Music Sales Still In Freefall

[john]

hey

Found this and thought you might be interested...

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2010/04/music_sales_are.php

Cheers

John

[Prometheus]

The comments actually made me angrier than the article.

The problem is that musicians expect to get paid for recordings?

Unfortunately, eating and paying rent are a necessity...

[Prometheus]

As far as the illegal downloading issue. Some bands even promote it if it gets people to shows.

Unfortunately, us sound engineers with a once expanding business are now being put out of work right left and center because musicians don't have enough money to splash out on a studio recording that serves no purpose other than to be given away free like an advertising flyer. A few years ago when my musical star was in the ascendency, I'd have laughed if anyone had told me that I'd be having trouble finding steady paying work by the turn of the decade...

There is also the problem that the knock on effects are seen in the lack of investment by the industry, if you could even call what is left an industry, in supporting any kind of grass roots scene for aspiring youngsters of a musical bent. Young people who are go getters and have an ambition to make their mark are liable to direct that ambition into other fields with more prospects.

The Simon Cowell's of the world aren't the ones who are going to suffer. They just hire a squad of people to tell them the best way to change their business model and then palm off rubbish like the X-Factor on to us in a direct appeal to unimaginative conformity. Quick revolving door, get easily managed people in, milk them for a couple of million and then let them get back to stacking shelves in Morrison's...

As far as Metallica goes, Lars Ulrich warned about this years ago and everyone laughed at him. Everything he said would happen has happened...

A part of the problem [the freefall] has to do with the person who is pictured at the beginning of the article.

I thought the article was pretty lucid and intelligent.

Edited April 21, 2010 by Prometheus

[Roflcopter]

The comments actually made me angrier than the article.

The problem is that musicians expect to get paid for recordings?

Unfortunately, eating and paying rent are a necessity...

This of course brings you back to the point where you have to discuss whether music is a 'real' product (in the sense of food and bricks and mortar being pretty real) and how many paid musicians a society can afford itself - this beside the fact some of those musicians expect to become zillionaires, even.

And that's not even including the role of the music moguls, who decide on who gets a contract.

I don't say this to troll or anything - but how many people EXPECT to be able to live off their music, and how realistic is that assumption/desire?

[Prometheus]

This of course brings you back to the point where you have to discuss whether music is a 'real' product (in the sense of food and bricks and mortar being pretty real) and how many paid musicians a society can afford itself - this beside the fact some of those musicians expect to become zillionaires, even.

And that's not even including the role of the music moguls, who decide on who gets a contract.

I don't say this to troll or anything - but how many people EXPECT to be able to live off their music, and how realistic is that assumption/desire?

I expect a level playing field to operate on, nothing more... To give an example that John mentioned to me in conversation the other day, what if all of us decided that we didn't feel like paying for food any more, so we just went down to the Supermarket en masse and took it for nothing? All the shops would close down, and we'd have no one to supply us food. Once a business platform is closed down, you lose it for good. Like Humpty Dumpty, once it's f*cked, even all the King's horses and all the King's men can't just put it back together again.

It's not just music, it's the film industry, the computer software industry, photography, art... Any digital media... It's the places and people that sell these products... Even t'internet itself will eventually be affected...

If all these idustries go to the wall because of thieving, we'll be living in a pretty dull world for a while...

Incidentally, no, I do not think that being clever at playing a guitar should turn you into a multi-millionaire with your own private jet. I don't see why there shouldn't be the opportunity to earn some return for your work though.

[Roflcopter]

I expect a level playing field to operate on, nothing more... To give an example that John mentioned to me in conversation the other day, what if all of us decided that we didn't feel like paying for food any more, so we just went down to the Supermarket en masse and took it for nothing? All the shops would close down, and we'd have no one to supply us food. Once a business platform is closed down, you lose it for good. Like Humpty Dumpty, once it's f*cked, even all the King's horses and all the King's men can't just put it back together again.

It's not just music, it's the film industry, the computer software industry, photography, art... Any digital media... It's the places and people that sell these products... Even t'internet itself will eventually be affected...

If all these idustries go to the wall because of thieving, we'll be living in a pretty dull world for a while...

Incidentally, no, I do not think that being clever at playing a guitar should turn you into a multi-millionaire with your own private jet. I don't see why there shouldn't be the opportunity to earn some return for your work though.

Well I asked about the food and bricks and mortar, because they cannot be sold in purely digital form. It's only when we think about music as records or cd's that we can see them as something tangible. Those can be copied, but at a cost. If a file is digital, it can be copied at no cost at all, making it interesting for piracy. Never forget music is basically a service more than a tangible product, however essential it may be - and that could well be up for debate.

