EXTRA SPECIAL DISCLAIMER*
Most of the people I work with, and myself included, agree on one thing - the quickest way to get on our permanent ES&D list is to ask us for free tickets, or 'if we could get you into the show.' And you know right off its not some new little new hip, cool, trendy band that only sold 500 of the thousand tickets (because I could get you into that, if only by telling my boss you'd drink heavy). No, it's going to be something like the 'usually in an arena' but 'one night only' at the club or theater show that sold-out in a matter of moments, and that was months ago. Oh yeah, and 'your friend too."
So I ask, and I've heard other ask - "hey, you work in a shoe store, can I come over and pick up a free pair of Bates Tach Boots? You work at a grocery store or liquor store, could you bring me a couple of bottles of Wild Turkey? You work at a bank, could I have some free money?" Oddly enough, they look at us like we are asking them to steal from their place of business. But somehow they do not see their request from us as being the same deal.
Yeah, you don't like the record companies. Who does? Not the band, not the songwriters, not the engineers, not the consumers and not the stagehands either - our only bonus is that we get to tell the execs to GTFO our stage.
I mean what's it take to make a decent recording?
- space, and acoustically neutral space at that (so expensive)
- equipment (very expensive)
- personal - engineers, producers, hands, someone to work the money, catering, clean-up (good people cost, simple as that)
So who is footing that bill? Who is paying for the space, the equipment, the personal? The band is. The big huge record company that me and you and a dog named Boo all hate so much might front the money, but they are going to get every penny back long before the band sees a cent. I'll put you into contact with people (more than one) who can happily tell you how a band can get a gold record, but little to no gold to the bank with. Having learned them from the movie industry, who had learned them from the publishing industry that created them, few works of fiction quite compare with the way record companies run their books.
But hey, no one like oil companies either, should you do a drive-away? I hate banks, should I rob them? Would either of those things be OK?
It has really hurt a lot of people. Perhaps that is change, and nothing that can be done about it. Sometimes the more things change the more they stay the same, so we still do showcases, we don't do it for record company execs anymore (weasels and lizards that they were and still are) but we do them for iTunes people who despite the degree that they came into it (at least in the beginning) as geeks, who have slowly morphed into weasels and lizards.
Now I like iTunes to the degree that you only have to buy the song you want and not like the old record company business model, which was to have you also pay for one (45s) to twelve (33 LPR) songs that you could have miked my ass after a burrito festival and got better music out of it, just to get the one song you wanted. But I'm also very aware of the fact, that as a friend of mine said "iTunes is music that sounds good on dime sized speakers."
All that being said, the people who I've seen hurt the most by this are not the big corporate business executives, them fat cats - the weasels and lizards. Nope in every case it's the programmers, the people who make and finance the movies, the songwriters and performers - who oddly enough are the only people in this whole feeding chain you actually like. Ain't that a kick in the head? The people the most damaged are the only ones you like.
I don't do it because I don't think I could in good conscience take money from people that are paying me to work for them while I steal from them behind their back.
But I wonder how many of you think that you should work for free? If these people are supposed to provide for you for free, what are you doing to entertain us - for free? If you don't value other people's work, why should anyone value yours?
Oh yeah, I can say this with complete and total authority. Your favorite band? Those people who do all those songs you think are so meaningful? Those people who you think really reach out and speak to you? If you are downloading their stuff and not paying for it, then they think you suck.
* - I have a dog in this fight, and a rather large one. For the most part it's good. The less product these people sell, the more they have to tour to make money, they more they have to tour, the more shows they have to do, the more money I (and my brothers and sisters in this sector of the entertainment industry) make. Where once upon a time (but it was not forever) bands used to tour to support the record (and the resulting record sales), they all pretty much record to support the tour & selling band merch (we've had many bands who show up with more merchandise then equipment - oh brave new world). So not buying the recording only serves to make me more money in the long run. But I also have a relationship with two different recording studios in the area and show up from time to time to load in and set up the bands in the studio, and then show up later to reverse the process. Less recording (or evermore low-fi) means fewer of those kind of gigs.
