What about programs that allow others to download, re-record, or otherwise steal your digital goods (in this case, your music)?
For most musicians and record companies, we hear complaints of how the internet is taking music out of business. While this statement is a bit extreme, the claim seems reasonable. How can one make money selling a product that is so cheap and easy to illegally reproduce and distribute?
In all honestly, though, many musicians are aware that the internet has actually opened up an entire new world of opportunity. One of the most obvious of these is the ability to reach fans without regard to location. We can now market our music to the people who want to hear it even if they live on the other side of the world. This still blows my mind on a regular basis. Not only that, but we can also hire the best managers, booking agents, or what-have-you's that tailor-fit our bands, instead of picking out of the possibly limited number of option in our band's area.
But enough on the internet, we all can agree it helps the music industry. The debate at this point rests with individuals with a reasonable web connection and the inclination to enjoy and share music without paying for it.
The angry musicians and record companies are correct; the music is intellectual property, and as such, it does not belong to anyone whose name is not on the license. If everyone that listened to each song and paid for that access, record companies would be rolling in dough (and perhaps musicians would find themselves better off-I'm not so sure about that).
But take a second and think about the are we're moving into.
In today's world, social media and networking are THE THING.
So, when you stop to consider just how many artists there are out there, and just how much you can easily spend on advertising and pushing your music into perspective fans' ears, think about file-sharing. Most people do not decide they love a song after one listen. Or two, or three, or even five. They may like it, but chances are they're not willing to drop even $1.50 on downloading from Itunes, not after just one listen. Now, imagine if they've downloaded the song, it's started to crop up on their ipod a lot, and they're really starting to feel it. This leads to two things: artist re-check and sharing.
Artist re-check is when they've listened to your song so many times, they've found themselves getting attached to you personal 'sound', and now they're wanted to see what else you've got. In addition, they already like your sound, and they're begun to get familiar with it, so they are a good deal more receptive and likely to like other works you've created.
Sharing is when the song is just so good they're stuck constantly singing it, or it fit a certain situation just so well that they had to share it, or they had it playing in the car during Spring Break in Cancun and now every single person on the trip wants a copy of your record.
You could mutter and grumble about how that's your intellectual property they're sharing and how you want your $9.99 for that album.
Or you could think about the incredible advertising opportunity you have. I'll talk about branding in a little more detail another day. For now, suffice it to say, you are not actually in the business of selling that song or that album, not really. You are in the business of selling tickets. You are selling your name and the experience of seeing yourself perform live. All the YouTube videos in the world cannot reproduce the pleasure of seeing a favorite artist do something beautifully well, live, and in front of you. There's really nothing like it, and our generation certainly has learned that.
But without fans, your brand name, you, your art, is not bringing in the cash. And without social media, now, you have to be truly exceptional to gain and keep fans without regular interactions on social media of some kind and constant advertising.
And if your music is good enough to steal and share, you should be flattered. Maybe you can be unhappy with it, and justifiably so. But don't discount that it is the new normal, and it is also helping you, possibly more than actually being paid per song would.
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