Do You Purchase Music?

[MrBill]

I buy some Widespread Panic or Phish sound boards here and there but that's about it. The bands I like get it out of me through outrageous ticket prices.

 

[Woy]

I've bought more CDs this year than any other year I think, mainly because I think it's been a good year in music.

So far I've bought Recovery (however, I don't listen to it anymore), Pilot Talk, Mood Muzik 4 and PPP. I plan on buying Kanye's album when it comes out and probably Pilot Talk 2 if I like it enough.

 

[Palooza]

Abso-fucking-lutely not.

 

[Irish]

No.

I don't like music enough.

 

[relaxedanderson]

The bands I like get it out of me through outrageous ticket prices.

That is fast becoming a fallacy.

When record sales first started going through the floor it was indeed a fact that musicians could make a lot more money through ticket sales and t-shirts...but the execs weren't going to sit back and let musicians get paid while there were Ferraris and yachts to be bought.

More and more acts are being signed up to all-inclusive live deals which means that in exchange for "promotion" the companies (let's call them Nive Lation and Mickettaster) and take a huge chunk of ticket and merch sales. With live music becoming more monopolistic all the time artists have two choices, sign up or don't play. It's almost like a protection racket, more and more bands are coming back from tour in debt rather than dripping in bling.

Ever wonder why ticket prices have been going through the roof lately? It's not the bands that are doing it.

 

[Primetime]

I can't say I've ever paid for a piece of music. I've never bought a CD or DVD in my life.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

That is fast becoming a fallacy.

When record sales first started going through the floor it was indeed a fact that musicians could make a lot more money through ticket sales and t-shirts...but the execs weren't going to sit back and let musicians get paid while there were Ferraris and yachts to be bought.

More and more acts are being signed up to all-inclusive live deals which means that in exchange for "promotion" the companies (let's call them Nive Lation and Mickettaster) and take a huge chunk of ticket and merch sales. With live music becoming more monopolistic all the time artists have two choices, sign up or don't play. It's almost like a protection racket, more and more bands are coming back from tour in debt rather than dripping in bling.

Ever wonder why ticket prices have been going through the roof lately? It's not the bands that are doing it.

Let's just be honest with ourselves though...it isn't our fault the record industry is living in the prehistoric era...I mean 99% of listeners don't care about music quality...just that they can hear it...so promoting quality isn't going to get you much of anywhere with the populace.

Secondly, I can't say I feel sorry for artists for signing themselves away...much like they did with the record promoters and now tour promoters, they sign themselves away for a fraction of the wealth.

Sucks. But you won't get me to pay for their mistakes.

I agree with most of what you say, but when I can get a FLAC copy of an album for free or buy the vinyl for $20, more often than not, I'll steal the FLAC copy and have the hollow experience for most music...it'll be a hollow experience, but an experience nonetheless.

 

[relaxedanderson]

Let's just be honest with ourselves though...it isn't our fault the record industry is living in the prehistoric era...I mean 99% of listeners don't care about music quality...just that they can hear it...so promoting quality isn't going to get you much of anywhere with the populace.

Secondly, I can't say I feel sorry for artists for signing themselves away...much like they did with the record promoters and now tour promoters, they sign themselves away for a fraction of the wealth.

Sucks. But you won't get me to pay for their mistakes.

I agree with most of what you say, but when I can get a FLAC copy of an album for free or buy the vinyl for $20, more often than not, I'll steal the FLAC copy and have the hollow experience for most music...it'll be a hollow experience, but an experience nonetheless.

That's a fair point. Personally I couldn't care less about the industry, the megastars, the chancers that buy into it all with the misguided belief that you can still get rich from playing music or the listeners that couldn't really care less about music.

My problem is that a lot of the habits that are infecting the top of the pyramid are slowly seeping down. Even bands that have enough of an audience to regularly tour Europe and North America are struggling to make a living from their music. I know that many promoters, even at mid-level and below, have always had a reputation as rip-off merchants and you always run that risk when touring but artists don't even have the steady income stream that royalties used to give them anymore.

I've worked with quite a few musicians at this level and it's bloody hard seeing decent people making good music and getting hardly any reward for it. You'll get some singer putting a good wedge of their own money into recording and releasing an album for a more than reasonable price yet you'll have "fans" asking where to find a free download of it on that singer's Myspace page. Or you'll have people standing at a merch table in a gig counting off which of the records on display they have torrented before walking off with nothing more than the free badges and stickers.

