The New Music Business Model Is Busking

I like buskers, mind you. I'll never forget the genius accordion player that was wailing away on a Bach fugue in a dark stairway of the Paris Metro. The acoustics were perfect, tons of reverb and echo, and this guy was playing the hell out of that Bach fugue. I heard the music from a long ways down the hall, and I was astounded when we turned the corner to see that this guy was playing Bach on a chromatic accordion, one without a piano keyboard. I stood there transfixed, and watched and listened, and dropped a couple of Euros in his case. He was great.

But now, the brave new generation that feels that free music is a given right, seems to think that all musicians should be buskers. Pay what you like, or don't pay at all. I can sort of see the sense in it. If you like the music you might stop a minute and listen, and then throw a few coins their way. If it's not your cup of tea, you hurry on, you didn't come to the subway for a concert after all, did you? But are musicians only entertainers, should we cue up alongside the jugglers and illusionists that line Venice Beach near LA? Is that the only purpose of music? Is that its only value?

Why do I have to allow my customers to decide the value of my product? I don't get that privilege from anyone else. Listen, you IT people that should be working when you're posting about your right to steal music on reddit or digg, would one of you come over to the house and sort out my computer? It's running really slow lately, I don't know. After you get done, I'LL decide what your services were worth. I need to get my teeth cleaned. Are there any dental hygienists out there that will let me decide what teeth cleaning is worth? Better yet, I think it should be free. After all, it's just a service, it just costs you your time. Use your service to promote the Dentist's office. If I like it, I might come back for a root canal.

I respect buskers, but I don't want to be one. Another time in Paris, I saw a line of accordion players waiting for their turn to busk on a subway train. I wish to hell I had had my camera with me. It was early in the morning, around 8:00, and there were six accordionists sitting on the bench on the metro platform. I missed a couple of trains just watching them, trying to see what was going on. A train would come into the station, and one of them would get on, and the rest of them continued to wait. It was like a bunch of taxi drivers lined up at the airport, waiting their turn for a fare.

If I wanted to beg for a living, I think I'd rather go to Thailand, and become a monk. I wouldn't even need an instrument, just my begging bowl.

Like I said, I admire buskers, I just don't want to be one. That's not why I became a musician.