Arthur ([info]randomstring) wrote,
@ 2009-04-23 12:38:00
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Free music
Bram Cohen (founder/writer of BitTorrent) on music:

Music has a bigger problem, it's that people want to make it. It's the peacocks tail. The reason guys make music is that they want to get laid. So men are usually willing to pay a lot of money in the hope of getting laid. Anything that helps you get laid with amazing regularity is something you would expect a tremendous oversupply of. So we have unbelievable amounts of music.

People pay a lot to learn how to play music and it's ridiculous to expect people to make money off it. Normally if you want to make money you do something no one wants to do.

He has a point.

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[info]kissmeforlonger
2009-04-23 08:53 pm UTC (link)
It's bull.

If artists don't get paid they won't have the means to spend time doing their art and will have to do other stuff to eat instead. This is exactly the position my brother is in, though in part that's because he's self effacing and doesn't want a career in the way he used to. And he, being a pretty boy, could get the girls anyway. The outdoor work is giving him arthritis which is fucking up his guitar playing. So I think Mr (it *is* a Mr isn't it) Cohen can go fuck himself.

Or if not, they can damn well pay the women. You can't live off love or admiration. Not every artiste has an ego the size of Mr Cohen that needs building up with constant adoration and sex.

Tosser.

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[info]randomstring
2009-04-24 06:20 pm UTC (link)

While he is a tosser, I still think the general point is true. It's like photography: there's a vast amount of it around now and so it's getting much, much harder to make money at it.

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[info]kissmeforlonger
2009-04-24 06:33 pm UTC (link)
I think it's just a phase. Typesetting/graphic design went through this when the first dtp programs came out and so did web - you can do it yourself but unless you have a skill/talent you're unlikely to do it well. That realisation took a while to filter through, but largely it has. (There will always be some people who think they can do it well but can't, and always some people who want to cut corners by spending little money. They are generally crap clients.)

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[info]randomstring
2009-04-25 08:23 pm UTC (link)

That albums/singles will never sell in the way they used to isn't a phase. Touring will still make money because, as you say, people want to listen to the good stuff. Making much money selling records is a dying game though.

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[info]ravensthorpe
2009-04-24 04:12 pm UTC (link)
If you want to be creative make something of your own.

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[info]randomstring
2009-04-24 06:20 pm UTC (link)

He did. It's called BitTorrent.

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