I think a little more background information might be in order here, so that I don't get accused of being a shill for the suits. I have no love for the majors, but I can appreciate what they do. I worked for several major labels all through the eighties, and I had my share of trouble with them, but I can see both sides of the issue because of this.
I spent most of the nineties wandering around looking for something to do, and when I discovered (personal discovery, I'm not Christopher Columbus or Ry Cooder) Cuban music, I went nuts for it, and I got lost in a grand obsession that has lasted for almost nine years now. When I decided to start recording my Cuban music experiments, I didn't for a minute think about approaching a label. I learned my lesson, and at the end of the day, I want my recordings to belong to me, not someone who fronted some money to record them.
So, I did just that. I recorded and manufactured the CDs, even did all of the graphics myself, totally independent. After some of the tunes became hits in the European Salsa discos, I was able to sell licenses to companies to distribute the recordings, and still maintain control over the product.
It went well for several years, but after the last CD came out, it was obvious that things had changed. I think sometimes that we who work in the niche markets are the canaries in the coal mine. When there's a problem in the marketplace, we get hit first.
And while I have never made a lot of money on sales of the CDs (let's face it, if you want to get rich, don't bother with Cuban music), I resented the fact that possibly 90% of the people who had my music on their iPods hadn't paid anything for it. I sure as hell paid to make the recordings. I bought equipment, I paid musicians, I traveled to undisclosed tropical locations to work with the best musicians from the very source of the music itself.
And if there was no such thing as songwriter's royalties, and if I didn't write the music myself, I would have gone bankrupt a long time ago. In Europe, the DJ in a disco has to turn in a list of the songs he played during the night, and a portion of the proceeds for the evening are turned over to the royalty collection society for distribution to the authors of the music. Therefore, I make enough money on my work to justify carrying on.
But the thing that kills me, and kills the desire to create new music is the attitude that all of my efforts should be available for free. You, reading this, are you willing to do whatever you are currently doing to pay the rent for free? Are we trying to build some sort of communist utopia where money is unnecessary? Hey, I've spent some time in a place where that was the idea, and let me tell you, it just doesn't work. For me, it's the principle of the whole thing that galls me. I know that this is a very unpopular idea right now, and most artists are afraid to say it publicly for fear of a Metallica style backlash. Personally, I don't give a fuck. Until you, personally, are willing to labor without monetary gain, don't ask me to do so, just so you can fill up your fucking iPod with music you didn't pay for.
It's deeply ironic in a time when music seems to be more popular than ever, that no one wants to pay for it. No one has a problem buying a shiny new iPod (I have one, and love it), Apple has sold over a hundred million of them. And the irony is that at the same time, most internet users have convinced themselves that they have the absolute right to download music for free, or at the very least, to treat the artist as a busker in the subway station, throwing them a few coins if they deem their music worthwhile. Jesus...
No comments:
Post a Comment