Pirating music is easy thanks to the internet. Just read a story about how the Canadian Government is currently considering making some changes to our Copyright Act legislation, which would see levies placed on iPods. Now, i’m not making a living from music so it’s easy for me to make this statement but i really think the business model of making a living exclusively from music sales is over.
It’s not all doom and gloom though. People are still buying music. However the upside of your music being freely available should be used to your advantage and not seen as a threat. Giving your music away for free (in digital format only of course) costs nothing to deliver, but the upside is you are spreading your music to a larger audience. You need to make it easy for a hardcore fan to share one of your songs with their friend.
So how do you make money from your music if it can be had for free? Get creative and offer your albums in several formats. Digital download, CD, album + DVD of making of, signed album by the band etc etc. Just look to bands like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails & Josh Freese for further examples.
The bottom line is free music + social media presence = more discovery = more fans = more money for the artist.
I think that in this example, the Canadian government is attempting to blend a little bit of socialism into the capitalist mentality that pervades the music industry. By imposing a tax on the technologies that enable us to record music, they are attempting to ensure that Canadian musicians are compensated in some small way for their work. The American music industry, for the most part, attempts to play by purely capitalistic rules – if it sells, you make money; if not, too bad.
I think that both of these approaches seemed rooted in the idea that music is an “entertainment” and therefore the consumer needs to be the center of the equation. I wonder what would be different if music was seen as a “service”; in that scenario society would be at the center.
In our western societies we view certain things as fundamental services, such as clean air and water, telecommunications infrastructure, public education, libraries, and roads. Our governments develop rules and regulations and subsidize, or even fully fund, such services. Our lives would be immeasurably diminished and made more challenging if these services were viewed as consumer goods – “if Maple Street gets a lot of traffic, we’ll re-pave it, but if not – too bad”.
What if music was more generously subsidized by governments just because musicians provide a fundamental service for society? What if the “toll road” became the working model for musicians? Just as a toll road is built and maintained by taxes, a musician could be subsidized by a government grant for a living wage. Some toll roads may encourage more motorists to partake of its gorgeous vistas or clean rest areas, instead of the barren landscape of Highway X. Similarly, some musicians could provide entertaining video blogs or talkboards or live streams or DVD’s of their concerts or do more tours (and in this one example, I am NOT talking about Enter The Haggis who tour more than three or four other bands combined!) as a way of getting more fans interested in their music, as opposed to always having to think about selling more CD’s or tickets.
Yes – I recognize that there has to be a comsumer-ist element in any of this. Maple Street gets higher priority on re-paving if it does get a lot of traffic. Terrible musicians should not be subsidized, and that means someone has to stand in judgment of musical quality, and popularity is one way to judge a musician. But, the constant pursuit of the dollar (CA or US) twists our viewpoint; it isn’t solely about making more money – it’s about making music for each other.
Nice response! That’s interesting re: the socialism theory. I think there is some meat behind that argument.
I am in favor of some of my tax dollars going to support the arts in a selective fashion. For example bands (including Enter The Haggis) have taken advantage of the Canadian Factor Grant (http://www.factor.ca/). I like it because you have to apply & not every band gets funding. It allows good homegrown artists to do what they need to succeed both at home & internationally.
The thing i don’t want to see happen is tax payers being assumed guilty before they have committed any crime, (and even more so due to my thoughts in this post).
I have to argue with David Schultz about the Canadian Factor Grant because it is a arbitrated organization that doesn’t necessarily help the right groups excel towards success! These are the types of companies and organizations that have suppressed certain bands or groups fail towards success in giving them false unfair decisions made by a panel of bias propaganda idealist. Let the truth be heard the the entire music industry has had multiple problems and it all has escalated in the past decade because of the internet. Some say that pandora’s box has been open whiles others have been arguing that it is all inevitable & bound to occur sooner or later. From the major record labels illegal activities with “Payola” that has haunted the music industry executive like a dark cloud to the wrong judgment and jealousies involved when new talented artists are brandished.
When understanding the truth of the music industry as a whole it was corruption in an over saturated time that has destroyed it!