Great blog post about music piracy and stealing music / current music industry

Discussion in 'Music and Recordings' started by rhythmdevils, May 5, 2021.

  1. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2020
    Likes Received:
    12,239
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Home Page:
    This has possibly been discussed here ad nauseam but I thought this blog post was well written and deserved more than a profile post that will disappear in a few hours.

    I do wish the author talked about the ways for musicians to make money in the current dynamic (I assume he is talking about something more than live shows), but I guess that’s how he makes a living.

    https://newmusicstrategies.com/but-if-they-steal-it/

    (I found this on Bandcamp’s page about stealing music from Bandcamp which is also interesting. I really respect their perspective.)

    His point about the vast majority of people stealing music having a voracious unquenchable appetite for music and choosing between stealing or not buying music is a great one.

    I would add that everyone streams music now and artists don’t make any money from that anyways so stealing isn’t that different.

    To avoid this getting derailed into the “streaming services don’t pay artists enough” debate, I should say that:
    1. None of the current steaming services are profitable. I don’t know what the future holds for music streaming (maybe not good if we are only left with services who can afford to take a loss in order to use the streaming service to sell other products ie Amazon, Apple and YouTube Music) but no one is making a killing off the backs of artists via steaming services.
    2. Regardless of how much streaming services paid artists, the only people making money off streaming are the ones who get millions or billions of streams. The vast majority of whom are not the musicians we care about making money anyways.
     
  2. crenca

    crenca Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    May 26, 2017
    Likes Received:
    3,829
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Southern New Mexico
    Good read as he is a man with a clue. The commodification - its devaluing so that today it's market value is approaching zero - of music goes way back. Who needs an instrument and musical training in the house when you can have a phonograph or radio? Who needs a phonograph or radio when you can have a TV? Who needs music at all when you can have a TV/computer in your pocket? Video (and every other modern distraction) killed the radio star. He is right to look at how you can make money in a niche, interweb and digital world.
     
  3. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2020
    Likes Received:
    12,239
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Home Page:
    It’s interesting to think about a time when listening to music meant owning an instrument and knowing how to play it. What a different musical experience that is from what happens on sites like this!

    yes music listening has changed dramatically in the last century.

    Indigenous cultures have made music a part of daily life for thousands of years and accessible to all members of society. But I wonder if the same can be said of “Western culture”. The thought has occurred to me that in the past, Western music was something only the extremely wealthy got to enjoy. I don’t know how true that is though.
     
  4. crenca

    crenca Friend

    Pyrate
    Joined:
    May 26, 2017
    Likes Received:
    3,829
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Location:
    Southern New Mexico
    I don't think that is true from what I understand. For most of western history what we understand today as "western art" music was created and supported by in the churches, the most accessible of institutions for rich, poor, and everybody between. I do think by the time you get to the 18th centuary you have operatic and proto symphonic developing mostly through the secular (and direct) support of aristocrats, and by the 19th centurary they are performed in a secular ($payed$) setting, but I don't know if the pricing was prohibitive to the poor or not.

    My local symphony today is priced at about the same as a night out at the movies, and plenty of the "poor" spend nights out at the movies in our culture. They are not at the symphony (and at the movies, or watching their cell phones) because they are poor and can not afford it...
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2021
  5. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,345
    Trophy Points:
    113
    WHAT? Much of western music was the popular music of it's day. Guitar music evolved from ancient Greek dude with a lyre music via medieval European and Arabic dude with lute music. This and vocal religious music was the popular entertainment. All of those ultra-violent medieval romances were sung or told to music. Sheet music was the common music of the late 19th century. and it was popular music at a level that pre-modern societies could never match. It was flooded everywhere in the USA from the robber barons to share croppers, the same as popular music was from the 40s-2000.
     
  6. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,345
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Uh most of them don't go to see other music too. Popular classical is very popular. Very popular. People are just exposed to it on soundtracks. It's more popular than most B to C list old school rock acts. Does your average dude know any Deep Purple tracks beyond Smoke on the Water and Highway Star? I doubt they even know Highway Star now. Metallica is YEAH YEAH YEAH, ENTER NIGHT, THE FOUR HORSEMEN STOOD ON THE HILL IN THE EARLY DAYS, UNFORGIVEN, OBEY YOUR MASTER, YEAH YEAH and they're by far the most popular rock and metal band since Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden yet there's no way your average guy on the street has heard Orion or knows how influential it was to later rock and metal. Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky? No way.

    And these are still more widespread than folk songs. Led Zeppelin spread traditional blues songs further than anyone else could. ON A FRICKIN JET
    [​IMG]
     
  7. Psalmanazar

    Psalmanazar Most improved member; A+

    Pyrate Slaytanic Cliff Clavin
    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2015
    Likes Received:
    5,345
    Trophy Points:
    113
    and piracy made certain acts into legends that could make a living through merch, reissues, festivals, and large clubs instead of working deadbeat jobs. The media would never give them the exposure. Only widespread piracy could. It doomed most acts and the already peaked industry but saved certain underground legends from impoverishment. Of course it guaranteed that there would be no more underground legends.
     

Share This Page