Support Indie Labels and Artist!

HOPEFULLY THIS PAGE WON'T BE DELETED!!! We hope to draw much activity and insight with this Myspace page regarding the effects of filesharing and illegally downloading music. This page is not run by any record label or music artist. We have many friends that run indie labels and play in bands, and we really want to get the message on filsharing and illegal downloading to EVERYONE!
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!!!
The crisis within the music record business is becoming extremely acute. The whole file share business has it’s stranglehold on record companies that are already cut down to size. Most all smaller and up and coming artists and smaller labels are on board a sinking ship they seem powerless to save.
Why try and sell your music on the internet when someone else open huge marketplaces (offering your catalogue as well) online where you can get EVERYTHING for FREE?
Cachelogic.com says torrent-traffic alone amounts to around 35 % of ALL internet traffic on a worldwide basis, that says a bit on how much artistic content that is consumed without any artists, bands, labels, movie-companies, software companies etc gets compensation.
The file share sites make money on advertising. The song writer, producers and record labels who put a lot of work into and paid for making the recording, distribution, marketing, promotion etc don’t get a single cent. Is that fair?
Few seem to take into consideration that a lot of work, time and economical resources is put into a song or an album.
Say it took a song writer 500 work hours to make an album and 50000$ in expenses to record and mix it, pay musicians, designers, press records, pay for promotion and marketing etc (And still 50000$ is nothing if you want to have an international career of some sort). The simple fact is that his album can, in theory, be bought by 1 person and then be put on countless file share sites and be downloaded for free by millions of people. One thing is that he put a lot of work and time into making that album, another thing is that it cost a lot – is it fair that he is the only one who suffer as a direct effect of that he made music that millions love? He will not get any mechanical rights compensation for that my music is distributed via fileshare sites, nor any royalties, neither a share of the advertising income at the file share sites.
“Adjust to reality man, find new ways to earn money on your music”, some people say. But how? Who wants to buy a t-shirt with an solo artists name written on it? Sell his music to commercials and film? Well, one thing is to get access to that market – another thing is what if he does not want his music in shampoo commercials and high-school films?
The only hope to make money then would be to tour all year to earn money, but then again he would have less time to compose music. Since so many bands and artists are losing money on record sales the live market has grown even more important than before. Problem is you need to be “big enough” to pull a couple of hundred people at the least, depending on your touring costs, to break even. And to pull people you need to be marketed, too be made visible. And marketing costs money. And how do you make money to pay the marketing when you can’t get paid for people buying your music?
I’ve focused on finding deals and partners for Norwegian bands and artists in a wide variety of label segments: metal, jazz, experimental, electronic, hardcore etc.
3 years ago, for example, I got one of the bands I worked with – punk / hardcore band JR Ewing - license releases in UK, Sweden, Central Europe and USA. All on small labels, all hopefully-break-even projects, but great fun for the band and great for me in terms of getting more knowledge and a bigger network.
Nowadays it’s very hard to find someone who dare sign Norwegian artists. One thing is that few indie record labels dare to sign a Norwegian act that is stuck in a corner of Europe, another thing is that it’s difficult to even find a Norwegian label that is willing to sign new artists (Unless you appeal to people over 40 who still buy cds).
Some people within the file share business tend to create an impression that they contribute to kill the “evil, capitalistic major label industry”. It’s fascinating to see how much hate there is for businesses that in fact just release something as harmless as popular music. I might personally think it’s a tragedy that The Ketchup Song was the biggest hit ever some years ago, but hey a lot of people liked it – and nobody forced them to like it either. However, yes, the major labels do suffer under file share, and a lot of people have lost their jobs. But: their back catalogues and infrastructure are so solid, although they do regroup and adjust themselves at this very moment (Like ANY other business need to from time to time), maybe even turn into one BIG company in the end, but it’s NO WAY they will disappear.
So, in other words, those who start to feel it now, where it will really start to hurt the coming years, is among artist and indie labels.
One of the most DIY labels on earth – Gold Standard Laboratories - shut down it’s business a couple of weeks ago. Part-owner and main man Sonny Kay ran the label either from a dirty office in LA or from internet cafes and phone boots across the world while being on tour with his own screamo punk bands. Addressing in an email what forced him to shut down he said: “Filesharing was never much of a problem until everyone got the mp3 players, then the sales disappeared overnight.” And this comes from a label which is, I mean was, looked upon as the Warp of punk rock – releasing extreme punk and experimental music - NOT a label that produce radio hits.
Concerned by the current situation I wrote some indie label contacts across the world to ask them how they felt about the present situation.
Support the artist – BUY their music.
Best regards Vegard Waske
Please have a look at this BLOG, which has comments listed from the paragraphs above...
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&f riendID=101420032&blogID=330095958