‘To a Mother Concerned About File Sharing’
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- “I have a teenage son who tells me his pirating music is no big deal. Since he is a musician himself, I point out to him that someday that’s going to be his money people are stealing. But he remains unphased.
“He tells me the record sales make money for the record label, not the artist. He says that the artists make all their money from touring and live concerts. He thinks the pirated music promotes the concerts and therefore helps the artist make more money. I still don’t allow pirating in my house.
“But tell me what you think as artists out there having your work ’shared,’ are you just glad to have it being enjoyed, or does it bother you? Admittedly, he is stealing music that is recorded by major record labels, so maybe its different than the independent musician working for his living. But I’d still like to hear what you think.
“Thanks, Valerie.”
That’s the intro to an excellent David Hahn (right) post on his MusicianWages blog. It’s called To a Mother Concerned About File Sharing and we arrived at it thanks to a Reader’s Write in another story.
“I`ve asked David for permission to re-run the article cited above,” I said after checking the link out. “It`s definitely worth reading.”
It is, and David has allowed us to re-post it.
“Hi Valerie,” he says, going on»»»
Thank you for your question. I absolutely understand your concern the whole world is concerned about piracy and file-sharing right now. I remember first talking about this issue over 10 years ago and we still haven`t figured out what to do about it!
First, though, we should make the distinction between piracy and file-sharing. Andrew Dubber does a great job of this in his article Should I be worried about piracy? Piracy is making illegal copies and selling them for a profit. What I think you`re describing (I assume your son isn`t selling anything) is file-sharing also known as unauthorized copying. A small distinction, maybe, considering that they are both usually illegal, but it`s worth pointing out.
My perspective on file-sharing is probably different that you would expect. I think that your son should download every track he can find. I mean it. Download every song out there and sift through them one by one. And not just the genre`s he likes but everything Creole bandeon playing, French rap, hymns, metal, classical, South African jazz, samba whatever he can find.
I say this for 3 reasons. First, if you`re son is really going to be a musician I mean make a real, professional try at it he`s going to need to know every one of those genres.
One of the things that I`ve been successful at recently is musical theatre. I`ve worked as a conductor, pianist, keyboardist whatever was needed. Without exception the first thing I do when I`m hired for a new show is go find the cast recording and listen to it. I`ll buy it if I absolutely must, but more likely I`ll find it at a library or by more iniquitous means.
In fact, by the time I come to my first rehearsal with a new show, I fully expect that my actors will have already done the same. Modern arts budgets don`t allow enough rehearsal time to teach songs from scratch, so performers must have some idea of songs before rehearsals begin.
And this isn`t just musical theatre. Jazz musicians are expected to know a whole reservoir of standard tunes and their famous recordings. How are we going to play Maiden Voyage if we haven`t heard the original Herbie Hancock recording? Do I know the version of Down By the Riverside that Bennie Green played on his live album? Do I know the difference between Ed Thigpen`s style and Elvin Jones`?
We`re not going to learn that stuff by reading about it, we have to listen to it. I don`t mean to say that its right, or legal, or moral, but if a musician doesn`t take advantage of the avenues for acquiring this knowledge that technology has given us then they are at a severe disadvantage to the rest of us. Because I do know the difference between Thigpen and Elvin, I know French rap (blech), I know hymns, bandeon playing and metal bands. I also know the cast recordings of famous and obscure Broadway shows backwards and forwards.
Secondly, I just personally feel like people should have access to music. When I think back to the mid-90s and before I`m struck by how narrow the choices were for music. We could listen to what was on the radio, what we heard at celebrations/church/school or what we bought in record stores (which at least at the big chains was often the same as was played on the radio).
I`m very, very glad that that system of music distribution has gone the way of the dodo. Good riddance. Music should not be controlled by an oligarchy of record label executives and corporate disc jockeys. Music is a privilege that is unique among our species, and it shouldn`t be kept from people like flowers in a locked greenhouse.
Thirdly, we`re all concerned about how musicians are going to make a living with all this music flying around for free, and it`s definitely a legitimate concern.
But consider this professional musician wasn`t a career created by the phonograph. The musician industry has been around as long as humans have, but recorded music is, relatively, a very new invention. Mozart never sold a record. Beethoven never released an album. Yet they made careers as musicians.
What if we`re just coming out of a prolonged, 100-year tech bubble for the music industry? What if the easy money of the record-selling days is gone, and we`re back to selling live performance and commissioned compositions just like things were before the bubble?
Certainly we`re in a different cultural and economical landscape than we were in the 1800s and it`s hard to make a clear comparison, but my point is that the musician industry is more resilient and adaptable that we often think. Piracy will not be the end of our careers.
What will happen to the music industry? Will the new music industry make enough money to sustain all of our careers? I don`t know. But one thing is certain resisting file-sharing hasn`t helped anything.
Also check out David’s follow-up when he asked the musician blogging community to help answer Valerie.
There’s a whole raft of contributions and together and singly, they make amazing reading.
Cheers! (And thanks again, Dave)
Jon
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Website for Working Musicians – To a Mother Concerned About File Sharing
August, 2009
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August 6th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Thanks for re-posting Jon. I hope you’re readers enjoy. Cheers. – Dave
August 6th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
A thoroughly interesting read and perspective, I am grateful it was permitted to be re-posted here as I would have certainly missed it.
I know a few people who play in bands, a couple have also been signed at various points, one to Sony. Every single one of them shared music and still does to my knowledge. Just like average Joe Bloggs on the street.
