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Steve Albini's essay The Problem With Music is essential reading. It explains in detail the catastrophically bad financial outlook for most musicians. http://w

Steve Albini's essay The Problem With Music is essential reading. It explains in detail the catastrophically bad financial outlook for most musicians. http://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=17 http://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=17

robbyking 11y ago
Steve Albini's essay really illustrates how labels blaming streaming for declining album revenue is akin to the top 1% of income earnings blaming the poor for the middle class's economic problems. The labels always come out ahead, and streaming has become an easy way for the labels to refocus musicians' attention away from the actual source of the problem.
- ArkyBeagle 11y ago
  The labels that didn't come out ahead don't exist any more. Nobody says this: In the 1980s, you could establish the sort of relationships to get priority at CD plants and resell back catalog that was already universally known. So the people who won did that instead of so much trying to break new acts. The last gasp of a flood of new acts actually getting on radio was the SubPop ... thing in the 1990s. After that, nothing unless you followed R&B or "indie." That monoculture ended than. But to be fair, it only started in the first place because radio transitioned from being mainstream to being a "youth" market.
  - robbyking 11y ago
    The labels that didn't come out ahead don't exist any more. Just one point of clarification, when I wrote “the labels,” I meant the big three major labels and their subsidiaries. As both a life long musician and avid music fan, I don't count truly independent labels as part of the "industry."
  - sneak 11y ago
    Literally anyone can put a streaming app into the major app stores these days and bypass all of this. Why are the Big 3 still in this chokehold position? Is the market failing, or do they actually provide valuable services that can't be obtained elsewhere? In either case: why is that?
    - theseatoms 11y ago
      They probably own all the rights to everyone's favorite music from the last century. Disclaimer: Not an expert. Not in the music industry.
    - ascendantlogic 11y ago
      They own the rights to everything. I believe the RIAA gets paid even if music is played/streamed that they don't own the rights to, until the musicians come claim the money. Movies and music showed how much power they have over the last two decades once Napster and later torrenting lit a fire under their asses. It's not just our government that is in their pockets. The TPP is a good example of them using the US' position as economic superpower to get their wishes imposed on other countries. See also: Megaupload.
      - EGreg 11y ago
        What do you mean they get paid for music that is played which they don't own the rights to?? How does it even work?
        justabystander 11y ago
        There are music performance licenses for venues, such as restaurants and bars. People will come up to you and threaten to sue if you don't pay for a blanket license. And they will do this even if you insist on playing completely original music. Many of these license fees are done in bulk. The same with countries that automatically collect a tax on USB sticks and optical media. You pay a volume license, but it never filters down to the artists because it's not collected based on which songs are actually stored or played. This is hardly all of it. There's a huge mass of corruption under the surface. Such as them not actually forwarding over license fees for song collections, or including songs they don't actually have the rights to include.
        sheepleherd 11y ago
        I'm not an expert but I believe the industry gets paid a chunk for "radio play" in general (and things like radio play) on a per station/location basis, and then that chunk gets divided up not on the basis of what was actually played, but on the basis of how popular it is. Not saying it works, but that type of scheme sort of works for the hits, and much less well for obscure music, but obscure music probably does not get played too much. but anyway, something like that is how they'd get paid for music they don't own. These arrangements were worked out back when "radio" was "disrupting" the live music and recorded music industries, and people were trying to "monetize" the "eardrums"
ghostbuster 11y ago
Steve Albini recently gave an insightful talk on the current state of the music business as he sees it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz_CPzuwSk4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz_CPzuwSk4
- 6stringmerc 11y ago
  This is fantastic, I think a lot of tech and music interested people would be wise to give this a listen. It's a personal perspective of history, sure, but I think he's got the credentials to have the position of authority. He goes into depth about the market and business nature of the music industry. It's solid. Whether as an intro or review, it's a quality piece. Thanks for posting this, it's very relevant.
- musesum 11y ago
  Thanks! Here is the text: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/17/steve-albinis-keynote-address-at-face-the-music-in-full http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/17/steve-albinis-k... I worked at Snocap for a while. Like that Snocap wanted to enable indy artists to self publish. But, the major labels wanted to control the "distribution" of their content. "Their" content. I left. Now, I'm thinking of getting back into it. Maybe enhance live gigs. This talk is really timely and inspiring!
ohthehugemanate 11y ago
Steve albinism gave an even better, more up to date keynote talk at the Face The Music event in 2014. It's probably the best, most important explanation of what's happened and what's going on I know of. Well well well worth the listen. https://youtu.be/Lz_CPzuwSk4 https://youtu.be/Lz_CPzuwSk4

robbyking 11y ago

Steve Albini's essay really illustrates how labels blaming streaming for declining album revenue is akin to the top 1% of income earnings blaming the poor for the middle class's economic problems. The labels always come out ahead, and streaming has become an easy way for the labels to refocus musicians' attention away from the actual source of the problem.

