http://news.yahoo.c…"]L.A. band tries to cash in with free monthly album - Yahoo! News[/]="http://news.yahoo.c…"]L.A. band tries to cash in with free monthly album - Yahoo! News[/]
Is this the new wave of making music by mass producing albums one a month? Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I think it's good because music is much better when it's being heard rather than hoarded by huge companies in contrast to past business practices. It does build an eclectic fan base that really does appreciate the artists music and will donate money for their art. To mass produce only keeps the artist moving at a break neck pace to keep up w/ demand, even if it's not monetarily based demand. When you read the about the story of the bands like the Beatles or others that made money and crapped it away, it makes you realize why today is the way it is... I love the Beatles but they got used by the system, but they opened up a new way of doing business in the end. They were just way overly ambitious and had lost their manager and he was way in over his head too. Radiohead is another great example of a big band giving an online version of their album away, and it was a good album. They actually succeeded at one thing, to make music. Personally, I think making music is all about getting it heard no matter what you have to do. What does anyone else think about this topic?
Comments
The "album a month" idea seems a bit of a stunt. Coming up with
The "album a month" idea seems a bit of a stunt. Coming up with 120 original songs a year that go beyond mediocrity is pretty unlikely. But doing jazz variations on classical pieces might provide a pipeline of material. But even if you are doing covers in a piano bar, few people can create that many interesting arrangements a year.
[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.mariasch…"]Maria Schneider[/]="http://www.mariasch…"]Maria Schneider[/] seems to be a more serious and established artist who has been trying to make a go of it with a subscriber/patron model.
It's a brave new world. Someone's going to figure out how to navigate it.
As much as I take my hat off to the band for trying this kind of
As much as I take my hat off to the band for trying this kind of thing, I think overall it just cheapens music and lowers peoples expectations in having to pay anything for it .. ever. Piracy, declining physical music sales and an abundance of free music in the marketplace means the entire music industry is facing extinction. If bands continue to voluntarily give their music away for free in an attempt to 'get noticed' then I think they simply attract fans who would never pay a cent for their music anyway, so what's the point? Kudos? That never paid the bills!
I think artists need to be strong in their resolve and realise it's ok to charge for music. With the various online channels available nowadays, the distribution costs are literally nothing compared to the costs of pressing and distributing CD's so I think a good start for most bands is to forget CD's altogether and just go straight to iTunes.
I applaud their effort. I don't want to get into a prolonged re
I applaud their effort.
I don't want to get into a prolonged reply but suffice it to say that writing, practicing, performing, recording, mixing and mastering a song every three days is a Herculean task. On the other side of the coin you have to have income if you are to survive in this world. Donations aren't going to cut it. How do you pay for the equipment and the time to produce the songs? It is a WONDERFUL idea but in terms of a business plan it sucks. I will probably be proven wrong but in terms of things like rent, utilities, taxes and food how do you provide these things if you are not getting paid? The article does not mention how they pay for the equipment or for their food or other necessities except doing some teaching and occasional catering jobs. I can't believe that this brings in enough money to provide the members of the band plus Wood a living wage. Maybe they are using their parent's garage and someone else paid for the equipment??? I wish them well and hope that they can make a go of this. This reminds me of when I was a kid and we thought that if we put up some curtains and some lights we could have a stage and invite other kids over for a "show" and charge for it. Unfortunately the dream was much better than what we finally wound up with. I wish in articles like this they would tell a bit more about how they are doing this but I guess if you dig too deep you will find something that puts this story in a completely different context. Thanks for sharing!!!!