Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Dispelling Compelling Complaints



2014 was a kick in nuts. I suspect that the year will silently slip into the history books mostly unrecognized for the significance it represented.

When R.E.M. broke up in 2011 they said it was pointless to make music in a world where nobody buys music.  Likewise in a 2014 interview Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer stated that while the band is not breaking up and will continue to perform live, they probably won’t release any more albums because "Records don't sell... There's no record companies to pay for it, so you have to pay for it out of your pocket.”


In November of 2013 Billboard released an article listing the top ways to get your album to sell.  


The options listed were pretty ridiculous.  One of the suggestions is that you should do a guest appearance on The Voice.  They didn’t say compete as a contestant. They said be invited to do a guest appearance.  That’s easy enough, right? 

On that list of virtually impossible goals, option number five is "Home-page placement on iTunes." (which means have your album appear on iTunes Home-page for others to see, which is also not easy to accomplish). A few months after this article was released, the guys in the band Colourmusic achieved that goal but did not reap the promised reward.
 

Wait, let's look at that once more. In November of 2013 people still bought music. The same month Billboard released an article saying that being placed on iTunes home-page meant that you would sell a lot of music.  Five months later, in April of 2014, people no longer bought music, and being on iTunes home-page did nothing to spin that fact.  What changed?

2014 was the first year in history that only one album went platinum. Disney will argue that the soundtrack to Frozen went Platinum that year, but it was released in 2013.  Taylor Swift’s “1989” was the only album released in 2014 to go platinum in 2014. 

I assume 2015 will be the first year no album goes platinum.
 

In the grand scheme of things, who cares?  None of us are selling platinum, so why do we care whether or not anybody else is accomplishing that status? Well if you consider the scientific algorithm designed during Reaganomics and apply the Trickle-down theory to the current number of units being moved, you will see that if people don’t buy music then people don’t by music, across the board.

I recently attended a meeting at The Academy of Recording Artists (the GRAMMY folk) and the chapter president said that their members, all over the country, are reporting that they can no longer sell albums at their shows. 

Touring musicians have always relied on "at the show" album sales to compensate for the next-to-nothing wages the bars pay them.  Previously people in the audience would buy albums even if they didn’t intend to listen to it, because they knew the artist needed the help.  Today that revenue source has virtually disappeared.

What changed?  Why 2014?  Looking further back, since the introduction of Napster the music industry has feared that illegal downloading would bring the end, but it didn’t.  We had 14 years of piracy and still enjoyed sales that provided a livable wage.  Today’s new adults (18-25 year olds) are the first generation to grow up knowing that they don’t have to buy music, but up until now, they still did. So again, what changed?

In December of 2013 (one month before the year the music died) Spotify made their smartphone app free to everybody.  If you illegally download a song you still have to put it on something like a CD-R, or an MP3 player.  If you are going to go through that trouble you might as well occasionally buy a CD. Now free music is effortless. You don’t have to carry around a CD or a MP3 player.  An unlimited library of music is on your phone, your phone is always on you, you don't have to wait for it to download, and best of all it is completely legal.
 

At the time, as this was changing, I acknowledged that things weren’t the same, but didn’t know why. Our album Paradigms in the Design was released in September 2013.  We had a healthy first few months, then suddenly we hit a wall. People started telling us “I don’t want a CD cluttering up my house or car.”  There were occasions where we would offer free CDs to friends or family and they would decline our offer saying “is it on Spotify?  I will check it out there.” People no longer want CDs.
 

Despite the fact that they sold more albums than any other performer, Taylor Swift's business team made the decision to pull all her music off Spotify.  As ridiculous as it is, that made me realize something. Spotify did not sneak into my house late at night and take my music.  I gave it to them by choice.  All of us were concerned that our livelihoods would be stolen from us forcefully by pirates.  In the end we volunteered to give it away.  All musicians (like the Academy Of Recording Artist) complain about “the state of the music industry.”  The music industry is what we have designed it to be.  People don’t buy music because we give it to them for free.  It’s not Spotify’s fault. It’s not the fan’s fault. It’s the fault of the musicians.

