Yeah, I'm not defending or advocating for either side, I just see the reality of the situation.

Resistance is futile..prepare to be assimilated.

METEOR IV on reverbnation

They should be true, but I'm not quite naive enough to think they will. There is still hope from me. I would hope that the file wouldn't be stored on a server from the company you bought it. In my perfect world, it transfers/downloads to the server of your 'cloud' provider. So all of the stuff you bought is stored not with the point of purchase, but on server space you purchased and can then access remotely.

I know it is going to be perverted and ruined, but I still have hope.

With all respect to Jake, it probably won't happen that way. As I understand it buying media is more along the lines of licensing that purchasing. If I buy a copy of Ishtar on VHS I'm technically not supposed to transfer it to DVD. If I bought the soundtrack to Ishtar on vinyl I would be allowed to make a copy on cassette but only because of a deal that was made early in the days of audio cassettes which actually imposed a licensing fee on each cassette, or so I've heard. The recording industry wasn't too worried about subsequent generations of copies made from a cassette because each generation of copy would lose fidelity and background noises would compound.

The thing is, in the digital world many generations of copies could be made and if error checking and verification were employed there could, in theory, be no degradation in sound quality. But I digress.

My main point is that as I understand it buying a work on one media type does not mean you are licensed to own that particular work in every subsequent media type on which it's released. in 1971 I bought an 8-track of Carole King's Tapestry, later I bought it on vinyl. I could have made a cassette copy but lacked a quality cassette recorder with Dolby so I bought it on pre-recorded cassette. Later on I bought it on CD and made a fresh CD copy for my car. Eventually I ripped that CD, first to WMA format, later to 256 bit AAC. as I see it I probably put Carole King's kids through college with just my royalties but my point is that each media form had limitations and some of those limitations could only be circumvented by paying the royalties yet one more time.

Someday, in the distant future, perhaps media will become a nasal spray that imprints the entire album directly into your brain allowing you to hear an album by just thinking of its title. If that happens within my lifetime you can bet that I'll be down at the nasal spray store buying a copy of Tapestry in a bottle and hoping that I don't inhale a stray whiff of Rap while I'm in line. Anyhow, if that day ever comes Carole King will probably stop for a moment a wonder what king of pathetic schmoe would do such a thing. (FWIW, there is some electric bass work on that album That I really admire. That's one of the reasons I have always wanted to have a copy.)

I have a number of ideas on the direction this entire issue will end up taking but until I have more time to write a post suffice to say that I think that the music business has changed its very nature with the advent of digital media and good quality home recordings. Depending upon your point of view it can be seen as the end of civilization as we know it or the beginning of something good.

In a nutshell, recording and even more importantly, distribution are no longer the expensive processes they used to be. The supply and demand equation has been forever altered. IMHO, the number of people getting rich or even making their entire living from the recording industry is shrinking. OTOH, the number of people getting a small piece of the pie has increased dramatically.

How many Surf albums were recorded and released in the '70s? I'd guess virtually none, the market size was too small to justify the investment required to produce and distribute such music in that era when large record companies were dominent. Flash forward to today and Surf music has become feasible to produce, albeit marginally profitable. Many of the artists hold day jobs and play part time but there's nothing wrong with that. Over the millennia music has been an avocation far more often than it has been a true vocation. This same thing is happening in all sorts of musical genre. There's new Rockabilly being recorded nearly 60 years after the genre became known. There's new Swing, new Bakersfield music, etc, etc. I don't see it as a bad thing but I'm not planning on giving up my day job.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Danny, that article lays it all out in about the most blunt and comprehensive way I could ever imagine. I expecially enjoyed the part about the average tax return for professional musicians, but think he failed to really hammer it through that this was for 'successful' professional musicians, rather than weekend warriors.

This also brought a thought to mind. The word 'entitled' was mentioned in all of this. While I do have personal stake in the current environment, I couldn't help but ask myself if we, as musicians, are suffering from a similar sense of entitlement. After all, in any other business, if the market was going through something similar, wouldn't they be forced to fold due to lack of demand?

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

killbabykill34 wrote:

Danny, that article lays it all out in about the most blunt and comprehensive way I could ever imagine. I expecially enjoyed the part about the average tax return for professional musicians, but think he failed to really hammer it through that this was for 'successful' professional musicians, rather than weekend warriors.

I disagree, I think it's implied in the article that he's referring to musicians who make their living (or attempt to) from their music.

This also brought a thought to mind. The word 'entitled' was mentioned in all of this. While I do have personal stake in the current environment, I couldn't help but ask myself if we, as musicians, are suffering from a similar sense of entitlement. After all, in any other business, if the market was going through something similar, wouldn't they be forced to fold due to lack of demand?

I think if people are walking around listening to an artist's music, that artist is justified in feeling entitled to a financial reward. How many other businesses have a product one can opt to take for free en masse?

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

I am now playing trumpet with Prince Buster tribute band 'Balzac'

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

But, Danny, don't get me wrong. I have been very vocal since re-joining the ranks of touring and recording musicians, of how soul-crushing the current business environment is.

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

Fascinating read.

It'd be interesting to know how much of her collection she'd not paid for BEFORE working at the college radio station where she admittedly ripped copies of countless albums.

Emily White @ NPR wrote
"During my first semester at college, my music library more than tripled. I spent hours sitting on the floor of my college radio station, ripping music onto my laptop. The walls were lined with hundreds of albums sent by promo companies and labels to our station over the years."

My point - I think one not-insignificant point of her original post speaks to a generational preference for "not physical media".

Fady

El Mirage @ ReverbNation

It also speaks to a generational tendency to not wanting to pay for anything; something older generations in my personal experience were weaned from as we were raised to be adults.

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

Las Barracudas, I agree with you in regard to the fact that things aren't going to change on the sales end. However, if I rally for one thing, it is for the performance end of things to evolve to accomodate the changes on the other end.

I have spoken many times on here about how compensation for performance has not kept up with the times. In the late 80's/early 90's, when I was first starting all of this mess, the average door cost was $5. Twenty+ years late, the average door price is still at the same point, while the cost of everything associated with performing(food, gas, vehicles, etc.) has more than tripled.

So, I accept the fact that people are no longer going to purchase recorded product on the scale that they did just one decade ago. On the other hand, I cannot accept that performance compensation has remained stagnant.

On a related note, in two weeks I have a little 'mini surf fest' scheduled in Birmingham, AL with five bands, only two of which are local to the area where this is being held. The discusion of door price has been on the table for a few days now. I originally suggested $8. Sure, this seems like a reasonable price for three out-of-town bands and two locals. However, it has been debated that the extra $3 will be a detourant and the price will most likely be set at $5. Now, just assume that 100 people show up. That gives us $500 to pay a sound engineer and five bands with. Those numbers are grim. Even more, that is after eating the cost of promotion on my end.

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

Well, the notion of a venue paying a set price for a band here in the south is nearly unheard of. They make their money off of alcohol sales and then the band and 'production staff' are paid off the door.

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