blogs.villagevoice.com— For lower-middle class indie musicians, record sales actually stillmatter quite a bit, because it's the difference between it being aself-sustaining thing or not.
Apr 16, 2010View in Crawl 4
The music business used to be run by musicians and now it is run by businessmen. Musicians with spend the time and expense until their music is just want they want. Businessmen are all about the profit. Sales ( and the quality of music today ) reflect that.
Just order a CD through your library and rip it. If you have a library card and pay taxes, you've paid for the CD and have every right to put it on your hard drive. Moral problem solved.
It's no great surprise. Perhaps the stars still make a lot of money, but there are way more bands than the highly successful ones, and those bands are being hit very hard as are the songwriters. It's screwing up recording studios, session musicans, everyone involved in making music. Many are going part-time now, and some leaving the industry, and not just the ones that suck. All that is going to effect the quality of the recordings we listen to and the videos that the bands make... yet the big labels are still making stacks of cash, only now they have sidelined songwriters (a thorn in their side for years profit wise).Don't get me wrong, the industry needed a shake up, and it's great that indie artists can get their tracks out there more easily, but it's a war fought in the wrong way and the wrong people have become victims. Quality will decline as bands and labels already aren't always able to get the studio time they need (cost) or make decent videos(too expensive so we get a lot of hand held cheap stuff) and a hell of a lot of other stuff that used to covered by the cost of CD and album sales, besides the 50 cent cost of actually pressing the CD (great how the simple pressing cost is the only cost some people think is "how much it costs to make a CD").Realistically the entire industry is a mess, the genie cannot be put back in the bottle and artists just have to get on with it, make the most of it.My hats off to those who make donations to the artists they love or buy their music, though I fear they may be too few and getting less in number rather than more.
You, my friend, are the one misled here. From the CD sale, the band makes, at best, a marginal percentage on the total price. Their profit margin on concert tickets and merchandising is much, much greater. The only party that profits truly from (overpriced) CD sales are RIAA and their ilk. The fact that it is "illegal" doesn't prove a thing. The problem is that an aging industry is still refusing to adapt the wishes of its consumers and sooner seeks to treat them all like criminals.You can fight this bulls**t without hurting your favorite bands.
"The problem is that an aging industry is still refusing to adapt the wishes of its consumers and sooner seeks to treat them all like criminals."part 1 - you are correct, but on the whole, the industry IS adapting. Music is CHEAP to purchase online - but here is the catch, and answers part 2 - we still choose to ACT like criminals, and therefore will BE treated as criminals. The problem is at this time, no matter WHAT the record labels do with online music sales, the people have gotten used to being able to get the music online for FREE and the labels can not compete with that. If Sony\BMG (for example) right now put up every single album they have online for free with the catch that it could only be listened to on the PC on which it was downloaded unless you burned a music CD, people would bitch about DRM. If they put every album online for 5 cents a pop with no DRM, people would bitch that it was over priced. They CAN NOT WIN at this point, because you can not compete with free - and that in turn keeps otherwise honest people with the sense that they are entitled to free music.I am in NO WAY misled. The internet has made it far too easy to steal what would otherwise have to be paid for, and the "oh, but I go to concerts" is a bulls**t argument that people use to justify their illegal behavior.
greevarApr 17, 2010
<a class="user" href="http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/in-defense-of-1000-true-fans-part-vii-ellis-paul-300-fans-10.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/in-defense-of-1 ...</a>This guy is getting by with the help of his most dedicated fans and selling "tiers" of support for his music.
andmarharApr 17, 2010
The music business used to be run by musicians and now it is run by businessmen. Musicians with spend the time and expense until their music is just want they want. Businessmen are all about the profit. Sales ( and the quality of music today ) reflect that.
metis2Apr 17, 2010
analog sounds better than auto tuning any day.
p4nicApr 17, 2010
Just order a CD through your library and rip it. If you have a library card and pay taxes, you've paid for the CD and have every right to put it on your hard drive. Moral problem solved.
ernesttwiddlerApr 17, 2010
It's no great surprise. Perhaps the stars still make a lot of money, but there are way more bands than the highly successful ones, and those bands are being hit very hard as are the songwriters. It's screwing up recording studios, session musicans, everyone involved in making music. Many are going part-time now, and some leaving the industry, and not just the ones that suck. All that is going to effect the quality of the recordings we listen to and the videos that the bands make... yet the big labels are still making stacks of cash, only now they have sidelined songwriters (a thorn in their side for years profit wise).Don't get me wrong, the industry needed a shake up, and it's great that indie artists can get their tracks out there more easily, but it's a war fought in the wrong way and the wrong people have become victims. Quality will decline as bands and labels already aren't always able to get the studio time they need (cost) or make decent videos(too expensive so we get a lot of hand held cheap stuff) and a hell of a lot of other stuff that used to covered by the cost of CD and album sales, besides the 50 cent cost of actually pressing the CD (great how the simple pressing cost is the only cost some people think is "how much it costs to make a CD").Realistically the entire industry is a mess, the genie cannot be put back in the bottle and artists just have to get on with it, make the most of it.My hats off to those who make donations to the artists they love or buy their music, though I fear they may be too few and getting less in number rather than more.
joejitsuApr 19, 2010
@ diceau You're an idiot.
kyrgizionApr 27, 2010
You, my friend, are the one misled here. From the CD sale, the band makes, at best, a marginal percentage on the total price. Their profit margin on concert tickets and merchandising is much, much greater. The only party that profits truly from (overpriced) CD sales are RIAA and their ilk. The fact that it is "illegal" doesn't prove a thing. The problem is that an aging industry is still refusing to adapt the wishes of its consumers and sooner seeks to treat them all like criminals.You can fight this bulls**t without hurting your favorite bands.
kyrgizionApr 27, 2010
MTV cribs killed all the respect I might have had left for contemporary "stars" in the music business.
frepnogApr 27, 2010
"The problem is that an aging industry is still refusing to adapt the wishes of its consumers and sooner seeks to treat them all like criminals."part 1 - you are correct, but on the whole, the industry IS adapting. Music is CHEAP to purchase online - but here is the catch, and answers part 2 - we still choose to ACT like criminals, and therefore will BE treated as criminals. The problem is at this time, no matter WHAT the record labels do with online music sales, the people have gotten used to being able to get the music online for FREE and the labels can not compete with that. If Sony\BMG (for example) right now put up every single album they have online for free with the catch that it could only be listened to on the PC on which it was downloaded unless you burned a music CD, people would bitch about DRM. If they put every album online for 5 cents a pop with no DRM, people would bitch that it was over priced. They CAN NOT WIN at this point, because you can not compete with free - and that in turn keeps otherwise honest people with the sense that they are entitled to free music.I am in NO WAY misled. The internet has made it far too easy to steal what would otherwise have to be paid for, and the "oh, but I go to concerts" is a bulls**t argument that people use to justify their illegal behavior.