The Internet: All the music in the world and nobody’s buying

[Dexes]

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=129785

[sporkles]

(...)

Ban the random button!

Actually, my experience is the complete opposite; until I ripped my CD collection and got into
iTunes, I wasn't listening to music at all. I used to, but hadn't been doing it for years. With
iTunes, the only thing that I miss is the visual cue of a CD cover. It's much easier to listen
to music on a whim, and I've even started buying music again, after discovering Beatport.
Obviously, this has led to me listening more and more to music similar to what I produce, which
is not necessarily a good thing.

Sometimes I miss the nineties, when you could still go to a physical record store and find
interesting music, but the convenience of checking out music online is absolutely not something
I want to trade. Not to mention all the time saved.

Oh, and the "random button" is actually quite fun, sometimes. I listen to music primarily when
I'm drawing, and turning on the random feature often makes me go "what the fuck is this? I
have this in my collection?".

[UKRuss]

+1 , without the random button no-one would hear my music at all.

[drako]

**All the music in the world and nobody’s buying**

Back in the days you had to buy the hardware and have the talent to produce and release.
Nowadays there are so much cracks available, info available , everyone can make their own music.

[LoopStationZebra]

That article = another hopeless, bitter douchebag longing for the 'good ole' days'. Whatever the fuck that means. Christ. That's at least 3 times this week in which some fuckwit is bitching about "the digital internet age and how it's destroyed music and playing out just doesn't mean anything because every twelve year old is doing it and I was there first and my mommy didn't breast feed me and the ipod has destroyed my love affair with music and....

Kill me now.

[necho]

Kill me now.

hold still then....



yeah - the original post is pretty typical of the bitter old nearly-made-it types...

Things are changing because of technology - but they are actually changing for the better. Global saturation is killing the vulgar side of music (talentless fucks in pinstripe suits ripping off kids) and clearing the way for music-for-music's-sake. Music is about enjoyment. Local is better.

[the_antagonist]

yeh there is a lot of music.


someone once said to me

"a good song/track will find you"


it used to be hard to dig those crates to find that one gem. it was never meant to be easy. now you can dig the crates from your desk. yes there is more to listen to but you can skip through 10 times as many.

it used to be "wow iv got that northern soul record that there is only 10 in the world"

now its "wow there if potentially infinite copies of this track in the universe but i found it when everyone else went straight to beatport chart"

the world is what you make of it. if one one is buying your tracks then either they are crap or you aint promoting hard enough.

[citizenchris099]

as long as their is beer and t shirts to sell their will be new music....period.

[ethios4]

Well, I think it's shitty too, but there's nothing that can be done about it, and more importantly it's most likely just growing pains as we transition into a new age of technology.

I figure it's probably just as easy/hard to 'make it' as ever. Right at the moment that it became possible to produce a studio quality track at home (which was a 'good' thing), the market became oversaturated and people stopped buying music. I think a lot of the bitterness comes from the part of me that thought 'wow, now I finally have a home studio and I can start pumping out the music and get it signed'....the same thought as millions of others.

All that being said, I still completely disagree that artists needn't get paid for recording music. But as someone here said, it's certainly not an entitlement.

[citizenchris099]

All that being said, I still completely disagree that artists needn't get paid for recording music. But as someone here said, it's certainly not an entitlement.

what do you mean "get paid for recording music"?

[ethios4]

Some people hold the view that recorded music should be free of charge, ie that illegal file sharing is totally fine. In other words, musicians should get paid for being performing artists not recording artists. I disagree...recorded music takes an enormous amount of time to learn and achieve, and artists should be able to charge and consumers should pay for it. I don't buy the whole 'communal music library' concept.

[Jabbon]

Interesting post, there is a nice book, Guerreros, from W. Gibbson.

My 2 cents:

Contemporary Technology broke the equation of Offer and Demand, not only in music.
I ask myself who will be the new Maynard Keynes?

If the medium is the message, when the medium is cheap, then the message will follow.

[hurlingdervish]

MUSIC RESCUE PLAN:

"Water mark" all licensed loops and presets for quick filtering and removal from music catalogs.

Install a mechanism in online music catalogs that isolate and remove songs with identical choruses

Ban cable television and get rid of commercials.

Create a completely "on demand" system of tv where you only get what you pay for.
(No more ad-based music sales. No more Chris Brown marketing bubblegum (sub sub text: new meaning of bubblegum pop!))

Once TV's advertising is dismantled create new music channels that people subscribe to in order to listen and find new music and ONLY about music. The direct pay aspect will ensure that the channels niche can not be swayed from or else they will lose revenue.

Put Pandora in every single car radio. Thumbs up and down on the dashboard. Use marketing here based on what type of music the person selects in order to pay the artists and support Pandora.

Limit the amount of attention the lead singer is allowed.

ANYONE WHO DOES NOT WRITE THEIR OWN MATERIAL AND AREN'T PLAYING/SINGING COVERS WILL BE FIRED BLACKLISTED AND FINED 100 MILLION DOLLARS.

Optional:

Split up the US into two parts now that we don't need the bigots cotton or country music anymore.

[quandry]

interesting thread, lots of catch 22s, like none of us would be here online, using relatively inexpensive software and hardware to create music if technology didn't advance as it has. Sure, there's wayyy too much music out there, but we're part of the trend/problem, as affordable recording rigs (and unfortunately wayyy too many loop/sample cds...) make it possible for the masses to create their own music. As others have said, it's all about the 1% or stuff that sounds original, and the rest is chaff.

[citizenchris099]

Some people hold the view that recorded music should be free of charge, ie that illegal file sharing is totally fine. In other words, musicians should get paid for being performing artists not recording artists. I disagree...recorded music takes an enormous amount of time to learn and achieve, and artists should be able to charge and consumers should pay for it. I don't buy the whole 'communal music library' concept.

I can think beer should be free and based on said philosophical stand point walk into 7 Eleven grab a six pack walk out w/o paying. I'm still breaking the law. Just because you think a law is wrong....well that doesn't change it.
On the other hand if I want to freely distribute my music on the Internet and pass out cds at the local coffee shop...thats my right. So I'm not sure what your point is. Are you arguing w/punks rationalizing stealing music or artists who want to freely distribute their art?