Free Music, Piracy, File Sharing: A Producers Perspective

As a musician and producer, I know music has value. It takes time, experience and money to create a solid track. The idea that music should be free is pretty silly. Of course it shouldn't be free, musicians got to eat too, someone needs to pay for it BUT that someone isn't always on the fan.

It pisses me off when I see fans getting shit on by the major labels when it comes to piracy and file sharing. It's especially annoying when the label reps blame fans for their failing business model. The main problem with the music business is that it didn't keep pace with the technology, they're releasing pre-packaged garbage, and are working a pump and dump artist model.

You'll hear them say, "fans just refuse to pay for music." We'll it's not 1999 anymore, get over it. Success for artists is not determined by units sold in the new music business.

Streaming is proving to be a nice middle ground. I love listening to tracks on Spotify, even though as an artist the payout per stream can be pretty laughable. Even more laughable for artists with terrible label deals, but whose fault is that. Again with streaming, this has less to do with fans financially supporting artists, it has to do with streaming providers, a monetizing model and licensing deals.

From my perspective, I make the majority of money from sync licensing deals. I could care less about streaming or moving units on iTunes as a stable revenue stream. The reality is that the major label's still control about 80-90% of the music market and have a dominant presence on streaming services. The game is pretty rigged, so you have to play your own game, or be part of theirs.

I believe that if you make music that really does impact someone in a positive way, they will care about what you are doing and support you in some way or another. That support can come in many different forms, not always monetarily, but equally as valuable and important.

The new music business has a TON of new monetizing opportunities for indie musicians/producers. Now they may not make you rich and famous, but honestly who gives a shit about that. If you can make a living without stressing about the electric bill, you've succeeded as an artist as far as I'm concerned.

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