Yes! Good to hear from someone who read it...not that everything posted up to now was unwanted, but I was hoping to discuss mostly about what the article either said or might have implied...or might have failed to imply, FTM. Thanks. |
I hate to interject into the furious debate here, but has anyone here bothered to actually Read the freakin' article??? |
Ok...a legit response, I guess...but, wow! |
The author is a Canadian musician of 45 years in the craft. I thought his perspective to be at the same time both objective and relevant to today. Not many journalists or industry insiders have been able to present the topic with such a clear-eyed and clear-headed approach as this fellow has, IMO, and I imagine we may not get another such glimpse into it for some time. |
I for sure wouldn't say that it's been perfected, just that all that continues to be a moving target, just like the desire to create. |
Ha Ha Ha!! Maybe I’m wrong to post this here...my bad if it is. Maybe the influence of MTV was worse on society than I’d given it credit for, Lol. |
One of the author’s points was that MTV reclassified music videos as "advertising" for the music industry and the artists and in fact were "pay-to-play" for the artists - money that had to be counted against royalties. |
If your son is a musician, then your opinion might be more valid than mine since you have a window into it that I don't. No one in my family is a practicing musician.
"Will they pay for it or only want it if it's free?"
I don't know. I mean there's no way (for me) to know what the public reaction will be to paying for a band, that I'm not familiar with, anyway. Just might depend on how much demand there is for their music...no other way to know, I think. If the band can set up such a page with minimal investment, or even by themselves - if that's even possible yet - then maybe there's a chance someone might pay something for a download...?? It's not all that clear to me at that level, sorry for my not being much help on that. |
You can have your views whatever they may be, I'm not here to take any of that away from you or anyone else. I was just looking for the opinions from people who had read it just so I might still be able to reign in the thread if it got too far afield...I mean, what's the point of opening a thread on an article if nobody who posts actually read it??, is all.
But, your contributions here are all valid. Thanks for your input. |
@n80
If your experience is that touring is sustainably vigorous then I’m inclined to take that as a reassuring sign, I think. But what I was talking about was not just that more bands are touring (which is true), but that, where 40 yrs ago they would’ve had the benefit of merchandise and album sales as well, many bands may now only have touring and possibly some merchandise...that the profits margins from new discs have all but evaporated these days...making them more vulnerable than they might have been had they been operating back then. |
@n80
I do see these days that more and more bands are having to rely on touring in order to make their money. There just aren't all that many bands at any given time touring in the US though. Most groups, including American bands, seem to be perpetually touring Europe and Asia. Evidently those fans support them much more better than we do here. I'm not entirely sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Maybe good for the bands, bad for us. Or maybe we fans here share the blame for not showing up or paying enough?? I dunno. But, I think it is increasingly resulting in being more and more difficult to find their more recent music...on disc, anyway...and that this trend may continue to grow...not because formats are going obsolete, but because mainstream artists who are not top tier are being squeezed out...or would be, if it were not for touring and merchandise. |
But that landscape you describe keeps right on changing. EDM is booming now, in the living parts of the big cities, anyway. And as far you can see in reference to the names of performers you mention, when those people of that generation die out, do you see that there are others waiting in the wings to replace them...to replace them in the same style of music?...or something substantially different. I mean, I can see what you’re saying I think, but however it may start, you still must end up with "the musician". I’m not trying to limit the discussion on what influences the creation of an artist here, I’m just trying to uncover the pathways they may be taking (or may even be prevented from taking), now, or in the foreseeable future, within the industry in order for them to make a Living at it. |
Thank you both @whart and @simao Great posts and mostly either jibe with the article or what I may have already absorbed, but both your posts add greatly to the topic here and I'm grateful for your respective glimpses into your experiences. Thank you, it's good for me to hear these sorts of things from people with different backgrounds than mine. I have some heart for the current generation of musicians, but sometimes I wonder what the future holds as the roots of people who think music should be free continue to grow deeper. |
You mean you feel like you see fewer ’bigger name’ artists (in your locale) these days for the smaller bands to indirectly benefit from? |
Oh, I see that I missed that you moved away from the city since then. |
Actually that's pretty much the way I see it, too. But it didn't seem to matter much to me that the author supported unions more than I might have, or that he might have preferred analog to digital or whatever. I just was looking at what his views were as a participant in the industry grind for as long as he was and what he was saying he thought might be currently relevant. |
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^^^ what geoff was saying, that is |
@orpheus10
Thanks for the arrogant history lesson that nobody wanted or asked for. |
@orpheus10 @voiceofvinyl @n80
Thank you one and all for the last 3 posts here.
n80 "As with the article I think it is too easy to confuse what the majority of the world thinks and does with the level of success and expertise that still exists and thrives."
I think I'm now beginning to see where you are coming from and I might be coming around to your way of thinking on it. Thank you.
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@n80 Thanks for the link. They do indeed seem like a great band. @orpheus10
"Once those "newbees" who bought into cheap analog rigs, realize they have to pony up a few more K to run with the big dogs, they either pony up or fold. Since they don't know about the expertise required for "analog nirvana", in addition to the extra K; they're going to fold, and that's why this resurgence is temporary."
It seems to me like it all that may still be up in the air. To hear millennials tell it, they are much too debt laden (school, housing) to hold any illusions of being able to ever "upgrade" into anything beyond what may amount to them as a passing "nod" in the general direction of culture.
If the lawyers that run the world could ever figure out what to do with the elephant in the room, China, then they all might otherwise feel that their copyright strategies might work at least well enough to go ahead and announce the worldwide cessation of CD production like they've been wanting to since 2015. But, in the current political climes, it doesn't exactly look like that might happen anytime soon.
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BTW Bill, my reference above to ’the lawyers that run the world’ was certainly not aimed at, or meant to resemble, you in any way. Some years ago I would’ve owned up to certain amount of perceived disdain on my part for the group I’m referring to, but anymore I’ve actually come to view all that they do as a necessary outgrowth of this increasingly interconnecting "global village" that all nations continually have to bump up against. The group I’m referring to operates under the auspices of the UN and I realize they are trying to coordinate the international effort to bring everybody collectively into the 21rst century. Although from your description of your background, yours and theirs seem rather different to me, but in any case, I do apologize if I have, or have appeared to have, thrown around the phrase recklessly...did not mean that to come off as any kind of backhanded remark toward you or anyone else here, FTM.
Regards |
@orpheus10 and @whart
Much thanks for the kind words.
@whoopycat
"...he treats WWII as the beginning of time." I think that's just because that marks for him the beginning of his point of involvement with the industry and he was perhaps reluctant to try to account for any of the period prior to that since it would plainly involve speculation. I think I can sympathize with that. But, your point about touring remains well taken. Thanks for your post.
@bdp24
Thanks for your post. Very interesting anecdotes!
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I’ll agree with that sentiment. The author of the article put it this way:
"Yes, there have been a handful of futurists – H.G Wells, Aldous Huxley, and given the state of many current governments I would grudgingly include Ayn Rand. Probably the most successful futurists in our lifetime may have been Marshall McLuhan and Stanley Kubrick, but even so, all of these writers and film makers have been only partially successful gazing into the crystal ball. Given that the past is no more fixed than the future I begin this conversation with you."
It’s that last sentence that to me is the operative one here. You could envision it coming to include all kinds of attempts that people often make to ’rewrite’ historical events...including this kind.
While it seems the author only meant to be washing his hands of it, he also seems to be acknowledging that such attempts can be expected. |
One way or another it all 'goes into the soup', it would appear. Thank you folks for the last 3 posts. |
