Response to my Last Newsletter Editorial (23rd June issue)

C

Chater-La

New member
I am not sure if some of you are reading my weekly editorial. But I had an interesting private reply to my editorial that I thought I'd share with you and we can discuss. So for those who are not subscribed to the newsletter here is what I wrote:

A few years ago I mentioned in my editorial that I no longer seek to own music out right and that instead I stream. I attributed that to general laziness on my part to download and upload and after a few weeks I tire of that song and that is was constant hassle to update my library. Well, now it is official as CNN reveals that young listeners are opting to stream, not own the music, partly for similar reasons I had: it is just too much work. The article also foreshadows that as hard as it was to convince consumers to buy the music files, now this might be over too. So what do we have left then? Isn’t streaming basically an on-demand radio station you can access anytime and anywhere you have internet access? And the best part is that you get to play DJ on your own customizable portable radio station.

This requires artists and labels to again rethink their whole business model and the way I see it there are two options for the future: one make your money from song royalties or two, forget about this part and concentrate on other sources of revenues (live shows, merchandising etc.). For the prior, it will require streaming services to either be run on a subscription model, or like radio stations, be littered with annoying forced advertising. Or best you can choose to pay per month or be annoyed by ads (certainly a buzz killer at house parties). There are several leading streaming services, which offer various models already (subscription or ads) and some are completely free but limit how much you can stream or implement other gimmicks (performance based). In short there is something for everyone, except for me as I am currently located outside the USA where some of these services do not work due to licensing rights.

Oh well there is always YouTube!

Chater-La
 
Reply by HR member CSP

--------------------------------

Chater-La,

Firstly I really enjoy receiving the weekly edition of the Homerecording publication/forum/etc, but i would like to raise an issue with your last editorial.

I realise that the publication is geared towards the home recordist/amateur musician/etc and that to the most part they are not in the industry to make real money, unlike myself who owns a small independent record company (have done so for more than forty years).

Over the past year or so (and particularly this year) I have witnessed an increasing number of organisations offering either free or very low cost online music, but if this trend continues I do not see how the music industry can survive. I realise that there is the old chess nut that record companies will have to move with the time if they are to survive, they can only do so if they are making some form of profit and by having their music offerred to punters for either no cost or a very low cost they simply will not have the money to spend on recording new artists or new recordings and all that will be left to hear will be product that is of such low/inferior quality that no one will want to listen to it.

To give you an example of what I am saying, we are about to release a recording by a new (basically unknown) artist --- a female singer/songwriter.

Thus far the aritist has cost my record company more than $Aus5000 and we have not undertaken any form of publicity ( possibly another $Aus700), paid any royalty payments to either the artist or the artist as the composer (about $Aus1200), retailer margin (about $Aus1000) and we expect to sell about 500 copies at about $Aus 17.00 each (total Gross profit about $Aus8500)

On the above figures (and with our contract the artist does not have to pay for anything) the total outlay is about $Aus7900, with the result that out gross income will be about $Aus600 out of which we have to pay our operating expenses.

You can see there fore that we will not be making much money and if we can not sell for the full price, we will very soon become unfinancial.

Recently we placed one of our now deleted catalogue CDs with one of the major online music sales companies, who were to pay us $US0.99 per song less their commission with the result that we receive about $Aus0.64 per song out of which we have to pay artist/publisher/etc royalties and our company expenses, resulting in about $Aus0.15 net profit to us.

This online sales company took it upon themselves to distribute the CD's songs to a number of streaming type services for either no cost or a very low cost. One of these organisations operates on the basis of about $US35 per year membership and then the member can download as much music as they like. We recently received a payment of $US0.001 (ie one cent) for one of the songs streamed from their organisation.

With these types of financial return, it is impossible for any record company (big or small) to survive and as such the music industry (ie record companies, recording studios, CD replication companies, CD retailers, record producers, record arrangers, studio equipment manufacturers/suppliers, etc) in my opinion will very soon cease to exist and all that will be left will be a product that is recorded, often in inferior accoustically treated rooms, using generally low end equipment and often by inexperienced persons.

