Pirates

[DSOP]

Dear friends, it has been quite some time since my last words in print, but I feel the need to write just a few words about the musical world in its business sense, and the havoc created by those well meaning people known as internet ‘pirates’, that is the people who in their uncontrollable desire to make music in general, and CD’s in particular, available free to the global public. When asked about their activities, they frequently speak about their ‘noble’ aims to make music accessible to all and sundry, for free naturally, although not all of them are ‘noble’: to the contrary, they charge people and of course, never pay the artist or the intellectual royalties which are due to the song writers.

When we speak about the act of theft, which is what in reality it is, this no longer seems to bother anyone who is not affected economically by the actions of these people. The questions of ethics and the morality of theft, have lost their fundamental meaning to many people when it comes to ‘finding stuff on the internet’.

I however, would like to put this new view of values in the context of killing and murder.

Naturally enough, people who kill other people are still considered a menace to society, and either they will be imprisoned or executed depending on which country or which state in which country you live in.

But what about the killing of an industry? The record store is dead. Effectively dead from the deadly actions of the pirates. I grew up in record stores, they were one of the joys of my early life. What about the murder of the music industry? It’s clear to me that if the ‘pirates’ know about their fatal blows they have given to the music industry, they couldn’t care less. Do they realize the havoc and damage they have wreaked upon musicians, their lives and families, and the industry? Do they care? I think not.

Having spent the greater part of my life working with record companies, I am fully aware of their innate arrogance, and above all, their insatiable greed. Since the vinyl LP, they have systematically overcharged everyone for recordings. In a certain sense, they share the responsibility in the sorry state of affairs that the music industry now finds itself in. Even though technology has made home recording a reality, and has played a role in the demise of the recording studio, the knock-on effect of pitiful amounts of record sales can be traced directly to the continuing downloading, mainly free, of CD’s. How many recording studios have closed their doors forever? World-wide the number is spectacular.

What to do? What I fail to understand is the attitude of the respective governments of the ‘west’. Do these governments realize how much tax revenues they have lost, and lose daily from the actions of these ‘people’? We know that there are ‘pirates’ operating out of quite a few eastern bloc countries, Romania, Bulgaria, the Russian Federation to name just a few, where control from our point of view is out of the question. There are unfortunately, ‘pirates’ operating in many countries in Europe and the USA. What could be done here in the ‘civilized’ west, is that the governments take on the telecom companies. If they are found to be hosting ‘pirates’, they need to be sanctioned. The telecom companies know all too well who is doing what, and if they find themselves hit with large fines, for example, they will terminate the ‘pirates’ very quickly.

Perhaps I’m just naive, but having suffered for many years at the hands of ‘pirates’ who act with impunity, and I’ve seen the damage they have brought upon many people, not just musicians. I speak with authority. To be followed…

http://www.johnmclaughlin.com/news/2011 ... /#more-612

[dccollins]

I however, would like to put this new view of values in the context of killing and murder.

Naturally enough, people who kill other people are still considered a menace to society, and either they will be imprisoned or executed depending on which country or which state in which country you live in.

But what about the killing of an industry? The record store is dead. [snip] What about the murder of the music industry?

http://www.johnmclaughlin.com/news/2011 ... /#more-612

With all due respect to DSOP and the great John McLaughlin, comparing losing someone'e livelihood to being killed is ridiculous. Also, it's my opinion that record stores and the music industry is dead because of their inability to embrace changes in technology and the methods of distributing their product.

[amoergosum]

Here in Germany they still charge around 18 Euros for a newly released cd....way too much in my opinion.
Why have they never lowered the prices to such an extend that people wouldn't even consider downloading albums illegally?
...a missed opportunity.

[janne jansson]

I like what he wrote.
I`ve had alot of discussions with my drumstudents about this...
They think i am from outer space when i explain that they really are stealing..
But things changed about a year ago..
Now all my students /everybody have Spotify and enjoy music leagally here in Sweden.

[Stone]

Don't remember if I got the following link from HOD but take a look at these figures.
I don't think that spidify really works for an artist.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... n_GB#gid=0

The current state of the music business is really bad. I don't see it getting better.

