"Hope to see all of you in Nashville this summer!"
Why do we still keep focusing on illegally downloaded music?????
http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/2010/09/what-do-you-really-think-abou...
This article got me thinking. What good is it to keep focusing our resources and energy fighting something that is impossible to control.
The real problem is how revenues are distributed and how ALL the parties involved in the creation of music are compensated.
Through numerous discussions with trusted friends in the business, I have come to realize that we are still trying to keep a system for doing business alive that was instituted over 50 years ago and has not changed in over 30.
However, the consumer has changed drastically.
Think about your own buying habits. Where do your own dollars go?
I have to admit, I rarely buy music. Oh, I buy the occasional download from iTunes or give my kids $20 gift cards in their Christmas stockings, but really, I hear all the music I want online and at work.
Yes, CD sales are down, but Starbucks sells tons of them to impulse buyers on their way to work. Craker Barrel sells tons of them because they have a built in network of distribution and only carry products that cater to the majority of their clientel.
We can't set around and complain anymore, we have to focus on how people demand to be entertained. We know they need our music, but we don't spend much time figuring where the demand is.
Thoughts?
This article got me thinking. What good is it to keep focusing our resources and energy fighting something that is impossible to control.
The real problem is how revenues are distributed and how ALL the parties involved in the creation of music are compensated.
Through numerous discussions with trusted friends in the business, I have come to realize that we are still trying to keep a system for doing business alive that was instituted over 50 years ago and has not changed in over 30.
However, the consumer has changed drastically.
Think about your own buying habits. Where do your own dollars go?
I have to admit, I rarely buy music. Oh, I buy the occasional download from iTunes or give my kids $20 gift cards in their Christmas stockings, but really, I hear all the music I want online and at work.
Yes, CD sales are down, but Starbucks sells tons of them to impulse buyers on their way to work. Craker Barrel sells tons of them because they have a built in network of distribution and only carry products that cater to the majority of their clientel.
We can't set around and complain anymore, we have to focus on how people demand to be entertained. We know they need our music, but we don't spend much time figuring where the demand is.
Thoughts?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by MArc-Alan Barnette on -
/One of the things that have to be considered is the ripple effect all of this has on all of music. Venues, have switched to things like Karaoke which are the amateurisation of the entertainment business. Many venues that used to do live music simply don't any more. And more and more amateurs get into the business. That affects everyone. Also people who manufacture CD's who have been affected by people no longer doing product. And the people that depend on that business.It is a much larger issue.
If you completely abandon all chances to enforce laws, and just give in, you collapse all of that. The entire music business is wrestling with their relevance. If everyone and their brother are going to do this and no one pays anything for anything, there is no music business. So addressing aspects of it have to be done.
What gets me are the huge amounts of college kids who have spent thousands of dollars on degrees in the music industry yet have made their entire existance on illegally downloading what they want with no thought of the consequences. Then they are showing up at publishers, producers, record labels, recording studios, wondering "where are the jobs?" Welcome to the real world. You got rid of them many years ago.
The same applies to pretty much every business out there.Demonize the people who create the jobs, run down people who create opportunities who also happen to be, how do you say it?... Rich. And there are no jobs. The people who run unions decrying how all the jobs overseas, never look at themselves for running up the cost of doing business that created the problem in the first place. Technology and the changing market place change everything and effects everything.
So having a discussion on illegal downloading and understanding the overall picture remains valid.
MAB
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Permalink Reply by Bret Teegarden on -
All valid MAB, but really, its like putting candy in front of a child and spanking their hands every time they reach for it. WE are the ones who keep putting it out there for the world to take. WE are the ones who have rushed to get everything into a digital distribution model. Its like leaving the keys in your car full of expensive recording gear in a crowded parking lot and expecting it to never be stolen.
People change in the way they get what they want. Newspapers, TV, Movies. So far, all we do is complain that people don't want to pay for CDs and downloads anymore.
I'm not saying throw in the towel on fighting piracy, I'm saying, if we let that be our focus, then we will miss the boat on meeting the public's demand for entertainment, in the ways they want to receive it.
