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"Live at Icky Thump Records" The White Stripes |
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"Live at Amoeba Records" Paul McCartney |
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This past week in LA Paul McCartney played in Ameoba Records and The White Stripes played in the now closed-down Tower Records flagship LA store. What a novel idea playing in record store! Why it’s practically retro! Now these are both hugely popular artists, at least one with a shit load of money right? But I feel that they’re both making the same statement: Buy the music! We’ve worked hard to make this music! It is worthy of your hard earned dollars! We don’t want to see record stores disappear.
When I was a youngin’ my local record shop was a small store that sold albums and pot pipes and rolling papers. The hippie-esque manager would give me promo posters of my favorite bands which would wallpaper my suburban bedroom. If I got first dibs I could get a highly coveted cardboard standup of Debbie Harry or David Bowie. I would hang out there looking through the bins and hoping to spot another customer with a punk rock hairdo. It never happened, but at least I could find Ultravox in the cut-out bin or order the new Specials record which would arrive a week later. Don’t get me wrong, I love the immediacy of I-Tunes, but having to work harder to get the music that I loved made it all that more precious to me.
Well, last week internet radio webcasters got together for a day of silence to protest higher royalty rates. Internet radio is important. It’s the only way a lot of artists get any airplay. So this week they have been my inspiration. No playlist. I’m having my own day of silence for the recording artists who now have to depend on T-shirt sales and car commercials to make a living (if they’re lucky) because a lot of people don’t want to pay for music anymore. For years many artists were victimized by shady business deals and now, when they should be liberated by the internet, they’re being victimized by the consumer. Well, good recordings don’t grow on trees and neither do good artists and a lot of them are feeling the financial squeeze. To many, instead of a career it’s becoming an expensive, undo-able hobby. Business people will always figure out a way to make money. If the music industry continues to collapse, the suits will go into other businesses. Those cats will be fine. But personally, I want my favorite artists doing what they should be doing….. recording great music, not selling shoes.
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Spin
why did you switch to 6pm est, you were the bright spot in gloomy Friday afternoon?
Hi, Donita! =D
No tunes eh?
I can’t blame them,a lot of time and energy go into a recording,not to mention money.
MUSICIANS ARE PEOPLE TOO!
If I had a nickel for every starry-eyed idiot who blew a coffee-and-cigs scented “Music should be free, man” into my face…I’d buy the RIAA’s house and kick the RIAA out.
Probably have enough left over to fill that big fat major label distro pipe with indie product bonanza, too.
raven @ 2
Friday afternoon bad news dumps by the Cheney Administration were generating breaking news posts by Jane and Christy for a while when The Spin would normally go up. Donita and I volunteered to move it later to avoid having to bump us in favor of covering actual news which is what FDL is designed for. Besides, this is Happy Hour time, you should grab a beverage of your choice and jam with us after work instead!
Provocative post, Donita. Kinda parallels discussions going on about how to fund blogs. No clear answers there.
FiniFiniTOOBZ! @ 6
Happy Happy, Joy Joy Hour
I saw the White Stripes perform at the Bonnaroo music festival a few weeks ago in Manchester, TN.
I was quite blown away by the sound that came out of those two. Very impressed. I will be seeing them later this summer in Chicago.
Donita Sparks @ 0
There’s nothing wrong with them wanting that.
I understand your point. But not everybody sees it that way. I, for instance, felt always embarrassed in a record store. Like my musical taste (which wasn’t/isn’t even that bad) was too intimate to share it to strangers. - Just as if the clerk would have cared for that.
List of internet radio stations sorted by genre:
http://www.filtermusic.net
Scarecrow @ 7
Very tough to write about. It’s the 300 pound elephant in every artist’s living room right now. Backlash can be intense, so many are not talking about this situation. But believe me, everyone is feeling it and trying to figure things out.
darkblack @ 5
Everything should be free, but this is not a Utopia. Until we all have Star Trek replicators in our homes taking care of our every material need, things like mortgages and rent cost money, food costs money. Musicians dont ask their fans to go to work for free and so the fans shouldn’t ask their favorite musicians to work for free.
