Merchandising!
When Andrew Keen's Cult of the Amateur came to me in the mail via Amazon, the first thing I did was flip to the chapter "The Day the Music Died [side a]." After rolling my eyes a bit at the title, I read the chapters unsurprised at the stance he took. But it really isn't that simple, Keen.
Yes, the fall of the local record store is one to bemoan. It sucks. Even in New York City, all of my favorite ones have closed down leaving me to have to take the oddly convoluted subway route to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to buy my music. It sucks that I can't hang around a record store and talk to knowledgeable people about music face-to-face. It also sucks that a lot of bands are getting shafted from profits that would be gained through their music sales.
OH WHOOPS.
Remember Steve Albini? I mentioned wanting to write about him in the first entry of this blog. In the early 90's, he wrote this essay called "The Problem With Music" for Maximum RockNRoll. In it, he breaks down the income a band that's signed by a major label and under contract, complete with a chart and everything. Adjust for inflation, and you'll find that bands are still fucked. That's the problem with music. That's the problem with art. It's simply not a good way to make money.
When Andrew Keen's Cult of the Amateur came to me in the mail via Amazon, the first thing I did was flip to the chapter "The Day the Music Died [side a]." After rolling my eyes a bit at the title, I read the chapters unsurprised at the stance he took. But it really isn't that simple, Keen.
Yes, the fall of the local record store is one to bemoan. It sucks. Even in New York City, all of my favorite ones have closed down leaving me to have to take the oddly convoluted subway route to Williamsburg, Brooklyn to buy my music. It sucks that I can't hang around a record store and talk to knowledgeable people about music face-to-face. It also sucks that a lot of bands are getting shafted from profits that would be gained through their music sales.
OH WHOOPS.
Remember Steve Albini? I mentioned wanting to write about him in the first entry of this blog. In the early 90's, he wrote this essay called "The Problem With Music" for Maximum RockNRoll. In it, he breaks down the income a band that's signed by a major label and under contract, complete with a chart and everything. Adjust for inflation, and you'll find that bands are still fucked. That's the problem with music. That's the problem with art. It's simply not a good way to make money.
Keen asks "With fewer and fewer people buying the physical albums, where is the money for the record industry and the recording stars?"
Firstly, fuck the record industry. It's their own fault that it's taking them this long to realize that their model for doing business is an archaic one.
That out of the way, there's a very obvious way to create a draw for physical albums: include something special in its physicality.
This is going to sound snobby as hell, but any music I buy, I'm going to buy on vinyl. Jesus Christ, that sounded a lot worse than I wanted, but whatever. I buy vinyl neither for the false sense of the superiority nor for the superior sound quality that vinyl inherently offers. I can't really afford sexy speakers that would draw the sound out. The reason I buy vinyl is that I love both the huge album art as well as colored records. There's something special about holding a piece of music encased in a perfect one foot square.
That's not the only way to draw people to buy physical music. Later on this year, Sonic Youth front man and guitar virtuoso Thurston Moore is going to release In Silver Rain with Paper Key
which is some sort of combination of music, art, and poetry. In short, to stay competitive, artists have to be creative.
John Cusack's character in High Fidelity would probably be equally as obnoxious online.
But the recording stars? How are they going to get money? This is a tougher question to answer. My favorite band since high school has been Fugazi, a band that has prided themselves on their integrity and DIY ethic. They were on a label created by the front man Ian Mackaye, dictated that their albums be sold for no more than 8 dollars (again, adjust for inflation), wouldn't play shows that weren't both all-ages and over a certain price-point. There's a couple other bands that follow suit in the current underground punk scene today. The record label Mackaye started is still up and running.
On the other hand, another music guy I look up to, Ted Leo (of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists) has recently announced that he's probably going to stop touring and settle down because touring doesn't pay the rent (there has also been reports of his wife suffering from some health issues). If this is indeed true, then that is a great loss to the world of popular music.
But the recording stars? How are they going to get money? This is a tougher question to answer. My favorite band since high school has been Fugazi, a band that has prided themselves on their integrity and DIY ethic. They were on a label created by the front man Ian Mackaye, dictated that their albums be sold for no more than 8 dollars (again, adjust for inflation), wouldn't play shows that weren't both all-ages and over a certain price-point. There's a couple other bands that follow suit in the current underground punk scene today. The record label Mackaye started is still up and running.
On the other hand, another music guy I look up to, Ted Leo (of Ted Leo and the Pharmacists) has recently announced that he's probably going to stop touring and settle down because touring doesn't pay the rent (there has also been reports of his wife suffering from some health issues). If this is indeed true, then that is a great loss to the world of popular music.
What's the answer, then? Keen's solutions at the end of the book involve lawsuits to those that break the law. Fair enough. Fair enough until it gets in the way of an artist being able to appreciate his art being out in the world. Case in point: Mark Linkous died before he could see an official release of a project he did with DJ Danger Mouse that was being held up due to disputes with the record label EMI. It's fair enough until the RIAA starts making examples out of twelve year old girls and old ladies who clearly don't have the money to pay them. Lawsuits aren't a mend to the wound. They're an amputation of the limb with a rusty saw and no anesthetic.
"To proceed to a more intelligible exposition of the relation of the poet to the past: he can neither take the past as a lump, an indiscriminate bolus, nor can he form himself wholly on one or two private admirations, nor can he form himself wholly upon one preferred period. The first course is inadmissible, the second is an important experience of youth, and the third is a pleasant and highly desirable supplement. The poet must be very conscious of the main current, which does not at all flow invariably through the most distinguished reputations. He must be quite aware of the obvious fact that art never improves, but that the material of art is never quite the same."
Things change, Keen. For better or for worse, things change. But we can rest easy with the fact that no matter how it's being distributed, presented, or profited from, art will still always be there.
I don't know if i agree. The internet has led, for ex., to an explosion in published poetry -- most of which sucks. Same for music. The trouble is, the good stuff is harder to find in the mass of bad stuff. It's like a full-time job (with low pay). We're also presuming an audience that can distinguish between good and bad poetry (or music) -- big presumption. I'm troubled by the fact that bands have become allied with corporate brands as a way to stay solvent. If you're a shill for Coke or Converse or Four Loko, how is your music different than a jingle?
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