's the end of the article. I want to know how this guy was selling them and how he was possibly making money at this This seems so bizarre to me, but yeah, I mean, CDs have had a resurgence, Vinyl of course never went away and continues to flourish, and even cassettes, you know, that came up too again during my interview with the Surge. I mean, it's hard to believe. I think it was probably about ten years ago. I've told the story on the show before. Forgive me if it's if you've heard it, but just very briefly, I've told the story.

I think it was about probably ten years ago. I was on band camp dot com and again, you know, I'm a big fan of band camp dot com, and I was looking for local artists and I happened to find and I can't remember the name, but they were a band from Keen Keen, New Hampshire, who was selling cassettes and I thought, oh, I saw this, and I thought, what an interesting sort of novelty thing cassettes. They're actually selling cassettes, very retro kind of cool. I guess, I don't know how many they're actually selling, who knows.

But then I started poking around and I realized that there were all these sort of indie pop artists on band camp who were selling cassettes cassettes. It made this weird comeback. I guess if you enjoy the sound of tape hiss and all the trouble it causes when your cassette gets caught up in the in the gears, you know what a pain. I don't miss cassettes. I mean, yeah, I have nice memories of when I was a kid recording songs off the radio on my cassette. Ooh, I hope these prosecuters in the UK don't hear about that.

They want to track me down, have me extradited, because I'm sure at some point I recorded artists from the UK on my little cassette player. But you know, but there were a lot of trouble. I remember when I was a kid actually using scotch tape too. If a cassette that I really loved, if it broke, using scotch tape to actually tape it back together, and sometimes it would actually work out, and sometimes it would not. But yes, that is a headline. In the year twenty twenty six. Judge issues two year jail sentence for burning and selling CDs.

I do want to know more about this guy. I'm going to keep an eye on this story going forward because I want to know how he was doing it, how it could have possibly have been profitable before him, and how they could have been a big enough deal that UK prosecutors actually said we need to put this man in prison. These are answers that I see

Going to prison for burning CDs | Matt Connarton Unleashed

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