interesting input from matthew dear on the topic:
Interviewer: I’ve heard a lot of artists griping about how difficult it is to protect one’s livelihood with how quickly things end up leaked on the Internet. Some people have taken measures to combat this, such as Radiohead’s self-distribution or Ricardo Villalobos’ mixed together Fabric album. Your own 2007 album is also mixed in a similar way. Have you considered any ways of protecting your livelihood when thinking about future releases?
Matthew Dear: No, not so much. The mix of the False album was done like that because I wanted it to flow like one endless track. I wasn’t thinking about piracy or anything. I think it was David Byrne who said that if he had relied on money for his records he would be poor. And that was in the eighties, you know? Even then the money was in touring. My livelihood and my music come from people seeing me on stage and from other things, not just people buying my records. Probably 50 to 60 percent of my core audience probably gets my music for free. My main goal is just to perform more and to make my money from people seeing me on stage, because you can’t download a live set like the one you’re seeing at a club. I think that element of human contact has always been important and that’s why I tour so much, so people can have something special to take home with them.
Unreleased music being shared - politics
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patrick bateman
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This is of course fine for the 'bigger' artists that have lots of gigs, and get paid good the gigs, but it's still hard for the not-so known artists/labels etc...mattburns wrote:interesting input from matthew dear on the topic:
Interviewer: I’ve heard a lot of artists griping about how difficult it is to protect one’s livelihood with how quickly things end up leaked on the Internet. Some people have taken measures to combat this, such as Radiohead’s self-distribution or Ricardo Villalobos’ mixed together Fabric album. Your own 2007 album is also mixed in a similar way. Have you considered any ways of protecting your livelihood when thinking about future releases?
Matthew Dear: No, not so much. The mix of the False album was done like that because I wanted it to flow like one endless track. I wasn’t thinking about piracy or anything. I think it was David Byrne who said that if he had relied on money for his records he would be poor. And that was in the eighties, you know? Even then the money was in touring. My livelihood and my music come from people seeing me on stage and from other things, not just people buying my records. Probably 50 to 60 percent of my core audience probably gets my music for free. My main goal is just to perform more and to make my money from people seeing me on stage, because you can’t download a live set like the one you’re seeing at a club. I think that element of human contact has always been important and that’s why I tour so much, so people can have something special to take home with them.
I made the experience of integrating a webshop to my label and it's more or less a failure. We averaged like 2-3 mp3 sales per month, even if we were 50% of the price of Beatport.mattburns wrote:not so well-known artists dont really have a problem with music being shared illegally compared to the bigger artists as you dont normally here of the smaller artists unless u actually here their tune on a website and then buy it
Getting people to support you is for me, becoming a real mystery. I don't even know if its worth asking anymore, it just becomes silly in the end.
(yes, I'm pretty much discouraged these days)
yeah, it's hard to be underground in a quite commercial way, or even commercial in a quite underground way...but if someone can do it...pheek wrote:I made the experience of integrating a webshop to my label and it's more or less a failure. We averaged like 2-3 mp3 sales per month, even if we were 50% of the price of Beatport.mattburns wrote:not so well-known artists dont really have a problem with music being shared illegally compared to the bigger artists as you dont normally here of the smaller artists unless u actually here their tune on a website and then buy it
Getting people to support you is for me, becoming a real mystery. I don't even know if its worth asking anymore, it just becomes silly in the end.
(yes, I'm pretty much discouraged these days)
Where do I begin... 
I have to say something good about filesharing i guess: if it wasn't for stuff like kazaa and napster and soulseek i would have missed out on a lot of music. I didn't even know some very good sh!t excisted. All this town had/has was one record shop which selss mostly heavy metal and pop and stuff like that. Ofc i eas exposed to electronic music when i wen't to my first raves but back then I had no idea how the dj's even got their hands on those foreign technotracks. I was a bit green i admit!
But I have never played any illegal mp3's in a set. Except a couple tight funk hits from the 70's which i haven't found on vinyl yet. I'll keep digging though.
I know I had a point in mind... Oh yes! for me filesharing has been a blessing and many artists wouldn't have received a dime from me if it wasn't for p2p because i wouldn't have known about them. But ofc it isn't all to thank p2p. Discogs and google and talking with other enthusiasts has helped me to find a lot of good sh!t too. I do still have some mp3's on my harddrive which i don't have on vinyl. But I'm getting there. Point being that it ain't all bad!
