[ Thanks to Kelly
McNeill for this link. ]
“The basic problem with the whole issue of digital music
distribution is this: copyright was invented in order to ensure
that musicians (i.e. producers) get paid a livelihood for the
duration of their producing.“
“Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that the majority of
musicians cannot make enough money to earn a living under the
current system in which five record companies control over 85% of
all music distribution. The system benefits a select few artists,
and more often than not, musicians (those that actually play an
instrument) are worse off than marketroid drivel (i.e. spice girls,
new kids on the block, etc.). It results in the ridiculous
situation that most musicians end up starving (or forgoing their
musical career in favor of other day-jobs), and a select few, based
not on merit, but rather on marketing – make disproportionately
huge incomes — more than they actually need by many orders of
magnitude. In any case – the amount of money musicians make is
currently in no ways really tied to their merit as a musician
itself –> this is wrong – It points to a fundamental inadequacy
of the current system. A way must be found to level this out in a
more equitable way – such that more musicians can make a living.
The really rich musicians may not like this – because they will no
longer be as ridiculously wealthy (i.e. out of proportion to their
work input), but you also won’t get the extreme highs and lows, but
rather a proliferation of more quality music being ‘out
there’.”
“The current situation exists because the system is not actually
driven by the QUALITY of the music, but rather by its POPULARITY.
If an individual has enough money in their marketing budget, they
can sell a million records, even if they can’t play an instrument –
this is exactly what has happened in the case of market-generated
groups such as the spice girls and a handful of others.”