I think in an ideal world you would be your own master about the whole sales/distribution process as well, with no big companies as middle men, only in it to make money out of the whole shebang, but essentially not giving a shite about anything but sales figures.

I spoke about this with John as well, and maybe we should just take a cue from big companies with their DRM streaming schemes (and oh yes, they do work) and start doing this ourselves, and stop thinking about selling little plastic discs or having your product pimped by some record company, and just DIY. Setting up a streaming server where people can listen to your song on their pc, iPad or phone is not very hard, and hacking the streams can be made quite a pain.

It's very doable, the technology is not exactly rocket science. It just takes a paradigm shift between the ears, and that can be damned hard all on its own.

But lets not give those pimps carte blanche search warrants over the internet, or start going the Bono route with his talk about doing things the way its done in China (whatever happened to Free Tibet, Bo?).

Our freedom should not tossed out the window for the sake of a few pounds extra in the pockets of arrived artists. Or Rupert Murdochs, or record companies. Musicians should go with the times, and also take the final step of music production into their own hands.

[edit for clarification]

Edited April 22, 2010 by Roflcopter

[Prometheus]

Freedom can be a nice thing to have. It can also have appalling consequences when it is abused. Personally, I have nothing to hide and wouldn't have a problem with a bit of sensible regulation of the internet.

It makes no odds to me whether the transaction involves exchanging a plastic disc with a groove of crests and troughs cut into it or a serious of modulated pulses down a telephone line, as long as legal transactions are occuring. What does concern me is that the recording industry we had in Scotland twenty years ago is non existent now.

What's left of the maintstream music industry in Scotland is a small conformist clique run by one extended family and their friends. I feel that's lamentable. I think when the head of the MU in Scotland and the head of the biggest record label are related by marriage, there are too many conflicts of interest for the artist to be truly represented. I think the songwriters, producers, engineers, the MU and the collection agencies should be campaigning the Government to have breach of copyright law enshrined as an actus reus in criminal law. It stands to reason that an artist working to get by, often on a very paltry amount of income, cannot afford to prosecute copyright theft in a private court action.

You're entitled to your opinion of course, I respect that, but I'm not going to change mine...

[john]

Hey

In general I think you are both on the same side... it's perhaps the solution that is varying but only in perspective.

We all (I think) believe in the artist's write to choose to give away or to sell their music. That (idealistically) should not be anyone but the copyright holder's choice (I use that term to include those who have traded away their rights to a label).

Until now preventing copying digital files and the proliferation of download sites has made it impossible for musicians to fight in any realistic way. Stealing a copyright item is not a criminal offense, somehow because it is not necessarily physical that theft has become acceptable to the masses...

There are only a few ways to answer this:

Musicians/labels get a secure means to deliver music in a way that it cannot be easily ripped.

Governments make it a criminal offense to steal music (although i think some readjusting of payments should occur should you already own that piece of music/album)

Musicians abandon music as a product and focus on previous subsidiary products.  Music become free to all.

Musicians stop writing music

Only the first two really leave the artists with control of, and still creating music.

I left out the various RIAA style actions as an obvious waste of time.

in this whole picture I am pissed at the various musicians unions for not representing their members well or behaving in their best interests, basically sticking their heads in the sand until they looked up and the industry was decimated. No one is fighting for the rights of musicians or songwriters.

Rob, I completely agree about the notion of saturation, and also the idea that so many musicians and others are "trying to make it" and that has diluted down the market, too little money, too many artists. Going against ISPs seems a bit pointless, especially as a way of getting them to police end users.

That said illegal downloads and piracy have killed the industry, at least as much as the neglect of the various unions and collection agencies and the greed of major labels and production companies, more than happy to exploit fans, songwriters and musicians alike.

Graeme I also share your anger at the mess that is left and the fact that a musician can study for years, investing tens of thousands of their money and that of their families (usually) over the lifetime of their obsession, and spending countless hours practicing all with apparently little expectation of getting that money back or even breaking even. I think only the most unrealistic would believe in the fairy tale of being the lottery pick for becoming a millionaire (lottery probably has better odds!)

I do know a strike is very unlikely to work... after all who would care, and by the time they did it would be years down the line... and that is assuming that musicians really went on strike.... there is always someone willing to work, willing to get ahead while the others are wallowing in starvation so that isn't going to happen any time soon. Although I think it is about time someone lit a fire under the ass of musicians generally.

