Steal This Record
The music industry, as it stands today, is ultimately unsustainable. Actually it has much bigger problems than music piracy, though I think those other problems make less interesting articles (or I assume editors and journalists think so) than piracy.
My local library has both books AND CDs available for borrowing. And the thing I’ve appreciated most is that this has given me an opportunity to “take a chance” on certain artists and genres of music I may not have otherwise tried if I had to pay for them upfront. This was where I got my Jazz education, for example. This is where I heard blues legends like Bessie Smith and Blind Lemon for the first time.
This was also how I heard the Sophie B. Hawkins album, ‘Whaler’ for the first time. Did hearing this album for free damage Sophie’s career? I don’t think so. I immediately went out and bought that album and her debut album. I subsequently spent hundreds of dollars (at least) buying CDs and Merchandise. I felt oddly compelled to own everything she had ever done, such was the connection I felt to her music and art. I bought singles, EPs, promotional discs, movie soundtracks she appeared on. When she decided to tour Australia in 2005 and 2006 it was truly a dream come true for me, and a friend and I basically followed her around the country for weeks at a time. (She went from being this idea in my head, to someone standing right beside me, joking, laughing and even sharing cold potato wedges with me. Write-ups of the 2005 shows are available on this blog, click on the tag Sophie B. Hawkins for more.)
The same can be said of Rickie Lee Jones, albeit it without the touring. I had seen Rickie’s name linked to Sophie’s in a number of reviews and picked up her “Pirates” album from the local library. The first time I heard it I absolutely hated it. I had never heard anything like it and found the experience jarring and confusing. But it had planted a seed in my subconscious mind, it had aroused my curiosity and by the end of the same week I found myself listening to it again. This time however I fell in love with it.
I suspect that the music industry has devoted too much time to the issue of music piracy. Why do I say this? Simply because the people who would steal your music will never be the people to buy it. They are not now your customers and they never will be. Whether they are sharing the songs on some sophisticated peer-to-peer program or doing something as crude as recording something off the radio or television, they will find a way; indeed most of them pride themselves on this ability.
I have some friends who are horrified when they learn I refuse to pirate software. One of my earliest passions in life was computer programming and I have a unique perspective on the time, effort, blood, sweat and tears that goes into that process. I guess it is also helped that there is such a wealth of quality Freeware. (Despite spending several hundred dollars on a piece of Corel Graphics software, for example, I still find myself reverting back to the free program GIMP.)
Rohan at the Fillet Skillet, who inspired this entry, recently compared the attitudes of the publishing industry to that of the music industry; well, I suppose, more specifically that of the recording industry. He suggested that authors are pleased when their books are read, even when they are not bought and instead borrowed from libraries. Whereas, he suggests, record companies become quite disgruntled when people enjoy their products without purchasing them.
I am sure any artist is delighted when someone immerses themselves in their work. Though while this knowledge might make the artist feel warm and fuzzy, I imagine it does nothing for the other people at the record company more concerned with the commercial prospects of the work. The lawyers, the A&R guys, the marketing department. The truth is there are many potential income streams available in the music industry though, for the most part, record companies have traditionally only been concerned with sales of recordings. Even Madonna, having recently honoured her contractual obligations with Warner Brothers, has signed up with “Live Nation” who will act as an “all-in-one” music publisher, record company, and concert promoter.
The truth is the old business model for record companies just doesn’t work any more. Prince gave his latest album away with a British Newspaper. Sir Paul McCartney was seen selling his recent efforts through Starbucks. Nine Inch Nails (and others) have given their music away as a free download. While Nine Inch Nails got considerable press for this effort, there was another musician who was doing it much earlier. Janis Ian may have ‘learnt the truth at seventeen’ when it came to romantic interaction, but she also had something of a epiphany more recently about the true benefit of freely available mp3 downloads. Her article The Internet Debacle: An Alternative View was quite shocking to many in ‘the industry.’ Certainly Ian doesn’t feel this move has impacted her badly:
My site (www.janisian.com) gets an average of 75,000 hits a year. Not bad for someone whose last hit record was in 1975.
For musicians their music is both their product and their promotion. I mean you wouldn’t expect to have the RIAA knocking down your door because you heard a song on the radio or saw a music video on television, would you? Although in the most basic sense you’re enjoying their music without paying for it!
It doesn’t help either that record companies are entirely speculative ventures that invest in artists they ‘hope’ will have sufficient ‘hits’ to firstly recoup the initial investment of recording expenses and secondly to create a return on that investment. Many a band/record company relationship has been soured when a band hasn’t fared as well, commercially, as anticipated, or where the band doesn’t feel their material is being promoted by the record company. Even the aforementioned Sophie B. Hawkins split recently from an unhappy arrangement with Sony Music/Columbia Records to start her own independent label, Trumpet Swan.
So perhaps Rohan is right; perhaps it is time for recording companies to think more like publishing companies. I think, though, that they might need to completely rethink their mode of operation.
The good news for musicians though is that there has never been a better time to be independent! Recording equipment has never been more affordable. The internet has completely opened the channels of communication between artists and fans, and technologies like iTunes have cut out the need for those record company ‘middlemen’ entirely.
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor
Good entry! You seem to have more of an insight into the way things work than I do. Thanks for such a well thought out response.
I suppose I am glad that YouTubers don’t require people to pay to load a video… I am glad that this media form is still free… however what happens when users start making demands for royalties? Web 3.0?
I completely agree. For years I’ve used the library as a source of knowledge. In fact, back in the 1970s and early 1980s, we used to get our VHS tapes from the library. My girlfriend and her sisters continue to use the library for DVD and CD “rentals.”
I don’t know about your arguments here. You’re comparing the music industry with the book industry – both of which are struggling, but seem to fail to take into consideration the issues currently facing the publishing industry.
Over the last few years there has been an enormous shift in the publishing industry. Publishers are less willing to try new authors because the risk just isn’t worth it. They are sticking to their acclaimed authors whose work they know will sell millions of copies.
In that way, I guess it looks similar to the music industry, which is also sticking to artists it knows will sell, due to declining sales. But the key difference is why their sales are in decline.
Books have been in libraries for years. In fact, I would go as far to say that libraries, and educational institutions, are the largest purchasers of books, and probably have always been. And, I think, most people, don’t try a book from the library and then buy it. Most people only read a book once.
I do think, however, the Internet is the key reason for a decline in sales for both. Less people are reading books these days, and less people are buying their music from record companies.