I’ve already gotten my nephews and their friends to stop using P2P and buy music from iTunes and Napster. The only way to change this dynamic is for folks to recognize the damage they are causing to the entire industry.
Ten years from now there will either be a beautiful music biz renaissance that took place or no new music worth listening to.
Since the Tower Records closed in Chicago, I have no place to hide out during the inevitable lull in my workday. There is only one remaining record store in downtown Chicago (Rock Records), excluding Borders and B&N.
At the very least, a record store provided a place to hang out and read magazines.
Reality of the “road”. Donita you are dead on.
Where some of the great music is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....mp;search=
Hi Donita. Feelin’ ya, man. PS: when is your new release gonna be available to buy?
dannyM @ 13
I love Rock Records! That is one of the last great record stores in the Midwest. All of my haunts I used to inhabit in Indianapolis where I live are gone.
The record store used to be the place I would go find refuge in, a place where you could talk about obscure bands with the other shoppers and the clerks. I made many friendships with people and even found bandmates by hanging out in record stores. There is no equivalent experience for young musicians today. The social connections made in the aisles of the mom and pop or even the giant conglomerate chain stores like Camelot or Sam Goody cannot be replicated by MySpace or Facebook.
FiniFiniTOOBZ! @ 12
I also fear for some of the other artisans involved in really good quality recordings. Like Mastering guys and gals. Their gear is not cheap and the mastering of their craft takes many years of apprentiship to get to a pro level. The payoff is to make good records and make a living eventually.
Jacqrat @ 15
Hi Jacqrat! Still working on the release date. Might have to wait untill Jan. 2008. I know that sounds insane, but there are many factors at play.
It’s all about the business model, Donita. The same generational shift is kicking the asses of the dead-tree newspapers and the software industry alike. And it will soon consume the education and pharma industries, mark my words.
Part of the problem is coming to terms with the so-called “gift economy”; part of it is the problem of internet mediation. How does one make money when products are no longer locked into a particular platform, but are liberated by their digitization? Or when anybody can freely contribute or compete due to lower thresholds to participation?
I think this is where it behooves society to sit down and have an open source, open community think tank, to talk about all the factors involved and figure out how best to equitably compensate artists for their work in a way that not only acknowledges their success but cannot be gamed. Seems like all these years into the challenge we could have solved this problem, but it’s obviously a challenge for a number of knowledge-based industries.
FiniFiniTOOBZ! @ 12
One of the biggest current issues that I see (and Donita touched on this in her piece) is the devaluation of the music purchasing experience…A generation has gone from preteen to early adulthood not having to exert themselves whatsoever to obtain recorded product…And they don’t even have to pay for it.
Consequently, they don’t put much value on what they receive…And with so many ‘entertainment objects’ clamoring for the user’s disposable income their selection, based on subjective value, falls less and less on recorded music.
I try to counter this in my personal life by encouraging young people to play instruments, in the hope that some appreciation of the intrinsic value of music will return to their thoughts.
Better an active participant than a passive consumer.
Donita
Amen! Very interesting post, Donita. Ever since Lars Ulrich madea stink it seems artist are afraid to say anthing at all for fear of backlash.
Where is the unified voice of musicians? it ain’t with the RIAA
Donita Sparks @ 17
Well, I can tell you as an audio engineer put out of work by the availability of relatively cheap computer recording technology, it’s been ages since I was hired to do a recording session at an actual studio. When I do find work now, its almost always to come record a live show for a band, or I am working for an increasing number of small business clients creating their radio ads. My musician client base is nearly non existent now, 5 years ago even it was 80% of the work I did. I now do web design and video production to replace the lost business in audio.
The folks like me who work in the back end of the recording business are hosed. I know two other engineers selling gear at Guitar Center to pay the bills. I know a studio owner who sold his gear on EBay and bought an ice cream shop. I know a graphic designer who used to do nothing but CD covers and promo posters who now does the layout for Kroger’s print ads in the Indianapolis area. Out here in the hinterlands, the decimation has already occured, its only now hitting the main recording centers of NY, LA and Nashville.
darkblack @ 20
Exactly.
