This is in response to a blog post by Dillinger Escape Plan lead singer Greg Puciato, posted on his blog a while back.
I’ve been wanting and debating how to respond to this for a while, because I have consumed music obsessively for years. I am a music addict. I understand the trouble illegal downloading causes over the internet, however I am strongly opposed to the Draconian-Orwellian potential that ISPs monitoring and controlling internet traffic of specific users has on personal privacy and society as a whole, but that’s a whole other topic all together. I’m a big fan of music and I don’t want to hurt the business that enables its creation. I’ve made music for years as well and respect anyone out there busting their asses trying to make an impact in this hyper-competitive landscape we currently live in.
That being said, I’m always curious to check out new artists. This is something that if I was my age, 15-20 years ago, I never ever would have even come close to being exposed to the plethora of music I’ve been privileged enough to hear today. And that can be contributed 100% to illegal downloading.
Most of my listening is done in the car or at work. If I read about or get a recommendation for an album or band, I really want to check them out as soon as I can, analyze them, learn their history, whatever, and if warranted spread the word and make a purchase. Sometimes I can’t get on the internet to stream, but in general, it’s just much more convenient to have everything on demand in my iTunes or on my iPod.
I purchase music. I have an extensive CD collection also that I’ve built up over the years, which dates me a little, I go to tons of shows all the time, and buy t-shirts and albums at most of them as well. The trouble is for the past 5 years or so I’ve gotten consumed with listening to MP3′s because of their convenience and the fact that I no longer have an adequate home stereo like my parents did when I was a kid. However until recently, I always bought albums by my favourite bands on CD because I made a point to own that stuff that was my favourite and appreciate the presentation.
After a while, I started thinking. Why do I keep buying CD’s? They just sit in my CD towers collecting dust, until I get the off-chance to go to someone’s place who has a decent stereo and play them. (which is super rare) So I started buying albums on iTunes. It was ok at first because it was relatively instant gratification of the purchase with the download speeds and the quality was good. I had the music right there, but then I started to consider the price. I was paying nearly the same price for half of the presentation, and technically less quality. (Because I normally download MP3s at 320kbps vs. iTunes M4A at 256kbps, barely noticeable I know, but still.) I also missed the physical artwork piece. (not to mention the fidelity nuances that a CD provides.) FLAC and FLAC-like formats don’t seem practical to me right now, because of limited file storage space and incompatibility with most portable music players.
So now I have an opportunity, I can probably afford to buy my own home stereo with an LP and CD player. I can purchase CD’s and LP’s and actually use them! (What a concept!) As always, I will continue to go to shows, buy MP3s, listen to my iPod in the car, or at work, or running of whatever, and when I’m at home I can take advantage of my stereo and actually appreciate the albums I really love.
A strong area of contention for me, is the prices of these 3 formats; Digital (MP3/M4A/FLAC/AAC etc.), CD, and LP. We’re looking at $10-12 Digital, $10-20 CD, and $20-30+ for LP. This in my opinion is inflated on all three, and the demand has gone down for the latter two. Kids like I was, struggling to leave home and be independent, starting new careers, or working shitty jobs to get by, can’t afford these prices regularly. Especially for artists they’ve never heard of, or those they’re curious about but may not enjoy. I shouldn’t have been paying them, but I did anyways because I loved it, and as I said before, I’m an addict. I should note that certain artists I’ve actually grown to love over time, from listening again and again every once in a while, I eventually went out and purchased their products or gone to see them live.
Another important point of discussion; Musicians, producers, and engineers truly deserve to make a decent living. This is really difficult to at the moment, to get off the ground and be successful. Not impossible, just difficult. I’ve always thought Artists, Producers and Engineers could be working together at a studio that pays them equally. These to me, seem like obvious partnerships. Networking has to happen where engineers, producers, and musicians make contact and build a working relationship. Every band should be striving to do this, there are people out there that need bands to record, and bands need good recordings. What if studios started acting as record labels in order to reap more benefits from what they produce? Interesting stuff, there’s a lot of potential for new ideas here.
I just recently discovered 825 Records in Brooklyn which is doing just that. Specialized people doing what they do. I understand you don’t necessarily want marketing and business people to intermingle in a record production process, but it’s an interesting idea to couple them under the same financial umbrella. A lot of artists, producers and engineers work as independent contractors, and I know that in every industry, while contracting, you set your own rates and if there isn’t a strong demand you’ll be hard-pressed to make a living.
For Record labels, they need to develop more young artists. There are plenty of eager, aspiring musicians, that with proper tutelage can develop into great artists. Not just Royal Conservatory-type schools, schools for people who want to make modern music. Instead of slumming it forever until they get “lucky”, music schools could have developmental programs streamlined to record labels and studios. Effectively enabling an industry they apparently cater to.
I think people need to pool their resources, and “Illegal” downloading has its benefits and its draw backs. Bands/Artists can be discovered and break out to be profitable by fans discovering them and sharing their music with others, then going out to buy their products. On the other hand, some people will not go the extra mile to see the bands or purchase their products after they download the music for free because they simply don’t care enough. Those people, in my opinion, should not be a target audience. They don’t love music. Market to music lovers, and market to everyone else to create them. I still maintain that if you go to a true music fan’s home, you will see an extensive CD or LP collection, guaranteed.
Give people incentive to buy your product and they will. Not just “smack bang here’s a record and nothing else, enjoy.” Periphery put out T-shirt and album combos, and more enhanced versions, I bought one. Foo Fighters surprised me with some goodies on their latest digital offering. I love buying albums that are coupled with live DVDs and documentaries. A CD with a coupon to buy tickets to the show when they come to your town would be awesome. There are plenty of creative avenues artists and record labels can take to make purchasing their products more attractive.
CDs & LPs however, I agree they are becoming more of a novelty than a necessity. They should be treated as such. If you want to drive digital sales (iTunes, first of all, needs to offer at least 320kbps MP3s, it’s pretty much the unofficial industry standard of listening.) Couple them with some of the goodies I mentioned above, and viola! I don’t know why people don’t do that more often. Also make the digital version readily available, with links on social networks and official websites. I’m constantly surprised with how often this does not happen.
Also, don’t rely on iTunes. I’ve been thinking about this, and I do not want to throw all my eggs in one basket in regards to iTunes with my band’s album that we are currently planning and recording. Why give Apple such a big a cut of your pie? They’ve already cornered a huge market with the iPhone, iPod, iMac, and iTunes. Why do they deserve part of the money for something that they have nothing to do with the manufacturing of? Let them have their piece and you have yours. At the same time, that is still a quick and easy way for fans to purchase music, and a lot of people exclusively do it this way. So I’m not saying don’t use it at all, but don’t use it exclusively. Drive people to your website and make them purchase it directly from you.
I would suggest setting up an online payment system on your own website, with the group reaping 100% profit of those sales. That way you can promote it however you like. You should be directing all of your internet traffic on social networks to your official website anyways, not Facebook or Myspace or iTunes or anywhere else. You can completely customize the experience on your own website and this over-reliance on social media, I think, has reached it’s tipping point. Use it for communication, not your home base.
In closing, I’d like to say that we are entertainers. We create a joyful listening experience that is largely therapeutic for both the creator and the consumer. To punish those for seeking therapy and enjoyment seems backwards. Those that profit illegally should definitely be punished and made an example of, but those who are merely enjoying it for the love of it all should be left as they are.
Thanks for reading,
Jon
