I was always told that peer-to-peer filesharing was going to kill the music industry. How could a band make music for a living if their songs would be swapped for free around college dorm rooms? They wouldn’t, or so the thinking went. The business model of music couldn’t handle filesharing. Peer-to-peer trading of music was unsustainable. Metallica and Dr. Dre even sued Napster over some leaked MP3s. That lawsuit was almost ten years ago. And look what’s happened since then: more people are sharing more music in more parts of the world. Internet connections have gotten faster, too, which means higher quality music and quicker downloads. First generation iPods held 5GB of music. Now iPods come with 160GB of storage (or, if you prefer, 32GB and the ability to make phone calls.) Hardly seems like the end of music some predicted.
So we were wrong (or Metallica, Dr. Dre and music company executives were wrong.) People haven’t stopped filesharing. And while a few unlucky ones have been prosecuted for copyright violation, most downloaders have no complications finding music on the Internet. The problem with those predictions from ten years ago is that the “music industry” is very different from the “music album industry.” The first term is often used incorrectly to refer to the second. The “music album industry” is essentially album sales. And it’s true that fewer people buy CDs today than they used to (and probably rip those CDs onto their computers anyway.) But the music industry is a lot more layered and expansive that just albums. It includes album sales, but it also includes things like t-shirts, concerts, licensing for movies, journalism, even ringtones. People spend less money on albums than they used to. But do they spend less money on music?
I can’t find any conclusive or reliable data, but it seems highly unlikely. Music lovers still go to concerts. They still wear their favorite band’s t-shirts. Simply put, they still listen to music, even if they aren’t buying albums. P2P may be killing off the music album industry, but the music industry is thriving. I’d actually argue that the music industry is thriving because of filesharing. It’s especially true in the electronic music world. Filesharing fuels creation and performance. I love the fact that my favorite DJ spins songs from his favorite DJ. I hear new music that I otherwise might have missed, he gets another potential fan. The nature of creation is collaborative. Art inspires art. Sharing music makes us both better off.
I can already sense a few readers squirming in their chairs, eager to take a different stance: if an artist stops making money, he or she will stop making music. Those readers are right to a degree: you can’t eat a great remix. Money counts for something. There’s obviously some baseline level of income a musician needs to survive. But I’d like to make two observations. First, it’s not necessarily true that today’s musicians make any less money than those of ten years ago. They might make less money from album sales, but musicians have income coming in from all over– merchandising, licensing, concert ticket sales. The overall effect is ambiguous. If an illegal download leads to one less album sold, but one more concert ticket purchased, who wins? It’s hard to make a concrete statement about income. Second, artists don’t become artists to make a lot of money. I know that’s more of an existential argument (and something I might examine more closely in another post), but it’s an important point. Even if modern musicians make less money, they don’t seem to be making any less music. It’s always tricky when art intersects with commerce. But surely everyone agrees that new music is being created today in spite of (or maybe because of) the ability to download music for free. The music industry is changing, but it isn’t dying.
Station X
Here’s a perfect example of someone who benefits from filesharing. Ten years ago, his music probably never would have made it to my ears. I first heard about Station X through his killer Does it Offend You, Yeah? remix (see below.) From what I can gather, he’s a producer from the UK with an affection for dressing up like a cardboard robot. His songs have a nice mix of synthesized trance crescendos that rise and fall before the chorus. But he uses those sounds in a way that doesn’t scream overplayed 1994 techno. Simply put, his songs sound “epic.” Give them a listen below and, as usual, let us know what you think in the replies.
Does It Offend You, Yeah? – Dawn of the Dead (Station X Mix)
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Black Bikini Alpha – Nightmare (Station X Mix)
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Tags: does it offend you yeah, downloading, dr. dre, filesharing, future of music, station x
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good piece!
Excellent post, I’ve been checking your blog for a while now, but never commented ’till now. I like how you worded this article, and what you say has so much truth, I wish it could be used to change the music copyright laws here. Also, Station X is awesome, thanks for that little hidden gem. I’ll keep an eye on his work. Keep up the great blog.
Mark–
Thanks for the kind words. I think you’re right about music copyright laws. So many of our laws were written before the Internet became a part of everyday life. As such, they’re terribly outdated.
But changing laws takes time; progress happens before the law reacts. As of now, downloading is technically against the law but that law isn’t enforced. Sure, a few unlucky people get sued by the RIAA. But they’re a drop in the bucket compared to the number of people currently downloading music.
I don’t know what the future of copyright law is going to look like. Even if you argue that stealing music is wrong, what’s the proper way to define “stealing?” Copying an MP3 to a friend’s hard drive isn’t the same as taking a CD from Best Buy without paying for it. The law should reflect that.
In any event, thanks for your loyal readership.
Nick-
Thanks for the feedback. While on the subject of what is “stealing” music, I believe there was a recent case here where a woman was fined something around 1.8 million dollars for downloading a couple cds. My numbers might be off, but that’s the gist of the it. I just can’t see how 1.8 million bucks justifies the theft of audio files. The RIAA isn’t just catching these “thieves” and teaching them a lesson, they are seriously fucking up their lives. There is no way a person can pay a 1.8 mill dollar fine in their life time. I can only imagine that a fine of such a large amount would destroy your life in so many ways. If they insist of teaching us a lesson for breaking the “law” I wish they’d come up with a more reasonable punishment. At the very least, one that totaled a realistic dollar amount for the music downloaded.
Your blog is fully entertaining. I am a usual visitor.
Wow! amazing music that does not made to billboard charts way back.. Listening to this tune is somewhat futuristic and techno. It’s nice, really nice. Appreciate your doing, exposing this tunes to everyone who happened visits your blog. Goodluck.
So did Station X make any money from you posting his music for others to download for free?
To quote your article:
“First, it’s not necessarily true that today’s musicians make any less money than those of ten years ago.”
- completley wrong. Bands have always made money from concerts, tshirts, and licencing. They have one less revenue stream (and a substantial one at that) than they used to. They are utilizing the other avenues now because the HAVE to.
Stealing is stealing. And until they change it on paper it’s still the “law”.
If all of a sudden there was an easy way to rob banks it would still be illegal. Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean that the laws should or could change.
Do a gut check – how do you really feel about it? If there is just a small tinge of guilt in there – then you’re really just stealing from your own soul – and it makes you that much less of a sympathetic human being.
Go ahead – download. Why buy the milk when there’s a free cow on the internet. You and millions of others can build yourself up into an ugly monster one mp3 at a time.
Nightmare is a monster track!!
A real breaking dancefloors!!
BBA Rock!!
Hi there,
I just found this when a friend sent me the link…
I have to say that blogs like these help out artists like me enormously… whilst I would make no money as such, what you do get is exposure, and this is worth more to me than a few pounds.
- who is going to buy your music when they don’t know you exist?
So thanks very much for taking the time to write about my music.
Cheers,
Jamie
P.S. That other post above from Sstation X is not me!!
I want my music to be posted for free download on blogs, I’m not in it for the money.
Station X – You are awesome. If it wasn’t for blogs like this people like me would never have found your music, which I’m loving right now. See you at a gig soon!
Appreciate it for all your efforts that you have put in this. Very interesting info. “There’s folks ‘ud stand on their heads and then say the fault was i’ their boots.” by George Eliot.