Let’s look at another industry that will be faced with a very similar challenge inside the next ten years.
MIT’s OpenCourseWare program means that ANYBODY ANYWHERE can attend and take MIT courses. In theory, someone could launch a college somewhere else in the world based upon coursework offered through MIT OpenCourseWare, and obtain an MIT-quality education. Look at the cost savings, not having to hunt for or create the caliber of educators that MIT pays for…
But what continues to make MIT more valuable than the clone-university in Hyderbad, India?
The experience of MIT, which includes individualized interaction with its educators.
How can that model be used in the music industry, so that consumers continue to pay for a particular experience rather than a generic copy of music?
[I have argued with educators who think the model I’ve just described using MIT is never going to happen. Sounds just like the arguments I used to hear from software executives…]
My personal feeling is that artists/authors are the big losers from the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act because the flagrant greed of the big publishers/labels assuaged the quilt of a lot of people who began making illegal copies.
Word girl! Let’s get out there and make a statment with our dollars and give our love to the people who help us rock out. Your next record is a def. on my list!
Rayne @ 19
Yes, a very complex situation that needs soulutions. I haven’t come up with them yet, but I’ll keep you posted (har har).
people who give artists like lars ulrich shit for condemning napster don’t get what should be completely obvious. if people are getting their music for free, the artists aregoing to be out of business very quickly. if i snag a loaf of bread from the supermarket, i get prosecuted for shoplifting.
theft is theft. period.
brownandserve @ 24
True, that. Perhaps users for a long time didn’t feel they were getting the full value they wanted for their money, and it was being leaked to the record labels. It’s rather like the pharmaceutical industry, in this respect; we’re paying a LOT of money for the same drugs offered much more cheaply in other countries, and the cost differential is spent on an excess of marketing rather than getting plowed back into development, or into cheaper drugs.
But this has now gone on so long that a generation of music lovers has grown up thinking that one merely downloads tunes…we need to nip this and reeducate the public.
as the mother and mother-in-law of 2 musicians i was made aware of getting music online - my daughter told me in no uncertain terms that i was robbing her and her hubby of money by my doenloading of music…
Hi, Donita!
I agree… A lot of people don’t buy albums in the record stores because they can download it in the internet. That generates a crisis in the record stores and in the record labels too, they negotiate bands and they need to sell your music, but few people want to buy. It is a hard reality. And me alive this reality every day… My band works hard and it’s difficult to produce and to sell independent albums. The Brazilian music industry is entering in crisis and is hard the band sell your music, mainly rock bands. The alternative is to use one of the reasons of this crisis, the Internet. Luckily, some get, but many not.
CSS is an example of a band that grew and Internet made it, but in a way, I think… this is a great luck, because a lot of bands don’t grow in the Internet.
The record labels need bands, the industry needs music and the stores need people for to buy albums… If that doesn’t happen, record stores will become “thing of the past” and it will turn eternal museums, without exaggeration.
Hey, Donita… Now that I spoke in CSS.. Some days ago, I knew that you play with CSS in Los Angeles! I posted a photo of you and CSS in my flog too, take a look! I found the video in YouTube and some photos also! I liked a lot!
CSS and Donita Sparks - “Pretend We’re Dead”
Hey, I hope that my band will play with you in Los Angeles some day! =D
Donita, I bought the L7 albums “Smell The Magic”, “L7″ and “Beauty Process”… And now I’m waiting the others albums that I bought in a record store, in my city. They buy in the USA and from there, they send to Brazil. To download the music in the internet is good… but to buy the original albums, it is very better!
Have a good weekend!
I hope this is not off topic, but all the the talk of record shops set me to remembering the first one that got to know me as a customer as a wee lad in the late 60’s, and over the years they got to know my tastes rather well. So well in fact that when my Mom would come in to the shop for a gift, I never had to worry about how embarrass I was going to be when I opened the gift in front of my friends and she later became a fan of Fleetwood Mac due to the fine folks at that shop. Was it the times and the love of music that made these places special, or something else?
darkblack @ 20
Amen. I also feel that a fan can be an active participant as well. Going to concerts and being in the congregation is important as well. I do it all the time. I feel good about buying music, and and I feel good a bout making music.
i have to confess that i’ve never downloaded music. now that record stores have gone the way of the dinosaur, i prefer to buy cds from amazon. i wonder how good the sound quality is if it’s coming through cyberspace. i also like the little extras you get with cds- lyrics, photos etc.
