I know the music business is kind of in the toilet…
but it won’t stay that way forever.
And I think that instead of trying to make it better, people are using the recent decline selfishly to build a bigger profile for themselves.
It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and point out what’s wrong. It’s much harder to actually get your hands dirty and try to change something.
Instead of using these hard times to bitch and moan and write consistent contradictions week after week, why not find an artist you like and try to actually break them…you know, put your money where your mouth is (even if your mouth is just a blog).
But it’s just so much more fun to point and laugh at an industry that’s run by so many people who don’t get it. We’re glad you’re trying.
The music biz is dying, but it’s not dead, true. But the way it’s going to keep living needs to become drastically different. The simple fact is that the public largely doesn’t value music in the same ways that it used to. The days of people waiting in anticipation for a new album to come out and purchasing it the day it comes out are long-gone. The market for entertainment is so segmented and scattered, even with the best album anyone could possibly put out, the measure of success is so much harder to achieve and the notion of “breaking” a band almost seems nostalgic.
We’re not going to try and say we have the answer, but some massive changes have to happen for the music business to figure out how to get out of the red.
Music royalty groups ASCAP and BMI are pressing online music stores like Apple’s iTunes to pay performance fees not only for actual song downloads but also videos and even the 30-second samples used to preview the music in advance. While these stores already pay the distribution fees for the songs themselves, ASCAP, BMI and labels claim that just downloading and playing the content also counts as a live performance and should bring an extra fee.
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I don’t even have the strength to get into it. Just stop, guys.
Kickstarter
AAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA
Kickstarter is a fantastic service. It gives independent artists/filmmakers/creative types the capital they need to finish the album/movie/video game they’ve been pouring themselves into and put it out into the world.
What it’s NOT, however, is a place for some nobody band from Atlanta to ask people to give them THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS in a month’s time.
The best part of this whole thing is they could honestly raise $324,999.99 by August 24th and not get a PENNY of it because they didn’t meet their goal.
Hey State of Man - There are major labels out there who don’t spend this much on releases. Get real, boys. If you got into the music biz to be rich, you’re in the wrong business.
I realize the Beatles are an exception to the rule can pretty much call their own shots, but still…. list price of $35 for a 40+ year old album?
Dark Night of the Soul.
Are you fucking kidding me, EMI? You have an incredible album full of crazy talent, produced by Danger Mouse with a collaboration with David Lynch with a crazy amount of buzz, and you managed to fuck it up? Good job.
[photo via @DAVID_LYNCH]