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Permalink Reply by iV on -
good thoughts, brent. as i type this, david israelite just finished speaking at leadership music's digital summit. from following the twitter feeds, it would seem that consumers and creatives alike realize that fighting the trends isn't a sustainable option.
there's another way to connect the dots. we may not see it at the moment, but it will emerge. i think the pendulum is still swinging, so i have a feeling that music will continue to become commoditized - and we'll continue to see it devalued monetarily on all fronts. we're still in chaos, so i think there's still too much dust to see through. which is why i agree with you : if fighting piracy is the focus, we'll miss seeing another path.
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Permalink Reply by Drew Sanford on -
I think the bottom line is this: People still like music, but the industry is out of touch with the consumer. In most cases, this includes the artist. The average consumer still sees the average musician as living it up, rock and roll lifestyle, etc. Why should they need any more money, it won't matter if I download this one album of theirs.
MAB brought up venues - this is HUGE in my mind. When I grew up there were 5 or 6 places I could go in town any night of the week but sunday and catch a live act for $3-$5 at the door. When they guys got off stage, you could sit at a table with them, talk to them, find out they were average guys who were getting up in the morning to go to work, just like you. They'd be hocking some tapes or whatever, and yeah, if I liked them, I'd buy one. This simply doesn't happen any more. None of the places where I grew up have live acts anymore.
CD's started out over priced and stayed that way for 20 years. Recently some (half) effort has been made to reduce the cost of CD's but I think it's too little too late. Mind you it hasn't stopped me from (currently) owning close to 1000 CDs. Why? Because the music sounds better on CD than it does in any format you can buy it in "down load" style. But then that matters to me since my iPod and my computer aren't the only places I listen to music.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter what the laws are, people will break them. Would I consider purchasing and downloading music if I could get it the same quality as on a CD? Maybe. Of course, people will steal that too. No, the solution is ultimately something that has been lost, and no one has found a way to recreate. The problem is there is no sense of intimacy between the artist and the fan any more. Maybe it's because the fan has to pay through the nose to see the artist live in some huge venue where they end up so far away they can't even tell if that's the same person there are pictures of in the album notes. Maybe it's because they wouldn't recognize them if they could get that close, since they never had the album.
Radio (Clear Channel) has fed the public nation wide playlists and dictated what everyone likes for so long that no one even knows what THEY really like any more. Local radio stations, and local venues where you can see an act for so little money that it doesn't matter if they suck and you walk out, because, hey it's only a couple of bucks - lets hit the show down the street - that's what it's going to take. Give the public back the ability to choose what they like instead of telling them what they like, give them a relationship with the artist, then you can sell albums, because there's a vested interest in keeping that artist making music.
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Permalink Reply by Rick Millward on -
I think the overall business shrinks or grows to fit the market at any given time. It's embraced iTunes, which may end up being the largest income stream...It's demanding a larger share of artist's income...it's still controlling what gets nationally, heck, internationally wide release...it still has the lobbying power to keep royalties absurdly low...I don't see it being all that changed. We all know how much money it takes to break an artist and create a fan base...which I see as the major component of commercial success...and I don't see that being any different. So I guess my point is that there's still plenty of profit in the business model even with depressed sales and illegal downloading. By the way, does anyone think that if the industry really cared all that much about downloading they'd solve it through a combination of technology and stricter enforcement? Remember, this is a business that has traditionally given away a lot of product as promotion.
The only big thing I've seen is the exponential explosion in the number of talented and ambitious people taking a shot at fame and fortune. For the labels it makes the job easier than ever...and Digidesign very profitable, too!
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Permalink Reply by Greg Hopkins on -
Is it possible that the price point of CDs drives consumers to steal it? We all know the effort that it takes to create that CD, but when I go into best buy or walmart and I see DVDs of multi-million dollar productions selling for 2/$10 right next to a 12 song CD for $20, I laugh out loud. Sure, as internet connections get faster and faster, it gets easier to steal movies as well and that industry suffers from the same piracy that ours does, but when there is greater perceived value in entertainment media selling for a quarter of the price, it doesn't encourage sales of our product. I overheard someone in walmart the other day say "why am I going to pay twenty two dollars for that new CD when I can get it online for free?", but they think it's a great deal to get DVDs or video games at two for ten and will spend 40 or 50 dollars and walk out with a bag full of them.
Food for thought....
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Permalink Reply by Timothy Gaines on -
"However, the consumer has changed drastically. "
Thank you!!
