Re: Zoe Keating in NY Times article.@borisfx.com

[Todd Elliott <toddbert@gmail.com>]

I'm thinking Eno had it right : ""I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time. I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn't last, and now it's running out. I don't particularly care that it is and like the way things are going. The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you'd be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history's moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it."

Some suggest live performance, others working on soundtracks, etc; but fundamentally the people who purchase (or don't) something decide its value. I'm thankful for every small dollar I've made selling tunes (and it is no living at all, nor is it intended to be one), but the reality is that there are thousands of fish like me swimming in what is already a very small pond. Music is incredibly easy to distribute (got a working internet connection? DONE), and the surfeit of choice means that 'being heard' in any sense of the word is a challenge, let alone getting paid. Blaming the record industry is a fool's game-- they have always been out for themselves-- there was a *very* narrow window when you could make money off recorded music-- it's coming to an end, and the best that can be done now is to figure out how to make money from one's music in other ways.

T 

On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 7:16 AM, mark francombe <mark@markfrancombe.com> wrote:

@Tyler, its us old folks who used to earn a wage from being moderately successful musicians that are moaning about its is now compared to how it used to be. The big difference between then and now is that the companies selling you music (im not talking about torrents or pirate mp3s, thats piracy, and has always been there, remember bootleg tapes?) are paying the artists infinitesimal amounts compared to what they used to. It doesnt make any sense to me that now, there are no manufacturing costs, and all marketing is vis the net, social media etc, there IS no CDs or Vinyl albums to pay for, there are no posters flyers or adverts to design and print, its all online. (I will concede that the big site probably spend millions on site development). An thats it, 

As Per says, the shift HAS changed, there no going back to the old days, downloads and streaming are here to stay, you might as well get used to it... BUT, and its a fucking HUGE BUTT... 
THERE NO REASON MUSICIANS SHOULD STAND UP FOR THIER RIGHTS!!!

The record companies before, at least came from a standpoint of loving music, now the music business is being strangled by the distributors (Apple, Spotify etc) Its of course ther own fault for not jumping in quick and building their own online music services, and spent too much time stamping on Napster instead... Now the CEO of Napster is a Board member of Spotify and hes considered a legit businessman... Go figure!

That is all..

Mark

On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 3:09 PM, Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> wrote:

My guess is that "the new paradigm" is not happening to digital sales
of music but rather to cultural norms and and people's ways of
relating to music. We can already see the change: fewer people value
to own music like old days "collectors" did. One is not motivated to
pay for music just because it is music. However, the much older role
for music in the society, when music serves a specific purpose, is
still being regarded as something worth to pay for. Like if you go out
to dance you aren't bothered paying for an entrance ticked, or if
going to a concert. An even more obvious example is the rapidly
growing media that uses music for a very specific purpose - films,
games, presentations - everyone today agrees to pay for this and music
goes with the package. I think that we are repelling back to where it
has been for most of mankind's history; music mostly exists for a
specific purpose, to play a role in a specific context. The period
where music was just one consumable product among others on a market
is about to end.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.perboysen.com
http://www.youtube.com/perboysen

On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 2:35 PM, Tyler <programmer651@comcast.net> wrote:
> Why would you call Itunes a rapist? I don't remember an artist being treated unfairly by it.
> Free mp3 sites? Maybe! But Itunes? No!
> Tyler Z
> On Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:32:52 -0800, Rick Walker wrote:
>
>
>>On 1/29/2013 9:39 PM, Emile Tobenfeld (a.k.a Dr. T) wrote:
>>>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/business/media/streaming-shakes-up-music-industrys-model-for-royalties.html?ref=us
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>*This is one of the most depressing articles I've read in a long time.**
>>>**
>>>**Does anyone remember when Colonel Tom Parker was revealed to have
>>>cut a deal with Elvis Presley **
>>>*
>>*so that he would receive a usurious 50% of ALL money that Elvis made?**
>>**
>>**It was unprecedented and the rest of the music business, artists and
>>the public recoiled heavily from the news (though cynics always pointed **
>>**out that 50% of $40 million dollars was still vastly better than 0% of
>>nothing).**
>>**
>>**Well folks,   iTunes,  one of the greatest rapists of musical
>>artistry, in the world charges 50% of ALL DOWNLOAD SALES.**
>>**
>>**And they are the good guys compared to Pandora and Spotify, whose
>>statistics make iTunes look like positive artistic **
>>**philanthropists.**
>>
>>A new paradigm of selling digital content online needs to assert
>>itself.   One that is fair to artists and all the energy
>>and time and money they spend trying to create art for people.
>>
>>There are rumors of this coming.    I can't wait.
>>
>>Rick Walker
>>Fuck iTunes!    Fuck Spotify!     Fuck Pandora!
>>Fuck the dominant paradigm that says that downloading other people's
>>music is okay as long as you get away with it.
>>Theft if Theft, Folks!
>>*

--
Mark Francombe
www.markfrancombe.com
www.ordoabkhao.com
http://vimeo.com/user825094
http://www.looop.no
twitter @markfrancombe
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24478662@N00/

--
http://toaster.bandcamp.com