As a longtime reader of yours, I’m not necessarily saying that I completely ‘disagree’ with some of your points above, but rather more ‘confused’ & ‘disheartened’ you might say.

I mean, first off (and with all due respect) – I’m getting a bit confused at ‘why’ you continue to write about this same issue with the record companies, over & over again? I understand parts of what you’re trying to say in general, but this is probably the 9th or 10th article that you’ve written (in the past several months now) where you continue to boast & rave about ‘How the record companies screwed-up royally”, or “Why the record companies ‘lost’ to free-internet streaming”.

I think the point has been well made & established by now, but where I really seem to have an issue with all of this, is the fact that you’ve kinda ’shifted’ from or writing less about any ‘questions’ of what real, ‘working artists’ out there should ‘do’ or expect from all of this in order to sustain a living by what they do or create?

You have said numerous times that the record companies have ‘failed’ severely, crappy CD’s are dead, and that the future of all music is now ‘free’ to everyone, therefore it’s a great time to be a musician and we should all rejoice by downloading everyone’s music without paying anything for it, while roasting old, boring CD’s over the dead corpses of ex-major label executives.

(I simply don’t see where ANY of this ‘great’ for the hard-working musicians of today) – but fine, ‘the king is dead, off with his head, and steal all of the music that you can find, etc………..’

But ‘How’ exactly is this supposed to be ‘great’ for the music industry itself or any of todays indie-artists that are trying so hard to hopefully make somewhat of a living out of creating music? – especially with so much of it being constantly given away for ‘free’, more & more?

I see WAY too many artists that come into our recording studios down here, that put in a LOT of hard work, effort, (and yes, money) into making their records, but then never hardly even see a dime in return for making them now (which has also caused MANY recording studios across America to close down as well by the way, which is another bad loss for not only the industry, but for the engineers who helped create those same records who don’t have jobs now.) But even for the artists who record their own material at home, STILL have to pay for the computers, the recording software, gear, time, etc, etc – only to see most of their efforts & products given away or ‘taken’ for free.

I understand that this is basically inevitable for the most part, and again, you’ve made that point pretty clear in many of your articles (so I’m not even going to debate that)

But what I am going to ask again, is both “How exactly is this ‘good’ for the starving artists out there who are ‘trying’ to create a living for what they do?” – and with that said, “How or ‘what’ should independent artists do from here, in order to be successful?”

(and please don’t just say that “free music is great for publicity!” – That phrase is becoming an old song & dance and basically just sounds great in ‘theory’, but at the end of the day that same ‘publicity’ is more of an ‘excuse’ or optical illusion & certainly doesn’t put any money into the artists pockets.)

I just simply want to know ‘How’ is the future of independent music (or the independent musician) suppose to ’survive’ if nearly all of their music is to be given away for ‘free’? (this ‘used’ to make-up a fairly large portion of their income.)

In the past, most artists had 2 ‘main’ ways of creating their income – ’selling records’, along with constant gigging. Now, you say it’s narrowed down to ‘just’ playing gigs alone? (again, ‘how’ is this a ‘great’ thing for the artists?) And I’m sorry, but most small clubs or venues nowadays ‘pay’ very little to a single band or artist. You also state that the concert industry is ‘booming’ – but it’s only ‘booming’ for the very ‘top’ acts out there (U2, Lady Gaga, Madonna, etc) – NOT for the independent artists.

I also have to disagree with what’s said above in regards to ‘the album’. First off, it’s usually NOT the record-industry who puts ‘fluff’ (or ‘crap’) on the album – that’s generally a result of a band or artist who can’t write more than one or two decent songs on an album, because they simply suck at song-writing and choose to focus on their ‘one-hit-video’ song. But you should also remember that there are FAR too many great albums out there, in which the best material on that album is usually NOT the ‘hit-songs’. Again, this is another big ‘hurt’ for musicians & bands alike, because if everyone starts to ‘only’ download the ‘hit-songs’ vs. purchasing the entire record, then not only does that band or artist continue to lose more financial income, but worse yet – there’s going to be countless ‘great albums’ lost or ignored because of this. (imagine if ‘Sgt. Peppers’ or ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ were picked apart like that back in the day for example? Multiply that by every ‘great’ & ‘complete’ album ever made, and that’s a HUGE loss for the music industry.)

Bottom line: if you or your band ‘chooses’ to record some songs on a laptop while getting baked in your school dormitory and then give away all of your music for ‘free’ so that you can brag to your friends about getting played on YouTube – that’s perfectly fine – but that’s NOT what I consider to be a ‘working-class’ band or an artist that’s desperately trying each & everyday to make a living or profession out of their work and what they do with it.

Musicians and/or artists alike have always had a tough time in being able to sustain a career out of playing & recording music. But the fact that one of their main ’sources’ of that career income is now constantly being ‘given away for free’ (or even stolen in some cases), says that it’s NOT a ‘great’ time to be a musician or artist.

– it may be a ‘great’ time to be a ‘listener’, but not near as much for the working musician.

(and even then, the ‘listener’ is eventually going to get screwed as well, because like ‘Chris Cooper’ mentioned above, the overall ‘quality’ of ‘free’ music is going to continually decline & worsen as it goes on. You keep stating how bad the record companies screwed up, and screwed the working artist in the past – but I don’t see how it’s much different from what the ‘greedy listeners who refuse to pay for anything’ are doing right now.)

Seriously, I’d love to hear or read some more about ‘newer ideas’ for what the independent working musicians of today can ‘do’ or ‘try’ in light of all this ‘free music for all’ business, in order to better their chances of sustaining a career or living in this newer, ‘internet-world’ of music we’re entering now – vs. wasting time by continually bashing record companies & the old age of CD’s.

It is normal that majors suffer. They spent millions on everything but the artists because there was money to win—and I have nothing against money. But in the end, what more superfluous than music ? (especially standard music you can hear everywhere for free) In the end, what more superfluous than the artists ? I mean, I could die without water but I would only be bored without music. You might want to believe that the western world advocated cultural venues after the war because there was money to take from it. After all, art existed before museum and concert halls. Maybe art should be just a hobby, a necessity. If not, maybe it could be free.

But the “natural aversion to being cheated” was something I could not stop thinking about.

My thoughts:
In the past decades (main stream)music is becoming more and more a sort of fast food. It follows simple patterns and trends mostly driven by marketing, strategy and of course labels.

So the feeling of being cheated does not pop up directly after buing a cd. I think this feeling is something that could pop up many years after buying, a physical music carrier.
You see this cd and you could think “.. how stupid I’ve been at that time because of buying such stupid music…”
An mp3 is something you can hide good so it is harder to get reminded.

What would the record industry be like if this was written 10 years ago and all the majors listening and adapted?