With the new fad of downloading music illegally, and fans having the freedom to never pay for music again, is the music industry dying due to the advancements of technology?
Artwork By: Hayden Johnson
The artist is the one who makes the music, but most of the money from the CDs go to the label that the band or artist signed onto with a distinct contract drawing the line of how much money each will get from the profit of a record sale. Bands and artists make most of their money from live shows and tours, with additional merchandise, including shirts or other promotional materials being sold. If more and more people are beginning to download music illegally, the correlation can be made that record sales across the world are decreasing rapidly. With the decrease of record sales and the fact that most Artists don’t make money from record sales, why are records still being sold?
Buying CDs at a retail store is expensive, and a normal CD can range from $12 to $15 for as few as ten songs. iTunes has lowered the prices of CDs to a range of $7 to $10. With more than two-thirds of the profit of a record going to the label and/or producer of the album, bands make little off of record sales. So in reality, are you really hurting a band by illegally downloading a song or two, or three, or maybe 80?
Rody Walker, lead singer of an upcoming band, Protest The Hero, expresses his opinion on the music industry from an inside perspective: “Well, personally, I think the Internet is just an unstoppable force. It’s going to keep growing and it’s going to keep growing and it’s going to destroy the record label; and I think that’s an amazing thing for bands like us or bands like the Dillinger Escape Plan, bands that have built themselves based entirely on artistic integrity. It’s going to do away with all the Avril Lavignes out there, all the college radio rock. They’re making money some how off of record sales. We don’t make money from record sales. We make money from playing shows; kids coming to the shows and buying t-shirts off us or kids paying money at the door to come see us. I think it would be kind of an interesting situation if nobody made money off of record sales; just strictly made money off of live shows. It would be strictly based on integrity and music for the sake of music” (from The Punk Site).
The Internet has many ways to access music today. Is it bad to not buy a full CD from a store or online retailer? People across the world can use websites that allow music to be downloaded for a small fee per month – or free – depending on the website. iTunes is useful to many people, selling songs for $.99 to $1.29 per song. The only problem with iTunes is certain bands are not featured on there, making illegal downloading seem like the only alternative. The Beatles were not on there until November 16th, 2010. Now unless you were a hardcore Beatles fan, were you going to spend that $15 on one CD? Certain websites are called Torrent sites, and you can get every song from a band within one large file. This would be ideal for bands like The Beatles who, unless you go and spend the $13 at a record store, you can get all the songs you ever wanted for free.
Let’s compare Rody Walker and Protest The Hero to Nickelback. Both come from Canada, but Nickelback, is a lot more well known to the world. Is there a difference to a band like Nickelback, who have sold 21,000, 000 albums in America alone? The answer is, probably not. Rody Walker already said that most of the money comes from the live shows, but Nickelback sells a ton of records, definitely more than Protest The Hero. Nickelback’s last tour had the band profit with $49,908, 542. That was over the course of 143 shows, which averages them making in making $349,000 per show. It is safe to say that illegally downloading their albums wont hurt the band much, if at all.
A record label is a different story. Is it okay to illegally download albums, songs, or anything because the label or producer loses money? All of the labels are losing money, and eventually it might become that idealistic world, where the best bands make money solely off of performing live shows. Maybe all CD’s could be free, and instead of the Producers reaping all the money from the CDs the band created, the software for recording could be cheaper, and so bands could make their own CD’s at their houses. Now, of course, there is the question of the people who are trained and go through school to use those high tech, advanced tools. They can help create the band’s album, and tour with them too, keeping check on the live sounds, making sure there is not one instrument overpowering another. Then the producers of albums can be closer with the band.
Now would come the bigger question: What would the labels do? Well, it can be an easy solution. Get rid of them completely. With the new wave of careers opening up all around the world with music technology, people can create albums inside of anyone’s basement, and get the same kind of quality that the big name bands get. I personally have created an album inside of another person’s basement, and all I did was pay him for how many hours we were recording. This idea can easily fix the need for big labels; one producer can help make the CD, the artist pays him/her, the CD gets put on the market for free, and the band makes their money with the touring they will do.
Young Rody Walker’s advice may be cynical, but people are starting to understand that illegal downloading is the new way to go. Ash is one of the best selling modern bands in Europe, with 22 top charting singles in UK. They went with the new Internet fad of free downloading and decided to release a series of 26 songs free over the Internet. It has been a big success for the band. When will everyone do this?
The Music Industry will die eventually, and the best bands will be based on their live shows, not their radio plays or CD selling.