Surely this new trend where punters expect to get their music for free has to change because if it doesn't they will soon start to expect that they will be able to get whatever they want (cars, transport, food, medical, entertainment, basic living items, etc) for nothing.

As the editor of a publication that is involved with the music industry, should you not be promoting the sale for a reasonable price (a price where we can all make a good living) of all music, rather than promoting (either consciously or otherwise) that music should be given away for nothing or virtually nothing. Sure, if a particular artist wants to donate some of the artist's music for free, then let the artist be able to do this, but do not have it as all music should be given away.
 
And my followup reply

...I just want to say that by no means am I trying to promote 'free
music', but citing other business models. Distributors have to get
creative in how to monetize their music listeners, as some streaming cites
have done. Music owners (labels & artists) need to work with such
distributors to get their royalties paid. And if royalties become the main
source of income from the music itself, maybe rates should be raised. Also
I think music makers should look to reduce the costs involved in recording
music so there is less of a debt to be repaid and less pressure to make
money from the music. And focus more on live performance as a way to
generate revenue, this you can not get for free. And while we are on the
subject of free, and maybe I am off topic here, but I see this in my daily
life, the cost of living has risen out of proportion while salaries
remained the same and today we have to work harder and longer to keep up
with everything. I believe our standard of living has declined say since
my parents' generation. As such this puts pressure on everyone to try to
get whatever they can for free or cheaper and quality is less important as
long as it does the job. We have become high-tech low lives...
 
I think it's funny that everyone tries to make money off of music, but no one knows how to. There's too much competition, there's too much really bad music, and it's too easy to get everything for free. It's nice to see that the pipe dream of "making it" is still alive and well, but I can't help but laugh at all these hopefuls that use every avenue possible to advertise themselves, and still get nowhere. It's a different era. I've been gigging for a long time in original material bands. I've never been in a cover band or tribute band. I write, play, and record original music. There's NO money in original music at the local or regional level. The "playing live to get paid" idea is just as silly as thinking you're gonna get paid for recording sales. The power is completely in the hands of bar/club owners, and they don't pay. What are you gonna do? Fight the club owner? It used to be easy to get gigs as there were more venues than bands. Now every talentless hack cheeseball has a band and there are more bands than venues. The dream train left the station sometime in the mid 90's and it aint coming back. My advice from a crusty old jaded veteran of the live original music scene: get a freaking job to pay your bills and just do music for fun.

I think that if you want any chance of making some cash playing music, you're gonna have to be in a lame-assed cover/tribute band or really learn your instrument and become a session player, in which case you're basically just a cover musician for hire. The session player for hire is probably the best option if you don't mind playing lots of styles and cover songs. You'll have to be good.....
 
I mostly agree with what you are saying, though maybe not as harshly. But there are people who pursue making music or playing as a profession and this is their job. There are music school and educators, and great players playing in orchestras. You can't just write off the entire music field and say "forget it" because it takes time to craft your skill, everybody become a programmer and play in concert hall as a hobby.
 
Chater-La said:
I mostly agree with what you are saying, though maybe not as harshly. But there are people who pursue making music or playing as a profession and this is their job. There are music school and educators, and great players playing in orchestras. You can't just write off the entire music field and say "forget it" because it takes time to craft your skill, everybody become a programmer and play in concert hall as a hobby.
Click to expand...

I agree. I mentioned session playing. Orchestras, teaching stuff like that are all valid jobs in music. Learning music or a certain instrument and using that for a career can be worthwhile. But I thought this was about "selling your music". I'm talking about the losing proposition of having anyone interested enough to buy a song. Nevermind a whole album.
 
