Copy, write II
It was coming along nicely with some engaging humanism and then bang... it turned into a hectic rant on plagiarism and blogging. Way too intense for this fragile journey of discovery. So let me talk about other people's stuff for a while.
On the topic of copyright if you haven't already, make sure you check out "Question" by the Kleptones. It's a mashup including Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", the Big Lebowski and Fight Club in one incredible track that has been described as "a plunderphonic call to arms against bad copyright law". As Queens piano gently marks the exit to the track, we hear a final voice over.
"What do you get with freedom? Excesses? Exploitation? Of course. And what does one say to that? A small price to pay. If you dont like it, dont listen to it, dont read it, dont watch it. Without free commmunication, you don't have a free society. Democracy is based on it."
You know the system is in decline when giant media conglomerates are appealing to the ethics and individual responsibility of their consumers. I wonder if they will include it in their key competencies? Sony: Electronics, Music, Morality. Nonetheless for millions of people around the world, for right or wrong, music is functionally free.
For me the future of music will be determined by the following question. What system will deliver more music to the consumer and allow more people to make a decent living doing what they love, playing music? I believe this future will not leave a lot of room for parts of the industry which are not concerned with these two elements. And rightly so.
Music is the product and producer of passion. In a decline of the mainstream commerical industry I think we will see a rise of an industry driven by individual interest. The majority of artists would earn through live performances, and the superstars will earn supersalaries through commercial endorsement. Individuals will record it, they will share it and they will draw other people to it. And best of all they will do this in a way that engages more people to produce more music for everyone. Fluffy, different, maybe impossible- but it would be incredibly cool.
posted by Arthur Josephson @ 6:11 PM
3 Comments:
Here's my observation by living in probably the most diverse and exciting indie music scene in the US, Chicago.
There are about 10x more unsigned independent musicians than sign ones.
They make money not from selling records, but by selling concerts, making 300 or 500 dollars per show.
Broadband are cheaper, mixing tools are cheaper and selling digital musics are easier. You can setup a paypal account and start selling your CDs and T-Shirts. For promotions, you can get weblogs and pay your broke (cheap) artist friend to design you the template.
Bang. You got your own distribution.
What you don't have is the marketing power, although that doesn't really matter for the majority of musicians . They want to be signed but that's not the no.1 priority.
Good thoughts man. Maybe its closer than I thought.
If people aren't buying music anymore than dynamic of marketing will change. The ambition is to get as much music out there to as many people and thus create demand to see the live shows. It would seem that blogs, e-zines, or their evolution can play this role.
heard that some artists are voluntarily releasing their first couple of tracks for free on kazaa / napster etc in order to build early name recognition with a view to making money later. Seems related.
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