kilgoretrout wrote:
SuperSlowYo wrote:
kilgoretrout wrote:
But most clubs in the country don't go through ticketmaster. It is true that bands make most of their money from touring and merch sales, but if a band doesn't sell enough albums, they get dropped from their label. If they get dropped, they won't have the tour support money that came from their label and won't be able to tour anymore. Plus, if a band gets dropped from a label, they won't get paid as much money on tour.
The fact of the matter is, you're stealing money from bands when you download music and don't buy the album. You can jusify it however you want, but you're stealing. That's not to say I don't share music. I share it with my friends and I'll download songs sometimes to see if an album is worth buying. If it's worth buying, I will. If not, you can buy the singles on iTunes and delete the crap that's not worth buying.
and how many really good bands can you that have been dropped by a label cause an album didnt sell as hot? not many... and even on the chance this does happen... theres like a billion struggling independent labels ready to sign any act they can... congrats on being a slave to the whole consumer process but id rather lie, cheat and STEAL....
Not many my ass... How about the Format? Interventions & Lullabies sold extremely well for a debut release, but they still got dropped. Why would you want to sign wtih one of the billion independent labels that are struggling? How are they going to give a band money to tour? I think bands that work extremely hard and make great music deserve to be paid for it and deserve the opportunity to keep making more albums. If you disagree, that's fine.
The REASON the small independant labels are totally fucked is because of the number of people who rely on large scale marketing, tv and mainstream distribution to tell them what they are 'supposed' to be listening to. It's the BIG LABELS strangling the market because a large proportion of people are used to not having to make ANY EFFORT to seek out music, because 'acceptable' tracks which repackage ideas and genres that are stolen from the underground scene into easy to swallow installments, available from the HUGE DISPLAYS of stock at the front of every HMV or other big shops.
The big labels aggressively promote songs with underhand chart rigging (e.g.
giving out massive numbers of freebies and getting them counted in the chart figures) and other dodgy methods, aside from the millions they spend on marketing. The depths they sink to know no bounds. Because it's not about the music, it's about the money. Hence the word 'business' in music business. Ever notice how all the local greengrocers, butchers and other shops are being strangled by the out of town supermarkets? Same principle.
In my opinion people are
much more likely to by independant media in any format if they have heard it (which is pretty hard unless you get playtime, so copies on the internet are basically free radio) and genuinely think that it's worth the asking price. I bought all the Introversion games for that very reason, I downloaded them, loved them, and bought them. I purchase a fair amount independant music (mainly drum and bass) directly from labels and small distributors. How do I find out about the artists? I rip internet radio, or people give me the tracks, or I download them from p2p (edit: and find a few on Napster). I listen to them for a while, if they are really good I'll buy a copy. Look at the Napster model and you can see how downloading is beneficial for small artists. As long as people rely on radio, tv and advertising to
tell them what they should be listening to, then small labels will never be able to compete on the same playing field.
Bottom line: Downloading is a clever red herring, and is not to blame for the problems many independant artists and labels have staying afloat; really it's big labels tactics combined with spoonfed mentality many people have adopted towards finding out about music they haven't heard.
Last edited by UnOriginalNuttah (2006-10-19 14:34:15)