As an educator i am normally left with the task of "shattering illusions" very early on on our various music courses. however, my point to my students is this; making a fortune out of music is nigh on impossible, making a living out of music isn't. there are so many different areas of the music industry and within that are so many different job opportunities. however, more than ever, to make a living out of music you need to become a jack of all trades to some extent. for example, if you're a guitarist who wants to make a living from music then you can't just have your awesome band that plays just original music, you may also need to be in a covers band, teach some guitar, do some session work etc. the same goes with those on the music tech courses; work/volunteer in a studio, get home setup and work with local bands, help with live sound in local venues, teach basic recording/mixing skills etc. the thing with all of this is, unlike the "jack of all trades, master of none", a lot of avenues into making a living from music involve a lot of skill, hard work, and determination (and being a nice person!). One thing always worth noting is that even though we've been in a world wide economic downturn, the music industry as a whole has continued to be a growth sector and is a multi billion dollar a year industry.
 
as a full time (only job ever for 45 years ...... around 15,000 gigs ) I have some insight into the music biz.

First off .... every single old person ( me and most of you) needs to get it out of his head that the music industry is anything like what we grew up with.
When I started there was nothing for kids to do but music or sports .... that was it. One or the other ...... there were no professional X-games or 'puters or video gaming or youtube vids or blogs or etc. etc.

As such .... music had a MUCH more important role in our lives since, if we weren't into sports, that's all there was.
Further .... music was a primary cultural force.
It was about the only way that kids had to express displeasure over the way the world was going and it actually had an impact on what directions society headed. It helped push U.S. society towards getting out of Viet Nam for instance.

Nowadays there's so many different things besides music that kids can get deeply into.
And music is also no longer the social force it was since that role has been taken over by twitter/facebook/internet etc.

The fact is ..... kids, in general, don't care about music in the ways we did and it's not really important as a social conscious anymore either.
So now music is background noise that is there, but not deeply listened to.

Sure ..... there are exceptions ........ I'm sure you're all gonna go .. "Nuh-uh ..... little Jimmy down the street LOVES to listen to music."
Maybe ... or maybe he's just ingratiating himself to you.

Either way ..... we're talking about the masses here and as a full time (7 nights a week ) player near an arts college I get to watch kids listen to music or show me their music all the time.
NONE of them listen to more than a verse of a song.

They'll drop by the house to show me some songs they think I should hear and I just about have to beat them to listen to more than a verse.
They'll want to hear some of my records and ask specifically for certain music which I'll put on ....... after 45 seconds they start chatting away oblivious to the music they just asked for.
They simply don't, in general, have any real interest in actually listening in depth.

Like many, many things in our world ..... culture has moved on and changed.
Music will never again be what it was in our youth ..... the uses of it and reasons to listen to it have changed in ways that aren't conscious decisions ..... they just are.

We can kid ourselves all we want .... "Oh ... the loudness wars destroyed music" ..... "there's nothing good coming out anymore" (there really is a lot of good stuff coming out ) ....... "The sound of MP3's doesn't draw you in " ......... none of these are why.
They are consequences of the change in attitudes towards music, not causes.

Streaming internet usually sounds crappy but, since it's only there for background noise while they do something, it suffices.
Nothing ..... I repeat, nothing will reverse this trend as it goes much deeper than simply not wanting to pay for music.

You don't mind paying for things you care about ...... you don't want to pay for things you don't care about ........ hence, streaming instead of buying.

Personally, I have a huge vinyl collection ( 6000+ ) because in some ways it's still superior to CD and I would never listen to 64kps streaming garbage.
But I'm old and still care very much about music and sound quality ...... the vast majority of kids, however, do not.
 
Justsomeguy said:
A One thing always worth noting is that even though we've been in a world wide economic downturn, the music industry as a whole has continued to be a growth sector .
Click to expand...
no ..... the only media in music that has had increased growth in the last 7 or 8 years has been vinyl and that's mostly because it's such a niche market now that just having a few people 'rediscover' vinyl was a growth spurt.
Otherwise the trend has been only downward ... which is why the majors are freaking out.
 
Alright, so what do you say to record labels? Should they just fold and call it a day? If they are losing money like in any business they should close shop, no? Then what- artists are left to their own devices to home record and do the marketing and everything?

I too, once used to spend hours really listening to music - to all the details and layers... I think there is too much distraction going on today for people to have the quality time necessary to really listen to music or read a book.