Rayne @ 28
One of the big busters for the public was finding out how much a CD (pressed, labeled, inserted, and shrinkwrapped) cost to manufacture, vs. how much it was sold for at the retail level.
Someone was getting all that extra moolah, and it wasn’t the artists…Most, if not all of them were signed to contracts that based personal renumeration on the price of a vinyl record.
Factor in the defenestration of most major’s A & R departments, guaranteeing stillborn talent development in favor of an ‘all-in-one-basket’ marketing model, and…
now after a tongue lashing a lot of the music i’ve downloaded i’m now starting to buy the music - i haven’t found all of the music especially the older titles but it’s interesting trying to find them…which brings up another point - its difficult to finf decent record shops with a varied list of music - sure you can find whats popular but out of the mainstream - uh uh ;o)
Donita Sparks @ 26
Want an idea? I think that professional musicians pony up a few bucks each and create a think tank-like program. They generate a project rather like Google’s Summer of Code, wherein they get young folks to develop solutions as interns. If they work at a solution diligently, the think tank pays them a reward-stipend. The program recruits from schools known for their business and their music programs and requires both business and music students work together at modeling solutions.
And they share the whole works with the public at the end of the summer, so that every musician and every craftsman that supports the industry is aware of the potential solutions and can make use of them.
Works for Google — and for the myriad of open source software firms that participate in the Summer of Code program.
Sure, you say, “pony up a few bucks”, as if there is much money available. It’s not like open source software firms are rolling in cash, but they managed to do it. And just look at the success — from 40-plus participating firms in 2005, to more than 3 times that in 2007 — and some of the firms involved surely impact the music industry (EFF, for example).
Think of it: the same generation of folks costing the industry the most $$ finding solutions for it, and creating a pipeline of new music industry professionals who think differently about the business than their predecessors.
Rayne @ 28
I’m a huge proponent of digital downloading of PAID content, so I don’t think this is the problem. It’s the use of peer to peer technology that allows people to download FOR FREE that is the problem. Programs like Ares, BitTorrent, BearShare and others like those are the problem. One caveat here, BitTorrent is actually trying to legalize itself and is working with the entire entertainment industry to work out a solution.
I think its a complex problem at this point and in many ways the barn doors being wide open for so long means those horses are running wild now and we are not gonna get most of them back. Its up to artists themselves now to figure out what works for them. Prince, for example, is giving his new CD away this weekend to subscribers of one of the newspapers in Britain. Up and coming bands do not even try to release CDs anymore and simply put their music on their websites and MySpace pages for free download. In both cases, the hope is that folks will enjoy the music and buy tickets to shows and tshirts through the website.
Its a valid business model I suppose, but imagine if Chrysler started giving you the car in hopes you would buy the rims for the wheels and the upgraded stereo system from the dealership. How many auto plants would close, how many thousands of now out of work autoworkers would be applying at WalMart?
Donita Sparks @ 0
Now are the new rates good or bad? Can this even be trivialized to a binary term? Will artists feel the difference payouts they get from the distribution organisations?
Rayne @ 19
As FiniFiniTOOBZ said, the goal is to make consumers recognize that wanting to get everything for free causes damage. But that’s hard to accomplish. I think the peoblem is not so much to convince that there’s not just rich artists and music industry executives who, would get the money. It’s the thinking “that one album/song they don’t sell won’t hurt anybody” that’s in too many heads. I don’t know what can be done against that.
I doubt this problem could be solved ever in a way that is fair to all parties.
darkblack @ 20
That sounds like a good approach.
*poof*
(A ragged, limping, barely visible scrap of ectoplasm appears, wavering….)
