Day 7/Steal This Blog
November 7th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Day 7 of Movember and the ‘stache is becoming top notch (Donate: mobro.co/KyleMumford). A little heavy on the red and blonde and I’ve still yet to pick up a new razor, I’m unemployed and I can’t afford any of the luxuriant amenities at the present time. I’m an unemployed artist.. I smell a segue..
Movember day 7
Damn you Internet! You’ve made it possible for people to distribute music freely amongst a mass audience and the government is coming in to save the record labels, I mean artists. This is the age of machinery, a mechanical nightmare, the wonderful world of technology and Canada aims to modernize their copyright laws to reflect the age we live in.
The Copyright Modernization Act, or Bill-C11, is intended to “align Canada’s Copyright Act with the perceived realities of the digital era, as well as provide a framework for Canadian copyright law that is forward-looking and technologically neutral.” This is Parliament’s fourth attempt to amend the copyright laws in Canada since 2005, reintroducing the same provisions as on Bill-C32, which was introduced June 2, 2010 and died March 25, 2011 with the dissolution of Parliament.
Total Music Revenues Canada 1998-2010
Concerts and live events have always been the largest portion of a musician’s income. The amount of money per unit sold with albums is very little, while live performances are mostly profit including merchandise sold. It would appear that with the internet boom and the trade of music, concert sales are only going to increase. It may be the fact that young people who can’t afford the album, stream it or download it, then end up saving their pennies to see the band live and buy a shirt when they come to town. They wouldn’t have been introduced to this band had they not been able to enjoy the music free of charge yet they deliver more to the artists personally in the end.
The problem with that is the record labels are not making the money on the albums. Instead of doing their job as the postman delivering the letter they try to control the whole postal system. They aren’t content with distributing artist to consumer; they need to make a profit. For an industry that has been dying for years, and for bands (i.e. Metallica), the internet is the perfect scapegoat for poor album sales. Meanwhile, independent record labels are thriving, continuing to serve niche markets with vinyl as well as distributing fair priced albums to the public. For some reason if the little guy can make it and the giant suffers there’s probably something horribly wrong with the giant.
The rise of the Internet and free music has helped numerous artists gain attention and fans they wouldn’t have reached any other way. Making an album available free then advertising it around the Internet makes it far easier to book a tour and and gain notoriety because people have heard the music. They don’t need to shell out money on “maybe this bands good” and “I like the album art” but instead find music based on the sound.
The argument that if we had introduced this law in the 1980′s we may not have had the VCR is valid. To cut down on sharing “intellectual property” will quite possibly stunt technological growth. If internet music trends die down what will happen to the manufacturers of devices that propagate the distribution of said “intellectual property”. We’ll put people out of jobs in a relatively barren market and that isn’t a constructive decision. Perhaps instead of attacking everyone else the music industry should reevaluate how it does business. Spend less on flashy music videos and pointless advertising and use the Internet to your advantage, don’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
From my own personal experience as a musician, giving away my music has been more beneficial to me than if I had charged for it. I’ve had people all around the world listen to me because everything is readily available online. To have repeat listeners is far more satisfying to me artistically than to make a little money selling a few CD’s to friends. I’ve been able to spread my fan base with hardly any effort.
All I know is that harsher copyright laws won’t fix the problems that the record industry is facing. The slumping sales will continue only now we’ll see the artists suffering the fall out along with the fans.