[markie04drum]

I wonder how many pages this thread will go to.

I went and saw John McLaughlin in Atlanta with Chick Corea and maybe I am wrong, but, I would bet he made more $ from my ticket, than he did from me buying both Inner Mounting Flame and Birds Of Fire years back. And honestly I feel the record companies (NOT the artist) have been the real pirates. B.S. contracts robbing artists, knowing they were screwing them. I do not feel a bit bad for the industry. I accept the change.

Well here is rebuttal from Janek Gwizdala. I gotta say I mostly agree.

http://janekgwizdala.com/home/articles/ ... re-coming/

All of this said, I am still going to buy music, go to as many shows as I can, because I love music. Not because I give a rat's a#% about filling another record execs bank account.

Man I have a feeling this one is going to get ugly :-/

[circh bustom]

I was kind of taken aback by the Janek comment that an album is a "business card". Its that type of thinking that has turned away a large demographic from purchasing full records/albums. That might work for Neil Young or Phish, but not all bands/musicians use their albums as springboards for live performances. Sometimes an album is a sculpted piece of work, a la U2, or Beck and such. If the product that is being put out is promoted by the artist as something that isnt that important, or didnt have alot of thought put into, how can the public be expected to respect the product? Not everyone is a musician that would or could appreciate the work-in-progress type of album. What about crafting songs? Songs that people want to sing? Or dance to? I have no problem whatsoever throwin down good money for a full album, although im holdin out for Blu-Ray Audio but thats a different story. But I also buy individual songs even though I worked at a retail private music store for years and was against that type of purchase for a long time, and i "find" certain music online. Mostly out of print/unavailable stuff, but not always.

[DeeP_FRieD]

I do not agree with pirating music, especially stuff that isn't being sold by the million, but there's so much conjecture in arguments against it with regards to profit loss and it's effects on the industry.
It's a no brainer that it isn't helping record sales, but the big problem is:

Just because someone downloads a CD doesn't mean they would buy it.

There's no way to track the actual effects of piracy because you cannot derive an absolute opposite behavior. Such is why I believe punishing people brutally for it is a big mistake and stands on shaking legal grounds when it comes to massive fines.

There are so many other factors responsible for the big dogs in the record industry having issues.
To name a few:
Crap Music
Pandering to demographics (instead of making good music)
Overpricing

Then you have indy labels, small pro and home studios, and incredible electronic production ability, which effect a lot of the people working in the big studios.
How many people are going to hire a string section for their pop/rock record when they can poop out adequate sounds out of a reason refill?

Simply put, although pirating does have an effect on the deflation of the music business, I think it's biggest problem is that it's unsustainable in this recession.
How many places can have millions in gear and charge 1k an hour and expect to survive when technology is bringing that and low cost recording closer and closer together. Yeah, tracking on an SSL to tape sounds sweet, I've done it, but financially, it might be more worth it to go another less expensive route.

Basically when you aim your business at making Platinum records, it will take Platinum records to support it.

One thing I can say the internet has done to hurt them, is that it took their strangle hold off distribution. Now you can go around and dig up the stuff you want to listen to. Before it was, radio, TV, record stores, and live shows. This right here will put a major kink in your business.

This is just another example of technology advancing far beyond the scope of the law and business theory.

[gwizmon]

I was kind of taken aback by the Janek comment that an album is a "business card". Its that type of thinking that has turned away a large demographic from purchasing full records/albums. That might work for Neil Young or Phish, but not all bands/musicians use their albums as springboards for live performances. Sometimes an album is a sculpted piece of work, a la U2, or Beck and such. If the product that is being put out is promoted by the artist as something that isnt that important, or didnt have alot of thought put into, how can the public be expected to respect the product? Not everyone is a musician that would or could appreciate the work-in-progress type of album. What about crafting songs? Songs that people want to sing? Or dance to? I have no problem whatsoever throwin down good money for a full album, although im holdin out for Blu-Ray Audio but thats a different story. But I also buy individual songs even though I worked at a retail private music store for years and was against that type of purchase for a long time, and i "find" certain music online. Mostly out of print/unavailable stuff, but not always.

