I guess the point I was making is that the way music is monetized has changed. Copyright seems to have had a value shift.
It seems to me that us lowly content providers have always perceived that we are getting the short end of the stick while the tech wizards and deal makers laugh it up.
Did Jazz musicians or orchestral musicians ever make money off of copyright? I'm sure a few did but I bet more of them are now. Probably not a lot of money but I bet more of them are seeing a little $$. I remember a joke I heard in the early 90s... Why do Jazz musicians never get dropped (from their labels)?
Because nobody expects them to sell records anyway.
It seems to me that if various streaming services weren't paying what they are...we would all be getting NOTHING from the pirates.
As a record maker I am getting WAY more work now. It pays less but there's a lot more of it.
If it weren't for streaming services and the people that make them popular, most of the music they don't pay for wouldn't even get heard.
I think it's the best time music has ever seen. There's SO MUCH opportunity to get heard. Billboard only tracks a few hundred albums. Without streaming services the same old gate keepers would be running the show. Now you can find your audience and serve them. And hopefully make some $$. Not to mention the exponential EXPLOSION of demand for content that's occurred.
I'd wager that more people are making a living off of their music now than ever before. I don't have any facts to back that up but I bet it's true. Maybe we all gotta work harder and make better music to get heard above the din...
Let the cream rise!
If we go WAY back in music history we end up with merry bands of traveling performers playing for their supper. I agree music is spiritual...it's lifestyle...it's culture defining and it is ALSO about merch. To my 16 year old son it is. It was to me in 1978 when I got my KISS lunchbox and it is to the hundreds or thousands of kids I see every day in LA sporting their favorite band gear. Bieber and JZ just have a WAY bigger audience than the performers of the higher forms of music. WAY bigger. And they (and their teams) have moved and bobbed with the times.
Symphonies have always survived on the donations of wealthy patrons. And all but a tiny handful of Jazz musicians lived subsistence existences. At least now they can get their music to their audience, as small as it is.
Radio had a much smaller audience but a more captive one than YouTube and they paid higher rates because they could demonstrate their advertising effectiveness...you couldn't skip the commercials. When's the last time you DIDN'T skip a commercial on YouTube? Private broadcast has always been about advertising sales. Or it was PBS and NPR...donation supported. So how are they supposed to pay you for using your music if you don't draw traffic to their advertisers? It almost seems to me that we should pay THEM! Its incredible that I can "release" music to the public for ZERO DOLLARS INVESTED! I, for one, would rather put the money in the pockets of the people who are forwarding this most excellent delivery tech than in to the Ferrari of some rock star who, in my humble opinion, does NOT deserve to be fabulously wealthy for writing a few catchy songs or some record exec who's biggest concern is convincing artists that they can't survive without his "access". YouTube let's the market decide what has value. I love it and I advise young bands that I develop to give their music away on line and find their audience.
I'd proffer that because of these streaming services, a life in music has gone from being a pipe dream to a viable career choice for WAY more people. I hope those YouTube and Google execs get RICH AS HELL and stay that way so their services stay healthy and we can all keep using them. They still aren't as cool as us anyway.
My son listens to music for free. If he likes the band he buys stuff from them...including, sometimes, the music he already got for free. He appreciates value.
I know I'm gonna lose friends for this one but am I gonna get kicked off the site?
Is there such a thing as a virtual lynching?
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*zero likes*
Sorry...