On a heated message board recently a few folks and I tried to convince file-sharers not to lump the musicians in with the music industry they hate so much.
This person makes a good point:
"To say piracy helps small artists, is not accurate. Exposure helps small artists. If the goal of p2p is to help small musicians (as opposed to just getting stuff without paying for it) it could be done more fairly by streaming free music instead of just downloading everything for free."-Ray Tardo
Very true, hell even if people were just TRYING to encourage support for independents then even open sharing would be fine. But I can tell you it is not my personal experience that people support independents when the files are offered freely. On one service that tracked free downloads we put up back in the old OMD days we had well around 20,000 unique downloads of our most popular track... I'll let you guess how many people choose to come back and click the button that would pay us the extremely modest fee for our effort and hard work.
As does this guy:
"All free download sites should have a donation button for the artist. Hello!"-anonymous
Someone would have figured this out a long time ago if they were really interested... I honestly don't believe they are. People seem to think it is easy to produce interesting well crafted songs recorded to the standards the public demands and therefore don't assign vale to them. I don't know how independents can convince them otherwise. Many of us have tried for years.
Unfortunatly most seem to belive that small musicians make good money performing live:
"its easy for a band to grow outside its local area when people around the world can hear their music at the click of button. and this is the exposure that everyone seems to be talking about. the more an artist is exposed, the more gigs theyre gonna get. any artist will tell you that they get the majority of their money from live gigs, and from selling their merchandise at these gigs. have you ever wondered why artists actually go out and play live shows?"-macD
2 things here. One, what do you say to a really talented musician that can't tour or perform? does the music they produce have no worth if they cant spend 10 months out of the year on the road? Second, were the hell do you live that people still go out to see live music that isn't from an already fully established artist? Maybe you do live in one of those dwindling few places like austin or hipper cities of the pacific NW, but in most parts of the US original live music has been dying slowly for a long time... god forbid you do something a bit out of the mainstream... if thats the case you can just forget it.
This is also a common opinion:
"But either way, id rather have a larger fanbase than alot of cash. I mean id make more money if 100,000 kids come to a show and atleast 25% purchase a shirt or cd there. Than selling 100,000 cd's off of iTunes or from a record store. -goemon4"
100,000? thats like arena rock crowds bud... Most independents are glad to get 50-200 people at a show if they are pretty well know. You have to get pretty huge before the economy of scale would make that work. Many talented artist would simply not have the choice to continue waiting for that to happen. If your talking about big established acts... sure. But then who will make the new music? in a future were recorded music has no value, who could afford to?
This is the guy that wrote the article we were all discussing:
"Studies have shown that artist actually make more money and sell more CDs if people can "try" their albums, by downloading them from P2P-networks.
Don't get me wrong, Piracy is not a solution, it's a signal that the recording industry should adapt to the preview / collect / sample demand of the public.
They will make MORE money on the long run, period"-Ernesto
Man, I don't know what to say other than my personal experience differs wildly from those studies. The music I make is way out of the mainstream and therefor its gonna be nearly impossible to reach a tipping point were having only a small percentage of the listeners directly support it makes it a viable choice for putting the time required into it.
The evil music industry needs to die, sure... Tons of musicians will agree... we hate it too. But we honestly thought we would all be working together on a solution to replace it and we thought that all the people tired of paying to much would support the efforts of true independents. The truth turns out to be very different and somewhat saddening.
I like this guy, he is a classic anarchist, but he fails to see some big holes in his thinking. and if one person in this thread summed up why file sharers feel justified it would be this guy. I would call him the voice of that community:
I'll tear down a corrupt system and replace it with nothing any day of the week, and proudly so.
I have no idea how the music industry is going to work in the future, but I do know that music is an art form that does not need any industry whatsoever to survive.
Music does not need to be a moneymachine for all involved. Ask yourself how music could exist before record companies. Some made a living by it, most did not.
Before recorded music existed, music was the property of all and enjoyed by all. That's what music is about."- Anonymous
From your statements, I think you're not a musician that has sacrificed relationships, comfort, security, and more so that you could bring your music to the people who might enjoy it...
Yes, we do it for "art" (at least a few of us) but we can't KEEP doing it if we are not supported. We at some point need the help of the people that enjoy the music. and back before recorded music, people gave coin to performers... or paid them to be in a house band as a regular job. The thing that has mostly changed is what the audience expects... to deliver a piece of music that is considered "good" you have to invest a lot of time and quite a bit of money.
My project studio and other music related expenses most likely cost more over the years than many people paid for their college educations. Yet if someone is a programer or a web developer they are not going to give your services away for free are they? Most likely they would never do any work on "spec". But somehow only a tiny fraction of people seem obligated to give musicians respect and support. I waste my breath I am sure... I have made these arguments for years and years and either I am just completely wrong... or people don't want to listen.
Before recorded music existed you couldn't have 10,000 songs on your hard drive. and unless you convinced uncle jake to pull out the banjo you would have no music at all.
So, Respectfully I say to you that unless your 80gig zune (heh zune) is full of music recorded in your home with your friends playing boron, mandolin, and a string bass then I am afraid your above statements are flawed in my option.
You can start learning here... http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2w7z4_boron-drummp4_music
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2 comments:
I still like buying cds! Every now and again I end up with one that I don't use. But I like buying cds like I like buying books. They both bring me pleasure. I admit that I've bought some music I might otherwise not have because of something Nathan downloaded and played for me. As a parent, I guess I failed in this arena. But, he will graduate from college in a better than timely manner (7 semesters - he missed one due to back surgery), so I score one there. Nathan loves music and I harbor secret desires that he be a famous musician. Oh well, I think he's going to law school.
Well, Thats exactly how its supposed to work, you hear a few tracks you like and do something that supports the artist like buy a CD. The problem comes at some future date if no one is willing to do that because they don't see downloaded music as having value.
I am actually for distributing music more freely but the attitudes of these hard core P2P people really freak me out a bit... if this is the way its going then it looks kinda bleak for artists.
I did some more polite arguing for direct support of artists in that thread and was just treated with heaps of distain. I was told to "go get a job flipping burgers" and that I was a nazi.
Wow, I understand that they feel like they are being persecuted but they are totally off base that I am someone to be angry with. I release free tracks of my music... I want people to hear it. I just want the percentage of people that are willing to support it to be a bit higher it if they really like it that is.
I hardly think thats evil...
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