My 2014 recap post is not about stuff I did this year… its just something I would love for you to read if you are a music lover or music maker. I know… it looks long, but I think its way important Lets talk about music. In modern America, music a necessity. Load up your playlist for your commute. Load up your playlist for your workout. Load up your playlist for your morning coffee on your day off. We prescribe music like medicine to our friends, families, co-workers -- here is a tune to get your through your break-up, heres a tune to get you through your business trip, heres a tune to get you through other kinds of … umm… trips, heres a tune to get you through the loss of a loved one… We use music for everything. The problem is, we (and yes, there is PLENTY of research available to back up the usage of we) dont really pay for it -- and yet, still to the surprise of some people, its not just a fun thing some folks do with their time off -- its a career for the people who make it and its a career with intense, to say the least, overhead. Personal anecdote-esque moment: Ive run across too many (way too many) incredibly talented music makers this year who have decided to stop making music. All for the same reason. People arent quitting because its too hard or because its too competitive of an industry -- honestly, a dose of difficulty and hearty splash of competition drives most artists who love the game … People are quitting because its is damn near impossible (even for those of us who have had success with crowd-funding) for an indie band or artist to be able to keep trucking after the release of an album. As the price of quality music equipments sky-rockets at an exponentially explosive speed, the price of a digital download seems to be plummeting at the same rate. The $10 model has been replaced (in most cases) with $6-8 for a full album download and in a lot of cases, bands are only able to get by with the name your own price model -- sometimes dishing out entire albums (with five-digit budgets) for about $0.99 or in exchange for and add on email list that can be retracted immediately if the consumer feels like it. Sure, it seems all fine and dandy if an artist WANTS to release an album with this model -- but as a result of this becoming a popular model, it has become EXPECTED for the modern independent band to release entire album as a pay what you want download. And in the world of Spotify why pay AT ALL for music when it can be streamed for free? And in a world where free streaming that pays the artist basically nothing is widely accepted, many artists who choose not to put their tunes on Spotify are either seen as lesser than industry standard or full of themselves because they are too good to stream their tunes for free. And look… even at the $10 mark, most artists see about $7-$8.50 of that money from the digital download. For that price, a guitarist can buy half of a guitar cable OR a drummer can buy one quality drum stick OR a bass player can buy one (maybe two) strings to go on his or her bass guitar OR three gallons or so of gas can go into the tour van OR all four members of a rock quartet can share a whiskey on the rocks at their next gig (the bartender wont get a tip tho) OR an artist can get about 10 minutes of studio time for their next album (you can almost set up a mic in that amount of time!) … I could go on and on, but Ill stop. Look, the point is, if this continues there just wont be a whole lot of new and original music. Its just not going to happen. Sure, the major labels will sign a handful of artists to top the charts with the same old stuff (its not always horrible!) we hear on our top40 stations -- but its going to be (Ill use to word again) nearly IMPOSSIBLE for people who dedicate their lives to creating something you listen to on Spotify on your way to work everyday to afford a ham sandwich, much less be able to continue making the music you love to listen to. Most of the musicians I know have at least two survival jobs to pay the rent and create music that they essentially give away. Its not sustainable and it really doesnt have to be that way though. We CAN pay for music. We have the ability to do that. So, Im going to challenge everybody in 2015 to spend a minimum $200 on music downloads. Thats really not a lot, considering each of the albums you will be downloading probably had a min budget of $2000 -- haha, and that is REALLY the minimum. You probably already spend about $120 a year on your Spotify Premium account -- problem there is that an artist gets a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a cent for every stream (yeah, weve all heard Taylor Swift talk about it…) -- point being, if you arent willing to spend $200/year on music downloads, you probably dont deserve to be listening to music. Its not a free service. Its an industry, its an art, and its on life support. Lets help give it a little more love in 2015.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 19:27:49 +0000
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