It's not exactly new, they've been doing it for awhile. iTunes and Amazon.com, and CD Baby and Rhapsody for that matter, sell ultra-violent neo-Nazi skinhead music and think in the great cost-benefit analysis that all such corporations engage in, it will bring in more money than it costs them so long as those who notice are isolated and impotent in their individual capacities. If a few people notice, fine: "We can live without your 6 downloads or that coffee maker you were going to buy, as long as your outrage burns out quickly and you don't remember to spread the word. Chances are, after a week or two of internet outrage, you'll be right back buying a book on Amazon.com anyway."
It's time to prove them wrong. (more)
It's important to note than when I say violent neo-Nazi propaganda, I'm not just engaging in melodramatic phrasing, while actually talking about some conservative country singer. I'm talking about Skrewdriver. Final War, Brutal Attack, Prussian Blue, The Bully Boys, and others.
For those uninitiated, below I'll share who these groups are, who sells this music, and the callous money-grab Apple & Amazon are engaging in to profit off of music that calls for the extermination and expulsion of Jews, blacks, Asians, homosexuals and others, and the lies Amazon & Apple tell for why they do it.
An Introduction Skrewdriver & Other Neo-Nazi Music:
Let me first tell you who Skrewdriver are, just as one example of the bands I'm talking about that iTunes & Amazon are in the business of selling.
For those who do not know, Skrewdriver can be fairly categorized as the most famous & influential neo-Nazi band of all time. An English punk band formed in the 70s and active in ultra-racist skinhead circles since 1982 until the welcome death of their loathsome leader, Ian Stuart Donaldson, in 1993. Some of their lyrics are as follows:
Race & Nation:
"I believe in the White race
A race apart, we've got a mile start
I believe in my country
It's where I belong, it's where I'll stay"
White Power:
"White Power! For England
White Power! Today
White Power! For Britain
Before it gets too late"
When the Boat Comes In (I've wrestled with it, and I think it's better for me not to shy away from showing the exact language used in these songs):
"Try to take our nation, and give it to the blacks
We won't take it anymore, we're gonna take our nation back
Nigger, nigger, get on that boat
Nigger, nigger, row
Nigger, nigger, get out of here
Nigger, nigger, go, go, go...
They riot on the British streets, they're burning down our land
But the fools in government put money in their hands"
Feel free to search the iTunes store for it, it's there.
As for Amazon.com, I'll help you out with a link: http://www.amazon.com/...
Please notice the Klan rider on the album cover. Also take a moment to notice this: "Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrapping available." No kids, this isn't some third party seller on the marketplace feature selling something used. I'm sure if you ask Amazon to include Sieg Heil on the giftwrapping, they'd certainly do so if the price was right.
Amazon also sells the Bully Boys "White Kids Gonna Fight" album. http://www.amazon.com/...
"The bowling Alley's now all we got
There's monkeys in every parking lot"
Don't worry: that track, as well as the others, are conveniently available as mp3 downloads, that Amazon uploaded onto their site for your convenience.
Another album by the same band, by the way, is entitled "Over Six Million Served: Best of the Bully Boys." You can guess what that title references. Unfortunately, the song "Six Million More" does not appear to be available on Amazon.com, but don't worry, you can nab it off iTunes:
"They're on the media night and day looking for our sympathy - yeah
The Holocaust, the crystal night don't mean a thing to me - no
The world can't take much more of this Zionist intervention
The only fool proof plan is mass extermination
Six million more, six million more"
From everyone's beloved Apple, to you, for 99 cents: they will happily take their cut.
I can't possibly go through all of the juicy ultra-violent Neo-Nazi lyrics Amazon & iTunes have decided to profit off of, even if that profit requires distributing Nazi music that used to have to operate by mail order from smaller labels with connections to Aryan Nations, White Aryan Resistance, Stormfront and other Nazi organizations. Here are some links to some of the many albums they'll sell to you...the Amazon links are easy. Search the iTunes store and you'll find most of the same.
Some other quick hits:
Brutal Attack: http://www.amazon.com/...
Final War: They play in a poppier style. More accessible, y'know. http://www.amazon.com/...
