The network of Le K

“Here we go again. Wired is continuing to perpetuate the idea that musicians should make a living selling coffee mugs. OK, who here knows someone who makes a comfortable living exclusively from their CafePress store? Anyone? Anyone? Right. No one. So, why do they think musicians will do any better? In most cases, the answer is guilt. This idea is thrown out to ease the conscience of those who download music. It seems like most of the people telling musicians how they should earn a living aren’t actually musicians. There are a lot of clear signals the person who wrote the article* doesn’t really understand the business of music at all. For example: ReverbNation COO Jed Carlson said that [$3.60 from a $20 product (not including shipping, of course)] represents 100 percent of the profit from the shirt after manufacturing costs, but it still might seem like a relative pittance. According to some estimates, however, the typical band only makes about $1 from each $17 CD sold through normal retail channels, so this represents an upgrade from that deal. ReverbNation is basically a CafePress for musicians, and this article is quoting the COO justifying the small amount the artist nets (woo?) when using their service. OK, first of all, the $1 from $17 is based on the national/major label/worst-case-scenario for a musician. Would someone signed to a major even have access to their own merchandising rights, let alone use a service with a such a miserable margin? Not on your life. Only an independent artist would use a product-on-demand service like ReverbNation and these artists are replicating their own CDs, in which case, they’re getting the lion’s share of the profit. Speaking of which, CDs? Really? The thing that irks me is all of this is an elaborate dance around the fact that no one wishes to acknowledge the utility of recorded music. Magically inserting another corporation between the artist and consumer that OM NOM NOMS over 80% of the net isn’t progress, and it doesn’t fix anything. It is just another parasitic entity that siphons money from artists and hoodwinks the public into believing the coffee mug, t-shirt or mouse pad they bought is actually supporting the musicians. So, why do we have to support musicians by buying non-music-related junk through a third party? Take a step back and consider how perverse this entire thing is. Wouldn’t it make more sense to support a musician for their music? If a plumber came to my house, could I refuse to pay him for his work, but gladly compensate him by buying a lunch box? My anger comes from the fact that people already believe that artists make most of their money through merchandising, and, while there may be scenarios where this is true, it isn’t true for smaller acts, and would NEVER be true through something like ReverbNation. Worse, the very existence of ReverbNation and availability of meaningless schwag perpetuates the myth, and makes illegal downloading a little bit more palpable. I want very much to buy a copy of Ozone 4 from Izotope. As an independent musician, paying for this tool from ‘merch’ profits comes out to about 70 t-shirts through ReverbNation. I’m not going to do that. I *do* have another idea in mind, so watch this space. :) * The author also used the phrase “…to the next level”, which immediately identifies them as a hack.”

“10 Weird Ways to Distribute Music”

“Records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time. The record age was just a blip. t was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you’d be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history’s moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.”

“With Rane’s Serato, there’s a lot of microwave DJ’s out there with MP3’s. But Serato is, to me, something you have to earn. I’m like “have you dug in the crates? Do you have at least 2,000 records? Did you ever have to carry all your speakers and crates to a gig?” If you have, then you can graduate to Serato. Here’s your medal.”