It’s a beautiful spring day, and I’m trying to decompress a bit by working outside. It’s nice, and I need it. I don’t take many vacations, but lately I’ve been feeling as though I need one.When this happens, it becomes difficult for me to focus on anything for more than a few minutes at a time. Unfortunately, nearly everything I do requires that I focus for far longer than a few minutes at a time. You see my dilemma. This is not a post about vacations, however. It’s about our future as recording (and performing) musicians.
I’ve just read an interesting point of view on the topic of making one’s music available free via one’s website. Due to several “next page” clicks, it seems longer than it is. Still, I think you should take the time to read what he has to say. Check it out here: http://www.alternet.org/stories/50416/. In a nutshell, the writer (Bob Ostertag, a San Francisco based musician) has decided to provide his entire catalog of music for free download via his website. That’s what I said – his entire catalog available for free via his website.
I understand his concept completely. I have to admit that I’ve mulled over providing my music free of charge, too. But there’s one thing the author doesn’t address that I found myself wondering then and now – how do we make money? Granted, making records (to me) isn’t really about the money, it’s about the music. But I believe professional musicians must maximize every source of revenue available to them. After all, the vast majority of us barely bring enough in to sustain ourselves.
We live in a society where nothing is free. And this seems to hold true for musicians more than most. Equipment isn’t cheap, although prices have come down substantially in the last decade or so. And we need a place to set up our equipment to create all this wonderful music we’re going to give away. Last time I looked, there were no subsidies available that covered free living/recording space for musicians. (If you happen to know of any, please tell me!).
So what are we to do? If you’ve read my previous posts re: Digital Rights Management, you probably know that I feel very strongly that people have the wrong idea about how the average musician makes money. Touring can be cost prohibitive, local venues are often few and far between, and teaching on a weekly basis requires an incredible amount of time beyond the actual lessons. (My friend Steve Larrance, teacher extraordinaire, tells me he sometimes feels more like a driver than a teacher, making his way through the Washington, D.C. area traffic to his lessons).
One of the few bright spots for the independent musician (read: one who’s not indentured to a label or playing for someone who is) is the ability to produce your own music for sale at gigs and via the Internet. So what happens when you take that avenue away by offering your entire catalog for free download? Tell me, how can you, in good conscience, sell a CD to someone at a gig when they can download the same material for free at your website? Granted, the better sound quality of the product is a selling point, but most people can’t hear the difference between .mp3’s and CD’s anyway. Artwork, which used to be a big selling point for albums, is reduced to little more than novelty when the covers are so small they can barely be read. And most artists have taken to posting lyrics on their websites, rather than including them in a format that’s virtually illegible to eyes belonging to anyone older than 15. It seems hopeless, doesn’t it?
If Mr. Ostertag has found a way to sustain himself that enables him to give away his artistic output, I think that’s wonderful! And I respect his right to do so. In a recent posting on his website, Mr. Ostertag says that many who have left comments on his story “missed the point”, and goes on to outline the points we missed. I understand that few of us make a lot of money from our recordings, particular when they are in any way experimental in nature. But I also believe we must not give away that which we’ve worked so hard to create. Those who suggest that we should help to undermine the search for a solution. Which, by the way, is not offered anywhere in his writings that I could find.
The problem is respect. Which, in my opinion, is something children today have even less of than we had as children – and our parents thought we had no respect for much, if anything at all! So long as teenagers, pre-teenagers, and young adults are allowed to continue stealing via the Internet, this situation (and debate) will continue. I will say it again, this is not a creative rights problem so much as it is a problem of not respecting that which is created by or belongs to others.
It amazes me when I sound like my parents now. But it doesn’t amaze me that they were right in their thinking. I actually figured that out several years ago…