quote:

Originally posted by projectd And you expect millions of taxpayers to willingly pay more in taxes so that a small minority of people can enjoy the proverbial "good EDM"?

Of course the OP is. He is probably a young kid who has yet to have to support himself financially by having a real job. That is, he probably still lives with his parents and has a lot of growing up to do.

I'm not certain what the motive behind this thought might possibly be.

You want to somehow improve the quality of music in general by ensuring that select artists are minimally compensated for their work?

Did you ever stop to consider that it's the drive to succeed amidst the gaping possibility of failure that impels people to innovate in the first place?

Also, most government employees are required to participate in drug screenings. Do you see the problem here?

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There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

I will admit to not entirely knowing if this can even be implemented yet and it will take me some time to research, this topic is just for bouncing off ideas. So don't be afraid to criticize, or insult me if that makes you feel better. Even though i don't feel like wasting my time on arguing i suppose it comes with the job.

Most of your concerns aren't new to me and I've already tried to steer around some of them in the opening post. I'll try and reply to them anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Spacey Orange i don't want my hard-earned money going to some unemployed drugged-out hippy smacking some keyboard. f that.

Don't think i don't understand this. The goal is off course to try and work around this by trying to collect money from people who have a higher chance to benefit from it, which is why i suggested to add some extra taxes to concert and festival tickets. But to be honest if that doesn't work out i'm still not opposed to using the general government treasury. You could also see it as an investment, a healthy music scene is a good way to put you're area or country on the map. Again, this is already in affect in my country: Local artists get a certain salary from local governments, And they even encourage public institutions like schools to spend a certain percentage of their funding into buying their art. This is done not only to prevent cultural demise in poorer regions that don't get opportunities for big corporate funding but also to attract tourists which is important to the region's economic growth.

quote:

Originally posted by projectd ^Exactly. Government is inefficient as it is, on top of that, you expect politicians to hire competent workers to go out there and identify talented EDM producers and pay them a stipend for their music?

I don't, if you hire companies or officials to do that job the result would no different to what labels are doing now. You have to give everyone a slice indiscriminately or you might as well not bother.
You can hire inspectors that make sure they're actually being productive But that may end up costing more then it's worth.

I will admit this is a major Achilles' heel and i'm not quite sure how you deal with it and the opportunities of abuse it creates, but i have a feeling it might be possible. As again, it's not a new thing i'm proposing here. I'm just having difficulties figuring out how these things work at the moment. I'm thinking about requiring musical education for instance. These schools usually have a high standard for talent and ambition and can help separate the good from the bad.

quote:

And you expect millions of taxpayers to willingly pay more in taxes so that a small minority of people can enjoy the proverbial "good EDM"?

I didn't expect millions of taxpayers to willingly pay taxes for getting involved in pointless wars in the middle east either. We all have things we don't like or don't agree with when it comes to government spending. The only thing that's important is that there is some objective argument for it to be worthwhile. Which is what i'm trying to figure out here.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Dingel In what way is culture suffering? You say "Producers these days are apparently not making enough money." What is the evidence for this? The primary consumer complaint I see on TA is that entry costs are very low, so producers are putting out a great number of tracks, many of which are of low quality. When Beatport is flooded with too many tracks, it's hard to find the best stuff. That is not a reason to subsidize the production of music. In fact, if you want to induce quality upgrading, the easiest way to do so is to raise entry costs!

It was established again in the recent J00F topic.
I never agreed with any of those complaints you mentioned.
From what I understand entry cost's are not low at all especially If you don't want to resort to piracy. It is not even slightly hard to find good stuff on beatport, a flood of records also means more good records after all. Raising entry costs is nonsense as it will just make it a rich man's hobby.

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Mixes: Alaé (Conceptional ambient dub)
AOTSE (Experimental)

Listens:
http://www.last.fm/user/bierheld

quote:

Originally posted by Halcyon+On+On I'm not certain what the motive behind this thought might possibly be. You want to somehow improve the quality of music in general by ensuring that select artists are minimally compensated for their work? Did you ever stop to consider that it's the drive to succeed amidst the gaping possibility of failure that impels people to innovate in the first place?

For some, yes. The problem now is that producing almost never nets you any money regardless of how innovative it is. How many people do you know that have made a considerable amount of money just by producing electronic music? The ones that do are not the talented or innovative, they're the businessmen, and it almost almost requires some form of live act as well. Two things that are highly problematic for a large number of producers to do. Now i will admit this will not solve any of these issues, but i'm hoping it will at least give these guys a chance both to develop and promote themselves better.

If you don't, you may have saved a few bucks but you might loose something important in the long run. But then again, maybe i'm too pessimistic. As i said before i think things are fine in that aspect to date.

quote:

Also, most government employees are required to participate in drug screenings. Do you see the problem here?

Not really? It's not like the government has to hire EM connoisseurs.

___________________
Mixes: Alaé (Conceptional ambient dub)
AOTSE (Experimental)

Listens:
http://www.last.fm/user/bierheld

quote:

Originally posted by Bierheld It was established again in the recent J00F topic. I never agreed with any of those complaints you mentioned. From what I understand entry cost's are not low at all especially If you don't want to resort to piracy. It is not even slightly hard to find good stuff on beatport, a flood of records also means more good records after all. Raising entry costs is nonsense as it will just make it a rich man's hobby.

What's the evidence that producers don't make enough money? Don't make me hunt through an 8-page thread for it. If you agree that we have more good records than before (even if they are a smaller share of the total market), then why are you worried that producers aren't making enough money? You must be saying that we're on an unsustainable path, in which producers are currently making good records but will have to exit the industry in the future. What's the basis for that forecast?

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D.Squared - The Groove Supremum (December 2010)
D.Squared - New Originals (mix of famous sample sources)

this topic is too well written by the OP to not have lots of pages. im bumping this one, come on guys talk more about this. i want to see lots of dingle berries have pointless douchey discussion thanks,

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Dingel What's the evidence that producers don't make enough money? Don't make me hunt through an 8-page thread for it. If you agree that we have more good records than before (even if they are a smaller share of the total market), then why are you worried that producers aren't making enough money? You must be saying that we're on an unsustainable path, in which producers are currently making good records but will have to exit the industry in the future. What's the basis for that forecast?

there are a lot of producers that had to turn DJ (that didn't want to) just to be able to live man. That's a fact. A lot of the guys who have successes w/ their songs will tell you they'd rather be in the studio then on tour but the fact is they need the touring to survive and most artists have to tour constantly and that's when the music takes a dive, they have less time to devote to their productions, they have less time in their studio and they're forced to work quickly on planes, trains, hotel rooms etc. Granted they're doing music full time and that in itself is a dream come true but the amount of people who can survive solely off putting out records is microscopic.

Not only our government, but I think most in Europe are decreasing budgets for subsidizing. That's why I think it will be difficult in the next few years.
But maybe something could be done with taxes. Problem maybe is when you buy your equipment (and software) as a bedroom producer, you need to pay taxes. And when you're at the point to earn some money you already did buy all the stuff. At least I think that's how it went for my friend Lisaya, who probably won't be an exception.

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