The Price of Free Music (Part 2)

So why are we still utilizing services like Limewire and Morpheus? Because we feel entitled to. We want to take the music with us in our cars, on our iPods, and throughout every step of our lives without being confined to the chairs in front of our computers. But that's not fair. It's not fair to the artists either on major labels, who yes, have had many of their expenses taken care of, but will have to recomp the label for them once the money starts coming in, or on indie labels and self-releases, where they truly have put up their own hard earned money to do what they love and take the music as far as they can, to our own ears.

We like to say that technology has created so many opportunities for artists that would have never had them before, and in some cases, it's true. Studios are relatively cheaper to create and easier to use than ever before. With the advent of Myspace and Youtube, it has become easier to communicate with people around the world, to network, to be noticed. But with all of that has come a much easier, and sadly, socially acceptable way to take music without compensating the people who created it. We all make excuses: I'm a poor college student, I would have never actually spent money on this particular album so picking it up for free isn't that big of a deal, I just want to know if I like it before I spend money on it... but the truth is, those excuses are baseless.

You know? Someday, I hope to make money in this industry. There is nothing I love more than popular music. I love to sing it, play it, write it, and I'm learning to love the business side of all of it too. And how pretentious would it make me to expect to get the music I listen to for free and still expect others to pay me for mine?

Money has been tight for me lately, and I have had to add many, many albums to my wishlist rather than running right out to buy them like I'm used to doing. It's honestly painful, but I absolutely can't fathom stealing music anymore. It doesn't feel right to me.

It shouldn't feel right to you either.

Courtney

The Price of Free Music (Part 2)

The Price of Free Music (Part 1)

I honestly can't say I've met anyone of my particular generation who hasn't stolen music. Yeah, I admit, I've done it too. The problem is, as long as we're not picking up a physical CD at the nearest Target and walking out of the store without visiting the friendly cashiers first, we don't see it as stealing. It is. We need to convince people that not only is illegal downloading wrong, but the quality of music is eventually going to suffer for it.

I don't honestly understand what has led people to feel so entitled to music for free. What other services will expect not to pay for next? Should we visit a restaurant without tipping a server who did his or her job remarkably just because, hey, that's the job? Should we walk into an accountant's office and expect him or her to do our taxes for us, free of charge? How about seeking out a lawyer's service? Should he or she have gotten through years of expensive law school just to dispense free advice in all cases?

There are new services bringing entertainment into our homes for free-- and TV is the first thing I think of when I think of this. Services like Hulu.com and TheWB.com are offering full episodes of a variety of TV shows free of charge to the viewer--but they've found a way to do it legally, by obtaining licensing and including advertisements to make the funding possible. And when you think about it, watching TV this way isn't much different than watching it in the traditional way, because you're still paying for one main service (cable, satellite, or the internet), and the advertisements are still helping to fund the experience, so it's not really free.

Internet radio has made some of this possible in some cases for music: Pandora.com, iLike.com, and Last.fm all offer different ways to listen to the songs and artists you like, allowing you to create playlists, listen to stations based on a certain artist you love, or just search, song by song, artist by artist, and listening to what you please. The reason this works, though, is that those plays are all being recorded, and the artists, songwriters, and other associated with each song played are still earning their royalties. You're not paying, really, but they're still earning, and it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
To be continued....

Courtney

The Price of Free Music (Part 1)

The Fall of Communization and the Rise of the Music Fan

It has become very apparent that when author, marketer, and blogger Seth Godin talks, people listen. In his Ted Talks video "Sliced bread and other marketing delights" he covers a wide range of topics that I would like to expand on today.

He argues that at the heart of spreading ideas is TV and stuff like TV. Within the system that he calls the TV-Industrial Complex he explains the process of how early companies figured out how to spread their ideas by buying ads, which got them more distribution, this allowed them to make a bigger profit, and they then turned around to use the money to buy more ads, thus completing a cycle.

He goes on to say that companies used this complex to touch people in a way that they weren't expecting, in a way they didn't necessarily want, with an ad over and over again until they bought that product. What the marketers who brought us the likes of Fruity Pebbles and Pop Tarts have found over the last couple of years is that these old ways are no longer working. Record Labels used a system very similar to this idea, but they of course added a few steps.

1. Release the single 3 months before release
2. Pay mass radio to play song, 3 times an hour
3. 1 ½ months before release send MTV and Fuse video
4. Release album on a Tuesday with other popular artists
5. Rise up the billboard charts
6. Use profits to buy more distribution and tour support
7. Release the second single 2 months after release
8. Pay mass radio to play song, 3 times an hour
9. Top the billboard at #1
10. Make second video
11. Start tour of the United States
12. Halfway through, release third single
13. Make third video
14. Finish the tour dates
15. Use whatever money the label didn't take to go on three year journey
16. Find your inner self before continuing to work on second album
17. Do it all over again

What record labels found out years after CD Release Complex stopped working, their money had been spent, and the bands they threw at pop radio no longer stuck is that the environment of the music industry had changed as well. No one cared about what they had to say. In a world where people now have way more choices and far less time, the obvious thing happens, people start ignoring you.

To bring this full circle, in the YouTube video "An anthropology introduction to YouTube" professor Wesch highlights that there is a cultural inversion happening where people are becoming increasingly individual and the more individualized we become, the more we value this sense and want for community. We become more independent yet long for stronger relationships. There is commercialization all around us; therefore, we now seek out authenticity.

This cultural inversion that he speaks of is a perfect example of how the way people interact with music has changed. Many of us have developed very diverse and complex listening habits. We now form communities around our favorite bands, we want to establish a connection or relationship, and we have a strong desire for music that is real, authentic, and meaningful.

As music fans we are now walking in a crowded room where everyone wants our attention and what happens naturally is that we've tuned out the frequency of noise in our lives. The permeability of the walls we put up around ourselves now only lets certain messages through. You now have to be smarter about what you do, because it's no longer as easy to buy your way into our headphones.

What relationships are you building, where is your community, what connections are being made, how authentic is your message?

-Kyle

The Fall of Communization and the Rise of the Music Fan