Music Industry Tuesday: The Oatmeal did this comic yesterday about the state of the music industry, and I found it pretty thought provoking (thanks Devon Leger for originally posting). Its an ok primer for those not familiar at all with how the business of music has changed in the last 20 years, but since I think most Americans grasp the basic facts of that by now, it just seems to be a gross oversimplification. It appears to offer the simple solution: Just Pay Musicians $5 Directly For Their Album. But that sort of turns a blind eye to the fact that Streaming - any music, on demand, any time you want it - is happening, consumers love it, and artists are certainly not getting $5 per album for that - its more like $0.0005. The chances of that compensation rate increasing exponentially is unlikely. Then theres the fact that most of us sell physical CDs at shows for an average of $15 - Is the Oatmeal saying we are ripping people off? There are certainly ways to pay musicians $5+ for their music - and fairly directly (Shameless Plug: Front Countrys new album came out today, and is offered for name your price download on Bandcamp: frontcountry.bandcamp ), but its just one of many ways people can get music these days. The final frame of this comic purports to advise us on a new future - but I think that time is already here and thriving. I wish there was one more frame in this comic that can tell me the future, but that would be way too easy. Guess well have to create it ourselves!
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:21:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015