Posts
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I did an interview for a music blog the other day. The interviewer (John Holland at "Voices to Hear") had some interesting questions.
One of John's questions got into my brain and has been wiggling around ever since.
The question was how has technology affected the music industry?
This question was intentionally vague. I believe John was trying to see which way I would go with it.
I believe I could write a book on the subject (who knows maybe someday I will).
But for today I just wanted to focus on one specific part of my answer and how it puts a spotlight on a uniquely peculiar part of the modern music industry.
Although I will not be focusing on it here, I started answering John's question with all the ways technology has made life easier for artists. (I hope that you will take the time to read the full interview once it is published. I will announce it on Facebook once it is ready for consumption. And you can check out http://www.avoicetohear.com/ periodically. John writes good articles and focuses on lesser known, quality artists. So even if you get to the site before my interview is published, you will not want for good stuff to read).
Anyway, after the initial section of my answer which dealt with all the variety of ways technology helps modern musicians (easy and cost efficient recording, duplication, marketing, etc), I had to turn to how technology hurts musicians.
It is not the purpose of today's blog post to cast moral judgement on people who illegally download songs nor is the purpose of today's blog post to rally people to take up pitchforks and torches and rid ourselves of the thieves.
Society has spoken (especially the younger portion of society). And they have said, "We steal music. We will continue to steal music. Deal with it."
So I will not be debating illegal downloads from that angle. Apparently illegal downloads are here to stay. That is a foregone conclusion. I WILL however discuss a very very interesting result of this.
Since this is the state of affairs: society has basically renamed our profession.
No one can be a professional musician anymore*.
Let me explain.
In the pre-download era, a musician made music (hence the name). Fans bought the music. This is where musicians made the bulk of their income. In this era, fans would also buy t-shirts , stickers, lunch boxes, and a wide variety of other merchandise related to musicians. Shrewd musicians of the day would maximize the profit from these extra items and have a nice bonus income. But that money was BONUS above and beyond the money that was generated by their craft which was...music (again which was why they were called musicians).
Oh the times they have a-changed......
Now music makers are in a drastically different state of affairs. Now even the most beloved and supported musicians can't survive from music sales alone. Now their "bonus" merchandise money is virtually all of their income.
The knee jerk reaction tends to be, "Musicians are still getting money, so what does it matter?"
That's the peculiar part, it does matter on a profound level. Of course if a musician understands that their music has been devalued by society and they choose to adapt their business model so that they focus on selling a ton of merchandise, they can make an income that will sustain them (any modern musician that doesn't adapt to this model will not stay afloat for very long).
What makes this so weird is the fact that society is not looking at popular Artist X and saying , "Your music is horrible. It has no value. We will not buy and therefore you will go out of business." That would make sense and that is how every other industry in our capitalist society works. With the post-illegal download era, people are saying something decidedly different. They are saying to Artist X, " We absolutely adore your creations. We actually love them more than any creation by your colleagues. However we will not give you any money for your creation. Please make something unrelated with your name on it. We will buy that."
So society has said no one is allowed to be a professional musician. There is only a small small fringe market that will purchase music, everyone else will steal it. Therefore one can't have creating and selling music be their profession. One can of course still be a musician but one must be a professional t-shirt creator/marketer.
To see how strange this is, let's apply it to another industry.
Let's say you own a tire store and you sell high quality, fair priced tires. You have spent years honing your craft. These years of perfecting tire making have resulted in you and your tires being among the elite in the tire biz.
The public has taken notice to the increase in the quality of your tires. In a recent survey, it was actually shown that your tires were on more cars than any other brand, 3 to 1.
Good news, right?
Well, kinda. You notice that despite the above facts, your tire sales are at an all time low. Then you see why. People are coming to your stores in droves (it's been well documented that you make the best tires and the public loves them). However the people are stealing your tires. Virtually no one is buying them. The people do really love your tires and your store though, so they tend to buy keychains, bumper stickers and air fresheners with your brand name on them (so they can show the world they use only the best tires). They actually buy a bunch of them. They buy enough of them that you can afford to keep the doors of your tire store open, barely.
Well, what can you do to build profits (and not have to lay off all your employees)? Well you could always spend a ton of time creating hot new keychains, bumper stickers and air fresheners since they still generate revenue. Of course this takes a lot of your time away from your true passion (making quality tires) to focus on merchandise. But it seems like the only option the public is allowing you. So you start churning out a variety of merchandise.
After years pass, your store is moderately successful, you stay afloat but your tires are subpar and not the quality you once insisted upon (due to having to take a backseat to merchandising). Then you realize that you don't actually sell any tires these days, so it's hard to call your store a tire store anymore. It's really a keychains, bumper stickers and air fresheners store. As more time is spent focusing on store merchandise, the quality of tire production drops and drops and drops. But this shouldn't bother you too badly. Your store is able to survive. And besides, these days, your tires are more of an advertising expense than your bread and butter. Right?
The strangeness seems more apparent with the tire store analogy, but it is the same with music.
And just like in the tire store analogy, I think it is sad to think about the plight of a lot of musicians. I know plenty of musicians that are mindbogglingly great at writing and performing music. Their undeniable songs and performances draw in crowds of all ages. They stand out as being better craftsmen than a vast majority of other musical performers. However some of these artists are horrible at T-Shirt design, Bumper Sticker marketing, etc (Why should it be expected that they would naturally be great at design and marketing? They are MUSICians).
It is so odd to me that society would love these artists' music, but let them fail. Society has chosen to let them fail because they do not excel at some arbitrary craft, even though they are highly skilled at their own craft. It should be noted that this craft, music, is still a craft society respects and values.....just not monetarily.
How can anyone be said to be a professional musician when music has been deemed virtually unsellable? One can be called a musician due to the fact they create music, but in our current model these people are professional T-Shirt Designers and Salesmen who happen to play music.
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the most peculiar of scenes
Society walks into the smoky bar. Musician sitting at the bar.
SOCIETY: Hey, you make music, right?
MUSICIAN: Yes. Yes I do.
SOCIETY: I thought I recognized you. I love music with all my heart. And I have all your albums
MUSICIAN: Thank you. I appreciate it. I have a new live album and a new studio album for sale here tonight.
SOCIETY: Oh cool. I 'll definitely get em.....Not right now. I'll just download em for free when I get home tonight. Got any stickers, or shirts, or wristbands?
MUSICIAN: Nope. Sorry. I only brought my music.
SOCIETY: Too Bad
(after a few moments of silence, MUSICIAN motions to the bartender for his bill)
MUSICIAN: Yep.....Too Bad
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(*some exceptions to the above blog post are session musicians and other "hired guns". These musicians don't get paid directly from the public. They get paid directly from ........the musicians who are hiring them. And THOSE musicians ARE getting paid directly from the public. So even though the session guys/hired guns may not be affected directly, the trickle down effect leaves more than just the singer/songwriter/ performer trickled on.)
