With extreme caution to avoid crossing the forum line into politics, I will tread very lightly here.

Jake - your joys and good fortune did not come from living in a place where others decide what is yours to be given away against your will. Completely fine for you to give your things away by choice. Not fine for anyone else to force Victor (in this case) to give his possessions/creations away against his will.

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

I'm on Yep Roc's mailing list. In a recent newsletter, they offered two new and exclusive digital-only Robyn Hitchcock songs and a choice of download methods. You can download high quality mp3s for free, or you can pay for the CD quality FLAC files. When faced with a similar option with one of your favorite artists, which would you do?

Incidentally, Yep Roc also gives free downloads when you buy a CD, not only of that same artist but of other artists as well.

Ted James
Deep Eddy Records http://www.deepeddy.net
The Nematoads http://www.nematoads.com

Also, I would never suggest piracy as a full-fledged business model. The amount of people pirating is minute in comparison to the rest of the population. And then the people who are elite file sharers and do so just for the sake of pirating, that is a very small amount.

To illegally download, you really need to know what you are doing these days. There is no more Napster or Kazaa, easily found, easy to use, focuses on music. You have usenet, but that is more complex, more risky, more seedy. And torrents, but finding anything buy mainstream music on torrents isn't exact a winning proposition. You need seeds for that.

Youtube is the problem of the future. The artist can just issue a takedown though, which works for smaller bands. Kids/teens/young adults consume their music on youtube, and Pandora to some degree. Those are all pirated in my opinion. Complete fine to check something out, not okay to keep going back and listening to it,unless the band put it up.

Fady, you got nowhere near going into politics! So no worries!

I consider it 'stealing' if you download/youtube and decide you like it and listen to it several time without even considering buying the record. Even if you go out to see the band live and buy merch, then that is not the worst thing ever.

Highly recommended reading:

http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/letter-to-emily-white-at-npr-all-songs-considered/

See...we keep ending up at the same place (no solution).

I think acceptence makes it easier to move forward leaving behind all the negativity and angst.
If it were an easy matter of passing a law that would solve the problem I'd be 100% behind it, but again the genie is out of the bottle, you're never going to put him back.

Produce CDs and continue to sell them I say, just understand what happens or can happen with digital media. I think you can still make a few $$$ from CD & MP3 sales I just think one needs to think of other revenue streams as well. Kicking and screaming about something you can't control is futile and distracting at best.

As a few other have stated "file sharing" and the like has done a lot to promote various forms of music that the big labels just won't touch.

METEOR IV on reverbnation

Johnny, the answer articles aren't on the same page, but can easily be researched. One was by a member of The Dismemberment Plan, which was a prominant indi band in the late 90's/early 2000's. He tried to equate dubbing cassettes and recording off the radio from my generation in the 90's to being the same as what is happening today. He had a partially valid point, accept for the fact that there was still an effort required that prevented this from being such a mass scale. Any and all incentive for the average music listener to actually purchase music has completely been destroyed.

This is such a devisive subject. I still believe that the 'cat is out of the bag' reality is the strongest. Business models have to change with the environment of the world. What the next answer is to making music once again a financial viable option is beyond me though.

THE KBK ... This is the last known signal. We offer Sanctuary.

www.thekbk.com
http://www.deepeddy.net/artists/thekbk/
www.reverbnation.com/thekbk
www.facebook.com/thekbkal

I often hate to admit it, but most bands are, and have been for a long time, in the apparel business. We freely admit that our T-Shirt sales are our biggest financial resource.

As far as recorded media goes, we sell some disks, there is no doubt. But, for the most part our recordings are commercials to get people out to our live shows.

THE KBK ... This is the last known signal. We offer Sanctuary.

www.thekbk.com
http://www.deepeddy.net/artists/thekbk/
www.reverbnation.com/thekbk
www.facebook.com/thekbkal

Onslow_Beach wrote:

Las_Barracudas, you are contradicting yourself. You lead in saying "same place, no solution" then go right on to saying the artists need to change the game.

Changing the game is the solution. I happen to agree with that being a pretty viable one - especially for this genre.

Making an easy, direct, human & personal alternative to faceless, unauthorized, and free/stolen is also part of the solution.

Not really...I was referrencing the fact that there is no real solution for stopping file sharing or the ripping & burning of CDs (which there isn't).

Beyond that I'm just encouraging folks to stop fighting a losing battle and to diversify. That's not really solution to pirating, that's more like a logical adjustment to your band's potential revenue earning dynamic.

METEOR IV on reverbnation

BayState wrote:

Onslow_Beach wrote:

Changing the game is the solution. I happen to agree with that being a pretty viable one - especially for this genre.

As a home player/hobbyist I loved this idea from your link

"Pull a Ventures move; bundle "Learn to Play With" - this genre is one of a select few that I think would actually be able to pull this off (again!) - just think what % of the core listener base plays or tries to play this music - it's a massive asset to this market."

As someone who pretty much only buys digital these days I would definitely buy physical media if it included sheet music or tab for even a few of the songs. Playing by ear is something I struggle with. That added value would be the sort of incentive that would get me to buy a CD or LP.

I like digital for the convenience and the fact that it is cheaper. I buy all my music through emusic.com. Surf is pretty much $5.99 for a full disc or .49 a track. Why aren't more artists or labels offering their own downloads for sale? I would rather pay $5.99 directly to Double Crown, Deep Eddy, or the band than to emusic. Is it simply for fear of making digital copies available?

I often wonder this myself?

METEOR IV on reverbnation