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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Bob Hutton <bob_hutton@standardlife.com> |
| Subject | Re: eMusic |
| Date | Fri, 11 May 2007 10:13:43 +0100 |
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Adam, come on man - you talk of musicians as if they are all artists of
the highest calibre - that just ain't true, for every true artist, you'll
get about 99 excellent craftsmen. High art? OK, maybe in a few
instances. A lot is decent quality music made by good craftsmen (some
isn't even that good and I'd rather waste a few downloads on music that
blows than cough up for a CD that I'd never play!) Can I ask, do you
worry often about how much the guy who makes your trainers gets paid?
I DO appreciate artists and indie labels and I have supported them and
will continue to do so. Just not in the same way, because I can now get
their music much cheaper on eMusic if they choose to put it there. I am
sure that many acts use eMusic either as a promotional tool, or because
they think they can shift enough downloads to make money from people who
may not otherwise buy the CDs. Look at Arcade Fire, their first album was
on eMusic, but not any longer. The Decemberists' albums are no longer on
there. Don't you think this is because these bands have successfully used
eMusic to their benefit in promoting their music when they were less well
known? What about the White Stripes and Raconteurs - they must know they
can shift enough downloads to make it worthwhile to be on eMusic, no?
It's ironic that the only album I've downloaded then purchased on CD is
Sloan's recent effort - the number of tracks on it meant that I nearly
used up my entire monthly download allocation ... what was I thinking of?
Recently I've also been digging the Midlake album and that's another one I
might pick up on CD. But do any of you really think that I should be
obligated to buy a CD of music I already downloaded because eMusic doesn't
pay the artist enough royalties? Or if faced with the choice of buying a
CD or downloading, I should necesarily buy the more expensive CD? What
nonsense.
I can split it into roughly four categories:
1. CDs I will buy in any case because I'm a fanboy - The Shazam,
Splitsville, Vandalias (if they were still going), Sloan, Dickies (bless
'em), Ramones ... and many more.
2. CDs I'd have bought in the past but am now quite happy with eMusic
downloads (Winnerys, Cheap Trick, Broken West, some Rubinoos, tons more
besides).
3. CD's I have to buy because they are not available to download
(Locksley, Rubinoos box, Cloud Eleven etc).
4. Music I'll take a chance on because downloading is cheap (Midlake,
Dirtbombs, Greenhornes, Waxwings etc).
Over the years my purchases in categories 1 and 3 have decreased, whereas
2 and 4 have increased. It's all relative - I still probably spend more
on CDs than most of my friends.
Bands come and go. If a band I truly love calls it a day then yeah, that
is a sad moment for me, but at the end of the day, I still have their body
of work to go back to. Good grief, most contributors here (me included)
bow at the altar of a band that called it a day 37 years ago
Bob - 0131 24(51188)
Systems Developer
IS DG3
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