A blog comment I wrote in response to a post at NoTitles:

I started writing a response to your question here yesterday but it quickly deteriorated into a miserable lament and I realised I was rather pissed off at the world, and I wasn’t sure that that was how I wanted to portray myself online.

But at any rate, to give you the general dynamics of it, I wanted to be a rockstar. Waking up at 6am on the weekends to watch pop music videos on television probably planted the seed. And then I went through that obligatory teenage high school poetry thing, only at the time Tori Amos and Alanis Morisette were there in the background and I decided I wasn’t writing poetry, I was wrting lyrics. And it was this great exploration of my own emotional terrain. But I didn’t know much about music. I couldn’t make sense of it. I didn’t know how to make it work. I loved to sing but even this became a secretive activity after being criticised one too many times…

Eventually I borrowed this book on music theory and composition from the library. I decided I would spend the two weeks of school holidays I had around Easter and do nothing but study that book. And it helped. I think I made more headway in those two weeks than I had in the whole rest of my teenage existence… lol. And good things flowed out of it. I eventually created a multimedia CD-ROM with original lyrics, music (notated on computer and played back through the wonder of MIDI technology), photographs and even a little video. But I really struggled with bringing the music and lyrics together. I had this CD-ROM with lyrics and music, but none of it went together.

I actually studied music business management and audio production at a university level. I knew I didn’t have the chops to be a musician, but I wanted to be involved in that industry. And those studies were amazing… I’ll never regret doing it. But when I graduated I quickly discovered that opportunities were very limited and competition was fierce. Living (then) in the most expensive city in Australia and being told that I might have to work on a ‘trial’ basis for six months for no pay was not the most inspirational thing. So I returned to my home town and took the first job I was offered, something completely unrelated to that industry.

I guess I still feel kind of foolish about the whole thing. In the words of Sophie B. Hawkins, “I try too hard and then I give up way too easily.” I get so easily discouraged. I devote so much time and space on my blog to inspirational encouraging things because I’m trying to pysche myself up to try things.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, I suppose. I’ve been improvising and playing at this keyboard for years now and I have improved dramatically. I bought a little Yamaha USB Audiogram 6 mixer so I can record things on the computer. And every now and then I’ll sit down and write something. Through the Internet it is easy to share things (say on SoundCloud or YouTube).

Where there’s life, there’s hope (I hope).

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.