NWB - Community Blog

Sadly Charlie is quite correct.

I don't use Spotify (technophobic of me in ways I know) I do use Shoutcast radio however and would gladly pay for that if it were monthly. (In fact I did pay the princely sum of 59p)

Loads of great music and talk stations on there (Starbase 439 is my fav talk station as it broadcasts audio books of Sci Fi)

Sign of the times I am afraid.

Best wishes

John

As John says, its a sign of the times. Recently a former NWBer contacted me and asked if I could recommend good sites for free cur MP3 music,also film download sites that were also free. Yeah,sure, most of us know of them but, Always direct them toward I Tunes for music as well as Amazon. Really gets me seething. A lot of people put a hell of a lot of time and effort into creating a piece of music or a film. And we expect them to give it away!!!!!
Would those that want it all for free, work for nowt? I don't think so.

Agreed Keef:

Just BOUGHT from Amazon

Transatlanic Sessions Volume 3 disk 1
The Adventurers The Sea Of Love
Queen Greatest hits vol 1,2 and 3
Journey: Eclipse

Ok I will admit I have downloaded a CD prior to buying it or not as the case may be ( Phil Collins last one springs to mind here) but dont go around getting music for free as a rule.

Best wishes

John

People who serially download stuff off illegal sites really annoy me, there is absolutely no excuse for it. Whereas I think there can be an argument for downloading the occasional track to "try the water" - something which Spotify fulfils whilst benefitting the artist, serial downloaders of entire discographies of bands I have no time for.

The argument that more people watch live music than before is invalid, I doubt people who refuse to pay a few pounds for an album would pay up to and over £50 to watch a band. If you did a survey of the audience, I expect most of the people there will have bought the music of the band they are watching. The idea that it's where the real musicians make their money and if you can't gig you can't pay the bills is wrong. An album is a work of art. I don't want to listen to Scott Walker perform Scott 4 live or Brian Wilson perform Pet Sounds as it's not the same as the recording, the recording is a huge part of it's magic. Brian and Scott deserve to earn a few bob off that record, and their benefactors once they're no longer with us. If the family who invented the patent on the burger box and milkshake carton still cream it in off patent royalties, what's wrong with the same being true of an artist's family?

The ludicrous campaigns by anti-copyright groups particularly annoys me. Copyright is not wrong. It might be to some bereft of talent or the concept that you should be rewarded for creating a work of art. It's great to write and create original music but it is not a right for people to get to listen to it for free - it is the decision of the artist to choose to release it for free, not a third party. In the case of my band, I'd say the cost of recording our album, including over 500 hours of studio/producer time and the price of the gear we own between us is knocking on the door of £20,000 in total - maybe more. I'm not saying we've got a right to make a fortune from the album but it'd be nice to get some money back on that investment some day so we can give up our day jobs and write even more, possibly even better songs. Torrenting is potentially hugely damaging to a band in our position. If we started doing really well and building up a fan base but our album got leaked onto a torrenting site, I doubt that any major label would want to release it as it's already out there for free anyway. Bye bye dreams of being a pro-musician, bye bye all those hours and thousands we spent in a studio.

Perhaps there is the argument that too little of the revenue of record sales actually returns to the artist but lets not forget that in many cases labels do stump up a rather hefty advance on a record, sure they get the returns should the album go on to become a classic but how many albums sell a million? It can cost just as much to make a seminal album as it does a lemon of an album. Bands also have the option to go it alone, as Radiohead and Oasis did once they'd achieved enough success to take a proper DIY approach. Then you could argue all bands could do the DIY approach but again, the band has lost another major label tool - the promotion and marketing clout. You simply cannot compete with a record label/promoter at things like this yourself. All the "they made it through x,y,z website" type bands do always curiously seem to have an immense amount of label backing and structure in place before we get to hear them.