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how many of you actually BUY music? (pg. 4)
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| DOOMBOT |
| quote: | Originally posted by Excess
strictly speaking in terms of trance/edm. it's disheartening to know how little the average artist sells these days. and by average i mean even middle to high middle tier trance guys. im only wondering, because i make it a point to at the very least support the releases from locals as well as my favorite artists.
due to recently venturing into musical production myself i've come to some harsh realizations. i know for a fact even my close friends won't be buying upcoming releases from myself. beyond that, there's not much support from the community itself unless you're on armada/anjuna/flashover
not to give you all a sob story about it though - ive taken up this hobby strictly for myself and could care less who buys my music. im just looking for some different perspectives.
i dont think even the average edm listener realizes how much time, effort, and passion goes into what they're listening to |
I still buy records every now and then because I love the format. Depending on how much I really like the track that is on the record, I'll decide whether I want to pay whatever it is going for on Juno, Chemical, or wherever, at that time. If the price is more then I want to pay, I won't buy it. If enough people feel the same as me, the price will come down and then I will re-evaluate the whole thing and decide to pull the trigger or not.
The fact that people download music for free gives a clear indication on what those people believe the price of music should be in most cases - free. I absolutely download tracks or sets for free for that very fact alone. If it weren't free, I most likely wouldn't pay a dime for it, which means either way, the artist who made the track wouldn't have made any money from me anyway. I understand that it is a hard concept to grasp for a lot of people, especially for those who have turned it into a career, but the fact that music has become as cheap and widespread as it is should really be seen as a good thing. |
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| DOOMBOT |
| quote: | Originally posted by jashic
Oh here's another one. "I don't have that much disposable income so I pirate a few songs".
It's the same as me saying, I can't afford a ferrari so I'll go steal one.
Get over yourselves. |
When you take the ferrari without paying, the ferrari dealership now has 1 less ferrari that it is able to sell. When you download a song for free from a torrent site, for example, that doesn't also mean that there is now 1 less of these songs available, like in the case of the stolen ferrari. |
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| DJ Eco |
I'm sure you know my position on all of this. The situation that music sales are in forces the artists to HAVE to tour to put food on the table. We have no choice. The more the artists tour, the less time they have into putting real effort and quality into their productions.
The critics complain. The quality level goes down a bit.
They get more famous and almost, as a quest for survival, do everything in their power to make DJ Mag Top 100. They make top 10, and tour the world 3-4 times a week. They now need production "engineers" and ghost writers.
The critics complain.
This waterfall effect is all because a producer can't make a god damn dime. Not to be a whiner, but I'm a family and friend guy and not too big on travelling. I've made a conscious decision not to take a lot of gigs and world tours that have been thrown my way recently. Unfortunately, that means I have a day job and within a year or two, I wouldn't be surprised if I have to stop producing. A year's royalty checks can barely pay rent for a month or two in New York City sometimes! But all the DJs you see every week are making 10K to 20K that night. |
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| chupa169 |
For me the mix is 10% music from my label (which I pay for or sign through profit share), 40% promos either directly from labels, artists or promo services and 50% from Beatport. I never use illegal files services to get music.
Coming at it from both a label manager and artist perspective, illegal sharing is something that is a part of this business and has to be accepted. Anything worth listening to and owning is going to be shared. We take steps to carefully distribute promos before the release date to true artists that you hope arent going to illegally share as it not in their best interest to do so. After the release date its fair game for anything to happen unfortunately.
I have confronted a few sites hosting my label's music and asked to be removed from their "sign up for my blog and get unlimited downloads" sites and have had success doing so, but you cant stop it all.
At this point, all you can do is be 'flattered' that people are passing your music around...
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Eco
This waterfall effect is all because a producer can't make a god damn dime. |
I dont think this statement is entirely true Eco. If an artist has a deal where they get say 50% of record sales profit then no, you arent seeing much $ in some cases. But in almost all cases with bigger artists they are paid upfront fees and they most certainly get paid well and many, many artists make excellent livings doing so. This is true in EDM, Pop, Rock or any musical genre... |
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| ZeeRobot1 |
| In highschool I downloaded music off limewire like everyone else. Once I got into production I bought every track I have in my library...Could of gotten a car with it by now. |
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| xpand3r |
I have to admit that I do download music but I also buy many of favorite artists EPs through Beatport and I always make sure I buy their CD's when they are released. I try to make it to all the shows that I can to support the artists and buy merchandise through their websites. I feel like this is at least one way I can contribute to the artist.
