This is not a popular opinion, but it’s just Supply and Demand. The Supply of content has become virtually infinite, so of COURSE it’s free. I’m a musician myself, but I get this.
You may be a terrific songwriter. But so are a hundred thousand other people, the vast majority of whom were never able to make and market records at all before the internet explosion. If a modern artist figures out some way to force payment, he’ll stop being listened to entirely, since people will just listen to the next guy instead, who is just as good. Because now, musicians aren’t dependent on record companies who decided which 1 band out 10,000 was heard by the public.
And most musicians have ALWAYS worked for free, with only a tiny handful being paid even a living wage.
The recording industry is only about a hundred years old. For most of history, musicians sold NO records at ALL, but made money ENTIRELY by performance. It’s actually just going back to that.
This is not a popular opinion, but it’s just Supply and Demand. The Supply of content has become virtually infinite, so of COURSE it’s free. I’m a musician myself, but I get this.
You may be a terrific songwriter. But so are a hundred thousand other people, the vast majority of whom were never able to make and market records at all before the internet explosion. If a modern artist figures out some way to force payment, he’ll stop being listened to entirely, since people will just listen to the next guy instead, who is just as good. Because now, musicians aren’t dependent on record companies who decided which 1 band out 10,000 was heard by the public.
And most musicians have ALWAYS worked for free, with only a tiny handful being paid even a living wage.
The recording industry is only about a hundred years old. For most of history, musicians sold NO records at ALL, but made money ENTIRELY by performance. It’s actually just going back to that.