Great read from the Trichordist: “What’s Good for Adele Sucks for Everyone Else”
However, windowing still feels like trying to control something we can’t control; a return to piracy.
I’m wondering how many music fanatics, and even casual music listeners, partook in one these actions:
1. borrowed friends CDs to rip them to your harddrive
2. visited the library to check out CDs to rip them to your hard drive
3. traded external hard drives full of music with friends and copy them
4. downloaded music from an illegal pirate site (like Napster, Limewire, Pirate Bay)
5. used software to transfer and download a song off Youtube into a .wav or .mp3 version
From 2000-2011, some music fans did all of them. Most of us did at least one or two of these actions to grow our music collections between 2005-2011.
Am I wrong to assume most of us don’t do any of these actions anymore?
Once Spotify became available in America, all of this time storing, downloading, cataloguing music wasn’t worth it for me.
The fact is streaming didn’t make sales diminish. The nature of the song no longer being connected to the physical product (a CD) started the inevitable decline years ago.
Streaming replaces actions 1-5.
Adele is having record sales this week and holiday season. One reason she’s able to do this is because she’s the biggest, most talented artist in the world right now; and another reason is because most of the other music available is on streaming sites.
Look at it this way: If most of the music heavy consumers don’t do actions 1-5 because of streaming, they aren’t going to do 1-5 for one or two albums a year
But if every major label artist tries to window, what would happen? A return to 1-5, not record sales across the board, at least not for long.
The Internet doesn’t disappear because you window your record.
Rdio’s bankrupcty reminds artists that they need to diversify
Rdio is going through bankruptcy.
Rdio is a streaming platform like Spotify or Apple Music. It had roughly 100,000 paying subscribers, and most of it’s success was in France. Entertainment Weekly rated it the best music platform in 2013. In the end, Rdio couldn’t competed.
While I’m undiscovered artist, I still noticed few 100 spins accumulating through Rdio each year. Not much, but every royalty check included a bit of Rdio spins.
Until 2015.
I haven’t received a payout from Rdio through my distributor all year. I’m not worried about the pennies, but here’s a thought:
As I review my accounting, I wonder how many artists also haven’t seen any payouts from Rdio this year? Some might have accumulated more meaningful numbers. Some of those payments would have been a songwriter’s rent, grocery bill, or at least a cup of coffee for the day.
Consumers are moving more quickly to streaming than buying, but artists are trusting in companies that offer those our music to stream to stay in business. Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Tidal, Youtube Red–this is one big experiment. An inevitable part of doing business is occasionally you don’t get paid what you earned, for varying circumstances.
More and more artists are independently putting out their music, more and more are becoming mini-businesses, which face the ups and downs of business.
Be prepared.
Artists need own their art (and their careers), which means diversifying incomes. The music industry changes every four years, often with little warning. If you put your eggs in few baskets, you are only as stable as your worst client.
On Saturday, 16 inches of snow made parts of Michigan an instant winter wonderland. We had a great stretch of a warm November. Mother Nature made us pay for it.
Across the state, musicians had gig cancellations, me included.
Lots of touring acts braved the brutal weather (because that’s what we do!) and most likely faced poor turnouts. (No one’s fault!)
We are constantly reminded that we cannot control the weather; and we can’t control the weather of a lot of aspects of the music industry:
Rdio is going bankruptcy, Facebook requires us to boast posts, Apple installs ad-blockers on OS…the weather changes! We can only control if we will keep working, developing our art, and sharing it.
Bless This Morning Year: an Instrumental Playlist, & a Little Hope
After last week’s violence, I still felt that cloud of hopelessness yesterday, even though Michigan’s weather was unusually sunny and warm. Have you been feeling down, too?
Yesterday, I went to do some writing at the Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor. On a whim, I asked my friends on Facebook what instrumental music is their soundtrack to work time.
I almost made a closed-minded request for only songs that were acoustic based music. (No surprise that I’m a sucker for the acoustic guitar, old blues, and old jazz.)
Fortunately, I asked an open-ended inquiry. I got hours worth of great recommendations for new electronic based music, some classical, and some unique ambient works.
And then something else happened while I was compiling the songs into a playlist. I started feeling a little better, a little hopeful.
It’s not only a feeling gained from the music; it was a from a feeling of connection. Friends simply offering, “Hey, listen to Jonsi & Alex” or “Do you remember Explosions in the Sky?” I felt hopeful.
So here’s instrumental playlist of music to use for work time, from Chris Thile’s Bach interpretations on mandolin to Brian Eno’s classic sounds, to Helio’s piano mixed with electronic tones in “Bless This Morning Year”.
Get some work done. Stay openminded. And thank you for being there.
Greatness is not only a noun, but a choice
Greatness is not only a noun, but a choice:
- A perfectly on-pitch singer will get a compliment for his or her voice; but a powerful song, even if song imperfectly, will move your heart.
- A blazing fast guitar player can play 400 BPM, but can’t reach past your ear drums without an emotional composition.
- A joke stealer on Twitter might amass some followers, even some chuckles, but won’t move the needle on shining the spotlight on the culture’s ironies.
- An artist who masterfully paints by numbers isn’t going transcend or inspire the next generation of artists.
- Youtubers who are primary performing covers get a lot of clicks, but few can fill clubs across the country like songwriters William Fitzsimmons or K’naan.
- SEO marketers made a lot of money in 2005, but in 2015 we are rereading the works of someone who had an idea, theory, or perspective beyond clicks, beyond numbers.
We all have an opportunity to be great, but we also have to choose to focus that greatness; sometimes you have to take the risk and walk one more step.
