Indie labels?!
Surely that means they aren't independent any more then...
Are legal music streaming services just Kim Dotcom on a diet, with a lawyer? The debate has raged amongst musicians for years now, and really ignited when Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven frontman David Lowery took issue with the “new music economy” two years ago. In what became known as the “Letter to Emily” storm last year, …
Set up playlist, hit "download to phone" and wait a bit. Now you have your spotify playlist stored locally.
There are things to dislike about it, they don't have everything (their selection of British Goth bands from the 1990s is quite lacking... :), you don't own the stuff you've downloaded and it can disappear if they fall out with the artist. Plus clearly you lose access if you stop paying them.
But I still quite like it.
Forgive those of us who have lived in other European countries or places like Australia who cannot even see most of such artists listed on these services. On a few occasions I've contacted the artists directly and they've pulled the appropriate switches, but if you can only get through to a label then you're ignored.
Yes, I think that's some of the best writing on the subject - although as it turns out the industry has been able to keep control (albeit with a shift in power to Apple, Google, etc) and maintain the price of downloads much higher than the 'reasonable' level she suggests so she represents something of a naive and idealistic position (not that I am castigating her for that).
I mean, I do all the work but my boss takes the credit, and his boss in turn, up to the CEO and then to the shareholders. So why should the music business be any different?
On the other hand, why don't all the musicians join up and form their own streaming/online sales platform? I can always go independent as a consultant...
You must not know a lot of musicians. To get them to agree with each other on anything is like herding cats.
It's why they are continually taken advantage of.
The other reason is that musicians are a dime a dozen.
I wish I had the answers for helping them, but their very mindset prevents any solutions from the start.
The question is not "is streaming worth it?" its "whats in the contracts?". Like anything you can have good and bad business contracts, and if you are an artist, then hearing "streaming" and saying "yes" or "no" based on that alone is a huge mistake, as big as you can make anywhere contracts are involved. If anyones wants to stream your music for free, read the fine print even more closely.