I would suggest to you that, like so many other policies in our society, it is up to us individually to put pressure on our governments and private corporations to act ethically and fairly when it comes to artists rights.
Oh really? Were you fighting Apple when they were offering 160 Gb iPod that obviously no one could entirely buy the music for? You should have gone apeshit on Western Digital, in the name of artists. I’m serious.
75,000 albums released in 2010 only 2,000 sold more than 5,000 copies. Only 1,000 sold more than 10,000 copies.
I would stop at the first number. 75 motherfucking thousands in ONE year. And you want them all to make money? Do you realize how it’s like, unrealistic? It’s not food, it’s not an amazing tool like a computer (that you can use for other things than downloading music, you know?) and you have music everywhere around, how can you almost demand that these albums make money. It’s ridiculous.
The accepted norm for hundreds of years of western civilization is the artist exclusively has the right to exploit and control his/her work for a period of time.
You dreamin’. Artists didn’t own shit up to very recently -thanks digital freedom- and that’s why it usually ended up badly, especially with bands. Don’t you watch Unsung or Behind the Music?
And journalists applaud and everybody follows.
Now while something like Spotify may be a solution for how to compensate artists fairly in the future, it is not a fair system now.
Neither was iTunes! And yet, you all embraced that pathetic pile of shit so that you can sleep at night for not going on the internet, “stealing” even though you still “steal”.
Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold, a huge amount considering how little they have to do. Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8 to 14 cents per song, depending on their contract. Many of them will never even see this paltry share because they have to pay for producers and recording costs, both of which can be enormous. Until the musician "recoups" these costs, when you buy an iTunes song, the label gives them nothing. Despite huge new efficiencies created by internet distribution –no CDs to make, no distributors to store and ship them, no CD stores to build and run– artists receive the same pathetic cut. That is the disaster of iTunes. Instead of using this new medium to empower musicians and their fans, it helps the record industry cartel perpetuate the exploitation.
This is from the still very informative unofficial iTunes page.
On the other side they are very happy to sell a bunch of iWhatever, music is just a way to attract you (like apps and games). Also, Spotify: “24,000 people have listened to the Dear Esther soundtrack on Spotify. My revenue for this: 93 euros. Hmm.”. It’s the same disaster as iTunes, same cartels controlling rates (so that even independent artists get fucked too) except that you stream instead of downloading which technically is the exact fucking same, same terrible hype and same terrible greed.
I didn’t hear you guys complain to Apple. You swam in their kool-aid, happy. So when I hear artists complain about how Spotify is unfair I really want to say STFU quite a bit. Join good alternatives. Bandcamp is the star at the moment. Sell directly, it’s still better.
On nearly every count your generation is much more ethical and fair than my generation. Except for one thing. Artist rights.
Untrue. It’s more like a large majority of artists still believe in the old system from your generation and get fucked by it through Spotify and what not. Artists today have not only rights but also power they never had before and they are respected as long as they don’t play the game like dicks.
I saw some artists who don’t sell but ONE of their albums on the internet, the rest being ONLY available on P2P. It is stupid (but maybe it’s a legal problem with labels? Sorry guys). I saw artists selling their CDs on their websites but sending you the wrong one that you already have without even bothering to tell you etc. I think artists are bad -if not retarded sometimes- with technology and distribution but it has nothing to do with gen X or gen Y not wanting to spend some bucks. It’s totally untrue. I’m not proud but I paid a CD album more than 50 bucks on Amazon because I loved the shitty mp3s I had so much. It was unavailable anywhere but thanks to Japan, I had a perfect CD. When you genuinely love, you spend. It will happen, with no effort.
I make music, 70+ tracks on the internet entirely made by myself, some for free some streaming only, some for download some are asking a minimum price of $1. I just try to make good stuff that will still be good in ten years or more and put my heart in it. I don’t tour, I know a thing or two about musician’s depression and I still don’t think Emily is wrong.
Actually I think her generation will get tired from hardware ownership and visual dictatorship and will blossom with sound, music and silence. Because cycles, son.