Music Industry On The Offensive
from the and-being-offensive-at-the-same-time dept
Well, the music industry is really pushing forward with their misleading claims about how downloading music is going to kill the music industry. The latest is an article written by a songwriter saying that the careers of young songwriters are in jeopardy because of all this music downloading. Excuse me if I don't shed a tear. The fact is that things change, and people need to change with the times. When the printing press was introduced it certainly harmed the careers of young scribes. The automobile didn't do much good for horse and buggy drivers. Yet, the world continued. And, in fact, this situation is even better, because young song writers still have the ability to make money. In fact, if I were a young song writer these days, I would think I'd have a bigger chance to make money - since it would be easier to get my music out there and get it noticed thanks to this wonderful distribution system called the internet and P2P file trading. In the old system, I would have to suffer through the corporate bureaucracy and hope that I meet the right person with enough connections to get noticed. But, with file sharing, people could judge me on the actual music I wrote...Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Re: Music Industry on the Offensive
Now all the time and effort is expended in contacting the "right" people and trying to get heard by the music bureacracy. But it would seem equally challenging to make a name for oneself solely through the Internet.
Consider the millions of blogs out there: how many actually become known by a broad audience, and how many writers actually make a living as a result of their blog?
So would a larger percentage of songwriters make a living without the promotional apparatus of the music industry? Perhaps. Would songwriters who are successful make more money? Perhaps.
In any event, the money issue is a red herring, and it's disingenous (at best) for Diane Warren to profess concern for 'all the little people' and their livelihoods.
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Re: Music Industry on the Offensive
How about word of mouth and advertising?
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