The New York Times write about three albums coming out today (Coldplay's X&Y, the White Stripes' Get Behind Me Satan, and the Black Eyed Peas' Monkey Business) and how they are symptomatic of the music industry's decadence:

The big record companies continue to insist that the only route to profitability is blockbuster sales of a few titles, and the result is all too predictable - music that matters more for how it sells than how it sounds.

While CD sales seem to be declining, it is clear that the music industry's formula is working; despite not having been released yet, X&Y is currently the #1 album on Amazon, and is likely to become #1 on iTunes (their previous albums, A Rush of Blood to the Head and Parachutes, are still at #30 and #49, despite having been released in 2002 and 2000, respectively). While the Times' editorial shows that complaining about the record industry's promotion of musical acts that make albums that take no risks remains in vogue, the fact remains that people like you & me are buying albums like X&Y, Get Behind Me Satan, & Monkey Business, all of which were released by members of the RIAA. As Mike Skinner (The Streets) rhymed on "Let's Push Things Forward from his debut album, Original Pirate Material (OGG | MP3):"
You say that everything sounds the same
Then you go buy them! There's no excuses, my friend
Let's push things forward


Original Pirate Material was released by Vice/Atlantic, which is a member of the RIAA.
Or rather, people like you buy albums like X&Y. Another of the Greasemonkey scripts I installed was Magnetbox's RIAA Radar, which seamlessly integrates with Amazon pages, as you can see above. In defense of The Streets, their official website's Links page previously linked to the filesharing program WinMX, with the suggestion that his fans should download Original Pirate Material there, but exhorted them "not to tell [his] label." On the other hand, I was dismayed to find when I bought the album (it actually may have been a gift; I cannot remember) that I had paid almost $15, and received an album insert that did not contain any lyrics.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was released by Merge Records, which is not a member of the RIAA.
In contrast, non-RIAA albums have a pleasing green label. Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (which I mentioned last August) was released by Merge Records, who were also behind the Arcade Fire's Funeral (which I mentioned in January).

While I fully realize that my one-man boycott of the RIAA is not going to convince them that their actions are immoral and wrong (hell, they will just blame the declining record sales on filesharing, anyway), I really do not care. You could argue that I am depriving myself of music that I would like to listen to (like the Dead Milkmen, one of Philly's best punk bands) without having any external effect, but this action is not about having an external effect. It is about resolving the internal hypocrisy I feel when I buy an album, only to find out later that the label is part of an organization that likes to sue college students, or the artist thinks filesharing and peer-to-peer are inherently evil (which Magnetbox's RIAA Radar does not help with; maybe I will code something). I will think it's cool if you decide to join me in this boycott, but it ultimately does not matter, because I am making this choice for myself. Music critic Sasha Frere-Jones (via BoingBoing) says something similar to my mindset while describing why he refuses to review albums which he cannot listen to when and where he pleases (because of attempts to stop music reviewers from leaking CDs to peer-to-peer networks):

So I represent nobody but myself when I say this: I will not write about any piece of music unless I have unlimited access to a portable version of it, renderered in either the CD, MP3 or vinyl format. I have broken this private rule a few times, when I cared especially for the artist, and I think those were stupid, weak lapses. No more.