My latest purchase from beatport was Butch - Avantgarde EP and got my signed John Digweed - Structures 2 CD couple weeks ago. Both great and highly recommended! |
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| jashic |
| quote: | Originally posted by DOOMBOT
I still buy records every now and then because I love the format. Depending on how much I really like the track that is on the record, I'll decide whether I want to pay whatever it is going for on Juno, Chemical, or wherever, at that time. If the price is more then I want to pay, I won't buy it. If enough people feel the same as me, the price will come down and then I will re-evaluate the whole thing and decide to pull the trigger or not.
The fact that people download music for free gives a clear indication on what those people believe the price of music should be in most cases - free. I absolutely download tracks or sets for free for that very fact alone. If it weren't free, I most likely wouldn't pay a dime for it, which means either way, the artist who made the track wouldn't have made any money from me anyway. I understand that it is a hard concept to grasp for a lot of people, especially for those who have turned it into a career, but the fact that music has become as cheap and widespread as it is should really be seen as a good thing. |
Keep justifying yourself. You basically start off your dumbass argument with: I steal because....
The rest doesn't matter regardless of how much you delude yourself. You're cheapening the artist, music and the scene. Also cheapened yourself. |
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| chimera66 |
| i buy artist albums and compilations, rarely singles. truthfully i don't download illegally at all; i figure i get enough free music through radio shows so when artists put that extra effort to release an album it's more than fair for me to do my part to support them financially. |
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| jashic |
| quote: | Originally posted by chimera66
i buy artist albums and compilations, rarely singles. truthfully i don't download illegally at all; i figure i get enough free music through radio shows so when artists put that extra effort to release an album it's more than fair for me to do my part to support them financially. |
right on. "legal" free music is everywhere, radio shows being one of them. Online radio shows especially. I just don't get the argument that "if I didn't steal, I wouldn't know the artist, so I wouldn't go to the show". There are plenty of ways to hear about artists. Soundcloud provides free listens to almost all recent singles from an artist. Most artists either participate or have their own radio show, etc. Hell, youtube provides small snippets even. It's a BS argument and it shows. |
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| Scoops |
gone are the days of hearing 1 or 2 tracks from an unknown artist/band on the raido and then going out and buying the entire album....
i recall WSOU was playing Killing in the Name of and BomBTrack 3x a day and the sngs just grew on you. Ran to the Howell Record store and picked up the s/t Rage Against the Machine album for $9.99. Then a few months later....the band just exploded |
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| Burak14 |
| i won't spend a dime on a song no matter how good it is if the producer is a lying mofo and a big douchebag. aka faruk sabanci. back in istanbul, my cousin is close friend with one of the sound engineers that actually writes his songs. guy doesn't know about producing and yet he goes on and on about how good he is etc guy is a 4th generation of sabanci family which is like the "trump" family of turkey. sucks for everyone else who works hard to get somewhere cause all you need is money. |
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| Sedna |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Eco
I'm sure you know my position on all of this. The situation that music sales are in forces the artists to HAVE to tour to put food on the table. We have no choice. The more the artists tour, the less time they have into putting real effort and quality into their productions.
The critics complain. The quality level goes down a bit.
They get more famous and almost, as a quest for survival, do everything in their power to make DJ Mag Top 100. They make top 10, and tour the world 3-4 times a week. They now need production "engineers" and ghost writers.
The critics complain.
This waterfall effect is all because a producer can't make a god damn dime. Not to be a whiner, but I'm a family and friend guy and not too big on travelling. I've made a conscious decision not to take a lot of gigs and world tours that have been thrown my way recently. Unfortunately, that means I have a day job and within a year or two, I wouldn't be surprised if I have to stop producing. A year's royalty checks can barely pay rent for a month or two in New York City sometimes! But all the DJs you see every week are making 10K to 20K that night. |
I've gone through this exact argument with others, and I agree with you 110%, Eco. The absolute most depressing part is the final step when the ghost writers come into play... fantastic DJs and producers are quite literally forced into having ghost producers come in and write their tracks for them because there's simply no time.
The music business is in worse shape than ever before. The people creating the music you love DESERVE your money.
It's funny how many people who say they "can't afford to buy music" go out to eat multiple times per week, or go to the bar, or spend money some other arbitrary frivolous way. Stop wasting your money on like that and spend it on music. Isn't the music what really matters to you, anyway? |
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