Was reading a couple of blog posts on music piracy recently, and the same tired old threads kept coming up. “Music tracks are just advertisements for the artist – they should make their money selling T-shirts and tickets to live shows.”
I’ve contributed this rebuttal, as have others – “what about music that can’t be performed live, or wasn’t intended to be? Beatles’ Sgt Pepper being a prime example, but even most of Revolver couldn’t have been done justice ‘live’”. Rebuttals to that rebuttal inevitably come back with “technology is so great now – anyone can do it. Phish redid the White Album live, etc”. Not trying to be Beatle-centric here, just some points of reference that make most sense to me. Substitute Zappa or Pink Floyd or whatever to suit your taste.
The “sell tshirts and tickets” has always bothered me, but not until today could I put my finger on why. There are two separate reasons, really.
Point one: I don’t need that many tshirts. Really – I like dozens of bands and hundreds of albums – I do NOT need more clothes or trinkets to memorialize them. This adds to clutter/waste, enriches the Chinese companies that manufacture this stuff, and is wasteful (did I mention it’s wasteful?)
Point two: You can *not* replicate the range of experiences people can have with music at a live concert. I don’t enjoy much live music because there’s so much *other* stuff going on around, and usually I can’t afford front row seats for larger shows (Stones, etc.) And for smaller shows, well – I’ve been to a few, and they were enjoyable, but were poor substitutes for the sonic brilliance and subtle textures I get listening to the artist’s CD. Live concerts are just *one* experience – a very short lived one for most people – that you can have with an artist’s music. There’ve been plenty of times I’ve cried at music tracks while riding in the car, or sitting at home being reflective of life, while listening to music from artists that were able to articulate my exact feelings for that moment. I find myself reconnecting with old music on long trips that bring a new perspective to how I used to see certain issues, or help me to reframe my thoughts on old friendships.
In short, the music on an artist’s album can often become the soundtrack for many chapters of your life, for years to come. Marginalizing that power by implying that artist’s music should be given away simply as a marketing tool to attract people to live shows (expecting them to buy shirts to ‘support’ the artist) is narrow-minded, short-sighted, and dare I say insulting to the many bands and artists that strive to achieve something more permanent.
While I completely agree with you, the arguments I’ve heard have to do with the fact that most of a musician’s money is made in ticket sales and merch. This has less to do with illegal downloads, (I think), and more to do with copyright laws and the pitifully low royalty rates that most musicians receive for their work. I don’t believe in illegal downloading either, but I think illegal downloads hurt musicians less than most people think, simply because most musicians wouldn’t have made much money on those downloads even if they were purchased.
But more in the spirit of your post….I agree that T-shirts are overrated, and the experience of a well-produced CD can be more life-changing than an amazing performance.
True. I guess most of the comments I’ve read seem to be “buy crap” at the expense of just saying “buy the CD, and better if it’s direct from the artist”. I’d rather give someone $10 for a great CD than $10 for tshirt, even if the shirt makes them more money.
Well said Mike! As a musician I support your argument, but I make exceptions for some commercial music like Britney Spears, Hanna Montana, etc. which I think gets plenty of support from their corporate sponsors. I do try to support my fellow artists, but I have no qualms about downloading “pirated” songs from mega-stars who already make millions through advertising, overpriced ticket sales, etc.
BTW – interesting related story about iTunes & royalties:
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/10/thursdays-copyr.html
Yeah Mike, I agree. You’d help the artist most by buying tickets, with exorbitant Ticketmaster or Live Nation fees, or merch that you really don’t need (that’s only if the artist CAN give the concert to your point). But you help yourself out most by buying a good CD that you can listen to and enjoy over and over again. The unfortunate catch-22 is that you can’t help the artist much by buying the thing you really want the most. The major labels really are to blame, and I think the fact that record sales have plummeted for the majors is evidence that fans are fed up with supporting their business model, which helps no one but themselves.
I’ve not seen any artist do this yet, but what would sort of be neat is a subscription model. Well, I had a subscription to paste magazine, which was sort of like this – new music every month from both new and established artists. However, that’s still just promotional for an artists. There’s 2 or 3 artists I would probably “subscribe” to for $3/month – $25-$30/year maybe – to get access to their works in development, rehearsal tracks, etc. An artist who had, say, 300 subscribers on that model would be pulling in around $7k in a year in subscriptions, which would probably be more than many make from their music now anyway. It would also keep the artists a bit more ‘top of mind’ long term rather than just “new album out!” every couple of years, vying for attention with all the other stuff out there.