Comments on: The Cheapening of Music

By: Tazz

Tazz — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 10:46:40 +0000

It’s all to the advantage of the artists, who forever have been exploited by the record industries. Artists can handle the entire operation on their own, almost all in thin air. No plastic required.

By: ICeman

ICeman — Thu, 14 Apr 2005 23:38:56 +0000

I’m very positive ’bout digital music ’cause ‘fore Napster all was ’bout BackStreet Boys and crap like that.
Without services like Napster, KaZaA or iTunes there won’t be any emo, and alternative metal bands like Avenged Sevenfold would only exists in my dreams.
It democratizes the market a lot, putting at the same level Britney Spears and Atreyu. The music industry is losing a lot, cause with the iTunes 65% of the revenues goes to the artists instead the crappy 5%-10% that they receive from physical CDs.
Also, the lie of selling information (wether it’s music, images, etc.) with a physical media, and tell everyone that the information IS the media are no longer taked by anybody.
I use all the services available here, either legal or not, and I just tell you that iTunes and Rhapsody (the service not the italian band) are the future.
And the artists should link the songs from their websites and selling by themselves, without any label and get the 100% of the money, thus lowering the price of the song (I think ¢99 is too much), and still earn more money than selling CDs.
You don’t need a piece of plastic to hear music. The music is in the air, and is in the net. And the artists don’t need a record label to distribute their songs and be heared. I just love entering a band site and find sample tracks on MP3 or Real Audio.
And in spite of all the stated above, I actually buy CDs. After download 3 o 4 songs of an album, if i like the 4 songs (that aren’t hits), I go to the record store and buy the CD. It’s called “try it before you buy”.
What cheapened music is not sharing it online, it’s the mass market mentality of only 5 labels on the RIAA deciding what YOU should hear. Independent music rises from Kurt Cobain’s grave thanks to iTunes. And we’ll have enough indie to go for a long time, trust me.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 07:55:16 +0000

A couple of friends of mine just left a couple of hours ago after they visited me from out of town for the weekend. One of them had brought his IPod and offered some of his music in return for some of mine.
I’ve been purchasing records for over twenty years and have been more than generous with sharing music for my friends. Lately though, some of my younger peers who have fully embraced trading music with IPods seem to be taking advantage of me by asking if they can burn a couple of my records, actually upwards of one-hundred fifty, and put them in their IPod. They were kind and offered me the chance to copy their records from their digital collection. I wasn’t particularly eager to do this since I am not entirely satisfied with listening to mp3s (no artwork, physical object, etc). There were about one hundred or so albums to choose from, none of which I was particularly interested in listening to. I copied a few but I wasn’t prepared for the fact that this seemed like an excuse for him to copy about one hundred of my cds and records that I had actually paid for. I know that he didn’t pay for any of his music. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I paid well over a thousand dollars for this much music or is it that each one of these albums had a special place in my life experience.
I can remember the day and the weather of nearly every one of my one thousand or so record purchases. I remember the music my older friends and I got stoned to and listened to over and over. I remember running out to buy the newest pixies record with my best friend and coming home and ripping it open. I remember finding a sealed original copy of Piper at the Gates of Dawn, opening the cellophane and the twenty year old smell of the cardboard jacket hitting me like a load of bricks. I remember going to Bleeker Bob’s and looking for a copy of The Beach Boy’s Wild Honey, finding out they didn’t have it, getting word from another customer that he had one at his store in Hoboken, the travel there, finding out he was a roadie for Roxy Music, and sitting there for a couple of hours listening to his stories. This new generation of music collectors, it’s my opinion, are missing out on the experience of the physical act of going out and seeking for these nuggets of history. Everything is so quick, and so easily disgarded with these advances in technology. My friend hooked up his IPod to my computer and within a few minutes a hundred or more of his albums were copied to my hard drive. Just seeing that download progress bar speeding away just sort of hit me as sad. Sure, I’m probably being overly nostalgic and sentimental about the record as an object. Do I think of it as an object of conquest? Am I jealous that he didn’t have to pay for anything? I’m all for sharing music as I feel that the record industry is taking advantage of people by charging so much for something that costs so little. I’m not looking for a response necessarily and I’m typing this rhetorically. This is just a way of organising my thoughts on the issue.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 01:38:22 +0000

My friend Phil runs a vinyl-only label. Most of the record covers are silkscreened by hand, a touch which seems difficult to match in the digital realm. Some of the records also include a cd "ripped" from the vinyl so that the digital recordings still have the analog pops and scratches. And if sales are any indication (they are), vinyl is still an extremely popular medium, at least in the independent music scene. While I've purchased albums from the iTunes store, I still like being able to buy tangible products that are handmade and in limited runs. And while I feel that digital technologies have somewhat democratized the industry (easier to record, distribute, and promote independent music), it's also increased the amount of really crappy music out there. I do booking for an all-ages venue here in NW Washington State and you wouldn't believe the torrent of terrible sounding digital demos that we receive. I'm not really sure how to improve on the experience of digital music. I know that with his last album, David Bazan (of Pedro the Lion) launched a website for the album that included extensive recording notes, live versions of songs, lyrics, etc. I really liked reading about how each song was recorded, which mics they used, etc. Of course, that's mainly content for geeks, but I think it was a nice bonus.