When I was in school we traded tapes, the music industry survived, and it will now, except now the music industry seems to find it necessary to bankrupt people. The big four are absolutely not making friends, and while filesharers may not be a large demographic in a music companies sales, we most certainly do talk about things with non-sharers, and if others are anything like me it is to quite bluntly tell people to stop buying music from the majors. Support independents and fuck the big four.
Word of mouth, hit them where it hurts.
August 6th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Great read. As CQB said, support independents and fuck the big four.
Ive gotten to the point to where I will barely download, see live, or buy t-shirts from anyone even working for the ‘big four.’ As far as I am concerned those artists are the ones keeping those companies in business. I will not even support the artists that the ‘big four’ represent, even if it is in a way to not support the RIAA. There is more than enough good music out there to be had. Not to mention, I’m not very likely to get sued by the RIAA for downloading Emilie Autumn and Jonathon Coulton. I don’t mind, paying for and downloading Coulton’s Rock Band Track. If Emilie ever comes to the US west coast again, I will drive from Portland to LA to see her.
August 6th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
As far as the economics of it goes, I think the following may help. If your son pursues his talents and becomes a good enough artist, he can sell his songs over the net without having to involve third parties. In this way, if he sells 7000 tracks as downloads for a buck apiece from his site , then HE ( and his bandmates, if any) get (minus taxes, etc.) the WHOLE $7000, not just a small percentage. He can get all the free publicity he wants by allowing some or all of his songs to be traded, so he doesn’t need a huge backer for advertising.
I’m not advocating sharing copyrighted songs illegally; noone needs the grief that can bring, no matter how unlikely to happen that may seem. But the market model is changing, and the record companies don’t seem to be able to grasp it. For your son, though it might turn out to be a huge benefit.
August 6th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
boycott times four!!! i will never waste my money on any of the crap these companies continue to regurgitate ad nauseum…if its played on the radio or mtv(sic) its not getting listened to by me or being purchased by me or anyone i associate with. when a billion dollar corporation bankrupts single mothers or 15 year olds, thats just so wrong on so many levels, the greed is sickening. if i go to the movies i dont pay…i sneak in and dont pay for it. these companies are evil and dont deserve to live on and will never get a single dollar from me.
there is so much good underground music out there thats not beholden to the big four, theres no reason to support these artists that are in it for the money. try listening to artists that actually play their own instruments, write their own songs, dont lip sync, ect.
fileshare, never pay for anything.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
1. GREAT article!
2. By the RIAA’s own statistics, 99 percent of the stuff their member-labels release are commercial flops, and their entire ‘industry’ is basically coasting fueled by the profit from the other 1 percent (which is one reason they don’t let anything from that 1 percent enter the public domain, and keep buying themselves copy’right’ extensions, etc.)
So how exactly are musicians getting paid NOW?
Not by the RIAA. (Session musicians — some of the most talented and hardworking folks out there) usually do “work for hire”, and thus, get nothing out of those all-precious royalties the “performer’s rights’ organizations claim to be collecting.
Hell, to even get ’signed’ by the RIAA member-labels involves signing over those precious monopoly privileges they claim to be ‘defending’ (copyright), and thus, not truly ‘owning’ anything produced while signed. Scumbag RIAA apologists see nothing wrong in that (”Sam I am” claimed that John Fogerty had nothing to complain about because ’sold is sold’).
Funny that RIAA apologist-boy understood what ’sold’ means, EXCEPT in regard to — for example — what people are ‘permitted’ to do with CD’s they BOUGHT. (Ripping, etc.)
So let’s stop giving the RIAA propagandists the benefit of the doubt on this one, M’kay?
THEY’RE the primary reason musicians aren’t getting paid.
Solutions?
1. Stop buying copy’right’ term extensions.
2. Stop trying to destroy fair-use.
3. Stop signing artists to do “work for hire”. Abolish ‘work for hire’ COMPLETELY, and allow artists to retain those precious monopoly privileges you claim to be defending.
Or better yet, just fucking die off, you stupid goddamn corporate dickheads.
(Join Valenti in the lowest depths of hell, where you all belong.)
(Oops, my bad — I used the word “die” in reference to corporate parasites. Wouldn’t want to be misconstrued as ‘encouraging violence’.)
August 7th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Ahhhh – I love it when a sensible sentiment is expressed in such a consice and direct manner. Excellent point that musicians were working long before the record labels… AMAZING what we forget. This piece (and follow-up commentary) have also made me re-aware of how much the recording industry isn’t really concerned with music at all per se – it is, after all, the “recording” industry and with the recording process so easily accessible to anyone with a personal computer now, it is entirely obsolete. Much of what they have attempted to pass off as music in the last 10 years is noticeably lacking in musical quality since music isn’t really its primary function.
It has also just occurred to me how ironic it is that there is so much brouhaha over sampling when the industry itself has been producing very formula artists for the last decade. Ever hear DaVinci’s Notebook sing “Title of the Song”? It is an excellent demonstration of this, and utterly hilarious to boot, especially since I could easily mistake it for a hit single from the BSB or NSYnc if I weren’t listening to the lyrics…
Utterly indefagitable logic in the pro-fileshare argument… “Three snaps up, in a circle!”
August 7th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Afterthought:
Although, to be fair to those who are used to making their fortune with the Big Four, I realize now that such an obvious fate must be terrifying. Just like anyone who has found themselves out a job because of a technological advance they must be very resentful, which would at least account for the some of their atrocious behaviour if not excuse it. Kind of like a grumpy old man who doesn’t know how to use the new-fangled VCR in the eighties. The main difference from a regular joe being that they have the resources to take out their aggressions on a grander scale….