Realistically I know it's like holding back a flood water armed with a pebble.. how do you fancy my odds? lol

Should it be a criminal offense to steal music someone else has created merely because it has been represented and rendered in electrons? On balance I think it should, but at the same time i think it should be illegal file sharing sites etc that are made the criminal parties in this, because lets face it it is completely impractical to make everyone under 30 (and a lot over 30) criminal, despite the fact they have stomped all over musician's rights.

However, as important, if not more so is raising the bar on ripping and bringing the choice back to the musician, and that is technology lead. Rob mentioned DIY DRM streaming... it is a realistic option and definitely worth exploring further.

Am I against free music? No, not at all. I am Pro-Musician's choice.

One other thing... It's about time someone gave musician's a shake, and about time they stopped cowering behind the barricades. if we don't do something there will be no industry, and while there are many facets of the old industry I would not miss, it also had many benefits including a highly skilled workforce that is rapidly diminishing.

To those who may read this and think that downloading illegally is a blow against major labels I'd point out that truly independent labels and artists are more of a casualty than anything... the major labels and their many subsidiaries are pretty well still there... meanwhile lost of musicians are out of work, as are engineers, producers and writers along with a host of other specialized skills. More and more things are being made cheaply, and poorly and the quality of production and all it's facets is generally getting worse.... all because illegal downloads has changed the industry... the fat cats at the top still get huge profits only now they have shifted how they earn, cutting out most of the people they didn't want to share with in the first place! Musicians.

ok I am ranting but it's sad to see.

I need a new 3D TV, Bluray player, and PS3... so how about we all get together and head down to electronic stores on the same day and just take it all? Oo, next a new car... hold on... I wonder if we could do that with Cruises in the Mediterranean? One by one we could take down every industry. All we need is the excuse that we don't like the pricing and aren't getting value for money and you know what... everyone will think it's fair! Ideal!

ok maybe not.

Cheers

John

[Prometheus]

To those who may read this and think that downloading illegally is a blow against major labels I'd point out that truly independent labels and artists are more of a casualty than anything...

I agree. One of the main justifications I've heard from people who download pirate media, even from those who run a business selling it on, is that they're committing a "Robin Hood" crime.

This is cheap and self aggrandizing hucksterism of the most vulgar kind. "Come into my used car lot. These ringers are almost indistinguishable from the real thing at a quarter of the price and no one was hurt when we jacked them."

It seems to be rather fashionable to think of piracy as a blow against Simon Cowell. Let's blame him for the current state of the recording industry. Simon Cowell is a promoter, and a very good one. It's worth noting that anyone could use Cowell's model to promote any kind of music. There is no reason why his model could not be used to promote songwriters and up and coming youngsters in four piece original bands, if someone had the will, the wit and a bit of money to do so. While Cowell's taste in music and my own do not coincide, I think heaping the blame on him for the state the industry is in might be a little disingenuous.

This said, I do think the major labels burying their heads in the sand for years, because they didn't want to give up the dirty lucre of years of price fixing, does have a lot to do with the current problems.

Maybe they should go back to releasing music on analogue formats? It would be far less convenient trying to rip a 12 inch maxi single or vinyl album.

Edited April 23, 2010 by Prometheus

[Roflcopter]

Maybe they should go back to releasing music on analogue formats? It would be far less convenient trying to rip a 12 inch maxi single or vinyl album.

I'm afraid you cannot 'un-invent' MP3.

BTW one of the benefits of my solution of artists streaming themselves and cutting out the middle man would also be to make it impossible for pirates to hide behind the 'Robin Hood' argument - they'd be stealing from the band directly, not some big corp.

Again, it can be made more of a pain to rip the content from a stream than ripping the content of a disc, or record. There is no need to turn back the clock, really.

You can set up a streaming server with a lot less effort than cutting grooves - that's nearly a lost art, even.

[john]

which is where we come in

[Prometheus]

I'm afraid you cannot 'un-invent' MP3.

I know that, I was being ironical...

BTW one of the benefits of my solution of artists streaming themselves and cutting out the middle man would also be to make it impossible for pirates to hide behind the 'Robin Hood' argument - they'd be stealing from the band directly, not some big corp.

They'd just find some other way to justify it, or else stop trying to justify at all and just get on with doing it...

Again, it can be made more of a pain to rip the content from a stream than ripping the content of a disc, or record. There is no need to turn back the clock, really.

You can set up a streaming server with a lot less effort than cutting grooves - that's nearly a lost art, even.

I was kidding. I have absolutely no desire to go back to the days of bad EQ and puny dynamic range and a high end obscured by crackles whatsoever.