Lion music published a passionate article on why downloading is
killing
music here and I thought I'd take some time to respond. It's worth reading the article as it's written by the artists in Lion's stable and some interesting points are made.
Killing Music or Revenue?It's important to ask this questions as they are not the same thing. Obviously if you get an album for free you are not giving any money to anyone and that revenue stream is being throttled. But the music is still alive and a new set of valuable ears has heard the music.
The points was made that Apple (via the iPod and iTunes) and your ISP are making money from you downloading. I can see why a musician would think this but it doesn't help, it's tangental to the core issue and only leads to calls for levies on iPods, Blank CD's, ISP's, Physical music sales.
The point was also made that digital distribution (via iTunes etc) is a great opportunity. This is more helpful and if musicians could see how they make money from 'online' they would not see it as a threat.
While the 'traditional' revenue streams for bands are being killed off the cost to get a fan or 'cost to ear' has been lowered 100 fold in the last 10 years and will only get lower as time passes. Musicians need to see that this is the future and ears not CD's are important.
The Value of Music.Something is worth what people will pay for it. In a philosophical sense music has an infinite value to society but in reality, for most people, music in static form is worth little or nothing.
A musician is however more then the sum of his music. Musicians, more then any other artist, command the attention of their audience. They can shape the belief system of the audience, inform their audience and entertain their audience. We have all travelled miles to see bands, queued for hours to buy tickets and borrowed cash from friends to buy merch at a gig. This is the power and influence of a musician.
So while music is of little value the brand that is a musician has great value.
So why can't musicians see thisBelieve it or not most musicians are actually quite normal and don't see themselves or their band as something people buy in to. They see their music as a product and that products have a value and thus they can make money from their product.
If you combine this with the fact that very very few musicians are business people it's easy to see why they shy away from the new landscape of music production.
On top of this most records labels aren't run by business people either! Most metal labels are run by hard working fans of music who basically work their arses off to make a living but they love it... until you get a few beers in them and then they tell you how much they hate it.
The cherry on top of this faltering cake is that neither the bands nor the labels understand the technology that they are being driven by. They dream of restrictions to downloading without really understanding why it wont work and they would love to harness the power of the internet for distribution but they don't know how.
So what should labels do?
- Offer high quality downloads of all music for free. It costs about £0.04p ($0.06) to deliver mp3s/artwork to a potential fan. In return the fan should give their email address so they can be contacted later on.
- Offer CD quality downloads of all music for £5.00 ($8.00)
- Offer a 'download it now and we'll send you a CD' as well for £10.00 ($16.00)
- Offer a download it now, we'll send you a gig ticket and you can get a free CD if you want for £15.00 ($23.00)
- Give bands a better cut of revenues but give them much less to record. Poverty breeds invention after all.
Of course all these numbers are guestimates. I don't run a record label but they are not unrealistic and they are at a price point I would gladly pay.
What should musicians do?
- Come to terms with the value of your music
- Understand the value of your brand as an artist/band
- Push labels to offer more revenue but understand they will take on less risk by offering you less money upfront.
- Engage with fans directly via mailing lists, back stage chats, merch stand offers, pre gig pub meets. Your core fans will go further then you think and will inspire you more then you could ever imagine.
- Be realistic, the world has changed but there are more opportunities to lower your cost and increase your revenue if you work at it.
- If you study music at a university or college actually attend the business lectures!
What should fans do?
- Cut bands and labels some slack. It's easy for you but VERY hard for them to change over night.
- Buy merch from bands and labels. If you can avoid giving money to the big shops then do. It's all money leeched from the scene.
- Go to gigs... and then go to even more gigs. Everyone wins if you go to gigs.
- If a label or band does something you appreciate let them know. If you would like a gig ticket with a CD email them... if you want more or less, tell them. They have no clue what's going on without your feedback.
- Support your local scene by going to see unsigned bands. The future of music is in your hands. Only with your encouragement will the scene grow.
be seeing you
metaldazza