I think the future with file-sharing means that the hierarchical, almost feudal structure of major record labels will be struck a blow from no longer being able to completely control the distribution (including payola) and price of music. Likewise, some musicians who've gotten enormously rich- perhaps undeservedly so, perhaps not- in that system might see their record sales drop precipitously. But real musicians will always write terrific music, whether living in near poverty or in the lap of luxury, from Mozart to Dave Matthews Band, because real musicians must write and perform music- it's what they do!
I'm not advocating a return to the time when musicians were but hired help for the aristocracy, and those musicians whose work thrills people across the country and around the world do deserve to be well compensated. However, those who are driven from within to follow their Muse will do so regardless of whether they stay at the Motel 6 or the Four Seasons. Besides- some of the very best music out there is not from the stadium-filling pre-packaged pop and rock millionaires but from people whose musical living, such as it is, is primarily made performing shows in small to mid-sized venues for a devoted fanbase.
posted by hincandenza at 3:11 AM on September 5, 2001
I'd also like to point out again what I said way up top, and folks like jfuller have second'ed: real musicians will write and perform because they have to, because it's in their blood, because when you're a musician you can't walk down the street or ride the bus or eat lunch without a tune in your head, without your feet and hands and fingers all tapping away at music that for now only you can hear. If a musician/composer/performer can make a living, even a decent one that affords them the luxury to focus on their craft and passion, then huzzah! But this all-about-da-benjamins MTV Cribs nonsense that one hit single with a catchy 1-4-5 progression and a slick marketing campaign combining sexual repression and titillation somehow entitles you to live in a mansion and drive multiple black mercedes just has to stop. And that goes doubly true for the executives who don't stir the air with the sound of even one note yet profit mightily off the work of others because they offer the only channel for what was the monopolized distribution and promotion of music. What file-sharing and true global word- of- mouth offer is the chance to bypass those executives and that feudal musical hierarchy. This will leave the musicians to make their money (and the truly talented artists will always make a very generous living, if not the freakin' $40M Britney was reported to have earned last year) on live performances and smaller record and schwag sales to a devoted fanbase that could span the earth. To think of an extreme example, if Mozart were alive today, he'd be 245 years old. :) But also, his ludicrous talent would make him probably the wealthiest musician to ever live- but that's not why he'd write the music, and all the money in the world couldn't make him stop.
posted by hincandenza at 5:33 PM on September 5, 2001
Once more, someone confuses quantity with quality; what on earth can you say to someone who can only measure worth in currency?You aren't a true free marketeer, Anonymous. (You rarely are.) You, Anonymous, are a worshipper of power, nothing more; you fetishize sales reports and profit margins and box office returns and TV ratings as if they were a magical process, as if, through contagion, their success would rub off on you like some minor mirror of their wealth and power. That's why you love millions of sales and tax cuts for the rich and box office blockbusters and shoe companies that pay a single megastar more to preen in a couple of commercials than their entire Asian workforce that actually makes their products--even if their aggrandizement hurts you directly. That's why you sneer at people who try to get something back when they've been cut or burned or driven out of business by these giant bullies--you've got to distance yourself from their pathetic loss as much as possible, lest it drag you down. Even if in the final analysis you have far more in common with those "losers"; even if it's shown to you how their cause would benefit you and make your world a better place. You are superstitious and ignorant, knowing nothing of the true workings of what you term the "free market," and desperate to remain that way.
I don't know who that guy is, but he's my new hero... :)
posted by hincandenza at 5:49 PM on September 5, 2001
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posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:02 AM on September 5, 2001