If you think I'm robbing artists and keeping the scene down, then you will but I don't think I am.
And thank goodness for creative commons licence. A lot of good music and for free! I have no need for illegal downloading.
Don't put your promoes out on too high quality or in too many places. And keep the previews short and low bitrate too. That's all I can say. "Opportunity makes a thief."
Internet is challenging for all intellectual property and selling/buying/distributing it. Ones and zeros. Especially because the law isn't some cases up to date. P2P is a bit of a gray area still. Some people don't think that they are doing anything wrong by downloading and when the record labels(big ones atleast dunno how indies do it) are only trying to stand in the way of development and hanging on to the old ways of doing things. Luckyly there are internet shops like beatport around and maybe the bigger labels have also seen the light and finally have catched up with the development of technology.
I think that people want to abide the law and do the right thing but when it is so much easier to get music from the internet they will take it from there. And if there isn't a legal easy way of getting it via internet what do they use? DRM and other sh!t only make consumers not want to buy them. Why buy something you can only copy 4 times to your iPod.
And now I'm starting to go waaay off topic and I think this is already a bit too much rant from me so...
Peace and love to you all! Keep doing what you love!
I have to say something good about filesharing i guess: if it wasn't for stuff like kazaa and napster and soulseek i would have missed out on a lot of music. I didn't even know some very good sh!t excisted. All this town had/has was one record shop which selss mostly heavy metal and pop and stuff like that. Ofc i eas exposed to electronic music when i wen't to my first raves but back then I had no idea how the dj's even got their hands on those foreign technotracks. I was a bit green i admit!
But I have never played any illegal mp3's in a set. Except a couple tight funk hits from the 70's which i haven't found on vinyl yet. I'll keep digging though.I know I had a point in mind... Oh yes! for me filesharing has been a blessing and many artists wouldn't have received a dime from me if it wasn't for p2p because i wouldn't have known about them. But ofc it isn't all to thank p2p. Discogs and google and talking with other enthusiasts has helped me to find a lot of good sh!t too. I do still have some mp3's on my harddrive which i don't have on vinyl. But I'm getting there. Point being that it ain't all bad!
If you think I'm robbing artists and keeping the scene down, then you will but I don't think I am.
And thank goodness for creative commons licence. A lot of good music and for free! I have no need for illegal downloading.
Don't put your promoes out on too high quality or in too many places. And keep the previews short and low bitrate too. That's all I can say. "Opportunity makes a thief."
Internet is challenging for all intellectual property and selling/buying/distributing it. Ones and zeros. Especially because the law isn't some cases up to date. P2P is a bit of a gray area still. Some people don't think that they are doing anything wrong by downloading and when the record labels(big ones atleast dunno how indies do it) are only trying to stand in the way of development and hanging on to the old ways of doing things. Luckyly there are internet shops like beatport around and maybe the bigger labels have also seen the light and finally have catched up with the development of technology.
I think that people want to abide the law and do the right thing but when it is so much easier to get music from the internet they will take it from there. And if there isn't a legal easy way of getting it via internet what do they use? DRM and other sh!t only make consumers not want to buy them. Why buy something you can only copy 4 times to your iPod.
And now I'm starting to go waaay off topic and I think this is already a bit too much rant from me so...
Peace and love to you all! Keep doing what you love!
Computer games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.
- Marcus Brigstocke
- Marcus Brigstocke
I can proudly say that in the past i have downloaded illegal copies music, but i stopped completely before getting heavily into techno.
I love loading up my cart on Beatport and getting excited for the next payday when i can download them and listen to them all. It's like a little present every paycheck.
I could get in free to any of the parties around here if i simply asked my friends, but i never do because i know they -need- the money. They don't simply want it like all the rappers and pop stars out there. They -need- it to do what we all love to do.
Promoting this makes me feel much cooler than having jacked, unreleased tracks anyday.
Illegal music trade is to music as hacking is to video games. Pathetic, greedy and childish.
I love loading up my cart on Beatport and getting excited for the next payday when i can download them and listen to them all. It's like a little present every paycheck.
I could get in free to any of the parties around here if i simply asked my friends, but i never do because i know they -need- the money. They don't simply want it like all the rappers and pop stars out there. They -need- it to do what we all love to do.
Promoting this makes me feel much cooler than having jacked, unreleased tracks anyday.
Illegal music trade is to music as hacking is to video games. Pathetic, greedy and childish.