We seem to be living in an ostentatious time where people will pay many times over the odds for things like clothes, jewellery, gadgets or pointless fucking adornments for their flashy cars just to be able to say they paid that much for them, but this conspicuous consumption doesn't apply to something actually worthwhile like art. I'll get called cheap for buying unbranded, £3 shirts in bulk, driving a shitty, nondescript car and for paying as little as possible for shoes and then wearing them until they fall off my feet but then get called an idiot for giving money to an artist I like so that they can keep producing art that I like.

2010 is a scary and confusing place for me, my only sanctuary is the record shops.

 

[Derrville]

Wow really? Doesn't the quality suck ass?

Not if you DL the HQ versions

 

[Irish]

relaxedanderson is my favorite poster.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

That's a fair point. Personally I couldn't care less about the industry, the megastars, the chancers that buy into it all with the misguided belief that you can still get rich from playing music or the listeners that couldn't really care less about music.

My problem is that a lot of the habits that are infecting the top of the pyramid are slowly seeping down. Even bands that have enough of an audience to regularly tour Europe and North America are struggling to make a living from their music. I know that many promoters, even at mid-level and below, have always had a reputation as rip-off merchants and you always run that risk when touring but artists don't even have the steady income stream that royalties used to give them anymore.

I've worked with quite a few musicians at this level and it's bloody hard seeing decent people making good music and getting hardly any reward for it. You'll get some singer putting a good wedge of their own money into recording and releasing an album for a more than reasonable price yet you'll have "fans" asking where to find a free download of it on that singer's Myspace page. Or you'll have people standing at a merch table in a gig counting off which of the records on display they have torrented before walking off with nothing more than the free badges and stickers.

We seem to be living in an ostentatious time where people will pay many times over the odds for things like clothes, jewellery, gadgets or pointless fucking adornments for their flashy cars just to be able to say they paid that much for them, but this conspicuous consumption doesn't apply to something actually worthwhile like art. I'll get called cheap for buying unbranded, £3 shirts in bulk, driving a shitty, nondescript car and for paying as little as possible for shoes and then wearing them until they fall off my feet but then get called an idiot for giving money to an artist I like so that they can keep producing art that I like.

2010 is a scary and confusing place for me, my only sanctuary is the record shops.

This, sir, I agree with. When its the low end of the pyramid, I gladly support those artists that I enjoy.

As for anything at the higher end of the food chain, I say fuck'em and thank you for the free music.

Another thing I agree with, is there is a certain awesomeness with going to a record shop for a few hours, finding a few things you think are good finds, then bringing them home, opening them up, sitting back, and having an experience with it. Those are good times.

 

[strahanfan92]

Last CD I bought was Untitled by my favorite rapper NaS.

 

[relaxedanderson]

As for anything at the higher end of the food chain, I say fuck'em and thank you for the free music.

I say fuck 'em and they can stick their shitty music, free or otherwise, right up their arse.

relaxedanderson is my favorite poster.

Awww, shucks!!!

[Can't find a bashful - yet silently chuffed - animated gif on my computer]

 

[leaffan]

I used to go out and buy a new cd a week but at this point these days I don't bother.

Part of my problem is due to the way I listen to music and how times have changed for myself.

I kinda laughed when I seen larry say "sit back and just listen to music". No one does that these days, everyone is too busy doing other crap anymore.

 

[Houston]

CD players kind of ruined the experience of music and Ipods completely killed it.

When you take out a actual physical form of music and play it you're making a commitment and you're actually experiencing it, far different from shuffling through 100's of CDs on a Ipod.

 

[strahanfan92]

Awww, shucks!!!

[Can't find a bashful - yet silently chuffed - animated gif on my computer]

Eli Manning does the best Aww shucks face of all time.

 

[kbpsu]

Where do you guys download music? I used to use Limewire, but now since its shut down, thats no good anymore.

I've been typing in the artist and name in google and trying to get a free download. It worked for a few, but its a pain.

 

[Tengo Juego]

I kinda laughed when I seen larry say "sit back and just listen to music". No one does that these days, everyone is too busy doing other crap anymore.

That's the only way I really "listen" to music. Any other time it's just ambient noise for me.

 

[dave]

I buy about 90% of my music off iTunes, 5% via CD (usually special editions) and steal the other 5%.

 

[citizenerased]

The only time I usually buy CD's is when i'm buying a DVD that just happens to include a CD (Like H.A.A.R.P by Muse or Time Flies by Oasis) or if it's a live release/compilation.

The last normal album I think I actually paid for was Absolution in 2003.