No One Pays For Music
May 23rd, 2009I overheard a Facebook conversation between 2 guys who studied audio. One of them asked the other if he was still working at Metalworks, a big studio in Toronto.
Haven’t worked there for over 3 years now. [...] Mostly doing video work. Not really my thing, but unfortunately everything’s so damn expensive here and no one pays for music.
And that made me thing. And think. And think.
No one pays for music?
Music is free on the Internet. (You may have noticed.)
How is a musician expected to pay the bills, and continue creating?
What does remarkable music provide?
- New perspectives with new ideas
- New perspectives with old ideas
- Emotional engagement
- Escapism
The job of artists is to show us, through art, music or literature, what we would not otherwise have seen, felt or realized without their perspective. – Ellen J. Langer, On Becoming An Artist (pg 43)
This definition does not mention “the business” of selling art.
Are you trying to create a product, or are you trying to compose unique experiences and perspectives?
Different hats.
If there is no money in the music itself, what value is a musician capable of providing? What is it about music that earns money?
- Licensing for commercials, television, games
- Performances –> Entertainment + Experience
- Sell t-shirts –> provides identity through association
- Teach music lessons
- Create tools for music creation
How do non-musician artists profit?
How do painters earn a living? Selling scarce goods, and commissions.
What is scare about music? Live performances, and collector editions.
There must be a valuable quality before an artwork is of worth (scarce or not).
What makes a piece valuable?
- Uniqueness
- Clarity
- Articulation
Historically, it was stylish for the wealthy to support artists through patronage.
- Patrons of music still buy CDs
- Patrons are willing to pay for digital downloads
- Patrons will associate with your work, and tell their friends
Target your business efforts to generating and maintaining patronage.
It is not true that “no one” pays for music. Patrons will support your music. Commoners will not.
Tags: free, patronage
Posted in Mu$ic Theory | Comments (2)
May 23rd, 2009 at 8:30 am
I just paid for the new Green Day album. Guess I’m a patron! Giggity!
May 23rd, 2009 at 3:53 pm
I pre-ordered the FLAC (high quality) version of Metric Fantasies. But when it was released, I realized I couldn’t afford to spend the 500MB bandwidth to pull it down. So I haven’t. I’ll make do with the mp3s I taped off their site’s flash player.
I hope TopSpin (the service provider) will honor my purchase when I get back to the land of milk, honey, and unlimited bandwidth*.