Musicians Don't Make Money From Copyright
from the and-so-it-goes... dept
Honestly, the only thing surprising in this new research (found via Boing Boing) is that it took so long for someone to actually look into it. The fact is, the vast majority of musicians don't make money from copyright. In fact, copyright seems to hinder their ability to make money. We've made this argument repeatedly -- and every time, people say "without copyright, there's no way to make money." That's simply not true. Already, musicians tend to make their money from touring, concerts, merchandise and other goods. That's why, for quite some time, we've believed the whole issue with digital goods isn't settled by new technologies or by new laws, but a simple recognition that the digital goods are promotion for something else that's being sold -- and then market forces take over. These are the same market forces that recognize that the efficient market price of digital content is zero (marginal cost, and all that, for the economists in the house). Clearly, that's already true for the vast majority of artists. If there weren't this myth that everything comes from copyright, and more people recognized this fact then many bands would be making a lot more money too, as they would focus on using their music to promote everything else they sell.
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.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
but if the bands don't get airplay
And of course the record companies, radio and other broadcast media are highly incestuous.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: but if the bands don't get airplay
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: but if the bands don't get airplay
See, the sheeple, britney-craving, boyband-loving buying public get their orders on what's new and what's cool from radio, which are influenced by ...yup...record companies.
We're not at a point yet where radio stations (ie: ClearChannel) will scour the net and play indie artists...they don't want to play what's GOOD, they want what SELLS.
So you're stuck, as a band, to maybe make a website, flood Kazaa with Mp3s, spending hours daily finding indie sites to host your stuff, handing out homemade CDs at shows (or selling them for 5 bucks a pop, which isn't bad really).
However, you'll never get major exposure that way.
Of course, you've said it before...under our new system, there will be less superstars and less insanely rich artists and more quality artists who are somewhat popular (mostly locally) and make a good amount of money (translation: enough to get by...likely never enough to buy a house). However, in response to that...let me point out that MOST bands, beyond the music, WANT to be superstars, they want the limos and hotels and crowds...and the only way to get em is the music industry.
And as long as the music industry is the ONLY game in town for the big bucks, that won't change until they do.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Copyright lottery
[ link to this | view in thread ]