Final War's "Land of the White" sounds like a good'un, but "Defenders of the Reich" (just "Defenders" on Amazon) has some lovely words for your iTunes for a buck:
"Skinheads-Defenders of the reich
Skinheads-We wage this nation's fight
Skinheads-Standing proud and true
Skinheads-We fight the Jew"
And please, don't concern yourselves, none of these albums have explicit lyric warnings or anything like that. I suppose they don't say "shit" enough, or reference the fact that sexual intercourse exists.
Skullhead's "White Warrior" album will make a nice gift, and Amazon & a Nazi record label will nicely share the profits from your purchase: http://www.amazon.com/...
Considering the business they have running with these bands, one can only assume that the absence of Detroit's own Jew Slaughter from iTunes & Amazon is merely a disagreement as to how to divide the royalties.
Because Buffalo's No Alibi, fighting for the "collapse of the Zionist System" according to their MySpace page (despite the fact MySpace supposedly has a policy against hosting white power bands) has 3 albums available, thanks to our friends at Apple and iTunes. http://itunes.apple.com/...
iTunes & Amazon Responses:
Let's get this out of the way at the front. Their catalogues are large, yes. But they know what this music is, and they know that they're selling it. The quickness of their corporate form letter politely telling you to fuck off makes that clear.
Yes, they send form letters. They are not unaware that they aid the spread of Nazi propaganda for 99 cents a song. What was once a labor intensive and on-the-margins spread of neo-Nazi music through small white power record labels and distributors, often with at very least tangential connections to Aryan Nations, Hammerskins, and other criminal racist organizations, is now as easy to buy as an Outkast single or a Harry Potter book, thanks to the greed of Amazon & iTunes, who prove they don't give a fuck about anything.
Even the chain record stores tended to care enough not to carry music calling for Jews to be put back in the ovens, perhaps because someone at the store would actually have to look you in the eye if you asked them how they could make the jaded decision to carry it.
Today, however, you write an email. The peon who reads it--but can do fuck all about anything--sees it's a content complaint, and sends the exact same "content complaint" form letter they send to someone complaining about swear words. The people who set the policy never see it, the people who barely read the email don't care and can't do anything, and everyone involved assumes you, the complainer, can't do a thing about it but fume for a day or two and then give up.
What This Is All About: NOT "Freedom of Speech"
They, in their form letters, make vague references to what can only be described as the "Freedom of Speech Argument for Dummiez." They claim, essentially, that as long as the underlying content is legal, they don't do content "censorship."
The 1st Amendment protects individuals and corporations from government repression of the content of speech with certain exceptions. I am not the government. Consumers are not the government. Grassroots efforts to punish irresponsible companies is not the government. A for-profit's corporation's decision to not play a role as the largest and most mainstream distributor of Nazi music in history is not "censorship." Resistance Records, Rock-o-Rama, and others are free to continue to try to spread their violent Nazi message. iTunes & Amazon do not need to make the choice to try to make a couple of nickels off their efforts.
What they do is hope YOU don't understand what the 1st Amendment is. That not only are they brave warriors on the ramparts of free expression, but imply that you're super uncool to suggest they should have any responsibility for the content they sell.
In their form letters, they'll inform you that so long as the underlying content is legal, they will not engage in content regulation of any kind, but of course, don't necessarily endorse the messages. I'm glad they don't necessarily agree the Holocaust didn't get the job done and blacks & Asians should be forcibly removed from "white" countries. Here's what they do, "necessarily" do, however: make money from this stuff. That's why they do it. If they're truly warriors for free expression with this marginal, highly racist music that often profits criminal Nazi gangs, they can prove it to me by giving 200% of the price of each album to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Yes, I said 200%. If they lose money on each sale of this stuff that they're just selling for the benefit of our 1st Amendment and not for something disgusting like a couple thou more into the coffers, they can truly sacrifice each and every time it's sold. I'll still protest it's presence until it's removed, but at least their reasoning won't be laughably see-through.
They're Lying About Not Engaging in Any Content Regulation:
But, beyond this, they're also lying. They do engage in content regulation. iTunes has removed songs like "Boom Bye Bye" by Buju Banton and other dancehall reggae songs calling for the murder of homosexuals under pressure from interested groups. The same pressure can be applied here, and should.
