Grant Lawrence had an interesting post yesterday from Transmission "Vancouver's massive international music industry event. Keyword: industry." Quoth Grant:
Just a few notes from this morning's call-to-arms:
:: more people than ever are listening and discovering new music, yet no one is making any money
:: digitial media has a perceived value of zero
:: it takes way too long to record and manufacture an album and get it to the music fan
:: in the UK in 2006, the average person bought just TWO CDs the entire year
:: why, as an entrepreneur, would ANYONE make a CD, knowing that there is no one left to buy them?
:: the suggested solution is to add a couple of bucks to everybody's internet bill every month, giving the money back to the music industry
Alot of the industry's statistics are highly debatable, I'll get to that in a minute. The history of the 'music industry' is a history of predicted apocalypse. Fans and artists keep watching for the apocalypse, hoping they are right but so far, no dice.
Although I cannot find the reference at the moment I remember reading (and do not doubt) that when the Victrola was invented there were those who thought that it would be the end of the 'music industry' because people would stop coming to see live music if they could listen at home.
As for the recorded music industry, it (along with most other media) was born out of piracy nevertheless, after a few small battles with radio, and new copyright legislation won in the 1970s to battle 'vinyl bootlegging' the music industry originally predicted it's demise over the Sony Walkman and the scourge of home taping. In 1987 they effectively managed to kill DAT (at least for consumers) and then went back to predicting their own demise in 1990 when the mp3 audio file was first introduced. 17 years later we're still waiting for that eminent demise but according to industry Canada profits are strong and more music is being produced than ever.
So I suppose my first question in response to the sky falling is: when we say "add a couple of bucks to everybody's internet bill every month, giving the money back to the music industry" exactly who are we talking about. I mean, let's say the Canadian auto industry was in trouble and they wanted a new gas tax to help them. Who would actually get the money? Unemployed auto workers? Executives? Shareholders?
In principle I have no problem with adding a few dollars to my internet bill to pay artists but I don't like the idea of adding a couple dollars to pay record industry executives who can't seem to adapt to the new market or to subsidize the production and marketing of more mediocre pop that's not selling because no one likes it.
Oh, and one more note, every independent study on P2P file sharing indicates that it either has no effect at all or that it is good for the industry. The only ones that claim otherwise are studies done by the recording industry itself.
Also quoth Grant:
Amazingly, what seems to be the key to survival is independence. Small companies, a hands-on artist understanding of the business side of music, and in part, yes... CD sales. The folks that represent bands like Malajube, Broken Social Scene, the New Pornographers, and the Acorn are all at this event and they seem to be a lot less gloomy than the major players attempting to re-invent "old world models".
I'll try to keep this short because I've written at some length about the need, going foward, for communication if you are going to be successful in any media and this applies to music as well. (This may be one of the shortcomings of Arts and Crafts as a label). I've also written quite a bit about the new opportunities for recording artists.
I've proposed a plan that would provide significant tax breaks for artists income from their art and would subsidize the arts by making a certain amount of 'arts and culture' spending tax deductible. This would be an ideal subsidy because it would allow consumers to decide specifically and exactly who and what they wanted to subsidize and then would allow artists to keep most of what they made.
However it takes shape I believe that we're heading for a world where there are fewer multi-millionaire musicians smashing up hotel rooms, fewer vacuous questionably talented pop stars making headlines and a whole lot more people making a living from music. They won't likely get rich from it, but more people will be able to quit their day jobs and be full time musicians. Almost everyone, really, will be an 'independent' or will be a part of small collectives and artist run collectives. The term 'selling out' will vanish because, well, you can't sell out if no one is buying.
If the 'Music Industry' can't find a place for themselves in this new world then they'll have to do something else. People will only put up with so many subsidies and all the law suits in the world won't turn back the clock.
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