S*T*U*F*F* Reloaded

I downloaded the Radiohead record last night. What did I pay for it? Nothing. I thought to myself, “I’ll check it out, and if its good, I’ll pay something at a later date.” And I will - I’ve been working this way with shareware for a while now and have honoured my self-made agreements with the authors of some wonderful applications.

The articles are everywhere - any Google search for “radiohead” will now not only produce results about the band, but headline news: “The death of the music industry”, “Is this the end for major labels?” etc. etc. This proves the point that if nothing else, Radiohead have generated ten times more publicity - at a higher level - than they would have by the standard “album promo” tactics that companies have been mindlessly churning out for as long as I can remember. Of course, this will soon become the norm. Prince’s release via the Daily Mail was a similar talking point - and I thought he was well ahead of the game - so I guess we can all expect to see new and interesting ways of artists releasing records that don’t involve buying a CD from a shop…

I’ve been shouting from the rooftops (well, its really difficult to get on my roof, so I’ve really only been talking in a subdued voice at gatherings) for so long now about how bands and record companies need to revisit their ideas on giving stuff away. Artists feel they have a God-given right to get paid for their music, and labels feel they have a God-given right to get paid more than the artist. This is how it was for a long time. I remember the skull and crossbones symbols on my dad’s old LPs - “HOME TAPING IS KILLING MUSIC” - if only they could have seen what was coming!

Then came the possibility of getting a lot of stuff for nothing, which, as rational economists with flexible morality, people with the wherewithal to do so started to avail of in their droves. And the companies yelled “ITS THEFT!” Oh, wake up. It doesn’t feel like theft. Its not like I have your motorbike in my back yard, I just listen to your song once in a while. So exists the justification in the minds of the download generation, the citizens of Bit Torrent, Planet Earth.

My argument was that by giving music away, money would come eventually. You can’t download the experience of being at a show - but if 1,000,000 have downloaded your record, you can be sure you’ll have a much bigger chance to fill venues, and sell T-shirts. Big film companies who want to use the year’s most popular track aren’t going to worry about forking out for it - even if it became the most popular track because the band that created it generated a unique licence for personal users to have unlimited access, but not for commercial use. Software has been like this for ages, and I’m sure music will follow suit. You can buy Microsoft Office for Educational purposes for a fraction of the cost of the full retail edition - ie. if you’re not using it to make money, it costs less. Music will end up this way.

Creative Commons has been of interest to me for a long time as an alternative to copyright. With a Creative Commons license, you keep your copyright but allow people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit — and only on the conditions you specify. It just seems to make sense in the current climate to be thinking more along these lines, though it is getting increasingly hard for young bands and artists to make money while they are trying to scale the wall.

I released Angels In Drag for free last year and that has been cool. I look at the stats and just enjoy the fact that somewhere out there, people are downloading it, listening to it, hopefully enjoying it. But then again, I am not depending on income from this record to keep a roof over my head. I am certain there is a way to “make it work”, but for now, I can’t think of it… the glory days of putting out an album and waiting for the royalties to flood in are long gone, and for those that yearn for the return of this era, I advise a change of career. Maybe shepherding, or park-keeping?

The logic board went on my MacBook Pro - that was a nightmare (keep those backups ticking, folks) - but the way it has been handled by Apple was excellent. The computer went into the Apple Store on Saturday afternoon, and I got a call last night to say it was ready to be picked up. I mentioned, while I was in there, that the power button was beginning to feel a little one sided, and one of the keys had a slightly sticky feel… no messing, they replaced the case too. I bought a new MacBook as a backup machine - it was a breeze to set up, and works great, so hopefully that will be the end of computer woes for a while.