The site is an MP3 sales site, something like iTunes, only concentrating mainly in electronic music. They appear to have a catalogue of thousands of titles available from labels big & small. They claim that "all our music content is properly licensed".
However, according to posts that are flying around on many music mailing lists, none of the artists and labels who are listed on the site have ever heard of them before the site launch. And when you try to buy anything on the site, nothing seems to actually be available - every title I selected went into a "Not Yet Available" section in my shopping cart.
Several labels who have contacted Jetgroove.com have received back a form letter which is quoted below. The gist of it is that they launched this site with nothing actually available for download, and somehow intended to get permission to sell releases after the fact. It's a very strange way of doing business, and quite frankly, it reflects badly on all of the artists and labels who are listed on their site.
I strongly ancourage EVERYONE to spread the word about this far and wide. If you are an artist or run a label, check to see if any of your titles are listed, and if so, send them a complaint and request that your titles be removed. If you are just a listener, contact them to complain about their misleading and shady business practices. Hopefully, we can cause them enough grief that they will either change their business model to one that is more upfront and honest, or they will just disappear completely.
- Greg Clow
response letter from Jetgroove:
This could possibly be a much more powerful blow to the business than previous collapses of other once large independent label distributors like Cargo, Rough Trade, Bayside, and Dutch East. EFA has a small amount of in-house labels, including Clearspot, but the bulk of their business is through a large amount of European labels they manufacture and export worldwide as well as North American and British labels they import and distribute throughout Europe. Some of the past and present labels include Accession, Anticon, Chicks On Speed, Cold Meat Industry, Constellation, Crammed, Crippled Dick Hot Wax, Dischord, Force Inc./Force Tracks, Gramavision, Impact, Ipecac, italic, ITN, Kitty-Yo, Klangbad, Metropolis, Mille Plateaux, Ongaku, On-U Sound, Payola, Plug Research, Quatermass, Rephlex, ReR, Ritornell, Saddle Creek, Sähkö, Scape, Shifty Disco, Shitkatapult, Southern, Southern Lord, SubRosa, Thirsty Ear, Thrill Jockey,Touch, Touch & Go, Transient, and Tresor. Pick up a German pressed CD in your collection, see if it has EFA printed on it. If it does, chances are that release's entire income is controlled by EFA.
Repercussions have not begun to surface yet but don't be surprised to see the closing of some of these labels while others scramble to get their stock back before auction time and find other distirbutors. More information about EFA including their history, roster, business statement, and ethos can be found online at their website, www.efa-medien.de.
Why do we care? Maybe we're working on a web site for him.
Our deepest sympathies to friends and family of Matthew Fitzgerald, Adam Cox, and Jeremy Gage.
This Monday (June 2nd), FCC Chair Michael Powell will hold his vote on media consolidation. There's nothing special about that date—it's totally arbitrary. The vote will conclude a process which has shown deliberate disregard for the views and opinions of the American people. Powell has refused to even release the actual language of the rule change—it won't be known until after the vote. And he's only held a single meeting to hear the views of the public. Even when a bipartisan group of Senators requested that he give Congress some time to discuss the impact of this change, Powell brushed them off.
Chairman Powell still has the power to delay the rule change and allow time to have a democratic debate about its consequences. Please call him today and ask him to allow a real public debate on an issue of such massive importance.
You can reach Powell's office at:
(202) 418-1000
Once you've made your call, please let us know at:
http://moveon.org/fcccall.html
Our momentum is clearly building: our advertising campaign with Common Cause and Free Press has received a great deal of media attention. Powell was personally quizzed about our Murdoch TV ad on CNBC on Wednesday. A front page article in the Washington Post highlighted our petition and advertisements as important pieces of the groundswell of concern on this issue. Articles in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and even the Guardian in the UK discussed the ads. (Links to some of the articles are below.) Hundreds of thousands of comments have been delivered to the FCC, and we've been told that Powell's aides are "stunned" by the amount of anti-consolidation mail they've received. Together, we have put the FCC Chair on the defensive.
Even if Powell doesn't reschedule the rule change vote, getting thousands of calls into his office will send a strong message that the public is watching him. Powell doesn't appreciate this kind of pressure: in a recent interview, he said that "I think we're one of the most heavily lobbied federal institutions in the government, probably second only to the United States Congress. I don't, by the way, think that's a particularly good thing." We need to remind him that public involvement in decision making is what democracy is all about.
Call FCC Chair Michael Powell now at:
(202) 418-100
It's not too late to do this process right.
For information on Home Alive, as well as the two benefit CDs they've released, go here: