Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich - Music Industry File Sharing

[One Eyed Cat]

Off the Cuff: I would consider very few musicians to be filthy rich. I believe Sir Paul McCartney is the wealthiest at present, I have no problem with his multimillionaire status. I believe many artists are robbed blind by various corporations and "managers" they employed over the years.

I found the reemergence of this subject intriguing. The music industry, as it was known in the 20th Century, is dying. A lot had changed even since 2005.

I will be paraphrasing a polemic called "The Cult of the Amateur" in quoting the following figures. All figures are footnoted within the tome. If others have figures which mitigate these, I would be interested in seeing them as well.

I will not be incendiary as this is more an issue of intrigue as of this writing.

The CD Market plummeted by 25 between 1995-2005.Tower Records (which I admittedly hated) was valued at $325 Million in 1990. It was auctioned off for just over $130 Million in 2006.I could name a number of independent music stores that have gone under in the Bay Area. Suffice it to say, it ain't a pretty picture nationwide.Some 20.5 Billion is lost in revenue from file sharing (including movies etc) I have no interest in moral opprobrium here though.

The polemic mentioned essentially blames the internet for these and other woes. I disagree with the author in many areas. For example, he bemoans the loss of advertising revenue to craigslist?? While true, I see no injustice there.

My personal stance? I have no love lost for most corporations. I would prefer a model that limits the middlemen. I'm more interested, however, in getting a better feel for where things stand now. I need to know more about what is. Any information and/or statistics would be greatly appreciated. It is very clear IP law will no longer suffice. Any takers?

JT

"I'm personally against Web 2.0 in the same way I'm personally against my own death" - Paul Simon

[Bikerpunk]

Well, I look at it this way -

The music industry has gone from a big money business with a high barrier to entry (nobody could afford his or her own studio, and studio time was extremely expensive) and with limited opportunities for exposure (the radio station was pretty much where people got their info about upcoming bands from)

to

one where I can kit myself out at the local guitar center for a few grand and come up with not only instruments but a non-linear editing system that the engineers of thirty years ago would have given their eye teeth for.

I can promote my band on *******, youTube, various mailing lists about music of my genre, etc

Sure, rewriting the rules of the game mean that there won't be very many Jay-Zs out there, but it also means that the gangraping of most bands won't either.

Cause most people don't realise that signing with a record label is pretty Faustian. They have an idea that they'd really like you to be.... a boy band, cause boy bands are hot right now. No matter that you're an industrial trio, we can give you an advance of $1.5 million to make your next album, mind you, you DO have to use it in our studios, hiring our engineers, making the album we request you make, and we'll start paying you after we've recovered $1.5 million.

I think it was Courtney Love who said that most bands, even name ones, technically would make more working at a 7-11, once you balance incomes and out-gos.

[One Eyed Cat]

Well, I look at it this way -

The music industry has gone from a big money business with a high barrier to entry (nobody could afford his or her own studio, and studio time was extremely expensive) and with limited opportunities for exposure (the radio station was pretty much where people got their info about upcoming bands from)

to

one where I can kit myself out at the local guitar center for a few grand and come up with not only instruments but a non-linear editing system that the engineers of thirty years ago would have given their eye teeth for.

I can promote my band on *******, youTube, various mailing lists about music of my genre, etc

Sure, rewriting the rules of the game mean that there won't be very many Jay-Zs out there, but it also means that the gangraping of most bands won't either.

Cause most people don't realise that signing with a record label is pretty Faustian. They have an idea that they'd really like you to be.... a boy band, cause boy bands are hot right now. No matter that you're an industrial trio, we can give you an advance of $1.5 million to make your next album, mind you, you DO have to use it in our studios, hiring our engineers, making the album we request you make, and we'll start paying you after we've recovered $1.5 million.

I think it was Courtney Love who said that most bands, even name ones, technically would make more working at a 7-11, once you balance incomes and out-gos.

I definitely concur regarding the ability of bands to go it alone. It's a good thing. I think that, for some time, we'll see a period of flux. In the next decades, I believe all forms of audio and visual entertainment will be accessible via subscription on the inet. The problem will always be a reliable revenue stream going to the artist. I hope there is some model that will maximize the direct revenue between consumer and artist. To date, we have a clusterfuck of floundering corps v. bands that are just now able to utilize direct downloads of tracks.

JT

[Bikerpunk]

Well, back in the day musicians made a living playing music. If you went to a bar, there was usually a band playing up front for people to dance to. The bar patrons showed up and smoked and drank, the band played tunes, the band members were paid, and in some cases it was enough to live on and in others, the band members had side gigs teaching music or working at a music store.

Then came the 80s, and only photogenic, videogenic folks made the cut. It wasn't about playing in clubs anymore. Clubs got rid of live music for the most part - paying one guy to play one record after another was far cheaper than finding, hiring and dealing with the whole bands come in bands leave trip.

One could not make a living as a musician unless one was in the industry, good looking and not necessarily talented.

We're about to see another sea change.

Because, you see, used to be you couldn't find rock stations on the dial, cause Clear Channel and other conglomerates looked at the "figures" and decided that "urban" (read: inner city black) music was where it was at. So they played J-Bigga's "motherfuckin ho better have my scrilla, bitch" all day and forgot that the MAJORITY of radio listeners were actually blue collar folks who didn't have time or interest in filling out cards telling the stations what they wanted to hear.

A different sampling technique (going out and paying attention to what people were playing) showed that rock was FAR more popular than you'd have thought, and now stations are cracking themselves in half trying to retool to a classic rock format.

I think the Internet will do the same thing, eventually. Unfortunately, there's a whole bunch of SHITTY music online. Part of the benefit of a music industry was the benefit of graphic design being noncomputerized. Back in the days when you had to draw shit and put text on a page with Letraset, you needed to have chops to design stuff.

Now, with any fool owning Corel DRAW! any fool thinks he can design his own shit, and many people do, with vile results.

Same thing with "independant" music. Lots of unsigned dreck, very little meat.

[a_small_death]

I think once you have enough money to live inside a bank vault and drive a tank. Then you must be shot and your money spread out to a million charities.

[One Eyed Cat]

Well, back in the day musicians made a living playing music. If you went to a bar, there was usually a band playing up front for people to dance to. The bar patrons showed up and smoked and drank, the band played tunes, the band members were paid, and in some cases it was enough to live on and in others, the band members had side gigs teaching music or working at a music store.

Then came the 80s, and only photogenic, videogenic folks made the cut. It wasn't about playing in clubs anymore. Clubs got rid of live music for the most part - paying one guy to play one record after another was far cheaper than finding, hiring and dealing with the whole bands come in bands leave trip.

One could not make a living as a musician unless one was in the industry, good looking and not necessarily talented.

We're about to see another sea change.

Because, you see, used to be you couldn't find rock stations on the dial, cause Clear Channel and other conglomerates looked at the "figures" and decided that "urban" (read: inner city black) music was where it was at. So they played J-Bigga's "motherfuckin ho better have my scrilla, bitch" all day and forgot that the MAJORITY of radio listeners were actually blue collar folks who didn't have time or interest in filling out cards telling the stations what they wanted to hear.

A different sampling technique (going out and paying attention to what people were playing) showed that rock was FAR more popular than you'd have thought, and now stations are cracking themselves in half trying to retool to a classic rock format.

I think the Internet will do the same thing, eventually. Unfortunately, there's a whole bunch of SHITTY music online. Part of the benefit of a music industry was the benefit of graphic design being noncomputerized. Back in the days when you had to draw shit and put text on a page with Letraset, you needed to have chops to design stuff.

Now, with any fool owning Corel DRAW! any fool thinks he can design his own shit, and many people do, with vile results.

Same thing with "independant" music. Lots of unsigned dreck, very little meat.

I was happy to read Clear Channel is starting to flounder. You are right though. We have to wade through a lot of shit to find our respective gems. Salon Betty has a fun song "Internet Killed the Video Star". Time will tell. I predict some sort of merger of tv with inet. How and when? Who knows.

JT

[One Eyed Cat]

I think once you have enough money to live inside a bank vault and drive a tank. Then you must be shot and your money spread out to a million charities.

I would imagine such a person may well meet that fate. If the economic trends in the country continue to decimate the middle class, there will be some fairly annoyed folks.

JT