The very awesome band "The Harmed Brothers" received 65K Spotify plays in one quarter.  If 15% of that number represented people that bought one single (not the whole album, just one song) they would have broke even, and the album would have paid for itself. That didn’t happen. Instead 65K plays earned them an amount less than $200.  


It shocks me at how many artists defend the decision of putting their music on Spotifiy. Musicians have argued with me over how great it is that Spotify allows a widely unknown band (The Harmed Brothers) to reach over 100K listeners, but is it really great?  If the band constantly has to consider whether or not they can afford to continue, does it really matter that people in Egypt love them?

More specifically if people LOVE us but they aren't buying anything from us, does it matter that they love us?  The answer is no. It doesn't matter.  Why would I care what they think?  I am not really desperate for attention?  I don't require the acceptance of other people to feel validated?  It's the same as having a store and having everybody say "I love that store.  I just don't shop there."

So all of this is a long winded way of saying I got depressed. Starting around October 2013 and up until now I was sinking.  Not just because it was difficult to make a living as a musician, but also because Brooke and Rebecca left the band.  All and all things seemed hopeless.

In an attempt to turn things around I changed my environment. I met some new folks.  I met engineers that previously worked with Destiny's Child, and I met musicians that (10 years ago) had gone triple platinum, and I eventually noticed that they are in a similar situation as myself.  

What we are witnessing right now is a great equalizer.  If nobody can sell music, then nobody is selling music.  Of course I say nobody in the broad sense.  Business folk like Scott Borchetta are always going to generate a return on their investment by catering to the teenage girl lowest common denominator.  None-the-less big name bands like Blues Travelers are left with little option but to beg for money via Pledge Music.



To say that somebody is begging for money is harsh and somewhat  mean even though it is true.  I certainly don't mean to pick on The Blues Travelers.  I am a fan, and have always dug what they do.  Also I don't want to insinuate that they are alone.  That is not my point.  Look at the list of artists that have had successful Pledge Music campaigns.  There are a lot of big name acts out they're begging for people to help them.  That makes me feel optimistic.

It’s not a matter of misery loves company.  What I am saying is our chance of selling albums is next to none, but their chance of selling albums is also next to none which means we have just as good a chance as they do. The glass is half full of nothing.

It is March 2015 and we have begun working on our third studio album.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

This Is That And Those Be Them




If you believe in evolution, then the egg came first, and if you believe in creation then it was the chicken.  It’s obvious. So why do people keep asking the same question over and over?  

Creationism means that one day, along with a few other things, God created a chicken which then laid an egg and out came another chicken.  Evolution follows the belief that the chicken evolved from something that wasn't a chicken.  One day that "something" laid an egg (first) and out came a chicken (second).

I would argue that most people know the egg came first.  Christians will claim to believe it was the chicken, but they are riddled with doubt.  That’s the whole reason they throw the word “faith” around so much. They will say “preacher it seems so obvious the Bible is full of shit” and the preacher will say “that’s why we have to have faith my son.”

Personally I can never remember if Noah built an arc or if Jack climbed a bean stalk.  I know one of them is true and the other is so obviously stupid only a child would believe it, but I just can’t remember which is which.

I am not saying Jesus was wrong or that Christianity is baseless.  I am just saying the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is full of fairy tales, and children’s stories.

Science seldom offers more answers.  At one time science taught us that the atom was the smallest thing.  Then we busted it open like a piƱata and found out there were all kinds of subatomic-candies inside. 

Even right now there are people that still believe the universe is the largest thing that exists. Meanwhile all signs point to the existence of a multi-verse of which our neighborhood-universe is only but a part. 

Today’s popular opinion is that the universe is finite which means, just like the earth, if it was possible to stand in one spot (in the universe) and walk forward in a straight line you would eventually end up at the same spot.  Granted you would be dead before completing the trip, but you get the point.

I often don’t agree with Christians, but I REALLY don’t agree with Atheists.

My name is Sky and I am in the band Less Love. This is about that.