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Permalink Reply by Cheyenne Montanna - Lee on -
The Shame is it can be stopped, France is stopping the down loading of mp3s on these sites who give it for free. Others will follow we hope.
Would these people who down load for free buy the records in any case ?
Is it getting say Country Music to people who dont know anything about it, could it have another benefit , that is not evident?
In a lot of cases (Not for the outside writers) they get sell out concerts, and make their money that way.
Record sales are creeping up again. because the greedy record company's are bringing down the prices.
Only asking these questions, because we dont know where it will lead, we can only guess.
Is it sorting out overstaffed Record Company's and Publishers?
Cheyenne
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Permalink Reply by Bob Olhsson on -
The elephant in the room is the fact that this is a crime and people ought to be prosecuted rather than just being slapped on the wrist with lawsuits. Sitting around and complaining doesn't help but a decade of "educating people" also hasn't helped.
I also don't buy that it's any kind of a "trend." You need look no further than ring tones and cable "pay" TV to see that when people need to pay for entertainment they will pay. The ripple effect is that only the lowest common denominator is remaining even slightly profitable.
And the kicker is that my friends in military network security assure me that there are technological methods to stop it in a heartbeat and that the idea that you can't do anything is propaganda from tech industry investment bankers who are seeking to devalue and then buy out the entertainment industry.
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Permalink Reply by Randall Clay on -
Although everyone who commented made valid points, I think the best was Bret. It's us as creators who rush to put everything out on the web who open ourselves up to this. Yes it COULD be stopped with enough effort, but the truth is the people who make laws don't make music, therefore, they aren't affected enough to truly care. Even if they did...is prosecuting every offender really the thing to do? Most of the country would be in prison.
The only truly realistic answer to this dilemma that I've been able to come up with (as far as my own personal career goes) is to understand that there is going to be a certain amount of my music downloaded without me seeing any compensation. That is pretty much out of my control. What is in my control is what I make available online to begin with.
If there are certain songs, for instance, that are nowhere online...you can only get them by buying the CD, then maybe the guy who downloaded 5 of my songs for free has become a fan of mine, and will in turn now purchase something of mine. Maybe because he wants to support me, maybe because he's such a fan he just HAS TO HAVE IT...even if it means buying it, and maybe, just maybe, because he was just downloading my stuff to begin with because he wasn't really familiar with me, so he wanted to see if it was worth buying at all.
Don't think this doesn't happen. I'm not saying I've ever downloaded music illegally, but "I've got this friend" who occasionally does, but only for one of two reasons....either money is tight right now, and waiting is just not an option...(in which case, the purchase always occurs as soon as possible and the download acts as a way to "tide me over")
the second is as mentioned above..."I've heard of you, but I don't really know you and I don't know if I wanna spend money on your music."( to which, obviously, if it's good it gets purchased, if it stinks then the file gets deleted and life goes on.) And before anybody blows up about that I'll simply say...I don't believe that music should have to be purchased to be heard. If someone downloads a song of mine and they think it sucks so they don't purchase it...then Hey, maybe I should put a better song out there. And why is that so different than just listening to it stream on myspace or reverbnation?
The bottom line, at least as far as I'm concerned is, there will always be pirates...and trying to figure out a way to stop them is for bigger brains than mine. All I can do is try to make my music good enough that enough people purchase it to cancel out the ones who don't. I know it's accomplishable.....because some people are still actually making a living making music. So even though piracy has certainly affected the business...it hasn't stopped it completely and it never will.
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Permalink Reply by Bob Olhsson on
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Randall Clay said:
When has music ever needed to be purchased in order to be heard?...I don't believe that music should have to be purchased to be heard...
What this is all about is artists being entitled to the right to charge admission if they choose instead of being limited to just passing the hat.
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Permalink Reply by Randall Clay on
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I agree Bob...I was merely pointing out that in a world with so many options of music to listen to, the best of which is not on the radio or in record stores, I think that downloading is a good way to sample those you are unfarmiliar with. If you had to pay 0.99 for every song you wanted to hear, you wouldn't be able to pay rent. That's all I meant. I'm not disagreeing with the fact that something needs to change, I was simply offering an alternative explanation for why it sometimes happens.
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