Amazon.com & iTunes in their movies section do not sell hardcore pornography. Perfectly legal hardcore pornography. You see, despite the fact this business is an absolute cash cow, they must have decided it's not worth the heat. You can get softcore, and even a hardcore title or two through the marketplace feature on Amazon...but they don't sell it. Of course, I could just be stupid. I mean, the kids in cubicles who sent me form letters said they don't engage in content regulation when the underlying content is legal. Perhaps I just didn't use the search function correctly when I was browsing for my hardcore porn titles. How many k's in bukkake, again, Amazon? It must be my error.
No, the porn's just not worth the trouble. But "Nigger, nigger, get on that boat" is worth the trouble, because not enough people know about it, so they can collect their pennies. Would you care to cause a little trouble with me?
I remind you of the lesson of almost every corporation. You already know this, but here it is again: THEY DO NOT GIVE A FUCK ABOUT ANYTHING UNLESS YOU FORCE THEM TO CARE OUT OF FEAR FOR THEIR POCKETBOOKS.
Yes, let's create a little fear.
"The Slippery Slope":
I'll keep this one brief. The Nazi propaganda--calling for the mass extermination of Jews and blacks and Asians--is an extreme case. It most certainly can be easily identified and not sold without falling down the "slippery slope" of checking every album to see if they say "shit" one too many times. This argument is ludicrous. Nearly every record store I've ever been in, and some of their direct competitors in online music sales such as Interpunk and eMusic successfully sell a wideranging catalogue while refusing to carry Nazi music.
What You Can Do:
PLEASE Write To Them. Threaten them as to your own business, for the business of your friends and colleagues, and tell them you'll spread the word. Check in with them after you've hurt them financially. I tell you, giving them actual examples of the purchases not made and the dollar figures not spent by you or your friends or family does more than vague references to "losing my business in the future."
Here's why this has an excellent chance to be successful with some concerted pressure, even amongst a relatively small cadre of people pushing them if it's done well. This shit ain't the new Rihanna single. It IS fringe Nazi stuff. They can't make that much money off it. So, when you write to them, remind of that.
Here's an actual example I used. Do it yourself if you please would.
"I have successfully talked a friend out of buying a Technivorm coffee maker from you just today. That is $300 less in the bank, today. You will have to sell the track "Six Million More" 300 times today to get back to zero. Did you sell "Six Million More" 300 times today? I look forward to continuing to update you on the details of the money I'm dedicating to costing you every single day."
"I have talked to a friend about placing their wedding registry on BestBuy, Macys, and other sites instead of Amazon.com as they had originally planned. You will have to sell "White Power" by Skrewdriver approximately 3,500 times today to get back to get back to zero based on the money your decision to spread Nazi propaganda has cost you. Have you sold 3,500 copies of that song today? I'd love to know, but I doubt it."
Please write to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/... Log in to your Amazon account if you have one, and follow the link to write an email or place a call.
Please write to iTunes: iTunesStoreSupport@apple.com
Tell them why you're doing this. Tell them specifically about the money you won't spend with them. When you don't make a purchase with them you would have, or when you talk another out of spending money with them, write them again and give them the dollar figures. Whether you relate that to sales of Nazi music is your call, but I must admit I like to do it...because it's small-fry enough in their business they'll start to see how this little Nazi side-business they're running is costing them more quickly than if the complaint were over a U2 album.
Write. Tell your friends to write. This can work. Already with iTunes, my follow up email led the original form-letter-sender to forward the complaint up the line to a supervisor at Apple instead of iTunes who has gotten back to me and will have more information after an "investigation." I don't operate under any illusions--if only I write, this doesn't really mean anything, and I'll get the runaround again. So please, will you write or call to? Tell them about the money you won't spend? About the people you'll tell about this? The bad press you'll help create? The people you'll talk out of buying from these amoral companies?
What Else You Can Do:
I got in touch with chapters of the NAACP, ADL, The Turn It Down Campaign (dedicated to combatting white power music sales online), the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center just last week. The Wiesenthal Center has already written back to me informing me they're aware of the problem in so-called "legitimate" online retailers and are planning more forceful action soon. Please consider writing to these organizations as well--or including other organizations you think would ahve an interest in this issue and might use their power to communicate with these companies and spread awareness of this vile practice even farther.
Please? Take just a few minutes to make a difference.
Some further information:
From the Southern Poverty Law Center: http://www.splcenter.org/...
From the Anti-Defamation League: http://www.adl.org/...
The Turn It Down campaign against white power music web resource: http://turnitdown.newcomm.org/