Mixed by Erry is an Italian movie based on true story of three brother who built one of the largest music distribution networks in not so legal fashion. It is a story of piracy during the times when music was distributed in cassette tapes. The movie also walks us through one of the important moments in history for music and how technology continued to changed producing, distributing, and consuming music. The story makes us ponder upon how far we have come, and how things have changed significantly in such a short period of time due to the advancements in technology. Yet, it seems we face the same issues for the same problems.
Spoiler Alert: This post may contain spoilers. If you haven't seen the movie yet, and don't want to read the spoilers, please stop reading here. Feel free to return to share your thoughts after watching the movie. It is entertaining, funny, and informative movie.
While the main story of the movie is how Erry and his brother build a successful cassette tape distribution system, network and business, it also tells the story of an ordinary family and how their lives evolved. Despite the hardships of live, it seems Frattasio family was always together and changes in their financials have not changed them and their relationships with one another. Loyalty of brothers to each other also played a big role in their success and failure.
Erry from the childhood had passion for music and had an encyclopedic memory of songs, artists, albums, etc. He wanted to become a DJ. However, this didn't work out for him and he wasn't successful in becoming one. Not having any luck with becoming a DJ, Erry works at local electronics store, the place he has been spending time in since he was a kid. As a hobby Erry makes mixtapes and they give them out for the store customers as a gift. The store owners ends up selling the business and Erry is left without a job. But the store owners leaves the entire collection of the music to Erry. At the same time his brothers have difficulty with finding and keeping jobs as well.
Using Erry's talent of making mixtapes brothers managed to make some money. However, they quickly discover that making one mixtape at a time wasn't scalable and would take too long. But what if there was a device that could make mixtape copies faster. With all the innovation happening, there had to be something out there. And they were right. After going to through many magazines searching for this specific device, they finally find it. But it was expensive they didn't have have money. They were determined in pursuing this idea, and confident that it would work, they go to a loan shark to get the money they need to buy the device. This was a risky step, because the interest they had to repay on this loan was hefty.
Their plan work. The copier works as it was intended. They manage to sell many mixtapes and make enough money in no time to return the loan with interest, and make profits. They weren't going to stop here. They continue buying more copier and expand their business. "Mixed By Erry" becomes a recognized brand for quality mixtapes sold everywhere. As they continue making more money, they continue expanding their business. It seems it didn't even occur to them they were doing anything illegal. They had a great idea, had talent for making quality mixtapes, and managed to create a network of distribution of their products. Erry, would also add songs from lesser known artists at the end to create some exposure for the new talents. It seems their business venture was built for the love and appreciation of art. However, they haven't really considered copyright issues and they may have been profiting at the cost of the artists.
Erry was indeed talented and had an ability to create quality mixtapes and was very knowledgable all things music and songs. But perhaps the real reason for their success was the simple economics. These mixtapes they were selling were cheaper than the ones distributed from official companies that had the rights to distribute them. Also, the official version were able to keep up with the demand, and maybe weren't even able to mix various songs from various artists. Maybe there was a way for Frattasio brothers to recreate the same success without any legal consequences. They did try to create setup companies so they could make business deals with other companies, and pay the taxes they owe. However, the ultimate issue was that they didn't have the rights for distribution. Moreover, they managed to create tapes for albums that hadn't been released yet and were being performed in festivals.
Despite Italian financial police's continuous efforts to shut down their operations, Frattasio brothers' mixtape business continues to grow. After every discovery of their "labs" and their equipment being confiscated, the brothers manage to come up with new schemes to evade the police. Watching the movie and following the story at times it feels like perhaps Erry and his brothers did deserve to get rich. After all what they created did involve creativity, innovation, and produced what was in demand. But also artists deserve to be paid for what created, without artists the brothers wouldn't have the product they were selling. I wonder if there was another way for brother to run their business in a way it would also compensate the artists. I doubt they would mind it either. The real problem probably is in the system, how artists to get a chance at success would have to sign exclusive deals with records and distribution companies who also probably didn't play by the rules.
Cassette tapes was an interesting and important step in how music industry evolved. But technology doesn't stop. It does make things better, but not all the time. There are still questions and debates if what music has evolved into today is a fair system too. Vynal records, cassette tapes, CDs provided some kind of ownership and ability to give away. Today everything is digital. It is more convenient for consumers find the music they like, and appreciate the art. It is also possible for artists to be discovered globally instantly using current distribution systems, and build their brands using social media. Artists today have wider audience and better tools. Yet, it still seems artists may not get the fair deal even today, and consumer may not even own the music they purchase. We may have better systems in place, however they aren't perfect. I think blockchain will play a role in improving these system. There is definitely potential for verifying authenticity, instant sharing, transfer of property, etc. While technology exists, the implementation isn't there yet. This is an interesting topic to explore some other time.
Frattasio brothers eventually get caught by police, because one of their business partners who was selling them the blank cassettes decides to make a deal and testify against brothers. The brothers end up in prison. Angelo informs them that a lot of their cash was buried and tennis court was built on top of it. Once they get out of prison, they can buy the place and recover the cash. Since the Italy would be changing its currency to Euro, the money Angelo have hidden might have become worthless by the time they leave prison. It is not clear if brothers were able to recover their cash or had to give them all up. But main question I still have is. How they were able to obtain the new unreleased songs when they were still being presented at festivals.