Definitely wasn't saying that making an album doesn't mean anything, or isn't a work of art. Every record I make has a lot of thought, time, and emotion poured into for days, weeks, and sometimes months. And I don't consider a business card to be unimportant. If that's your first point of reference with someone you have never met and they see it to be well presented with a good representation of what you do contained within the design, then I think that's huge. Why shouldn't an album be like this?


What I'm saying is that whether you love the music or not, the industry has changed and value has shifted elsewhere. From records to CD's, from CD's to the 'Pirates", from the pirates to the digital download medium. And now there is value coming back to touring and merchandise, and artists would be better off giving their music away (and in the process bypassing the need to stress out about piracy) or at least letting it go for a very low price point digitally and letting their fans decide how much they wanted to pay for it. Just like Radiohead did with Rainbows, and just how so many indie artists continue to do very successfully. It's good promotion. But what you need is something to promote. Something that can't be pirated. Something that involves human connection. A live show. When you have that, and a faithful fan base that trusts you, the world is your oyster. Interesting and unique merch, captivating live show, extensive mailing list, blog, cool website, awareness of social media. If you had all of those things you'd soon have forgotten about piracy because you would have become a self pirate yourself in a sense and used it to your advantage to promote your products and promote your brand.

All you need to do is watch a few free videos online by Brendon Burchard, Frank Kern, or any of the other dozens of online marketing geniuses, and you'll realize John Mclaughlins rant about piracy can be turned into a super positive experience in terms of looking at the industry from a different angle.

I personally collect music. over 10,000 albums that I've purchase over the course of more than 15 years. I listen to Vinyl, and have done since I was a kid. I appreciate artwork, and the feeling of a beautiful looking product in my hands or on the shelf to look at. But do I still call a switchboard to place a phone call for old times sake? Do I only attend opera for live entertainment because the motion picture is so hideous and modern? do I drive a horse drawn carriage because the automobile is rich in technology?

of course I freakin don't, none of us do. We embrace our time, we accept technology, and the clever ones use it to the most of their advantage to communicate with the rest of the world and learn what they can while they're around.

Janek

[DSOP]

1. Music isn't as important to the current generation as it was to the previous generations.
2. Most people don't listen to music with a concern for high fidelity audio.
3. There is more music available now than ever before, and as a result, there is more bad music available than ever before. This makes it harder and harder to sift through the chaff to find the gems.
4. More and more "musicians" (term used loosely to include owners of musical instruments and recording equipment, with or without any talent) have the power to create and distribute their music, with no "gatekeeper" (formerly A&R or publishing companies) preventing them. Many of these "musicians" spend more time on promotion and social media than they do on learning and honing their craft (be it playing or songwriting or producing). This is by necessity, since no one will buy your music or attend your performance unless you SCREAM ABOUT IT.
5. Unless you are a proven draw, you won't be able to book many shows. Promoters don't care what you sound like, only how many tickets you can sell or seats you can fill.
6. There will be less incentive for potentially gifted or talented musicians to devote themselves to their art if there is no way (or it is too difficult) to support themselves.

This will just result in the slow demise of music, with the bar being lowered year after year. Slow enough to be almost imperceptible, but undeniable. Nostalgia seems to be rampant.

The music I love is not something that has a large audience, and it grows smaller all the time. It's sad, but I've accepted it. And it gets more and more expensive to see a live performance. John Scofield's show next month will cost at least $30 for a ticket, plus a few bucks for a "service charge" (?), and then two drinks (min) and parking. You're looking at over $100 for two people. The first concert I ever attended was Rush, and it cost me $11. I think I paid $17 to see Van Halen.

I personally still buy several CDs (and a few digital downloads) every month. At least half of it is stuff that was originally released over 10 years ago, or was originally performed over 20 years ago. Some recent releases I love are Paula Cole's latest, and Phil Gould's recent release.

There is no reason for a CD with an hour's worth of music to cost over $9. I think a more reasonable cost is closer to $6, with singles no more than 75 cents. At that point, you're getting close to the cost of a cup of coffee.