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Why (not) pay for music?

smyck.net

11–20 of 55 posts

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#11

> Compared to the analog world, where it would take ages to copy hundreds of Tapes or CDs I think you mean the `physical' world. CDs aren't a part of the analog world; they're digital. Analog has to do with the signal type, not the medium.

[deleted]

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#12

I'll pay for music that I can get in FLAC or ALAC for a reasonable cost (say, $1 extra than the cost of the WAV). I'm trying hard not to buy physical CDs, but it's difficult.

You basically get lossless music left and right these days - that is if you look beyond iTunes & Co.

Quobuz, Boomkat, HDTracks, Bandcamp, Bleep and others all offer lossless music - obscure and indie music, as well as major artists.

I won't buy anything that isn't lossless and can't remember the last time I had trouble finding an album in my format of choice.

Gladly availability isn't a problem any longer.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#13

>> "Don’t even care to get on streaming platforms in the beginning. They are all more or less under the control of the labels and you would be the luckiest person in the world if you can buy a box of beer from the revenues after a year or two." When you can get your music on iTunes, Amazon etc. and all the streaming platforms for $50 (CDBaby) there is no reason not to. I really don't understand the authors reasoning…

So get on kickstarter, use the money to pay to rent a recording studio and for an audio engineer to fix the recordings. Pay 50 bucks to get on CdBaby. Assuming 10k to rent the studio and pay the sound guy then you need a thousand true fans to pay 10 bucks and that should be doable.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#14
post #13

>> "Don’t even care to get on streaming platforms in the beginning. They are all more or less under the control of the labels and you would be the luckiest person in the world if you can buy a box of beer from the revenues after a year or two." When you can get your music on iTunes, Amazon etc. and all the streaming platforms for $50 (CDBaby) there is no reason not to. I really don't understand the authors reasoning…

So get on kickstarter, use the money to pay to rent a recording studio and for an audio engineer to fix the recordings. Pay 50 bucks to get on CdBaby. Assuming 10k to rent the studio and pay the sound guy then you need a thousand true fans to pay 10 bucks and that should be doable.

Exactly that's what I would recommend. The only catch is what if you're just starting out and don't have 1000 fans?

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#15

>> "Don’t even care to get on streaming platforms in the beginning. They are all more or less under the control of the labels and you would be the luckiest person in the world if you can buy a box of beer from the revenues after a year or two." When you can get your music on iTunes, Amazon etc. and all the streaming platforms for $50 (CDBaby) there is no reason not to. I really don't understand the authors reasoning…

Unfortunately, what you list as required recording equipment is barely enough for a demo, let alone finished track. A good recording mic for vocals is about £2K, good converters will set you back as much.

>> Also the advice on recording yourself isn't great

It's borderline terrible, in fact. It's the same one as "build your website on your own, there are plenty of PHP tutorials on the internet, how hard can it be?".

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#16
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So get on kickstarter, use the money to pay to rent a recording studio and for an audio engineer to fix the recordings. Pay 50 bucks to get on CdBaby. Assuming 10k to rent the studio and pay the sound guy then you need a thousand true fans to pay 10 bucks and that should be doable.

Exactly that's what I would recommend. The only catch is what if you're just starting out and don't have 1000 fans?

Well, find an agent that likes what you do and willing to bet some money on you... like... wait! A record company!

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#17
post #5
post #4

[deleted]

The difference is that I can obtain music for free. Lamentably, I haven't ever seen a place offering free lasagne. The point he is trying to make is to encourage musicians to skip the middle man, and make their music available on the internet by themselves. To make that possible we, consumers, need a change of mentality: "I can get music _now_ for free, but if I like it and want more, I should pay for it". Also, rega…

Yes - I was thinking about the outsourcing part as I have friend who did exactly that and again without the record label in between. If you don't have good connections though its hard to tell who is good and who is bad - so gaining some knowledge about every aspect is essential to make proper decisions or choose proper people to help you.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#18

>> "Don’t even care to get on streaming platforms in the beginning. They are all more or less under the control of the labels and you would be the luckiest person in the world if you can buy a box of beer from the revenues after a year or two." When you can get your music on iTunes, Amazon etc. and all the streaming platforms for $50 (CDBaby) there is no reason not to. I really don't understand the authors reasoning…

Lets say you pay 10$ for Spotify and you only listen to my music for a whole month then Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Beyonce will get 99.999999% of your 10$. Its because all the money, be it advertisement or subscriptions is thrown in a huge bucket and divided by play count. It will take you a looooong loooong time to get even one single dollar out of this model.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#19
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So get on kickstarter, use the money to pay to rent a recording studio and for an audio engineer to fix the recordings. Pay 50 bucks to get on CdBaby. Assuming 10k to rent the studio and pay the sound guy then you need a thousand true fans to pay 10 bucks and that should be doable.

Exactly that's what I would recommend. The only catch is what if you're just starting out and don't have 1000 fans?

Work a real job and live frugally putting your savings towards your dream job. That's how most startups get launched.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#20
post #15

>> "Don’t even care to get on streaming platforms in the beginning. They are all more or less under the control of the labels and you would be the luckiest person in the world if you can buy a box of beer from the revenues after a year or two." When you can get your music on iTunes, Amazon etc. and all the streaming platforms for $50 (CDBaby) there is no reason not to. I really don't understand the authors reasoning…

Unfortunately, what you list as required recording equipment is barely enough for a demo, let alone finished track. A good recording mic for vocals is about £2K, good converters will set you back as much. >> Also the advice on recording yourself isn't great It's borderline terrible, in fact. It's the same one as "build your website on your own, there are plenty of PHP tutorials on the internet, how hard can it be?".

You absolutely don't need to spend thousands on mics, pres and AD converters to get good recordings, there's plenty of top quality options that are much more affordable. I'd put money on 95% of the music listening population not being able to tell the difference between a £2k mic and a £500 one in blind tests.

Obviously you'd have to be willing to put an exorbitant amount of time into getting good, but that's another issue.

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