Is Piracy Really Killing The Music Industry? No!.........?
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chrisjechorek
- mnml mmbr
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About piracy we don´t and can´t do more independent documentary movies like "We Call It Techno"" for example. Even if you do it Low Budget with lots of idealism you can´t even reach your break even with DVD sales.
After a DVD is released you can be sure that it is online the next 2 days and you can´t control it. So the end is that less people are doing stuff like this or in bad quality cause it has to be cheap to not lose money. Not everybody has rich parents ;-)
Same with Music, the quality is going down and only as a producer its hard to make money. Only a small % of electronic artists make enough money through DJing or playing live to make a real life out of it.
I always hoped that there will be less rubbish on the market about this reasons but that was a mistake. So for stuff which is maybe cool for one or two weeks and DJ-tools nobody is willing to spend money. Thats the problem especially in the music biz in my opinion.
After a DVD is released you can be sure that it is online the next 2 days and you can´t control it. So the end is that less people are doing stuff like this or in bad quality cause it has to be cheap to not lose money. Not everybody has rich parents ;-)
Same with Music, the quality is going down and only as a producer its hard to make money. Only a small % of electronic artists make enough money through DJing or playing live to make a real life out of it.
I always hoped that there will be less rubbish on the market about this reasons but that was a mistake. So for stuff which is maybe cool for one or two weeks and DJ-tools nobody is willing to spend money. Thats the problem especially in the music biz in my opinion.
@ SLices, yes, that's something I hadn't even thought about.
Mind you, I wouldn't strictly say it was loosing quality. If you take techno, in particular - the purist strains, by this I mean Axis thru birmingham sort of sound and leading right up to the modern gritty berlin sound (not the plasticy minimal sound).
A lot of bandwagon jumpers moved into where they saw the game as being, a lot of the bigger producers seem to do that, they obviously are motivated by sucess and perhaps to some extent , money, so you tend to find, once these people move on due to lack of reward, that the scene then gets propped up by people who simply don't care about these things, the only mandate is keeping the sound alive, and pushing it forward, the lack of commercial interest makes it more viable for these people to get recognition on their own terms, and I'd say it's exposed a lot of artists who were lost in amongst 'all that ass' as the marines would say.
Similarly, perhaps the DVD piracy thing might expose those with commercial interest and open the floor to more self funded and sustained operations who may have more love for what they do.
But it works both ways, as I'm finding now, even though I've sustained myself in music for over ten years, I'm now at a stage where If people want to continue hearing my music at a certain level, they are going to have to pay to some extent, because I'm trying to make the transition into doing music full time, in order to satisfy demand.
This means that if I don't make something (I'll still always work part time at least) then I'll have to scale back my operations and as a result, less material will surface.
So it's a complex one, there's always a sliver lining tho is I guess what I'm trying to say, the whole piracy thing is definately rinsing out a lot of the bandwagon jumpers, but at the same time - like you say, it's also leaving us wide open to a drop in quality or perhaps less output from those that really are worth listening to or watching.
It's definately imperitive to keep this notion going though, a lot of the socialist minded individuals who claim that they shouldn't and won't pay for music need to realise that at our level, it is most definately hurting the scene, apart from anything else, if the downloads aren't tracked, there's no way of knowing who the most popular acts are, nothing is charted and therefore, the artists don't even have the satisfaction of knowing that people are into their stuff, taking stuff without paying is one thing, not even saying thank you is just plain rude.
Hope Slices can weather the storm, clearly worthy if you ask me !
Mind you, I wouldn't strictly say it was loosing quality. If you take techno, in particular - the purist strains, by this I mean Axis thru birmingham sort of sound and leading right up to the modern gritty berlin sound (not the plasticy minimal sound).
A lot of bandwagon jumpers moved into where they saw the game as being, a lot of the bigger producers seem to do that, they obviously are motivated by sucess and perhaps to some extent , money, so you tend to find, once these people move on due to lack of reward, that the scene then gets propped up by people who simply don't care about these things, the only mandate is keeping the sound alive, and pushing it forward, the lack of commercial interest makes it more viable for these people to get recognition on their own terms, and I'd say it's exposed a lot of artists who were lost in amongst 'all that ass' as the marines would say.
Similarly, perhaps the DVD piracy thing might expose those with commercial interest and open the floor to more self funded and sustained operations who may have more love for what they do.
But it works both ways, as I'm finding now, even though I've sustained myself in music for over ten years, I'm now at a stage where If people want to continue hearing my music at a certain level, they are going to have to pay to some extent, because I'm trying to make the transition into doing music full time, in order to satisfy demand.
This means that if I don't make something (I'll still always work part time at least) then I'll have to scale back my operations and as a result, less material will surface.
So it's a complex one, there's always a sliver lining tho is I guess what I'm trying to say, the whole piracy thing is definately rinsing out a lot of the bandwagon jumpers, but at the same time - like you say, it's also leaving us wide open to a drop in quality or perhaps less output from those that really are worth listening to or watching.
It's definately imperitive to keep this notion going though, a lot of the socialist minded individuals who claim that they shouldn't and won't pay for music need to realise that at our level, it is most definately hurting the scene, apart from anything else, if the downloads aren't tracked, there's no way of knowing who the most popular acts are, nothing is charted and therefore, the artists don't even have the satisfaction of knowing that people are into their stuff, taking stuff without paying is one thing, not even saying thank you is just plain rude.
Hope Slices can weather the storm, clearly worthy if you ask me !
-Offtopic-
With Slices we are in the lucky position that we have a sponsor who makes it possible. There is no other chance to do something like Slices without.
