Not exclusively surf, but this applies to nearly all working musicians. An interesting discussion of music pirates, and illegal downloading by guitarist "Mahavishnu " John McLaughlin, on his website....

http://www.johnmclaughlin.com/news/2011/09/21/pirates/#more-612

Bob

Bob

Piracy didn't kill the music industry. The younger generation doesn't pirate music, they don't know how, same goes with older generations. Piracy is a select group, and it happened widespread in the day of the cassette tape. It was easier to duplicate a cassette than to rip a CD.

Who killed the music industry? Now what does one mean by industry? The big labels? Yeah, they are certainly seeing reduced profits. You know who is seeing increased profit and unprecedented exposure? Independent labels. Music still lives on everyone! Fear not. A mid-level independent band can chart in the top 20 and a top independent band can top the charts. It just isn't something that happened 10-20 years ago. Some bands are even going platinum without becoming household names.

The biggest detriment to what I consider "the music industry" is singles. We are in a singles generation. People love to download the latest songs. They will gladly pay $0.99 for them. They don't want to buy entire albums anymore. They like to create mixes instead of immerse themselves in an album. I'm a huge album guy, but you can't blame them. It takes a lot of time to get into some albums and all the songs aren't always hits. This has really damaged record sales and I can't imagine it would do anything but decrease profits.

Record stores... They got too big, too unpersonal. And the big-box stores are probably the biggest culprit. How can a record store survive selling only music you can't get at Walmart or Best Buy?

People. I have downloaded an immense amount of music in my days. Have I paid for all of it? No. Have I spent vast amounts more than I ever would because I was able to download music and discover new genres and new artists? You bet! I don't even want to think how much I've spent on music. If I couldn't have downloaded music to try it out ahead of time... I can't imagine all the stuff I'd be missing out on. I'd probably be buying one album a month at Best Buy and not having the appreciate for music that I do. I know I can't be the only one. And this shows as the aforementioned independent artists doing incredibly well. Even fledgling bands can self-release with a distribution deal. I've seen this in several instances, and top bands are abandoning their labels for independent labels are starting their own labels.

So, no, John McLaughlin. Pirates are not to blame. If anything, more people know of John McLaughlin because of the current digital music culture. And John... try adapting yourself!

How many recording studios have closed their doors forever?

This is because of the huge technological leap of the quality of home studios and portable recording gear. You don't have to step foot in a recording studio to make a top notch recording. He acknowledges this, but doesn't quite grasps how much it has changed. Bands can spend more time recording for less money and with more freedom.

I don't think many people are pirating John McLaughlin albums. I listened to him on Youtube, and I will never ever buy one of his albums. I consider his music unoriginal, unmusical, and soulless.

JakeDobner wrote:

Piracy didn't kill the music industry. The younger
generation doesn't pirate music, they don't know how,
same goes with older generations. Piracy is a select
group, and it happened widespread in the day of the
cassette tape. It was easier to duplicate a cassette
than to rip a CD.

Who killed the music industry? Now what does one mean
by industry? The big labels? Yeah, they are certainly
seeing reduced profits. You know who is seeing
increased profit and unprecedented exposure?
Independent labels. Music still lives on everyone! Fear
not. A mid-level independent band can chart in the top
20 and a top independent band can top the charts. It
just isn't something that happened 10-20 years ago.
Some bands are even going platinum without becoming
household names.

The biggest detriment to what I consider "the music
industry" is singles. We are in a singles generation.
People love to download the latest songs. They will
gladly pay $0.99 for them. They don't want to buy
entire albums anymore. They like to create mixes
instead of immerse themselves in an album. I'm a huge
album guy, but you can't blame them. It takes a lot of
time to get into some albums and all the songs aren't
always hits. This has really damaged record sales and I
can't imagine it would do anything but decrease
profits.

Record stores... They got too big, too unpersonal. And
the big-box stores are probably the biggest culprit.
How can a record store survive selling only music you
can't get at Walmart or Best Buy?

People. I have downloaded an immense amount of music in
my days. Have I paid for all of it? No. Have I spent
vast amounts more than I ever would because I was able
to download music and discover new genres and new
artists? You bet! I don't even want to think how much
I've spent on music. If I couldn't have downloaded
music to try it out ahead of time... I can't imagine
all the stuff I'd be missing out on. I'd probably be
buying one album a month at Best Buy and not having the
appreciate for music that I do. I know I can't be the
only one. And this shows as the aforementioned
independent artists doing incredibly well. Even
fledgling bands can self-release with a distribution
deal. I've seen this in several instances, and top
bands are abandoning their labels for independent
labels are starting their own labels.

So, no, John McLaughlin. Pirates are not to blame. If
anything, more people know of John McLaughlin because
of the current digital music culture. And John... try
adapting yourself!

How many recording studios have closed their doors
forever?

This is because of the huge technological leap of the
quality of home studios and portable recording gear.
You don't have to step foot in a recording studio to
make a top notch recording. He acknowledges this, but
doesn't quite grasps how much it has changed. Bands can
spend more time recording for less money and with more
freedom.

I don't think many people are pirating John McLaughlin
albums. I listened to him on Youtube, and I will never
ever buy one of his albums. I consider his music
unoriginal, unmusical, and soulless.

Jake, I agree with just about everything that you're saying here about the piracy, and the record business.

But I don't agree with "his unoriginality, unmusicality and soullessness"" as far as his overall career goes. I haven't heard his recent stuff, so I can't comment on that. But his stuff with Miles Davie, Tony Williams, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Shakti was groundbreaking at the time (late 60's through late 70's). Some of this other stuff, while maybe not ground-breaking (the Trio with Paco De Lucia & Al DiMeola) was very good.

Bob

Bob

JakeDobner wrote:

I was unfair to say that, I was just watching some
recent videos at the Crossroads music festival. He was
just another Clapton/SRV wannabe in those videos.

McLaughlin's stuff has historically varied A LOT. I don't always like it, but most of the time I respect him because he's not standing still. I, too, was unimpressed with his Crossroads videos.

Bob

Hey Jake, try: "Love Devotion Surrender" (1973) athough it might sound crap these days, i used to listen to it a lot.

Piracy: It's sad when you search Google for a band only to be directed to a free mp3 blog (ie: the blog appears at the top of page). They should do something about that, free stuff souldn't be easier to get than pay stuff.

Is CD 16bit though? I've heard it's more like 14bit with 2bits used for other duties.

crumble wrote:

Is CD 16bit though? I've heard it's more like 14bit
with 2bits used for other duties.

My point still stands.

Los Fantasticos

JakeDobner wrote:

I consider his music
highly original, extremely musical, and incredibly soulful.

Fixed.

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

djangodeadman wrote:

My point still stands.

Indeed it does. Completely true.
The problem with modern mastering is not the number of bits, it's good taste, i.e. pushing stuff to or over the limits of digital headroom, insensible EQing etc.
Similarly, the problem with modern delivery is not the number of bits, its... good taste, i.e. ripping the stuff to 128kbs mp3's, bad auto-normalizing alogarithms, bad converters etc...

Last edited: Sep 24, 2011 12:42:14

aqualadius wrote:

I think that the direction music access is going is
just wonderful. Thanki God that piracy exists! Because
the only thing you can never pirate is actually being
there. And if that means people return to the live gigs
en masses maybe the majors would ditch this prepackaged
electronic crap for real live onstage musicianship.

I concur!

METEOR IV on reverbnation