I have relative who works in the department of music at a leading university and despite all the talent there, so many students suffer from depression and there are several suicide attempts per year, because how many cello players does an orchestra need? It's a cruel business.
 
Chater-La said:
Alright, so what do you say to record labels? .
Click to expand...

See ya.

For me personally, I've never been interested in being signed, or being a star, or being anything more than just someone that does it because he likes it. The music I listen to and play isn't very marketable anyway. I never felt that my "message" had to be heard. I always thought, and still do, that people will either get it or they won't, and I've never concerned myself with having "fans". To me, outside of potentially making a buttload of cash which is an astronomical longshot, the whole notion of having fans and worrying about your music being liked is a horribly insecure way to think.
 
Chater-La said:
Alright, so what do you say to record labels? Should they just fold and call it a day? If they are losing money like in any business they should close shop, no? Then what- artists are left to their own devices to home record and do the marketing and everything?
.
Click to expand...
I have no advice for record labels ...... but a lot of them have already closed.
I imagine it will go the same way vinyl has ...... MUCH smaller output ...... the bigger ones will desolve to be reborn as name-only echos of what they once were.
Once you get much smaller companies, the much smaller pie of money will be profitable for someone at much smaller levels.

As for the fallout and pain ..... well first, since the only income I have is playing music, I'm intimately familiar with the anguish this causes. But too bad ...... it's the way it's going.
I bet there was depression and suicide amongst buggy whip makers and buggy manufacturers when changes made their products disappear from the marketplace. They disappeared anyway.

Music has been my life to a degree that it reaches with very few people ..... I've lived and breathed music every single waking moment without pause for 48 years and 45 of them have been full time pro.
I never took so much as a week off for raising a family or doing anything else. I'm currently gigging 7 nights a week and will be till I croak.
So I love music and I'm sorry that it has gone into simply being an unimportant commodity.

But I have no suggestions of how to change direction and I think the major labels will cease to exist. Much as pro level studios have been dropping like flies.
It's sad and not something I like but I'm just stating my view on what's happening ...... I have no solution for it since, as I said, I don't believe it can be changed.
 
fat_fleet said:
Since noone's posted a link to this yet, here's David Lowery's response to 21-year-old NPR intern Emily White's editorial in which she admitted to owning over 11,000 songs while only paying for about 15 CDs worth of music in her life.

Letter to Emily White at NPR All Songs Considered. | The Trichordist
Click to expand...
lol ..... I skimmed thru it but there's another problem ...... thinking that any young person is gonna read all that and take anything away from it.

Outta touch with youth ..... a great example. I bet a grand total of no one young was moved by that.
:laughings:
 
For the majority of wannabees out there...it's usually the American Idol kind of dream or the band with the Rock Star dreams...where the main goal is to sell yourself as a performing artists doing your original music.
Those paths are very narrow and difficult to follow toward any major success.

There's nothing wrong with just wanting to be the local rock star, playing in your own band doing your own music or playing in local cover bands and gigging purely for $$$...but I agree that those are NOT the paths to any major success.
Lots of young, new bands still have big dreams when they are in their garages practicing, but the odds of any of them actually making it as performing bands, doing original music...are very small.

If one steps away from just that kind of dream...there are other options, but like most any job market, it's not going to be easy. As an example...I see a lot of people finding audio/composition work doing stuff for video games, but I know lots of musicians who wouldn't be caught dead working on that kind of stuff.
Then you have the audio/composition for corporate type events....but again, many musicians would not want to do that.
There are also audio/composition opportunities in the film/video worlds...but they too won't appeal to everyone.
Finally, you can simply be a behind the scenes songwriter (which can also take a bit of work to break into)...but that too requires that you shed your youthful ideas of being the next Rock Star and simply focus on writing songs that could easily sell rather than just writing/performing songs to amuse yourself and your friends.
Noting wrong with staying local and doing your own thing...it just rarely pans out into anything more.

The Internet and digital tools make it much easier for lots of people to fall into the "Rock Star" trap by thinking that a few home-brewed tracks and an account on You Tube is all that it takes...which is why there are so many posting their music online...but the percent of those who make it is even smaller than it ever was. There's just too much stuff out there for anyone to "discover" you.

