Ableton Forum

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this issue, since before streaming more or less made piracy obsolete. My conclusion is that, in the age of the Internet the vast majority of quality recorded music is simply not compatible with capitalism anymore. The Internet has brought that to an end. Sure, there will be a few pop musicians who can make a living but the percentage of serious musicians earning any significan income from recording is very close to zero now.

In my humble opinion, we can't go back. Honestly, the only real way to fix this is to put the recording industry folks on the government payroll. I realize that this opens a can of worms, but this is the only realistic solution I can think of, short of simply crossing off all of the jobs in the recording industry from the list of legitimate ways to earn a living.

ohigetbywithalittlehelpfrommyfriends wrote:

beats me wrote:All Macs come with GarageBand preinstalled for free. The default value of a composer has been slid to zero.

don't forget about the $5 for the extra content, hate to hear thousands of songs with the same 'socal drummer' fills

I admit Kyle’s drumming can get a little stale, but then you just adjust the fills slider and complexity/velocity pad just like you do with a human session drummer. Uncompromised fine art is what we are creating here.

ohigetbywithalittlehelpfrommyfriends wrote:

SLEEarts wrote: Honestly, the only real way to fix this is to put the recording industry folks on the government payroll.

they would abuse the vacation time and sick pay

I doubt that very much. After all these folks are doing what they love for essentially no money now.

SLEEarts wrote:

ohigetbywithalittlehelpfrommyfriends wrote:

SLEEarts wrote: Honestly, the only real way to fix this is to put the recording industry folks on the government payroll.

they would abuse the vacation time and sick pay

I doubt that very much. After all these folks are doing what they love for essentially no money now.

Good idea. Sugar daddies for all!

I think we already have this in the UK...

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictio ... dole-money

they would abuse the vacation time and sick pay[/quote]

I doubt that very much. After all these folks are doing what they love for essentially no money now.[/quote]

Good idea. Sugar daddies for all!

I think we already have this in the UK...

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictio ... dole-money [/quote]


Doesn't making music count as work? Society at large certainly benefits from the work of musicians, doesn't it?

SLEEarts wrote:they would abuse the vacation time and sick pay

I doubt that very much. After all these folks are doing what they love for essentially no money now.[/quote]

sillybilly wrote: Good idea. Sugar daddies for all!

I think we already have this in the UK...

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictio ... dole-money

Doesn't making music count as work? Society at large certainly benefits from the work of musicians, doesn't it?

I was playing... but yes, you have a suggestion.

The way I envisaged it working reminded me of going for benefits...

How would you prove you were eligible and the guy down the road making different music wasn't? Or is everyone eligible?

How would Spotify survive?

Not that it will happen soon, but it will happen eventually: The negative income tax.

If you earn less than a certain amount you get money instead of paying in. At least enough to sustain yourself, but probably more.
The reason this will happen eventually is that capitalism in a (almost) fully automated society would otherwise not function. (No consumers)

The negative income tax also does away with the nanny state aspect of all social/welfare schemes, since it is payed out unconditionally. (no checks on wrong behaviour and such).

At this point culture will flourish, and the difference to socialism will be mostly semantics.

But with my luck, I don't expect to see that happening in my life time

BaronVonAbelDong wrote:How would Spotify survive?

BaronVonAbelDong wrote:

SLEEarts wrote:they would abuse the vacation time and sick pay

I doubt that very much. After all these folks are doing what they love for essentially no money now.

sillybilly wrote: Good idea. Sugar daddies for all!

I think we already have this in the UK...

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictio ... dole-money

Doesn't making music count as work? Society at large certainly benefits from the work of musicians, doesn't it?

I was playing... but yes, you have a suggestion.

The way I envisaged it working reminded me of going for benefits...

How would you prove you were eligible and the guy down the road making different music wasn't? Or is everyone eligible?

How would Spotify survive? [/quote]

Spotify would survive just fine because recorded music still needs to be distributed. I think that you could be paid any number of ways... Per project at a flat rate, monthly at a flat rate, etc etc. You prove you're eligible by producing music. Period. Folks won't earn a ton with this but as long as they have food and shelter good art can flourish.

I'm just sayin', there's a 9 page topic on this forum about Taylor Swift...

uthemus wrote:I'm just sayin', there's a 9 page topic on this forum about Taylor Swift...

Not hardly. There's a 9 page topic in the forum with Taylor Swift's name in the subject line... but most of what's been said has to do with streaming and making money as an independent musician.

SLEEarts wrote:
Spotify would survive just fine because recorded music still needs to be distributed. I think that you could be paid any number of ways... Per project at a flat rate, monthly at a flat rate, etc etc. You prove you're eligible by producing music. Period. Folks won't earn a ton with this but as long as they have food and shelter good art can flourish.

Again, it was a bit playful on my part (would the government be paying Spotify too?).

So, anyone could make any type of music and get paid or given a bare minimum to survive. Including their families? Or a big warehouse with lots of anaemic musicians huddling up together on the colder nights... we would need a government that could actually be trusted to care. That is quite possibly a bigger task than trying to get more royalties directly from streaming.

So many massive cultural shifts would need to take place. A government that would be proud to prioritise rewarding everyone's ability to create in someway? Your suggestion and the negative income tax idea are food for thought in the small hours and I guess we have to start somewhere with progress. Imagine... a totally new planet.