If you would sell it it definitly couldn´t be the same quality cause you wouldn´t sell enough copies to pay your team an acceptable fee. And as some projects are really time intensive you can´t do that on the side.
On the other hand, if you give stuff away for free like we do it with Slices people get used to it and are not willing to pay for things like that anymore. So its always a thin line. With Slices the focus is more to promote electronic music as an alternative to TV. Thats why we thought it should be for free. But as I said its only possible with a sponsor.
-Offtopic- End
But not every musician can have a sponsor and not every artist is a good DJ and performer. But thats the only way to make money, thats why I think there are so many average DJs cause they have to play to make money and its definitly easier to play for the people as playing different stuff and being original. And thats what I mean with less quality.
Same with producing. Being original don´t make money in most cases so its easier to do what everybody likes. All you need is a computer.
Even if you´re not skilled you can do an average dj tool track. And thats 90% of the output of electronic music in my opinion.
I still know some electronic acts who still sell thousands of physical albums. So its still possible. Just think about Moderat for example. They are a really good live act and tour a lot. Thats why they sell lots of records and are popular.
Others make good music which don´t sell much but helps to promote them so that they make good money with DJ gigs. If it works like this its also fine I guess. But there are too many DJs and too many releases and not enough space for everybody.
When you think about concerts and how much money people spend for tickets sometimes it´s unbelievable. But you can´t copy this physical experience, you have to be there. Same with clubs. So the focus changed a bit more on this direction. Records are just promotion tools.
So the piracy and filesharing thing has definitly a big effect on the whole music scene. And definitly not only for good.
But the quality in general is definitly more less then years ago.
Watch out for the new Slices issue. There we did an interview with Tony Andrews from Funktion One and he said some really interesting things about this topic (quality)
With Slices we are in the lucky position that we have a sponsor who makes it possible. There is no other chance to do something like Slices without.
If you would sell it it definitly couldn´t be the same quality cause you wouldn´t sell enough copies to pay your team an acceptable fee. And as some projects are really time intensive you can´t do that on the side.
On the other hand, if you give stuff away for free like we do it with Slices people get used to it and are not willing to pay for things like that anymore. So its always a thin line. With Slices the focus is more to promote electronic music as an alternative to TV. Thats why we thought it should be for free. But as I said its only possible with a sponsor.
-Offtopic- End
But not every musician can have a sponsor and not every artist is a good DJ and performer. But thats the only way to make money, thats why I think there are so many average DJs cause they have to play to make money and its definitly easier to play for the people as playing different stuff and being original. And thats what I mean with less quality.
Same with producing. Being original don´t make money in most cases so its easier to do what everybody likes. All you need is a computer.
Even if you´re not skilled you can do an average dj tool track. And thats 90% of the output of electronic music in my opinion.
I still know some electronic acts who still sell thousands of physical albums. So its still possible. Just think about Moderat for example. They are a really good live act and tour a lot. Thats why they sell lots of records and are popular.
Others make good music which don´t sell much but helps to promote them so that they make good money with DJ gigs. If it works like this its also fine I guess. But there are too many DJs and too many releases and not enough space for everybody.
When you think about concerts and how much money people spend for tickets sometimes it´s unbelievable. But you can´t copy this physical experience, you have to be there. Same with clubs. So the focus changed a bit more on this direction. Records are just promotion tools.
So the piracy and filesharing thing has definitly a big effect on the whole music scene. And definitly not only for good.
But the quality in general is definitly more less then years ago.
Watch out for the new Slices issue. There we did an interview with Tony Andrews from Funktion One and he said some really interesting things about this topic (quality)
this is the trouble with this capitalist society we all live in. the fact that art must in some degree have to equal money; unacceptable, in my opinion.
i believe that when making music, you as an artist must take in consideration financial aspects, you've lost a big part of the quality of the end 'product'. i don't condone piracy in any way and i do buy vinyl that i find to be timeless, but music in any form should't be anywhere near in the same category as a pair of nikes or a can of coke, whatever end of the spectrum you find yourself in, producer or consumer.
consider what this scene has come to when hawtin, for example, appears in traktor commercials. what's next, minimal tv ?
i believe that when making music, you as an artist must take in consideration financial aspects, you've lost a big part of the quality of the end 'product'. i don't condone piracy in any way and i do buy vinyl that i find to be timeless, but music in any form should't be anywhere near in the same category as a pair of nikes or a can of coke, whatever end of the spectrum you find yourself in, producer or consumer.
consider what this scene has come to when hawtin, for example, appears in traktor commercials. what's next, minimal tv ?
mindful matters
soundcloud.com/son-der
soundcloud.com/son-der
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chrisjechorek
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infernal.techno
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+1A-Dreamer wrote:this is the trouble with this capitalist society we all live in. the fact that art must in some degree have to equal money; unacceptable, in my opinion.
i believe that when making music, you as an artist must take in consideration financial aspects, you've lost a big part of the quality of the end 'product'. i don't condone piracy in any way and i do buy vinyl that i find to be timeless, but music in any form should't be anywhere near in the same category as a pair of nikes or a can of coke, whatever end of the spectrum you find yourself in, producer or consumer.
consider what this scene has come to when hawtin, for example, appears in traktor commercials. what's next, minimal tv ?
i know so many people who look at making tracks as "hustling", or spending an entire day in the studio knowing that money is to be made doing so. not surprising either, their music is extremely stale and formulaic, a clear representation of the mainstream side of "dance music" (calling it that very loosely)
- matt