Music Monetization Debate

Programmers write code, musicians create music. Code is usually different from whats out there, music is usually not.You have music pouring out of every speaker on earth. Its kind of hard to ask for money for that. Its like selling sand in Sahara.I can honestly tell you that if all the record companies would die over night, I wouldnt even care one bit. The artists would find other ways to get together and put out their music, and without getting screwed.

That's like saying as the price of circular saws drop in price, hand made furniture becomes cheaper.You're just going to end up with a bunch of sloppy tables.People still want to listen to quality music from artists who have years of practice and experience. You can't reliably get years of experience unless you're getting paid to do it.Sure, there are exceptions, but it's not the rule. Michael Jackson would not have existed if there was no money in the career. T

> Remember music has been around long before there were ways to "monetize" it.No halfway sane person will pursue music fulltime if he cannot earn a living off it. This is true and has been true throughout history. Where there previously was no revenue through the sale of recorded or sheet music, there was patronage. If the patronage system had not existed, do you really think Leopold Mozart would have devoted his efforts at training Wolfgang Amadeus from the age of 3 to pursue music, as o

I think you are caught in thinking the status quo of the music industry and its history determine what all "valid" potential markets for music are, according to I guess some economical or political belief you have. That Discovery isn't a product right now doesn't mean that if done correctly it can't become a product that changes the music business even just a bit, you need a stronger argument to convince me of that than just "it's not the way it is because it&#

They can make more profit if they don't need to pay artists

what do you propose?> That would go against tradition.a tradition of it being unprofitable, perhaps. It just goes against the numbers. Small artists just don't get enough listens.Everybody complains, but you aren't entitled to success. Once you're popular, there's plenty of ways to monetize.The only solution is basic income, because you probably aren't gonna live off your music otherwise.

This is a tiring trope.It’s like how the music industry kept saying that people would no longer sing and make songs, because piracy would prevent them from doing so. As if there was no money to be made, and money was the only point of singing. As if piracy ever stopped people from singing for the past 10,000 years.Well, artists do make money from songs, by having concerts. They are selling the service and the experience of of a live performance. This was the way that it had always been do

However, note the context here:You are reading about the thoughts of a musician long past their prime. They have created vast wealth at one point in time, and now they only have the records to really keep them going.Vast availability of music DOES NOT MAKE MONEY FOR ARTISTS unless the labels are 100% cut out. Even then the numbers are small. They won't make minimum wage.HOWEVER... vast availability of music WILL increase their concert attendance. Which means -- $ for the musicians.

They won't. They own the hardware, the distribution channels and the datacenters.For comparison, despite making professional music is even easier (a copy of Ableton Live Lite and a few hours of studio recording for the vocals makes for less than 300$) every single music chart is still dominated by music made by corporations (Universal Sony / Time Warner, mainly).On the other hand, music is less valuable than ever. From 20$/unit (the price of a CD) to 0.0004c for stream. Or y

I disagree with his outlook on the music biz. I think that recorded music does have a value. Although there is a small cost to produce it these days every musician dreams of making money off of it. No musician enjoys giving their music up for free. They assume that it'll pay off in the long run(whether that be buying tracks on itunes, getting a cd or a tshirt at their show). Just because the current model for selling music isn't working and piracy is a popular alternative doesn't make music wort