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time.for.trees
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I'm catching up on this one late in the game. and it's an interesting subject for me.
i will openly and freely admit right here... i used to be a big time music thief. i mean, big time. gigs and gigs and gigs and gigs. but over the last couple of years i have come to have more and more and more friends in the international techno scene and have become more and more entrenched in techno as not just a way of life, but a way in which i would hope to make some income.
that being the case, i still do some illegal downloading. but it is never for playing or us, only, really to hear something that i don't have any other way of hearing. i can't really afford to buy vinyl these days, as a techno promoter and college student i don't really get much income, so if something comes out on vinyl and i want to hear it and can't get it on beatport or some other service, i have to download it to hear it... it's just the position i'm in.
i buy everything i play now, though. as far as playing unreleased material. it's interesting that you are bringing that up, JP, i've in fact had this conversation with you before. I even have gotten some of those unreleased tracks from you, and i have in fact even played those unreleased tracks.
every producer that Communikey comes through, at one point or another, we're all hanging out and they say, "hey let me give you some music!" i have always been under the impression that these people who are becoming our friends understand that these tracks are going to get played out, because, well, we're a crew of dj's, and yes, having that unreleased jam does make you cool as hell.
what i don't do is share them out, or give them to anyone. i keep a private folder that holds all of the unreleased material that i have gotten from techno friends over the years. sometimes, with good friends, i email them and say, "hey i'm playing (insert track you gave me) on saturday, i'll let you know how it goes over!"
or i write them after the gig and say, "hey, i played (insert track you gave me), and it fuckin' SLAYED, people went nuts!"
i haven't ever encountered a situation where a friend who gave me a track in confidence was annoyed with me playing it... i've even used the christmas present David Last sent out to us this last december... not that i am some big dj who people are sitting and scouring the sets of, looking for those unreleased gems... but i do gig a fair amount and i do get a lot of stuff from techno friends.
that being said, does this mean in montreal this year i won't get any new pheek material?
i guess, i dunno, i'm not sure where i stand on it, i can see how labels would be iffy about putting a track out if they're hearing it before release... because if one person has it, then who knows who has it... and that's really the point...
after this long rambling post, i think from here on out, i will explicitly make sure with friends that i can play their unreleased material before i do it... unless it is someone i specifically know in colorado... screw my friends.
i will openly and freely admit right here... i used to be a big time music thief. i mean, big time. gigs and gigs and gigs and gigs. but over the last couple of years i have come to have more and more and more friends in the international techno scene and have become more and more entrenched in techno as not just a way of life, but a way in which i would hope to make some income.
that being the case, i still do some illegal downloading. but it is never for playing or us, only, really to hear something that i don't have any other way of hearing. i can't really afford to buy vinyl these days, as a techno promoter and college student i don't really get much income, so if something comes out on vinyl and i want to hear it and can't get it on beatport or some other service, i have to download it to hear it... it's just the position i'm in.
i buy everything i play now, though. as far as playing unreleased material. it's interesting that you are bringing that up, JP, i've in fact had this conversation with you before. I even have gotten some of those unreleased tracks from you, and i have in fact even played those unreleased tracks.
every producer that Communikey comes through, at one point or another, we're all hanging out and they say, "hey let me give you some music!" i have always been under the impression that these people who are becoming our friends understand that these tracks are going to get played out, because, well, we're a crew of dj's, and yes, having that unreleased jam does make you cool as hell.
what i don't do is share them out, or give them to anyone. i keep a private folder that holds all of the unreleased material that i have gotten from techno friends over the years. sometimes, with good friends, i email them and say, "hey i'm playing (insert track you gave me) on saturday, i'll let you know how it goes over!"
or i write them after the gig and say, "hey, i played (insert track you gave me), and it fuckin' SLAYED, people went nuts!"
i haven't ever encountered a situation where a friend who gave me a track in confidence was annoyed with me playing it... i've even used the christmas present David Last sent out to us this last december... not that i am some big dj who people are sitting and scouring the sets of, looking for those unreleased gems... but i do gig a fair amount and i do get a lot of stuff from techno friends.
that being said, does this mean in montreal this year i won't get any new pheek material?
i guess, i dunno, i'm not sure where i stand on it, i can see how labels would be iffy about putting a track out if they're hearing it before release... because if one person has it, then who knows who has it... and that's really the point...
after this long rambling post, i think from here on out, i will explicitly make sure with friends that i can play their unreleased material before i do it... unless it is someone i specifically know in colorado... screw my friends.