Streaming!

This attitude might stink to you but all I'm doing is responding to the way the world is. We can't make people think that music has value. My response is to keep making music anyway until I die.

I would bet you money that I couldn't pay most people to focus and care about what I do. And I'm fine with that. It sucks, but I've accepted how little value music has anymore.

Fans support bands

Bands play for fans

And that's what's wrong with the modern music scene. 

If you expect someone to do something for you *for free and as a favour* then you can't really complain if they don't. A fan, simply put, is someone who supports a band. Not someone who just likes the music.

Compliments are very nice but essentially, try eating them. I'm just as happy to play with like minded musicians in a practice room. 

Hi Smurph, I don't know if that's quite the right interpretation. If we say "No one at all will make any money off music, full stop" - which is becoming the case, with the exception of a tiny, tiny, tiny few people, all of whom are producing commercial music.... that doesn't weed out the losers. It weeds out everyone. 

Supply and demand then kicks in as musicians..... stop bothering. To assume people will keep creating music which coincides with your (and my) particular niche market tastes when there is zero money in it and nothing but continual rip offs..... is pretty much a big assumption. ;-)

Why would a musician stop bothering just because there is no money? Some people have a need to create that goes far beyond what any other human cares about. If everyone on the planet died, I would have to spend a lot more time surviving but I would still create albums.

I would rather not listen to a musician that would give up so easily.

Hi Angelo, you may recall that one particular thread we had a discussion on recently had over 2,300 views. I'm in IT sales and marketing as a day job, so take it as read that I know how to shift - well, software, at least. ;-)

 

Most musicians I have ever met, live on the edge ... but some that I have also met, have another edge, and while streaming may be a problem for some, it isn't for others! Fer crying out loud ... the likes of Dream Theater, Marillion and many other bands, ended up making their future off a lot of sharing of the music when they needed it.

 

I am not an illegal dl'r and would not advise my friends to steal from our friends and the like, and my whole collection of LP's and CD's is all bought, baby ... all of it! And through out my life, I even lost my job because I said ... "love over gold" ... but in the end, I am proud of having stood up for the right situation, and the other folks ended up in the dumps deservedly so, for lying, cheating and the like.

672 posts on a forum is a lot, by some standards. Question is how many views these posts got. Depending on the forum section they're put in, and the time the are posted, they will be seen by more or fewer of the intended audience. A forum like this is, for a lot of people, not the first place they go looking for new music. That would also explain why Bandcamp itself (Where people do go for that reason) produces more hits on your music. 

That would be hell.... 

But by the same token, that's like saying an artist should just give his music away.

If I dropped the price of an album to $1, would most prog rock fans in Iran buy it ? If they have access to streaming sites, they seem to have been able to afford a computer, so $1 doesn't seem unreasonable. ;-)

I want to talk about another face of Streaming sites. I am living in IRAN. I know many of music fans (specially Progressive Rock) that don't have access to their fav music easily. POP and Rock and Metal music find in IRAN easier than genres like Progressive Rock. I access to my fav music and I don't talk about myself but I have money and I have family outside Iran and ... but most of Iranian People don't have those things that I have. 

They can use "only" Streaming sites and blogs. And another thing : Many of music Sites and Blogs are filtered in IRAN and fans must find some ways to breaking filter . 

Progressive Rock fans have many troubles to access to their fav music.

The problem is that a concept started up that "music equals fame and money". Everyone uses this idea - to rip "musicians" off. This is why a Gibson will cost you £2,500. Basically, a certain number of musicians buy into a dream. Of course, this dream is 99% impossible. ;-) 

Bad musicians - there are plenty - go on stage and play for MONEY. Or for attention. When they get no money and no attention, they soon give up. This is all the marketing and ad men understand as well, hence the music industry. And Spotify, et al. You are, if you're a member of Joe Public, not really buying money. You're buying "product" disguised as music. 

However, there is a hard core of proper musicians out there who just play for the love of it, mainly. These are the people who you see playing small gigs and holding down day jobs, under no illusions about fame or fortune. Ideally, they'd like to be able to give up the day job and play 24/7. This used to be possible three or so decades ago. The money from a small gig and vinyl sales (if you could scrape the money together to get a pressing together) combined with merchandise sales kept quite a few working bands going. 

Even this is becoming pretty much impossible now, what with "pay to play", PA hire, lighting hire etc going through the roof. If I want to do a vinyl pressing, I have to find £1000- 1500 and spreading the word takes all of my time up. The problem with the general public seeing music as "free" - which is now becoming the accepted idea with sites such as Spotify - is that sales disappear. The hard core proper musicians will keep going, but.... would you buy into this ? ;-)

Yes, times have changed and you can have a whole music studio in a spare bedroom. Instruments are effectively much cheaper than in the 70's, in a lot of cases. I have enough equipment for a moon shot. I didn't 40 years ago, that's for sure, nor could I have afforded it. But. It is becoming totally impossible for even hardcore musicians to make a single penny, as the concept is now that music is "free". 

Not everyone will make it. But if no one makes it, and that becomes obvious, no one will sign up to be a proper musician in the first place. You can only take so much disappointment. ;-)

With me, money is NOT the motivation. I've been playing a long time. Even giving music away for free doesn't work, it generates a lack of respect for it, to be honest. Every single "proper musician" I know is utterly disillusioned and plays because they love the music. If it becomes financially impossible to book small gigs because the pot's dried up..... very bad sign indeed. 

If the trickledown effect of Pandora, Spotify et al is to somehow taint and devalue ALL music, God help us. ;-) I think Angelo is right, things will change. If it's because a few people at the top of the food chain aren't making money one way, they'll think of another one.