From: The Chisa <matt@holland.deathhouse.net>
quoted 4 lines See, the burr in my fur about all of this is not that I can't copy
> See, the burr in my fur about all of this is not that I can't copy
> prerecorded music, legally or otherwise, but that a government sanctioned
> institution is working towards monopolistic control of recording formats
> in general.
Certainly, money talks - hence my complaints elsewhere about the DMCA. And
this is also why many artists wind up signing crappy contracts with record
companies - getting some money is better than none. Indeed, that's why many
people sign crappy contracts with employers that require them to be tested
for drug use and the like. Big entertainment companies often demand that the
'talent' agree to clauses governing personal behaviour and so on in case
they wind up in rehab during that difficult third album stage.
quoted 7 lines Once this copy-protection shit is in full effect, how is an
> Once this copy-protection shit is in full effect, how is an
> unsigned artist / home recorder supposed to get his material recognized
> except by going through the "official" corporate channels? I've built up
> my entire career on the internet and the mp3 format -- I'm not a hugely
> recognized artist, but I've got some fans and some clout, which I never
> would have been able to accomplish in the old days of demo tapes and
> college radio.
This is a very good question. I'm also putting out a little music on mp3,
and I hope that it will go somewhere in the future too. To be frank, I don't
know how this can eventually translate into earning a living for most
people.
Of course the talented artist can try to get signed to a label, and
fortunately there are many fine independent labels for those of us who like
weird music. And any artist can work towards building up a fan base and then
making some income by touring. But if you want to reach a very wide
audience, without getting into bed with Big Media, I really don't know.
Personally, I don't feel so talented that I have serious expectations of
making a full-time income from music, and I'd be quite happy to have an
enjoyable day job and play live at small weird music events from time to
time. But it must be deeply frustrating for more traditional entertainers
who aspire to be on a big stage and have to make a lot of compromises to do
so.
Really, those of us who like/make weird music are quite well off, because
the very unpopularity of this music with the average consumer is what glues
the underground together. There is a critical mass of people who like good
house, techno, experimental, classical music, and labels and promoters are
able to work together to make structures that allow it to be heard (many
orchestra musicians are in the same financial boat as bedroom composers). So
while the hot new wannabe who mails a demo to Warp can't realistically
expect to become an international megastar, neither do they have to worry
too much about being asked to rewrite their stuff to make it more
chart-friendly, or ripped off by outrageous contracts or anything.
I think the real losers are the people who want to make more conventional
accessible music. I'm not thinking about the latest plastic pop clones, but
credible songwriters like David Gray or Tracy Chapman - they're good
artists, who've chosen to say something through the medium of ballads, and
that's as worthy as any other kind of music if it's done well. These artists
tend to get really kicked around by the music business, because they need
mainstream exposure to get any serious degree of success, but they're not
big sellers. David Gray had respectable sales of two albums but got kicked
off his label when they decided to focus on big-name acts. The hit he had
last year with 'Babylon' was released twice by his own label before a larger
one took a chance on him and picked up his 3rd album. Because artists like
these can't rely on a specialist music fanbase like the ones mentioned
above, lots of them get nowhere in the modern music business because it's so
hard to get any radio exposure.
This seems to be the problem in every market. Irish people like to
congratulate themselves that our country has produced the world's biggest
rock band, U2. Now I remember when I was a lad of 10 or 12 and they were
having their early hits in Ireland - raw-boned pimply teenagers with dodgy
haircuts (even then), and a few catchy riffs. Grand lads, but nobody thought
they'd be filling stadiums five years later. Now the Irish music industry
(and media) revolves around acts like the Corrs, Westlife, Samantha Mumba,
and a couple of unmentionably bad dance producers - manufactured pop for
people who see music as lifestyle accessory.
There are a few decent new artists trying to make it with credible music,
but they get about as much exposure as last year's mobile phone. I think
this is very bad for music in general, and obscure genre music as well,
because it means that people are growing up with the idea of music as a
prepackaged commodity that comes in a limited variety of flavours, and are
simply unaware that there are more choices available. That means less
variety in record stores, and fewer oppotunities for musicians to play as
well. The city I live in (Limerick) used to have a good concert hall - in
the 80s I could go and see a band every week, and every few months there'd
be some big act from the UK whose albums you might own, so people were able
to see worthwhile bands like the Smiths locally.
Although the city has grown by about 50% since then, there is no venue large
enough to house big pop acts and not many people interested in new bands, so
there are only a few venues in town that host any live music at all. Apart
from a tiny cooperative started recently by some local punk/thrash bands
that book a venue and get 5 or 6 artists in to make the most of it, there is
almost no live music scene here any more. Forget going to a club, unless you
like listening to the same tunes as the radio while surrounded by drunks
trying to show off this week's new clothes/body piercing. It doesn't seem
much better around the rest of the country, even in Dublin (which has almost
a million people). IDM artists do come to Ireland from time to time, but
these days there are just very few venues for them to play at.
Well, sorry, this has turned into a kind of indictment on the state of the
music industry, which I hadn't planned to write. I guess I feel this entire
copyright argument is just a symptom of the much bigger problem of
commodification of the music industry.
quoted 2 lines In short: buy nothing, steal everything, destroy system, build new system
> In short: buy nothing, steal everything, destroy system, build new system
> on rubble. IMHO
I wish I could agree, but without an alternative plan, the new systems tend
to wind up as duplicates of the old, or even worse. In some respects, the
above describes exactly how big music operates today: sign as few people as
possible, overwork every new trend to death, and swamp the market with
cheesy instant-appeal product.
Anig Browl
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