Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why (not) pay for music?

smyck.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 55 posts

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#31

Post by k-mcgrady »

hukl wrote: post #18
k-mcgrady wrote: post #6

>> "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.

>> "Its because all the money, be it advertisement or subscriptions is thrown in a huge bucket and divided by play count."

Source?

Also, that's still not a reason not to be on it. Lots of people use Spotify and if your music isn't available on it they either won't listen at all (you lose) or will download it illegally (you lose).

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#32

Post by fumar »

Sprint wrote: post #21

I am pretty much saturated with free music from the many netlabels and happy "amateur" musicians who release music because they make music for music's sake, not money. If somebody wants recommendations, name a genre and I will see if I can drop some links. There is a lot of negative prejudice against free music which is a real shame.

I do think there is a "negative" connotation to free music. Free does not mean bad, or less good, than expensive music, when it comes to art.

As a musician, it is significantly harder to produce an entire album by oneself. But, thats the great part of releasing something into the world, its all mine. No one else's imagination touched what I wanted to create.

Set Up::: I use a synthesizer, a midi keyboard, and an APC 40. A decent pair of studio monitors, M-Audio BX5 D2s. I sometimes borrow a microphone for a friend that works in a music studio. I record everything on Ableton 8 or 9.

I always share my music for free, and give the listener the option to pay if they want. I am about to release a three track EP, you can listen the first track here. http://fantasmafigueroa.bandcamp.com/album/afuera

EDIT: It might not be everyone's cup of tea. I grew up listening to Chicago house/acid house. Influences: Brian Eno, Max Richter, Boards of Canada, Efdemin, Stars of the Lid... lots of ambient stuff.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#33

Post by bigdubs »

jdietrich wrote: post #29

Don't do any of that nonsense, it's a complete waste of time. Go out and play gigs. Even if you do become a megastar, most of your revenue will come from live performance. We're in an age where most people won't pay $6.99 for an album, but they'll happily pay $69 to see a band from row Q of an arena. Why spend any time or effort on the least profitable part of the enterprise, when you can get straight to the meat? Re…

Very easy to say, "Work hard, don't take the easier path, it'll be more rewarding ultimately."

Much harder to actually do. The number of people picking up instruments and really learning how to play vs. cranking through a fruity loops tutorial so they can do minor alteration remixes isn't surprising.

Yes, this is good advice. Will anyone really follow it / see the wisdom in it? Debatable.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#34

Post by Sprint »

replax wrote: post #28
Sprint wrote: post #21

I am pretty much saturated with free music from the many netlabels and happy "amateur" musicians who release music because they make music for music's sake, not money. If somebody wants recommendations, name a genre and I will see if I can drop some links. There is a lot of negative prejudice against free music which is a real shame.

Hi! since there is no email jaddress on your profile, I'll ask here. please share some psytrance/Goa and the like artists if you don't mind: )

Yay, jackpot! :D

http://www.ektoplazm.com/section/free-music will overwhelm you. The great thing is that it aggregates pretty much all good free releases are there. When you find something you like, try the netlabel it comes from. Often they focus on one particular style.

Randomly recommending http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/trinodia-unknown-space as I really like that oldschool Goa. If progpsy is alright, try http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/cyandroids (Meller - Nothing). http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/quantica-astrobiology is some blend with DnB.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#35

Post by hukl »

jdietrich wrote: post #29

Don't do any of that nonsense, it's a complete waste of time. Go out and play gigs. Even if you do become a megastar, most of your revenue will come from live performance. We're in an age where most people won't pay $6.99 for an album, but they'll happily pay $69 to see a band from row Q of an arena. Why spend any time or effort on the least profitable part of the enterprise, when you can get straight to the meat? Re…

Well you can definitely do all that stuff which I would file under my promote yourself and think for yourself section. But these days the labels got so desperate that the will only give out contracts that grant them shares of all revenues - even concerts, merchandise and all the other things. In the good old days you always had certain money streams which you could keep for yourself - thats pretty much over now.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#36

Post by rdouble »

jdietrich wrote: post #29

Don't do any of that nonsense, it's a complete waste of time. Go out and play gigs. Even if you do become a megastar, most of your revenue will come from live performance. We're in an age where most people won't pay $6.99 for an album, but they'll happily pay $69 to see a band from row Q of an arena. Why spend any time or effort on the least profitable part of the enterprise, when you can get straight to the meat? Re…

Actually his advice is a pretty good start and yours is terrible. You don't get to the $69 arena concerts or even the festival circuit by doing smaller gigs, you get there by having videos on YouTube that get popular. Small gigs at bars are a waste of time. Even at the small venues that aren't a complete waste of time you still need an Internet presence to get booked.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#37

Post by Sprint »

fumar wrote: post #32
Sprint wrote: post #21

I am pretty much saturated with free music from the many netlabels and happy "amateur" musicians who release music because they make music for music's sake, not money. If somebody wants recommendations, name a genre and I will see if I can drop some links. There is a lot of negative prejudice against free music which is a real shame.

I do think there is a "negative" connotation to free music. Free does not mean bad, or less good, than expensive music, when it comes to art. As a musician, it is significantly harder to produce an entire album by oneself. But, thats the great part of releasing something into the world, its all mine. No one else's imagination touched what I wanted to create. Set Up::: I use a synthesizer, a midi keyboard, and an APC…

Your definition of free is not the same as mine. I mean music that is freely licensed so everyone can share it as they like. Creative Commons licenses are the great standard here. Your music requires at least giving you/Bandcamp an e-mail address (a personal gripe of mine and instant tab closer) and says "all rights reserved".

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#38

Post by hukl »

kristofferR wrote: post #27

>> "Some won’t even download it illegally, instead they will just listen to music through streaming services like Spotify which are free to a certain extend and which yield so little profit to the labels or the artists that it is almost like downloading it for free." This is totally inaccurate. The music industry grew for the first time since 1999 due to digital streaming services: http://ifpi.no/9-forsiden/43-ifpi-p…

That is good for the labels but not for the smaller artists. I talked to people from indie labels and major labels from the digital divisions - they said all the same. If you are not already big you will get little to nothing out of Spotify etc.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#39

Post by scarecrowbob »

jdietrich wrote: post #29

Don't do any of that nonsense, it's a complete waste of time. Go out and play gigs. Even if you do become a megastar, most of your revenue will come from live performance. We're in an age where most people won't pay $6.99 for an album, but they'll happily pay $69 to see a band from row Q of an arena. Why spend any time or effort on the least profitable part of the enterprise, when you can get straight to the meat? Re…

This is excellent advice all around. As far as learning goes, a couple of bad gigs will teach you far more about music than months of jacking around with a computer.

Re: Why (not) pay for music?

#40

Post by scarecrowbob »

jdietrich wrote: post #29

Don't do any of that nonsense, it's a complete waste of time. Go out and play gigs. Even if you do become a megastar, most of your revenue will come from live performance. We're in an age where most people won't pay $6.99 for an album, but they'll happily pay $69 to see a band from row Q of an arena. Why spend any time or effort on the least profitable part of the enterprise, when you can get straight to the meat? Re…

This is excellent advice all around. As far as learning goes, a couple of bad gigs will teach you far more about music than months of jacking around with a computer.
Post reply on HN