The Music Biz

Some interesting insights into the daily life of the modern musician that crossed my path recently. If this video starts getting redundant, just skip to about 4:10 for the moral of the story.

Managing Musical Artists in the new Digital World from Peter Malkin on Vimeo.

Don’t shoot. I’m just the messenger: A musician gets attacked for speaking up
Thursday, October 14th, 2010 by Lucinda M. Dugger

It’s two o’clock in the afternoon and Pandora plays my (new) favorite radio station through my laptop speakers. While doing work, every dozen or so minutes I click back to the website to see who the band is that has popped up on the station.

I haven’t heard of this band before. Who are these guys? I like them. I make a mental note to check out their MySpace page later.

As a music consumer, I love options like Pandora to access and purchase music. Because of these choices, I have learned so much about bands that are making the “transition from local notoriety to a rapidly growing regional and national presence.”

I continue working as my music plays, combing the internet for news and other noteworthy happenings in the world of artists and copyright. I soon come across a website that provides a forum to learn about and comment on proposed legislation. Musician Jeremy Soule voices his opinion in favor of the proposed Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, citing a perfectly reasonable example of how on the internet he sees “tens of thousands of illegal copies of my work go out in the span of an hour.”

Of the next 34 comments, 6 of them attack Jeremy directly. One calls him a “greedy pig” for wanting to make money off of his music, while another says “you should be happy that you’re getting that kind of exposure.” One commenter questions his integrity as an artist: “can you honestly call yourself an artist?” Someone else tells Jeremy that he “will not download any of [his] music” even though he doesn’t even know who Jeremy is. Another person (named Reason) accuses him of being an impersonator of the real Jeremy Soule and also tells him to go back to Great Britain and “leave the US alone.” Of course, that person is reasonably assuming that there is only one Jeremy Soule in this world, and he happens to be British.

Of the other comments, almost all of them are as equally unconstructive and a few of them attack artists broadly. One person says to musicians, “Greedy piggies. How about making music because you love it?” And another tells musicians to “Get a job if you want/need money so bad!” And just in case the reader didn’t catch all the hatred for musicians in the first dozen posts, someone wrote “Umm… to the musicians that say they aren’t getting paid… how’s about you get a real job… wouldn’t that be great?”

And, as I read, Pandora plays softly in the background.

I wonder, how many of the people who left these comments were also listening to Pandora or itunes or Spotify when they were so vehemently attacking Jeremy and other musicians for wanting to protect their work – their livelihood? Probably most of them. And if they weren’t listening to music right then, they probably listened to it later that day – in the car, on the metro, or found themselves humming to a catchy tune in the grocery store.

There may be a dark hole of people who abhor any sort of music, melody, or sound of any type or genre. But I haven’t found them yet. So, it’s probably safe for me to assume that these very attackers are also music listeners or even lovers.

How then can so many people slander and belittle the very people who bring them joy or communicate that exact message that’s needed for that one moment? Our music collections are big in part because when we are in that happy, sad, or frustrated mood, we want that one band that can speak so deeply to our souls.

I guess some people think that it’s okay for music listeners – and lovers – to search out through technology new music and covet the words, songs, and playlists for personal enjoyment. But once they see a musician step up to say ‘hey, I’m being affected by all this so please help me protect what I do for a living,’ it’s as if the dogs are let loose for the attack and the musician is suddenly viewed, not as a provider of something so highly coveted, but as an intruder.