Just a brief hello from Al The Spook with three very heartfelt comments about life, the universe, and everything:
1) Do NOT, repeat NOT try to play frisbee with your grandkid and her friends on a lawn which has just absorbed 10 inches of rain. Reason: slip slidin away. I was lucky, no broken bones but a bad sprained wrist and bruises all over. Ech.
2) Under no circumstances believe that when you need to sleep, any vagrant piece of construction machinery in the continental US won’t waft its way to the street outside your home and begin performing unnatural acts on the concrete and any other machine within range. I sweartaghod I was looking for my MANPAD by about noon…
3) For my sins, I have tried to answer all the questions in the comments on my blog. Clicking on the comments links should display them. There won’t be a post until monday, because I have to let my left wrist heal.
And to all of you, particularly the professionals who have rendered me such high praise, thank you. I deserve it. Yes! Recognized at last! Now my hordes of….oh, wrong script, sorry! Seriously, my blushes and my thanks. All I promise is the best analysis I can deliver, until we are safely out of this mess, or until we are in the furball. If the latter, the rethugs will learn the hard way that I am not a nice man. If they break the constitutional covenant of our nation, and they are dayam close right now. the wrath of heaven is going to land right between their eyes. The August Emperor of Jade has had enough of this crap. And so have I.
I will lurk later in the comments, and may post if I can get the pain easy. Otherwise, be excellent to each other.
Note to self. QUIT WRITING WAR AND PIECE IN THE COMMENTS. Dweeb.
FYI, new thread
Awww… it’s Friday night and lets rock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....mp;search=
OK Kiddo,
Great songs!
Mods: pls. r/muve my last 3 u tubes from my #41. Tnx.
FiniFiniTOOBZ! @ 39
You got kids? I have two in grade and middle school; they think everything they want to do is free on the internet, and if it’s not free they don’t want it. We have a generation of people who’ve grown up with that mentality, and we’re going to have to reshape it. What these kids don’t realize is that they are giving up a a valuable commodity in the form of attention; it’s not seen as money to them, but the advertisers that access them sure think of it that way. Therein is an opportunity.
Peter Gabriel may already be capitalizing on that with his We7 Music Service.
It also might help if we looked at where the money actually comes from that does buy CD’s; there’s evidence that filesharers actually buy more music than those that don’t, suggesting that filesharing could be an opportunity to gin up more business if the mechanics were better understood.
Um, they are giving away OnStar, GPS mapping and satellite radio to sell the cars. It’s the model you described flipped on its ear. Once again, it’s the experience that sells the car; when all cars increasingly become the same in quality and performance, what differentiates them? Your experience of the car.
The region I live and play in is torn in two directions: the willing-and-supportive-let’s-be-encouraging-of-the-arts direction, and the too-lazy-and-or-jaded-to-get-off-the-couch-and-out-to-the-clubs direction. Oh, and then there’s the can’t-wait-for-the-gig-man-can-you-put-me-on-the-list direction.
But tomorrow night my band is playing a two hour CD release (our third) and it will be packed. Know why? One reason: No cover. We’ll get paid based on CD sales and a percentage of the bar. Another reason: We always do well because we work the promotional machine like crazy. Two print interview/review/articles, airtime interview(s) on local radio, and polite but regularly scheduled e-mailings to our mailing list.
The acts around here that complain are the ones who do the least amount of work. And they wonder why they’re playing to fifteen friends and not getting re-booked. Duh. Getting the word out is important to any kind of campaign. The music business is half music and half business.
Then again, we’re pretty good after eight years together. Maybe folks like us. Duh.
Rayne @ 36
I love that idea. The labels should have done that years ago. The artistis should/ could do it now.
Peter Gabriel may already be capitalizing on that with his We7 Music Service.
Oh god, that sounds awful.
I’m lucky enough to live within walking distance of a neighborhood music store that, so far, has managed survive in these tough times. The Electric Fetus has done it by selling goods that appeal to music lovers, and by making their store a gathering place for music fans of all kinds. You can hang out, look through the cd’s, and strike up a conversation with other people whose taste may match or complement your own. It’s an experience you don’t get downloading on itunes or ordering through amazon or the like. As long as that community feeling lasts, I expect the Fetus will hang in there.
