I think that this is a very good subject to be debating. I have a love-hate feeling about recorded music. On one hand it is great to be able to purchace a copy of an artist's music that you love, but at the same time this medium tends to quantify the worth of a particular artist. Alot of times unit sales of a particular release is completely based on the distribution contract that the band or producer has and alot of times has little to do with the quality of music that is being marketed. I love buying records, but I find myself wondering why it is that I even have access to a record recorded by someoone in Barcelona,New York,Berlin, or Hamburg. or if there are other artists that deserve my purchace that I don't even know about, but lack a decent distribution contract. I am leaning towards liking the concept of hard copy recordings becoming an outdated concept and shifting toward an online/digital medium of distributing music. At least it gets closer to leveling the playing field....
"avianwayfilms@juno.com" <avianwayfilms@juno.com> wrote: Why you shouldn't worry (ethically)(and why you should - because as we know crimes against property are the worst according to those who "own" everything)
Where does the money from the selling of music go?
The "artist" usually gets fractions of a cent for the use of their
music - radio play, mechanicals (retail purchased), use in soundtracks, etc.
This amounts to very little money in reality, even for a popular artist with
lots of airplay - like Metallica for instance... To share their music will take fractions of a penny from them over the course of a year.
Of the rest of the money (better than 99 percent usually) most goes to the
record company and some little goes to the owner of the publishing rights for
the artist's music (who is often not the artist - a company owned by Michael
Jackson owns a lot of the publishing rights to many Beatle's songs - the owners of the rights to much music are usually, surprise! subsidiaries and holding companies of - the record companies!)
Most artists will only make money by performing, because the returns are often greater than the costs. If an artist has their own production company and can control the costs and the profits of touring themselves, rather than the way it typically is with a record company footing the bill and then charging the artist for it later), they can make OK money if they can play at the right sized venues on their tours.
Artists can also make money with merchandise - T-shirts and CDs, etc sold at shows - I urge you to buy direct from the artist as much as possible, especially at shows.
Artists should not sell their publishing rights to anyone.
If they keep their rights, and they reserve the rights to other uses in their
recording (slavery) contracts, they can theoretically sell the song in a
secondary market - like for a film soundtrack or a commercial, etc. A musician
is not usually allowed to do this until they have a lot of clout (sales) because
the record companies are not inclined to let a penny slip by unpinched.
Musicians are not hurt much at all by downloading mp3s of their music. You are stealing, in a sense, yes, but mostly from the money-grubbing entertainment conglomerates who reallly really need that money more than ever to pay for their growing packs of attorneys and to offset their (debatable) drop in profits due to their inability to consistently offer quality products. (unquestionable). Besides, most of us who open source share are only stealing in the sense of Robin Hood and not in the sense of Enron or Bank of America.
Many musicians I know use Limewire or suchlike. They have no ethical objections to it. In fact, many of us use it to "test drive" the music - a kind
of shopping. If I come across something I like - Oval, Autechre, Mouse On Mars,
Climax Golden Twins, Sufjan Stevens - I want the whole thing, artwork and all,
at the best quality, so I'll buy it. Hell, sometimes I'll buy two!
Anyway, I guess what it really comes down to is a dichotomy that splits the
world - do you come down on the side of some of the world's largest corporations and their stupid puppets, like Metallica, or do you come down on the side of the mass of people who love music so much that it is woven into the
everyday fabric of their lives in a truly meaningful, personal way that has
little to do with the deep wading in the cesspool of commerce, and everything to do with the impulses and idealisms that create music. Yawn.
Keep your ears open and your chin up. Slippery.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org
For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com