Music Has No Monetary Value But The Connections It Forms Are Priceless

[KingsGene]

Guitarist Chris Randall, formerly of Sister Machine Gun (and founder of Positron Records, along with running plug-in creator Audio Damage) has an epic post detailing his thoughts about the music business (and the recording industry) and the monumental changes it has gone through over the last decade. He pointedly declares that his post (in PDF form, due to limitations of his site) is not a manifiesto. Randall calls it "more of a mission statement, really," and it does exactly that, with many stops along the way.

The underlying current of the piece is that music (along with other forms of art) cannot honestly be discussed in terms of monetary value. The sale price of an mp3 or an album has very little to do with how the fans value the music. No one talks up how much they spent on something when discussing their connection with a band or singer. Instead, they talk about more ethereal concepts, like where they were when they first heard a certain track or who turned them on to a certain band.

More here: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...alue-connections-it-forms-are-priceless.shtml

 

[DuchessOfDork]

Interesting position. I agree with him on many points, especially where he says:

You’re not getting paid? Join the club. Robert Johnson and Scott Joplin were the founding members. Muddy Waters, HP Lovecraft, and Jackson Pollack each got an achievement award. David Crosby gets the Bad Life Decisions Honorable Mention. You’re in good company. You should be proud.

I've got a big rant about this kind of thinking.

I didn't get into metal to make money, I did it because I love metal. I knew a guy who swore up and down that his biggest goal was to "make it", to the point where he spent more time and effort collecting guitars and studying Metallica than actually trying to write good music and be creative. That kind of thinking blows my mind. I mean, I understand that as artists, we are doing work, and we deserve to get paid for that work. However, this whole rock star dream people have, I think it ruins a lot of people. I've got friends in LA trying to "make it", and when they don't, it's all depression and downward spiral. That makes me very sad.

Don't get me wrong, you should certainly have a goal.. but some people lose sight of what's really important for the sake of that goal, and their music suffers in the process. I am by no means a fatalist. I think that you should strive to be what it is you want to be, but if you would rather be famous than creative, I'm probably not going to be one of your fans. (Of course, I'm also probably in the minority there. XP)