Donita Sparks @ 48
Ads grafted onto the front of tunes? Man, that sucks, but as a business model its no different than what YouTube is about to start doing with their videos. I think pretty soon ads running in front of content is going to be rather ubiquitous. It already is at Salon.com where they pioneered the concept.
popomo @ 49
This is the experience I used to have in the record stores I had growing up but it requires a strong music loving community in the city where stores like this exist. In Indianapolis, we do not have a strong music community to support such a store. The music fans that do exist here are lone wolf types I guess. How do you foster that sense of community?
FiniFiniTOOBZ! @ 51
‘Support local music’.
;>)
Donita, I think it will all come out in the wash.
People want to share their love of music, book, other arts. There are online venues where people can “meet and talk”. Yet people still want to meet in person so there are gigs and meetups and some record stores…
I live out in Joshua Tree and we have a couple little okay mom & pop record stores and music stores and some fun live music venues but no bookstores. I buy alot online, but I miss the browsing, the serendipity and the atmosphere of a good bookstore or record store.
Eventually there will be music/book store cafes where you pay/download/print right there. While you’re having coffee or beer or talkin’ to the Record Clerks or meeting kindred spirits.
Instant CD! Or loaded onto your i-Pod! Instant Printed Book with Nice Cover! Or e-Book! Lots of possibilities.
I think there’s always been room in the mix for free-sharing. (Or am I now just old and naive?)
PS - And there’s always a market for the collectible whether it’s an obscure 7-inch EP or a t-shirt, etc.
“people who give artists like lars ulrich shit for condemning napster don’t get what should be completely obvious. if people are getting their music for free, the artists aregoing to be out of business very quickly. if i snag a loaf of bread from the supermarket, i get prosecuted for shoplifting.
theft is theft. period.”
sorry. but lars ulrich lives in a frickin’ mansion, drives exotic supercars and suffers not a lick for the downloading of tunes. he is the last guy on earth that we need to worry about. as a recording artist, massively unheard of, the whole notion of how music works in the world has changed. when i financed my first cd, it cost me a small fortune and there was no distribution, no access to major market radio and no way to get the music heard beyond hauling it from room to room. now the net allows me, or any other player, to post our stuff and it can be heard round the world. downloading is word of mouth advertising, like mixed tapes were in years gone by.
technology has changed and proliferated downward. it hurts the guys with big, expensive studios as fini mentioned but general motors didn’t pay attention to the market when toyota came along and kicked their butt. i’m recording now in a project studio in a basement. the gear kicks the hell out of what i worked on even a decade ago but the key is still who’s behind the console. i paid a lot of money at one point to stand in a big room and yawp into a neuman going to 2″ tape through a neve, it should have been incredible. but the guy behind the board had cloth ears. I hope musicians and fans find a way to make the new media work for the mutual benefit. i hope when i release my stuff that kids download it and share the hell out of it. i make music because i want it to be heard.
if ten thousand people download it for free and five hundred buy a copy over a few months, am i really worse off than if nobody has access to it except through obscure college radio and gigging, but i sell five hundred copies over a few years? i’m looking forward to see what comes down the toobs next. cheers donita!
These naked ladies in the bathroom pretty much sum it up. Big name act, acoustic instro, bathroom, free youtube. They’re ok with it, me too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69cR9J-V-Qg
I support local live music and the community of it. I also support local live radio shows that promote it. Imagine that; a live radio show where the dj plays what ever he wants (and doesn’t yell at you either)! I support commercial free internet and satellite radio. I support buying cd’s as directly from the artist as possible and word of mouth marketing. I have as little to do with the “music industry” as possible. I don’t support the celebrity part of it at all.
That’s were my music money goes these days.
Damn, the LA flagship Tower is closed, eh? That would be the one on Sunset?
I remember going there in ‘85 before shows at the Palladium - Venom, Slayer, Metallica, all that shit. Did Tower sell tickets for Palladium shows? I think maybe that’s why I always ended up going there.