By: James

James — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 23:45:25 +0000

I own mp3s and vinyl.
I just feel i’ve been conned when i buy a cd. I know it cost about 3 pence to make, and it’ll just go onto my ipod anyway.
MP3s/ipods etc. are wonderful. They allow you to really broaden your taste in music.
But for those albums i love, a Vinyl LP is perfect. the size, the smell, the ability to see and hold the music and know it’s there, it’s all brilliant. The process you said about buying it is magnified and extended to every playing with vinyl.
When you listen to something on vinyl, you’ve really used all your senses (taste questionable)

By: David

David — Sun, 10 Apr 2005 13:41:07 +0000

Bands (generally) get between .75¢ & $3 per album, depending on the deal they negotiated. BUT before they get this the record company “recoups” to cost of recording the album, at the rate stated above, all the while collecting the rest of the $ as profit. So if your album cost $80000 to make, you figure out how long to recoup. Then there is iTunes I’m led to believe they offer about 65% of the sale price direct to the artist. This is actually a much better deal for the artist.

By: jimmy.hazard

jimmy.hazard — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 16:11:40 +0000

This is kind of a rant but it will make sense when it’s done I promise….
A big problem with music being “cheapened” is the crap that gets passed off as music. People complain about albums costing too much yet they’re forking over $20 for the lates prefabbed pop CD pumped by MTV. Has anyone heard of independent music? Get an album the week it comes out and it’s 10-15(MAX) at Best Buy/Virgin/Tower. Don’t buy Britney Spears or the latest Korn CD. Dig a little deeper and pick up Rocky Votolato or the Agony Scene.
Me I find myself on the outskirts of this “Music costs too much” and “Albums are filled with junk filler songs” because of the pure fact that I listen mostly to metal and or independent music. Nearly every CD I’ve bought in the last 5 years is good from opening to close becauses I search out real musicians who care about their art. Rather than the great pop song I heard on the radio that I can’t stop humming. That’s what iTunes was created for, those one hit radio wonders.
The Beatles (just as an example) didn’t always do “concept albums” but they consistently put out great albums filled with great songs. Because they cared about their artt and were allowed to mature in it. That’s another problem with major labels, they don’t sign an artist and let them mature. They only want to sign the artist with the quick sell and the hit single. Notice how the new bands that are getting signed that are putting out great material all around (Coheed & Cambria, Thrice, Thursday, and even longer ago Green Day) are all independent bands that cut their teeth on the road in front of small crowds of rabid fans? That’s not an accident. These bands know what it is to create music rather than bitch about how tough it is to record an album in a million dollar studio on your reality TV show COUGH ASHLEY SIMPSON COUGH.
Ok this musician/designer is done. haha
I hope that made some sense
jimmy.hazard
>

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 22:29:19 +0000

Cory's estimate that bands get 70-90% of the price of an album is high. Danny Goldberg, a music industry veteran, estimates most bands get about 10% of the price of a CD. And David Byrne is on record saying that he doesn't see much money from CD sales. My understanding is that most mid level bands make their money from touring.

By: beto

beto — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 21:22:48 +0000

I have been an ardent collector of music for well over 15 years, mostly on vinyl and a couple hundred CDs. On the digital-digital side, I have an iPod and have used both eMusic and file sharing (iTMS not yet available in my country) so I’ve come to know and get accquainted with all music formats so far. Yet I still enjoy the physical experience of listening and playing music on vinyl the most (the big design canvas is a plus too) and I will definitely regret it if one day this will no longer be possible.
It should be pointed that, were it not for legendary artist Alex Steinweiss, the association of music with design would never have ocurred. Mr. Steinweiss conceived and produced the very first album covers for Columbia in the 1940s, and thus began a visual revolution that reached its highest peak in the mid-60s / early 70s with great conceptual album designs, where music and visual art were made for each other and equally enjoyable. What I do these days is, if I like a given title I hear on MP3 so much and has good art to boot, I’ll go get the record. The benefits of being able these days to listen to and sample tons of music for almost nothing cannot be denied, as it allows for wise buys and to separate the wheat from the chaff.
However as we progressively head to an all-digital future that shuns physical support to rely purely on virtual-yet-untangible experiences, I fear a vital part of the whole experience of recorded music will be lost, and that we will not realize it until it is too late. Sometimes we get so obsessed with a digital future that we tend to forget we ourselves are not made of mere ones and zeros.

By: SteveC

SteveC — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 16:36:40 +0000

I thank Mr Tesco for cheaper music, and other big stores for that matter. THey can afford to sell it cheaper, so the high streat has to keep up