money or cultural expansion

"Is it more important that music businesses make money, or is it more important that culture expands, innovates and grows?"

Another question posed by Andrew Dubber over at http://newmusicstrategies.com/2008/10/30/heres-a-question-nobody-ever-asks

My initial thoughts:

They are both of equal importance.
BUT, record companies need to stop trying to 'make as much money as possible' mindset and change their goals to work FOR and WITH an artist in both an artistic sense AND a financial sense.
They need to start realising that they can make money from the long tail with new artists as well as established back catalogues.
Businesses need to reduce costs and become more efficient. when the business streamlines and reduces costs and accepts the new digital world, then they will be themselves opening up to a much more diverse cultural catalogue of music and then maybe, just maybe the radio stations will play more than the same 20 bland 'manufactured' trash songs 20 times a day, day in day out.

Case in point.
Wedding photographers.
They now have Digital Camera's and Photoshop. Yet they still charge the huge prices they did when they were still doing all the manual processing and darkroom work......I know a few friends who are great photographers who've capitalised on this and are now doing weddings for £150 - £200
You cant charge for what you don't do anymore because of a fundamental shift in technology.
The problem is the 'pro' wedding guys are stuck in a situation where they live their day to day lives based on their 'old' earnings, so they have a mortgage and a car that's based on £600-£1000 a wedding.
Technology has come in and said...'err no, you can now do that same job for £150-£300'
change or die as a new group of people come in and do your job for less.
I think far too many albums are recorded at far to much cost because the record companies are still stuck in a mindset that the more money it costs to record the better it will sound therefore the more it will sell.
And Producers/Record company executives are still living like the wedding photographers.........

Enigmatic.....

This blog post is brought to you by proxy of another excellent post by Andrew Dubber over at NewMusicStratergies

enigma
/inigm/
• noun a mysterious or puzzling person or thing.
— DERIVATIVES enigmatic adjective enigmatical adjective enigmatically adverb.
— ORIGIN Greek ainigma ‘riddle’.

I think any person who isnt shallow can remain an enigma even to their closest friends and family.
The only time i ever feel like i've truely expressed my inner pain or most difficult emotional feelings is through my lyrics when i song write.
I just cannot verbally express in conversation my feelings/anxieties/fears, i get frustrated because the words just arent there to convey whats in my head.
When i write/compose there is no pressure of time, i can dissapear into my own head while strumming chords and leet my mind form the words in its own time.

When i converse with my partner or friends or family members, a conversation requires a constant flows of words, there is a pressure of time. Feelings dont care for time, and when time forces me to try and find words for my feelings, my feelings get pissed off and frustrated!

Blogging is currently hit or miss for me, I dont read many, and I still havent found my own ryhtym and subject matter for my own, so its currently disjointed.
Like all things in life its a learning process, but just like real life, you'll only give as much away in a blog as you would to people you just met in a pub (unless you create a genuine alter ego and remain anonymous)

I am me, this text is me, text can be more widely misinterpreted than talking face to face but that is beyond my control, i write as me, not as anything else.

Music as a money making 'device'

I've had my pre-conceptions about the music industry shattered over the last few months. Old idea's about how you should go about certain things, how to make money, how much money etc etc.

Its all down to pretty much one guy and his deeply thought provoking websites.

The gentleman in question is a Mr. Andrew Dubber and his main website is here - www.newmusicstrategies.com

He has a new blog item up currently regarding pirated downloads and a response he got from a reader who was furious that her music was being 'stolen'. 

It struck a very dissonant chord within me. So much so that I had to relpy in the comments.

I copy the reply here in full and with an additional note, As much as I would LOVE to become very wealthy from my music, it is not the reason i create it. I do not create living on a dream it is to become rich from. Money is a bonus, an added extra, money should never be the reason to create, to create purely for financial gains means the very thing you create is contrived and dishonest.

Anyway, heres my unedited reply:

" It cost me huge amounts of time and my hard earned money to create this music. This is a business. For profit."

This is where you fail. in my honest opinion.

That one statement stuck out like a massive sore thumb for me when reading this article.

Is this the only reason you write and create music? Simply to make money? As a business woman I'd say you;ve failed from the very start then, becasue anyone with any business sense would realise that music is the LAST place you start a business to make money!!

Music is not a business, period. It has 'become' a business for many corporations and compaines, but music is not, in and of itself a business.

Music is about emoting, about expression, about conveying to others a feeling, a thought, a memory.

Music for me personally is like therapy, its cathartic. Each song i write is a diary entry in my life. I cant talk about my feelings, I cant express how i'm feeling to people who care about me, the only way i can get my pain/joy out is in song format. I need to play and write music to satisfy my own emotional needs. I play my music in front of other people at gigs becasue i feel I have something valid to offer others, either to say 'your not alone in how you feel' or as my way of asking 'does anyone else feel like this? I am not alone in this?'

I currently give all my music away for free, I'm currently recordign my first album, and so far i've given away 2 lots of beta mixes, actual 'as its being recorded' mp3's so if anyone out there is interested in seeing how an album is created and progressed then they can download it all, and see each itteration of each song as it grows and develops.

It also means that people can hear my music NOW and I can actually develop a fan base rigth now instead of waiting another 6-10 months until the album is finally released.

When it is released I'll probably do a physical release, maybe a full retail release, thats way down the line right now, but i know i have plenty of good info to help me make the right choice.

Money from my music is a bonus, what drives me is making an emotional connection with people. What gives me the greatest sense of comfort and satisfaction is someone telling me that my music moved them, connected with their own experiences and vocalised their own feelings/pain/joy that they couldn't vocalise themselves.

And for me that is more valuable than any amount of money.

Leon.