I guess Tower Records is completely history, then? The one here in Portland closed months ago. It was about the only decent brick-and-mortar anime shop in town…
One last thing: BUY MUSIC!
Read the post, haven’t read the comments.
The recording industry had been screwing artists since the very beginning.
ANY thoughts about this issue costing artists money for internet streams that people get for free is horseshit. Pure horseshit.
The RECORDING industry has SO screwed the artists, for SO long, this is all laughable.
Royalty payments are a phreakin LUXURY to any published artist, and INDIE artists DON’T SEE THEM, cuz they are not owned by a label, who GOVERNS AND OVERSEES every single dime and penny that comes in from royalties.
CD sales are down cuz music that’s BOUGHT AND MANAGED by labels is SHIT!!! PURE SHIT!
And the radio biz, and the Clear Channels, and the ad dollars that are failing cuz OVER THE AIR RADIO IS DEAD from it’s own watered down shit, it’s all a dinasaur.
And so is the recording industry.
I haven’t bought a cd from a store in years.
I buy at festivals, and I buy from artist websites.
N that’s how it is, and it’s pissin off the people who OWNED the process from studio to distribution points, and are the people who CONTROL royalty payments.
If the RIAA goes thru with the Copyright Royalty Board (come on, go LOOK at who these people are who serve and work for these companies) decision as of July 15 . . . internet radio and indie artists are dead meat.
Streaming radio will be dead meat, except for the biggies . . . and yer community college statins, community sponsored stations, and all them internet music sources, will all be silent fast.
Welcome to Clear Channel Radio, with Big Brother The Sponsor, 24/7.
At this point, the House SubCommittee today ruled NOTHING. NOTHING. Government has been asked, and has agreed to, stay out of it.
So there’s yer congress krits in action.
Sold out, again.
On BOTH sides of the aisle, as expected.
So you PHOOLS don’t be POSTING about the artists getting hosed because ‘the people’ want music for free . . it’s a jive assed premise and one put forth by Big Bro And His Hacks.
And it’s as shrill as Ann Coulter’s unwashed black dress stinks, and as ignorant as the SCOTUS rulings recently (bhudda help us for Roe v. Wade and Brown v. Board).
I pray the meteor comes soon, to waste these insidious dinasaurs of our lives.
Harumph.
Rayne @ 23
Conjecture, based on false premises of musicians getting screwed by the public MORE than they are getting screwed by the INDUSTRY!
And, you offer NO solutions.
Music in the future as I’d like to see it, so artists get paid?
Break the backs of Corporate Radio, the recording industry, the labels and the present distribution channels.
Artists have the web stations to promote for free, fests and gigs to play live and sell tix and product at, and then, WE THE PUBLIC, get to buy from them direct.
Studio’s and mixing houses with their talents and genious and experience are now operating OUTSIDE the constrictions of Cashville and such.
And they are kept busy because regional bands can GET studio time at affordable rates . . .
I admit, I have NO idea what to do with copyright and royalty issues, but I sure as shit know, the present system don’t serve artist except those in the 1% catagory . . . like lords and masters, even the slaves of the industry are one percenters . . . . the rest are SO screwed.
Harumph.
darkblack @ 34
Dude, can we talk about artists being signed, and then, losing money on EVERY contracted product they produce, despite concert tours, sales, and such? How’s THAT happen, hoss? I wonder? Huh . . . laughable . . .
Can we talk about how artists are screwed from start to finish, with the present business model? And how that business model is trying to KILL any threats to it?
And how INTERNET music and streaming is enabling NON LABEL indie artists to make an HONEST living with exposure, and direct sales from artist websites?
Harumph.
argosfalcon @ 31
God I HOPE that Fleetwood Mac was before Stevie Nookie and Lindsay Buckinfutz . . . cuz they were a HELL of a series of bands and artists before that pop schlock took center stage. Gag me with a shovel . . . .
Alfred Kelgarries @ 39
I LOVE THIS MAN!!! *G*
In a purely worshipful and spiritual way. Of Course. Like a deity. For a guy with an orange crate, he’s pretty special on MY street corner.
But hoss, I love ya, and we need ya amongst the proletariat, we need yas bad . . .
