Only because CDsells fell down, 10th times more people won’t go to a concert. Tickets aren’t cheaper. They’ll more likely go up, because now it’s a greater pressure on concerts as an income source, they are expected to bring back the money that’s missing.

I think music taxes could be a good way to solve the problem, but what’ll people who don’t listen to music say?

“Why should I pay for your entertainment?”

If you sent to a supermacket and just walked out with a pizza without paying for it you would be in some serious shit…but people think they can just take other peoples music…and all the time the Internet providers are making the money – its the providers that need to pay up!…they have exploited our industry and now should pay!

Writing great music is incentive enough in itself. Truly great songs are rarely motivated by money.

I think most musicians know going in that it’s going to be VERY hard to make money. It’s always been this way to some extent, but that’s never stopped musicians from doing what they love.

I’ve gotta disagree there. I know how to use torrent sites, and get a great deal of music from there. However, that does not stop me from buying CDs. If I like a band, I show my respect by purchasing their CD. Anyone who claims to be a music fan yet does not financially support his favorite artists is a hypocrite.

Besides, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as having the physical product in your hands. I have never understood why people use iTunes. If a band can only churn out one song worth listening to, I’m not going to give them any of my money. But if I like a band, I’m going to purchase their CDs. That way, I’ll own the actual album, and will easily be able to rip it and listen to it on my MP3 player.

Heres some reason i see for low sell

1. Riaa lawsuit pissing off customers. Making looking for music elsewhere.

2. The crappy music that they put out that nobody wants.

3. Maybe they are spending more time buying with Video Games and dvd’s.

Besides music, Sales of DVD, Books, and Video Game have done nothing but go up. If there own self destructing behavior that has cause this and in my view they should die and let the indie music scene to flourish.

Imagine…if we could make an album fit to the full size of a 4.7 gig DVD?

I think that the reason why Gamers buy games is becuase the size is incredibly huge and to download it would not be worth the cost and effort as it would be simply cheaper to go out and buy the game.

What I am saying is this-There has to be a Music Format that will make the files HUGE (maybe 5 times the size of a normal wave file).

So if someone had to decrease it to an mp3, it would still be big, and it wouldn’t be worth downloading it cos it will eat up your Gigs, eventually getting capped from your ISP???? Hence it will be cheaper to buy the Album at the store….

Is this a crazy idea???? Please let me know…tonycastanho@yahoo.com

You talk of niche markets not being served by the ENTIRE music industry in the event of this ‘taxation’ system. The truth is that any niche/innovative market will be promoted through a love of the niche/innovation, not a love of money… This is the case already as much as it would be under any ‘taxation’ system.

As a creator of what I perceive to be niche/innovative music, I am more and more put off by spending any time working on it, due to music fans’ insistence that they should be entitled to it for free! Making a good record requires, in many ways, far more work than performing live.

It’s not just the smaller and smaller potential for income that prevents me from working on my music, but also the feeling that my work is not valued by the society in which I live.

Another point to make:
Your proposal that recordings become used only for promotion = Crapper recordings!

Peace.

No, it’s not a Music label. This time it’s Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch who weighs in on the ‘Music Tax‘ concept.
 ”Forcing people to buy music whether they want to or not is not a solution to this problem. The in…

Stratt

And there would be 100s of ways of upselling from the flat rate – just like cable TV, net access / dsl, and mobile phone subscriptions. I invite you to read the Flat Fee Music Manifesto at http://www.musiclikewater.net and the post via the link above, and then come back with some actually informed opinions. It doesn’t always pay to shoot from the hip when your gun has only fake bullets.

First of all you have to be ‘branded’ before enough people will pay to see you and make playing live profitable. Same with the public wanting to purchase the cheesy t-shirts you have to offer.

My contention is that the Internet, by itself, will produce few, if any, ‘branded’ artists in the futrue.

But let’s say you get a little buzz going on the Net. Let’s say 100,000 – non gamed – people post themselves as your ‘fans’ on MySpace … Where you gonna play? Your ‘fans’ are likely spread around the world. If you’re lucky 500 might be in L.A., say. How many of them will buy a ticket to see you? 2%? Who’ll book you and not make YOU PAY to play in their club with those kinds of numbers when the name of the game is how many butts you can put in seats?

Paying to play might have been O.K. when there was a chance that some record company might have discovered you, but is doesn’t work if there is no chance of creating some kind of upward momentum if you doomed to running a business on your own.

The thought that playing for free is good promotion has lost whatever sense it might have ever made. What are you promoting if you have nowhere to go?

And, wait a minute, where are all these venues that are suppose to support future stand alone artists … They don’t exist … and nobody is going to open new clubs if the potential number of patrons an internet act might draw doesn’t pay for the electricity to run the place.

But, let’s say you work your way up to a place where some toilet might book you and pay you enough to break even – or even make a few bucks over what it costs you to get there … How long can you keep that kind of life style up before you say … “I’ve got no health insurance, I’ve got no savings, I’ve got no future, I’d better get a real job and start taking life seriously.” Hopefully, you won’t wait too long to reach that conclusion so you still have a shot at a career beyond working at MacDonald’s or working for the government.

Have you ever known indy artists who have ‘waited too long’ to make the transition and have been sentenced to working the road and trying to find clubs that will book them for the rest of their lives … I’ve known many of them and they are not a happy lot. They are usually broke or heavily in debt … and, if they get sick … well, it’s sad.

The internet it blowing the idea of making music as a living back to the dark ages …

Who cares if it costs nothing to make and distribute music these days … (which, by the way, isn’t true). The day of the ‘branded’ artist is over. We’ve seen the last Beatles, the last Madonna, the last Eagles, the last of the thousands upon thousands of truly magnificent, highly creative and talented artists that commercial music brought us over the last 100 years. And, it’s all because everyone will rip off rather than support new artists … Music and those who make it are no longer treasured, revered, cared about … in what is becoming a more and more solitary, personal playlist, existence, music is no longer the glue that bonds human interaction together .. music has become disposable … one ‘delete button’ away from the next ‘nobody cares’ piece of background noise destine for tomorrow’s trash bin

Sadly, that’s the irreversible truth …

Technology marches on.

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