http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking.html?source=facebook#.UTNNI2vbakB.facebook
I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question, which is "How do we MAKE people pay for music?" What if we started asking, "How do we LET people pay for music?"
I'm sure there are flaws with the idea, but this is the kind of dialogue that needs to happen. Rather than automatically assume everyone is a criminal who won't pay for anything... give them an opportunity to do so that isn't primarily padding the pockets of people who aren't part of the creative force. You'd be surprised how much people will give when you *trust* them to pay what they think is fair. There will always be freeloaders, but there were also always be people that give far beyond the average to balance them out.
Kingcrow is trying this:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/325130/
They're asking for $3000 to help them fund the US tour they're doing with Pain of Salvation, which they're paying out of pocket. With 5 weeks to go, they're not quite halfway there - but ten people, at least two of whom are in this UM community, thought it was worth contributing.
Even Glenn and Jen have touched on this, asking for Paypal donations to help give PPUSA a needed extra boost, and I know many people contributed to that as well.
I know *I'd* rather give $$ more directly to the bands, so I hope to see more of them venturing in this direction.
I'm fine with crowdsourcing. I think that this crowdsourcing discussion is happening right now, when it was a big deal (and people were raising much more money too) last year is indicative how how behind the times the music business has become. But better late than never.
However, unlike with the video game industry kickstarter boom last year, it seems like there's this misinformed vocal group coming out with alot of expectations. Are the people who scare their fans and customers into buying records doing a disservice? Yes. Does that mean every recording artist should go DIY. No. Not even Protest The Hero is going DIY. In their latest interview with MetalSucks, they confirm that they plan to license their new album to labels for distribution, hire PR, etc.
The fact is, at the end of the day, crowdsourcing is just one way to get from A to B, but it's not the only way. There are mandatory services provided by PR people, managers, and booking agents that will ALWAYS be required from a band in order to achieve any amount of financial success. Whether the band wants to go through a record label, sacrificing back end earnings for front end cost reduction, or whether the band goes the DIY approach, the outcome is inevitably going to be the same. Out of sight, out of mind.
But in my mind, the fact that people like Monoxide Child (and he's certainly not alone, he's one sizable vocal group) have this misinformed notion that everyone in the music industry not an artist is a scumbag do more to hurt bands in the longrun than anyone else, because they perpetuate myths that ruin reputations. For one thing, nobody forces a band to sign with a label or to hire a manager or a PR professional or a booking agent. We as individuals have the freedom to decide the path we take with respect to the marketplace, but we also are responsible for understanding the consequences of our actions. When you sign up for a cell phone contract, it's no different from when you sign to a record company. You never see whiney metal fans complaining about how they deserve free cell phone service, but you see them whining about how an artist deserves services performed for them for free. A few weeks ago, somebody on this very forum asked "is there nobody in this industry not getting screwed" or something to that effect. Because apparently, to the metal fan though his rose-colored glasses views any kind of buisness relationship as an innate screwjob. People are making a big deal that PTH raised 300k like it's some ridiculous achievement when guys like Tim Shaffer raised around 4 mil to make an iPhone game like it was nothing. Nobody donated to Tim and Double Fine thinking that it would change the video game business. Video games require millions of dollars to make. But people accepted that the indiegogo model would be good for those small projects developers wanted to work on that a major publisher didn't want to waste time on. People understood this and moved on accordingly. Not with music. For some reason, people are assuming this is some sort of revolution when they're sadly mistaken.
It's a very sad world we live in, that metal fans have no concept of how business or finance works, and it translates to the bands. You see people like Amanda Palmer and Protest the Hero acting like this crowdsourcing is some special revolutionary thing, when in reality it's no different from signing to a label. Kickstarter or Indiegogo takes a cut from the donations pool, and of course metal fans neglect to mention that, and the artist inevitably depends on the same PR people, managers, agents, distros, labels etc, to perform the same services it needs to get the record out to everyone. Dcowboys put it pretty succinctly - if these people weren't necessary, they wouldn't be paid in the first place. It's not about "getting screwed" (although that does happen, and it's a very disgusting thing - this does not make it an innate, by proxy reality), it's about business. Because at the end of the day, this is the music
business not the music charity.
Also OP, please do not take anything I've said in this post as directed to you at all.