(/endgush)
FiniFiniTOOBZ! @ 37
LIVE SHOWS SHOULD BE P TO P FREE!
Any artist or band is NUTS not to agree to it.
Best marketing tool they ever had . . sells dates, sells products.
But them artists SHOULD have something to drive a consumer to BUY the product they need to SELL, from these live shows!
I love bittorrent, and I love dimeadozen, cuz it’s all live shows, and it’s all artist consent, and I’ve learnt about all KINDS of stuff, that drove me to BUY artist product from having heard it on dimeadozen . .
From Django and Stephane, to Dave Alvin, Jack Elliott (I have 20 of his vinyl’s of old), Country Gentlemen, Kentucky Colonels, Seldom Scene, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Robert Earl Keen, and a whole world of newgrass folks like Tim O’Brien, The Bluegrass Album Band (Tony Rice, Jerry FLux D, Doyle Lawson, JD Crowe, and a host of others on and on in the genre’s I like . . .
Uh, what was I sayin? Oh yeah, screw the labels and RIAA. Harumph . . . ;-)
pretty shaved ape @ 54
PRETTY SHAVED APE JOHNSON IS RIGHT!!!
Seriously, nice to hear from a player about a player’s issues . . . yer way is the way I hear all my indie favs speak about at the merc booths at every fest I go to . . . and sometimes, they would rather speak off the side and take TIME to do that with me . . I care about them, and then, they care about me and want me to understand where they come from . . . I’m always humbled by the artists . . . purely humbled. They travel, and gig, and are on the road always . . . and they still care for the integrity of their art, and fight for it, and hope we the people, know they do . . . and they get up tomorrow, and do it all over again.
They don’t do it to get rich . . . but man, they sure love what they do. And we do too. *G*
Myrtle June @ 55
MYRTLE!!! IN DAH HOUSE!!!
Before I showed up!
Nice rant gal . . . works for me.
You need to shout out more in here. *G*
larue and others
I mostly agree with larue. I’m a consumer, with eclectic tastes. The best music store in Halifax, Sam the Record Man, closed recently, and the chain is mostly shut down across the country. I used to drop in every few weeks, but when my taste became too specialized, Sam’s couldn’t respond. I’d order a CD thru Sam’s, and four months later, they’d get it in. I went to Amazon, and I’d typically have it within a week or two. While the stores were in the process of dying, the price of CDs dropped by about 1/3. I think you’ll agree, the consumer was being ripped off - buy three, get one free? Never heard of it.
Anyone with any thoughts on used CD sellers?
I love internet radio, but I haven’t found the variety of stations - yet - that meet my interests. Just yesterday, I bought my first MP3 player, a 30GB iPod, and I suspect I should have gone 80GB.
I can’t get all my music through concerts, because Halifax/Nova Scotia is too far off the beaten path. How often does e.g. Chava Alberstein come to N America, let alone Canada, and NS never. And Kate Rusby doesn’t fly, and, and, and…
I could buy through the artist websites, but jeez, we’re paying a lot for shipping, and I suspect it’s labour intensive at the artist’s end. However, I’ll do that for special artists, e.g. Kimmie Rhodes.
I suggest an Amazon equivalent, let’s call it Euterpe. Euterpe deals with the artists and the customers, using a model like Amazon’s. I’d suggest though, that they develop a browse environment experience for the customer, 5 parts internet radio, 5 parts the old record store, 3 parts Amazon.
Let’s face it, the buying market largely consists of people who have computers, so they have access to Amazon, internet radio, and P2P sites if they’re so inclined. The artists are similarly situated. However the market develops, this is the reality, and I hope things evolve towards more accessible customer choice. For the consumer and artist’s sake, let’s save internet radio.
PS Trivia question. Name an album where the tracks are sequenced alphabetically. Just noticed my answer today.
love old style record stores. here’s one of my favorite’s closing night after 30 years that turned into an impromptu party as lots of old customers came out to pay respects. i don’t think today’s download stores will ever see this kind of love and devotion. but sadly, scenes like this used to happened every friday night…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5cwDwJELYA