When I first set up this blog I did a test post so I could get an idea of how the text would look etc. Before I could take that test post down it had generated the following comment:
"Hello, My Name is Ernie Dufour, Singer Songwriter from Canada. I think it’s impossible to make a living with music in this country...after all, Supreme Courts within Canada pass the notion to still download Mp3 music legally. Even if I were to try and sell my music on the internet the next minute it would be on multiple music sites for free. Please if have any solutions please let me know."
I told Ernie that I would eventually respond to his concerns, but that it was a subject that could not be covered quickly or easily. So, here goes (at least in part):
If you think that the big record labels will win the war over downloads, you must also believe that the U.S. lead 'War on Drugs' will soon rid the world of narcotics. The reality is that, no matter how hard they try to prevent it, anything that can be played can be recorded and no agency, public or private, has anywhere near the manpower or technology required to monitor more than a small fraction of internet traffic.
The War on Drugs anology is actually fairly appropriate to this situation. If the big record labels (and other big media) continue on their present course the result will look alot like the results of the drug war: Tens of thousands of otherwise law abiding people, people who would otherwise be fans, will be sued for ammounts they cannot possibly afford, some may even go to jail. In any event lives will be ruined and they will probably not be quite the fans they might have been. This is not to say that people who copy and CDs and DVDs and sell them should not be prosecuted - but those people represent a very small percentage of the people who download music.
However, as artists like the Barnaked Ladies, Broken Social Scene, Sam Roberts, Sloan, Billy Talent, Sarah McLachlan and others have figured out, this is not bad news for artists, or at least for most artists. Repeated studies in Canada, as well as the U.S. and U.K. have all shown that the people who download the most music, also buy the most music. Thait is not to say that they buy everything that they download (any more than you buy everything you hear on the radio) but these are the true music lovers. They download music, they seek out new music to listen to, they buy CDs, go to shows, buy t-shirts, and perhaps most importantly they tell their friends what they should be listening to. These are the people you want to impress, not the people you want to sue.
What the internet means for recording artists (and other artists) is not that 'people steal your music' it means that music lovers around the world get to hear your music and you get a chance to make fans out of them. It levels the playing field to an extent, you may not have a big marketing budget but if you're just starting out, recording your music at home in Sudbury, Ontario you have the opportunity to court fans in every country on the planet.
Now that music lovers get to listen to music from everywhere the days of multi-billionaire pop stars are likely over. But it will very likely mean that more musicians than ever before can quit their day jobs and make a respectible living making music. If you are in muisc because you love making music and would like to make a living at it (and you're any good) this is good news for you and others like you. Set your music free, let people download it, let them share it with their friends. In fact you should encourage them to. Think of it as playing on a street corner with the entire planet (all 6.5 billion people) passing by. If one person in ten thousand tosses you a loonie once a year that's $650,000. The trick is to get as many people as possible to stop and listen. If, on the other hand, you got into music to make tens of millions of dollars, ride around in limousines, develop a heroin addiction and occasionally trash a hotel room - then you'd better think of something else. I hear professional sports pays pretty well.
Note: If you are in a medium other than music the same basic rules apply. If you are in a business (feature film for example) Where $650,000 isn't enough, then you just have to do better than one in ten thousand.
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