I think the only thing one can do is be very diverse and open to any/all opportunities in the audio/music biz and market themselves very actively 100% of the time....then they might have a small chance. Otherwise, bedroom rock starts or local bands rarely break out.

In my own situation...while I enjoy writing and going through the entire recording process as would anyone cutting an album...my only goal is to try and sell some songs. That's about the only thing I know that there is still an opportunity for me to do. I'm sure if I broke off and started writing music for picture/games/etc...it would be even a little more opportunity, but that stuff doesn't interest me, so I'm just going to keep working on the next Rock/Pop/Ballad that could possibly interest some major performer to maybe record...but I have no misconcepetions...I still have a day job that covers my audio/music pleasures. :)

One thing I heard somewhere from someone a long time ago...and that's to never give up the dream. If you do, then you wake up one day asking yourslef WTF are you even doing this for? That's not to say that having dreams means you should be living in some fantasy world...but just that you need to have them to fuel the motivation.
 
If record companies are to survive, and I personally don't give a shit if they do or not, they need to study the p0rn industry. Everyone knows that the internet is probably 75% p0rn. All kinds of weird, freaky, straight, gay, whatever kind of p0rn. And it's easy to get for absolutely free. All the p0rn you can shake your stick at. The pay-for-p0rn industry is still thriving though. P0rn production companies churn out DVD's buy the assload - no pun intended. And their production value and budgets are better than ever. How do they do it ?I have no idea, but they do. Pay-for-p0rn is surviving and profitable. The record industry should take notes.
 
I play music for it's own sake.
I don't give a crap about 'making it' and never have.
I would compare myself to a painter who's driven to paint and as soon as he finishes one, tosses it into a corner , not caring if anyone else sees it, and starts the next one.

I'm driven to play .... for it's own sake. That's why I play just as hard at a really really crappy gig with only the bartender there as I do at a nice big gig with 5000 people there.
Because I'm playing for the sake of playing music ..... it's the doing of it that I'm into. That's also why I don't care that much about recording ..... because it's the act of playing, the actual moment when the notes come out that interests me. Reaching a high skill level on my axes has always been my focus.
Yes, I'm lucky enough to make a living at it but that's not why I do it.
 
Lt. Bob said:
I play music for it's own sake.
I don't give a crap about 'making it' and never have.
I would compare myself to a painter who's driven to paint and as soon as he finishes one, tosses it into a corner , not caring if anyone else sees it, and starts the next one.

I'm driven to play .... for it's own sake. That's why I play just as hard at a really really crappy gig with only the bartender there as I do at a nice big gig with 5000 people there.
Because I'm playing for the sake of playing music ..... it's the doing of it that I'm into. That's also why I don't care that much about recording ..... because it's the act of playing, the actual moment when the notes come out that interests me. Reaching a high skill level on my axes has always been my focus.
Yes, I'm lucky enough to make a living at it but that's not why I do it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I can dig that. I'm the same way. I just like playing. I don't give a shit who likes it or not.
 
Lt. Bob said:
That's also why I don't care that much about recording ..... because it's the act of playing, the actual moment when the notes come out that interests me.
Click to expand...

Yeah...usually when I am recording, my favorite part is the tracking stage...which is when I am actually playing.

That said, I really do love the whole studio environment...the production process. I often regret that in my younger days when I was still living the "Rock Star" dream and we were doing band gigs and all that...I wish I had instead hooked up with some studio as an apprentice, and just worked up from there to a full-time commercial studio gig.

I always enjoyed playing out too, don't get me wrong, but I'll be honest, it was a grind, and then you always had to deal with the various band dramas, etc...though in my younger days, it was still a lot of fun! :)
I keep thinking about getting into another band gig...but every time I get close, I realize how much more I enjoy the comfort of my own studio and just working on another recording project fro my own enjoyment.

Th way you gig out all the time...it must take a lot of effort/motivation. Not an easy thing to always be on the road like that.
 
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