IAmAI
Full Member
Artificially Intelligent
Posts: 40
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Post by IAmAI on Mar 19, 2006 11:50:12 GMT
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Post by G on Mar 20, 2006 10:22:34 GMT
Hmm. Very interesting. I've got to be honest, I still haven't quite worked out where I stand on the whole file sharing thing. On one hand, giving away free music it's a fantastic way to get it out there and get people listening, but is it a different story if it's taken, rather than given? When someone rips a CD instead of buying it, there's no doubt that the band have lost out financially, but then what's the value of getting another copy of your record out into the world and circulating among music fans? Maybe the potential gain outweighs the financial loss? Not an easy one to quantify. I think the 'financial loss' issue is the doozy here - if you gleefully rip yourself a copy of the latest Red Hot Chilipeppers album, you're hardly sending Anthony Kiedis to the Job Centre - but the majority of bands out there (particularly in a specialist field like rock/metal) are busting their arses, working dayjobs and working their way further and further into debt just to stay in the game (this certainly includes us, and a lot more bands than you'd think). At this end of the scale, every sale that you can make is really important, and furthers your chances of being able to make another record, go on another tour etc...... but then maybe spreading the word for free would ultimately bring greater rewards in the long run, like it has done for the Arctic Monkeys? The toughest thing is that from this perspective there's just no way of knowing. That's a very long winded way of saying "dunno"  |
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Post by barrythief on Mar 20, 2006 12:31:16 GMT
It's a big gamble giving music away - the Arctic Monkeys succeeded mainly (in my humble opinion) because the NME hyped the living crap out of them - what undoubtably started as a word of mouth (or email?) fanbase quickly became something that people have bought into as a result of someone, somewhere, has decided to make them the flavour of the weak (sorry, that should say "week" but can't resist the punnage).
ultimately downloading music is fine on a try-before-you-buy basis, but fails if people never buy cds - which more and more people are doing because they don't see the damage that not buying music does.
the only other solution would be to run things completely DIY - there's an american band/artist (can't remember their name, something along the lines of "bomb the music industry") who give all their music away for free, take stencils+spraypaint on tour to spray their logo onto people's t-shirts instead of selling merch, and tour on the basis that venues/fans give them somewhere to sleep+feed them
saying that though they've probably all got rich daddies.......
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