Setting the 'Record' Straight
Why should I pay for music when I can get it for free?
Why should I care?
The music industry missed the boat with new technology.
Artists just want to get their music out there and file-sharing helps them do this.
‘Live’ music revenue, compensates artists for loss of CD sales
Record labels just rip off artists and in the digital age they have no role to play.
Why should I pay for music when I can get it for free?
Would you walk into a clothing store, take a pair of jeans off the rack and walk out the door without paying, so that the designer, manufacturer, distributor and retailer see no financial return in any shape or form? The answer’s usually no.
Sure downloading music isn’t quite the same. Some argue that they are only copying the music, not taking the music away from the artist. But the reality is that it doesn’t really matter –unauthorised file-sharing is clearly undermining the artist’s ability to make money from their music and get fairly rewarded for all their hard work.
If you create something, whether it’s writing a book, painting a picture or creating a website, then it should be your choice if you want to give it away for free. But, it is exactly that – a choice. If an artist decides that they would like to be rewarded for their years of hard work, money and sacrifice that they put into creating their piece of art, we should respect the choices that they make about how it’s consumed.
As the journalist, Ian Cuthbertson said (The Australian, 23 Oct 2010):
When people steal files from the big stars, it’s the emerging artists at the bottom of the tree who frequently pay the piper by not being signed – not being allowed to even exist. Everything may be free now, as Gillian Welch sings, but in the end we all pay the price.
Why should I care?
It’s true that music has been copied from the days of sheet music through to taping your favourite song off the radio to cassette, however with the advent of the internet the scale of this problem has escalated dramatically so that 95 per cent of music downloads are now illegal. It’s now at a level of epidemic proportions.
Unfortunately, the number of people engaged in unauthorised activity has also risen substantially. 27.8 per cent of Australian internet users admitted to downloading unauthorised content, including music, via BitTorrent networks in 2010. The main driver of this harmful activity is that it’s “free” (CCi Digital Futures 2010).
And the consequences? The recorded music industry globally has shrunk over 30% in the last 6 years. In Australia, it’s shrunk 27% over the same period. This affects indies and majors alike. .
"I have heard a million justifications for unauthorised downloading and at the end of the day, none of them justify the blatant theft of music. A piece of music has intrinsic value – every song took time to write, record, mix and master, not to mention the costs of getting to the point of release. In the long term, if we do not have a sustainable recording industry then music of a high quality simply will not get released because there is no return on investment."
Nick O’Byrne, AIR Blog 2010
The music industry missed the boat with new technology.
The internet has created a host of exciting opportunities for artists and labels to connect directly with their fans. Labels in Australia and worldwide have also embraced new digital delivery channels, which now account for close to 40 per cent of global music industry revenues.
Music fans have never had such choice and ease of access to legitimate music! Around the world there are more than 400 services offering over 13 million tracks which cater to different tastes and lifestyles – from al a carte downloads, streaming services, free-to-user services, internet radio, subscription models and online video channels. Recent examples in Australia include digital music services like Bandit.fm, Deezer, AAPT’s Music to Your Ears and Guvera.com, streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio and Songl, while popular longer standing services include iTunes and BigPondMusic (see a full list at http://www.pro-music.org/Content/GetMusicOnline/stores-Australasia.php).
Artists just want to get their music out there and file-sharing helps them do this.
The internet has provided artists and labels a chance to connect with fans and spread the word about their music. Many of them provide plenty of opportunities to sample their music online and some are happy to give it away for free. But ultimately it should be the artist’s choice.
The reality is that the majority of artists aren’t big stars like Radiohead and they simply can’t afford to give away all their music for free. You wouldn’t expect to work for free… why should they?
‘Live’ music revenue, compensates artists for loss of CD sales
It is a common misconception that growing live music revenues can compensate for the fall-off in recorded music sales. In fact, the ‘live’ music industry suffered a drop of 9% in revenue in 2010.
Live performance earnings are generally more to the benefit of established acts. The majority of new and emerging artists struggle to achieve sustainable live careers.
Also not all artists are ‘performing artists’ – how does a songwriter or composer get paid for all their hard work?
Record labels just rip off artists and in the digital age they have no role to play.
It’s not always appreciated that the primary role of the record label, indie and majors, is to discover, develop and promote an emerging musical talent. This role is as relevant today in the online world as it’s always been. In fact a recent survey of 2,000 indie artists found that 75 per cent want to get signed to a label (ReverbNation 2011).
Labels play a critical role in the success of artists, investing close to 30 per cent of their revenue in developing and marketing new artists (IFPI Investing in Music Report 2010). Labels have unique expertise in making artists successful through assistance in the creative processes, building a brand and fan base and enabling artists to make a living from their music. Many Australian artists have benefited from substantial upfront long-term investments from labels that would have been difficult to secure elsewhere.
And it’s risky business! On average, only between 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 artists ever get commercial success and less than 15 per cent of sound recordings break even, with even fewer returning profits. So the returns on investment from larger successful acts like Powderfinger go a long way to enable Aussie labels to find and nurture the next Midnight Oil or INXS (who incidentally didn’t make it big with either their first or second albums!).