It looks like this thread is beginning to die down… (maybe?)
It is a way to connect on a different level. We are realistic with our feet firmly planted on planet earth, and we don’t expect to be raking in the cash now or anytime in the future. However, the only thing we would really ever want is to be compensated for our services (i.e. the work and expenses of creating the music that is available). In order to continue doing this, that is the one thing that has to happen. Sure it would be nice to at least make a decent living off of playing music, but in this day and age, that is probably not going to happen.
Some labels are cutting back on their advances, or don’t give advances at all due to the high amount of piracy and drop in sales due to a flooded market. How is a band supposed to make the music if the very lable that is supposed to support them can’t afford to?
Um. When a record label says they cannot afford to pay you an advance, I hope you hear that before you sign a contract.
There is a way to make a living making music; make the shitty music that is played on the terrestrial radio today, and learn how to dance like an idiot at the same time you sing. I write fiction stories in my spare time but I do not try to make a living selling them because there is not enough money in short fiction to support a family.
I’m not here to sway judgments on the issue, but rather give my insight as one that makes music. For one thing, it breaks my heart to read here, or anywhere else, people saying in a very matter-of-fact tone, that (media piracy) is just the way it is now and to move on… or go the way of the Dodo. I have a hard time with that, especially when I look at the costs incurred from our recent album that just came out. How am I as an artist supposed to sit back and take that? Am I now obligated to create music just for the sake of some people feeling they deserve it and I should bend over and take it because that is just the way it is these days? That is a very disappointing and bleak view… should I also go to work everyday without pay and smile about it because it’s expected from my boss?
When I got out of college, I thought I could become the next Great American Novelist. I spent about 2 years writing stories and sending them out for publication. I made some money, but not enough to pay the bills. It was disheartening to get a full time job because of my love for writing was subjugated by my need to eat.
I am still a writer, and make a damn good living at it--only it is tired commercialized crap that makes me hate life sometimes. But I have a wife and kids and a home to maintain. So what I am saying is, I feel your pain. I cannot make a living at what I love due to the pay scale for short fiction. You say you are having monetary issues in your craft as well. The only difference between you and I is the reason for the financial difficulty.
I write the commercial crap to pay the bills. I write short fiction because of my love for telling stories--I just do not hold a guitar and sing those stories to a crowd. When I found that I could not make a living writing fiction, I turned what I love into a hobby, and went about making a buck any (legal!) way I could. We are human beings, not ants--incredibly talented persons will find other outlets if they cannot make a living in a band. I am sorry if that sounds harsh, but it can be liberating as well.
I doubt my mortgage company, or my daughter and wife, would find that to be a viable excuse. Of course that is an extreme example, but I just want to make my point. For me, that is months and months of hard work and money, and to know that it is just being handed out makes it difficult to digest, and brings into question, “why am I doing this”? Obviously because I love it, and with the few that enjoy our music and buy our albums, it does make it worth while. But sometimes, it does bother us to know we are being taken advantage of, especially with the work that is put into it. If we had any inkling that being a musician meant you were giving away your talent as charity, none of us would have even bothered.
Yes you would have--you would still make music because you have talent. You cannot deny or get away from what you are. Unfortunately, the world in which we live is making it tougher right now to succeed. Musicians have paid their dues for hundreds of years. Your dues are new, I give you that...but they are still dues you have to pay to be part of your world.
And you have the right to complain! I am hoping that within the venting comes some solutions.
This isn’t the tape trading days, it’s not 5 or 10 friends sharing the album for free with the possible intention to buy it down the road, it is in the thousands, and a good percentage probably don’t have those same intentions, nor do they care what the long term effects are.
Our new album is the first album of ours to end up on every single P2P site out there, which is strange being that we have three albums prior that never made it onto the torrent sites. So all of a sudden we became relevant enough to steal from? I don’t know if I should be complimented or insulted.
I guess you can have it both ways--as an artist you want people to hear your songs, and as a businessman, you want to be paid. One would think the "artist" side of you is quite happy that your material is being heard far and wide.
There are no security measures that anyone on either side of the coin is happy with. Right now, there is no control or standard set to prevent the whole world from stealing your music, and I think that is what frightens me most, and brings into question how long we will be around, as well as many other bands that we all love. In fact, Glenn’s idea is one of the best options I have heard ever. It is the closest, most logical thing I have read anywhere.
You cannot make everyone happy all the time! The state of the industry right now is that it tries to react instead of act. It amazes me that the incredibly talented people in this business have yet to get together and come up with some strategy to get out of this dilemma--suing people is not going to work, trying to convince jackasses to stop downloading is not going to work, and giving up because of the pain of transition is not going to work.
And for the record - Anyone who thinks a band can recoup recoding costs by extensive touring and the selling of merchandise at live shows, just to make up for the loss in monotary royalties due to the growing rate of illegal downloads.... is severely misinformed. Especially for the bands in our position. (day jobs, family, ect. ect)
I just hope you keep at it, and maybe one day hit it big. If not, try to keep your love for the craft separate from your expectations of success--given this climate you would be hard pressed to give up your day job--but guys like me appreciate all you do.
