Cassavettes, Prigs, Frank Ciampi, Domestiks @ Lizard Lounge, 8.21.08
Yesterday in the Lefsetz Letter, Bob Lefsetz put together a sarcastic tongue-lashing aimed at music pirates. The letter scalded pirates for failing to realize that life’s tough, and people (read: musicians) need money.
My older kids work and cant make the rent and pay all there bills cause shit is too expensive. I still gotta help out and I love my kids. What do you do? Life is too expensive…
…I figure fuck it. File share and then I want EVERYONE to work for free no matter what your job is. That levels the playing field.
If musicians and songwriters dont get paid for what they do why the fuck should anyone else?
Yes, musicians deserve to be paid. They provide a service that is fundamental to the mental well being of countless people, myself included. But Lefsetz misses the mark because he fails to realize that if many of the people who share music were forced to pay for it - at current prices - they could not afford it. Ultimately, if those same people were faced with the choice between making rent or buying music, they would choose the rent (and then go stream entire albums for free with imeem).
Lefsetz also fails to realize that many musicians are never in it for the money. A current parallel can be seen in bloggers. The vast majority of bloggers/writers do it not because they honestly believe they’ll make money, but because they love to create. You see, in some ways Lefsetz has forgotten the immense joy that musicians can feel by simply playing their songs for a small group of people, their friends, or family.
An easy example to point out was las night’s opening band, the Domestiks. Fronted by Quinn Strassel (who also organized the night’s festivities) the band clearly harbored no intention of rock and roll success. The group consisted of a group of teachers and employees from OurStage.com. They sang songs that were a bit silly and I mean that in the best way possible was. Songs about proctoring exams (Lonesome Death Of a Proctor), songs written while proctoring exams, the NY Deptarment of Education, Michigan football, and a song about the beginning of summer ironically performed at the end of it.
If Mr. Lefsetz was in attendence he would have been reminded that at its root music is not a business. Sometimes it takes a no name act singing songs that have no chance of serious radio play or distribution to understand that fundamental concept.
Below the break: information on the other bands who played last night and a gnarly keytar jam.
Frank Ciampi followed the Domesticks and delcared, “Cubicle, Fuck You.”
The Prigs and Cassavettes finished off the sold out event.
The Prigs, Keytar Breakdown from aaron manders on Vimeo.
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This article is interesting in two aspects. It is true that muscians desrve to get paid for their work. It is also true that often the cost required is more than the market will bare so many musicians are not heard.
Clearly a system that rewards the musicians at the producers level and producers at the common musicians level might be a better approach if the concern is about the musicians. I believe that much of the discussion is about the money the wealthiest make and not the average musician. It is much like the movies. It cost 9:00+ dollars for a movie because some super star needs to get paid 20+ million dollars for one movie where some very good movies that cost little to make without big stars don’t get played unless it is for almost nothing.
The average person can now have a great deal more exposure to music than ever in the past. There have always been starving musicians and there always will be but now even the starving ones can be heard whereas in the past that was not possible because of control by those that controlled the money.
just my thoughts.
That’s the million dollar question that everyone is trying to figure out - how do monetize the democratization of music?
If someone has an answer, speak up. Or, keep it to yourself and then sell it for a fat wad of cash.