ArkyBeagle 11y ago
The labels that didn't come out ahead don't exist any more. Nobody says this: In the 1980s, you could establish the sort of relationships to get priority at CD plants and resell back catalog that was already universally known. So the people who won did that instead of so much trying to break new acts. The last gasp of a flood of new acts actually getting on radio was the SubPop ... thing in the 1990s. After that, nothing unless you followed R&B or "indie." That monoculture ended than. But to be fair, it only started in the first place because radio transitioned from being mainstream to being a "youth" market.
- robbyking 11y ago
  The labels that didn't come out ahead don't exist any more. Just one point of clarification, when I wrote “the labels,” I meant the big three major labels and their subsidiaries. As both a life long musician and avid music fan, I don't count truly independent labels as part of the "industry."
- sneak 11y ago
  Literally anyone can put a streaming app into the major app stores these days and bypass all of this. Why are the Big 3 still in this chokehold position? Is the market failing, or do they actually provide valuable services that can't be obtained elsewhere? In either case: why is that?
  - theseatoms 11y ago
    They probably own all the rights to everyone's favorite music from the last century. Disclaimer: Not an expert. Not in the music industry.
  - ascendantlogic 11y ago
    They own the rights to everything. I believe the RIAA gets paid even if music is played/streamed that they don't own the rights to, until the musicians come claim the money. Movies and music showed how much power they have over the last two decades once Napster and later torrenting lit a fire under their asses. It's not just our government that is in their pockets. The TPP is a good example of them using the US' position as economic superpower to get their wishes imposed on other countries. See also: Megaupload.
    - EGreg 11y ago
      What do you mean they get paid for music that is played which they don't own the rights to?? How does it even work?
      - justabystander 11y ago
        There are music performance licenses for venues, such as restaurants and bars. People will come up to you and threaten to sue if you don't pay for a blanket license. And they will do this even if you insist on playing completely original music. Many of these license fees are done in bulk. The same with countries that automatically collect a tax on USB sticks and optical media. You pay a volume license, but it never filters down to the artists because it's not collected based on which songs are actually stored or played. This is hardly all of it. There's a huge mass of corruption under the surface. Such as them not actually forwarding over license fees for song collections, or including songs they don't actually have the rights to include.
      - sheepleherd 11y ago
        I'm not an expert but I believe the industry gets paid a chunk for "radio play" in general (and things like radio play) on a per station/location basis, and then that chunk gets divided up not on the basis of what was actually played, but on the basis of how popular it is. Not saying it works, but that type of scheme sort of works for the hits, and much less well for obscure music, but obscure music probably does not get played too much. but anyway, something like that is how they'd get paid for music they don't own. These arrangements were worked out back when "radio" was "disrupting" the live music and recorded music industries, and people were trying to "monetize" the "eardrums"

ghostbuster 11y ago

Steve Albini recently gave an insightful talk on the current state of the music business as he sees it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz_CPzuwSk4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz_CPzuwSk4

6stringmerc 11y ago
This is fantastic, I think a lot of tech and music interested people would be wise to give this a listen. It's a personal perspective of history, sure, but I think he's got the credentials to have the position of authority. He goes into depth about the market and business nature of the music industry. It's solid. Whether as an intro or review, it's a quality piece. Thanks for posting this, it's very relevant.
musesum 11y ago
Thanks! Here is the text: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/17/steve-albinis-keynote-address-at-face-the-music-in-full http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/17/steve-albinis-k... I worked at Snocap for a while. Like that Snocap wanted to enable indy artists to self publish. But, the major labels wanted to control the "distribution" of their content. "Their" content. I left. Now, I'm thinking of getting back into it. Maybe enhance live gigs. This talk is really timely and inspiring!

ohthehugemanate 11y ago

Steve albinism gave an even better, more up to date keynote talk at the Face The Music event in 2014. It's probably the best, most important explanation of what's happened and what's going on I know of. Well well well worth the listen. https://youtu.be/Lz_CPzuwSk4 https://youtu.be/Lz_CPzuwSk4