The New Music Model?
November 18
Just a thought.
I was reading this article recently and it brought to mind an old quote / proverb - that in the gold rush in America, the people who got rich weren't the ones who went out and dig for gold, it was the people who were selling shovels. Especially the part where the improbably named Dave Cool say this:
"...there is a multi-million dollar industry riding on the backs of starving artists, and I wonder whether the best way to make money in the music industry is to convince artists to spend money they don’t have on a product or service that might nominally help their career."
I was thinking about posting something about this - basically I totally agree - but then this evening I got a promo email from these guys which just proves it all. I'm hesitant to even post it because I don't really want to give them the publicity (that's what they emailed for, after all) but sod it. It sums it up pretty well:
So, to summarise - you put your tunes on the site, and maybe a film-maker will use one of your tunes. And if they do, you pay money every time someone watches the video. The figure cited in the video is 500$. Do they know how long a starving musician can live off 500$ for? It's a long time. Years!
Pardon my french, but fuck all of this.
Some sites can be, of course, worth it - Soundcloud springs to mind as a useful tool and reasonably priced. But don't go handing over your money to all these bands of charlatans trying to capitalise on people's desire to make it; use that money to get to shows and network, make contacts, build relationships. It's more effective and it's more fun anyway.
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Posted by bassmusic
