Today I wanted to write a post about something that I
personally am extremely passionate about and have increasingly heard more and
more about it throughout the past couple of years. This is of course digital
downloads, online music streaming and music being posted to the internet
illegally. I feel that this subject has been covered A LOT in the media however
as a sixteen (seventeen on Tuesday) year old girl I thought I might use this
blog to give my unique perspective on this particular subject. I haven’t come
across anything about this subject from the perspective of a teenager girl such as
myself, so I thought I’d be the one to change that and write about it from my
point of view. A lot of what am I about to write is personal opinion and any
facts/figures that I include have come from an extensive amount of research
that I have conducted over the past number of months. As time goes on I will
continue to keep up to date on this subject due to personal interest and if I
feel necessary may even write a follow up post. But that will very much depend
on how this subject develops in future.
The subject of online music steaming has been highlighted
a lot in the media particularly in the past year or so due to a number of
famous singers sharing their thoughts and opinions and of course taking a
stance. Music being posted illegally on the internet and music downloads
perhaps haven't had as much of an emphasis in the media as streaming has however
these three things all walk in hand in hand in many respects and affect artists
in similar ways. Two artists that have caught my attention regarding this
subject are from two different generations but both have had a massive
influence in the music industry. This is of course Taylor Swift and a personal
favourite of mine Prince.
I'm sure most of you will be aware of issues recently
highlighted by Taylor Swift regarding one global brand in particular who had
planned to create a music streaming service of which users could subscribe to a
free three month trial period before paying $9.99 per month subscription fee
following the trial. Fair enough some may say; however the free trial period
meant that artists contributing music to this particular streaming service
would not be paid a single penny until the trial period was over and users
began paying a subscription fee. Rightly so, Taylor decided to take a stance
and refused to allow her music catalogue to be included in the service due to
the fact that she strongly opposed the company’s decision not to pay artists
during the trial period. On her Tumblr account Taylor wrote an open letter
about her reasoning to take these actions. In the post she states "This is
not about me. Thankfully I am on my fifth album and can support myself, my
band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows. This is about the
new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be
paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or
her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of
debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and
create". Just a short period of time later the company reverted from their
initial idea and agreed to pay all artists for their music contributed to the
service. Thankfully, there are people like Taylor out there who are not afraid
to stand up for what is right and look what happened? She was listened to and
changes were made! If it weren't for Taylor taking a stance, indie artists
wouldn't be paid for all the heart and soul that they put into their music.
Like I said earlier in this post Prince is another artist
who has spoken out and taken action against music distribution on the internet.
Recently, Prince had his entire catalogue of music removed from all streaming services apart
from a site named Tidal which he has exclusively posted his latest album
"HitNRun" on. I recently stumbled upon an article about Prince and online
music streaming services and according to this article, the reason Prince had his music catalogue removed from streaming
services was that like Taylor Swift, he feels that the digital music industry
are making it difficult for artists to make a living off of.
Just like any normal person both musicians and singers
need to make a living. They work extremely hard and tirelessly to create the
music that each and every one of us love to listen too. Would you like to work
for hours on end and then for your boss to turn round at the end of the day and
tell you that they're not paying you for all your hard work and effort? Of
course not! Why should musicians, bands and singers be treated any differently?
Despite the fact that I'm only sixteen years old and have no experience of
being a full-time singer/musician for a living I can still see just how much of
a struggle it is for young, indie artists to make a career for themselves in
the music industry today. In many respects the digital era is definitely
killing off the music industry or at least that's how I see it.
As you'll now realise I am extremely passionate about this
subject and have done a lot of reading and research on it. Being the curious
person that I am, I decided to conduct a little research into the figures and
percentages that artists are paid through various revenues and was absolutely
shocked by just how much of a pittance it actually is! I actually considered listing
the figures here on my blog but it varies slightly on different websites and I
don't want to provide incorrect information. Considering the fact that the
internet is such a big place, this information is extremely easy to come by so
take my advice, look it up because like me I'm sure you’ll be shocked.
Personally speaking, I refuse to join/subscribe to any
music streaming sites and don't intend to anytime in the near future. I do however;
confess to downloading music from the iTunes store although I even try to keep
that to an absolute minimum. In every instance possible I buy a physical copy
of any albums I want from one of my local music stores/record fairs. I prefer
to support my local music stores rather than go to the dark side and download
music. It really hit me a couple of years ago when HMV went into administration
and it looked as if my local branch was going to close down meaning that
there'd be no music shops whatsoever in my area. Despite the fact that many of
the major HMV stores in the big cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh were shut
down, my local HMV was one of the fortunate few to remain open and since then
my town has even welcomed an independent music/record shop to the area. That's
almost unheard of in today's society. Around
the time when HMV in my local town was saved I vowed to myself to support it in
every way that I possibly could. I wasn't prepared to face the possibility of it closing down again. And I am extremely proud to say that I have in
fact kept to the bargain. If there's a local music store around; I’ll do
everything I can to support it!
I say the exact same thing when it comes to books but
seriously, there is nothing better than going out to a book store or in this instance a
music store and leisurely wandering round looking for your next purchase. I love owning a
physical copy of an album and being able to flick through and enjoy looking at
the accompanying booklets. What if you meet the band or singer? You can't exactly
get a download signed, can you? Most importantly if you buy a physical copy of
an album from a local music shop; you're supporting your local music store and
the artists who created the music rather than them being paid a pittance for a
download or in some instances nothing at all when music is downloaded
illegally!
So I'll keep this post to a minimum as I'm sure you'll
get my point by now. But seriously next time you go to download a song or use a
streaming service, think about how it impacts upon the music industry. Let's
get the music industry growing again rather than it sinking down the plughole!
To be honest I don't think I'd even mind if the prices of albums were raised a little as long as I knew the extra money I paid was going to the artist. Please do your bit to support musicians by supporting your local music store
and purchasing physical copies of an album! You're small contribution over a period
of time will make a huge difference and perhaps even give up and coming artists
a chance in the music industry!
