Richard Shindell is a Top Bloke By Amanda on May 2, 2008 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
I don't require musicians I like to be rational, sane, compassionate, intelligent, thought provoking and in general good people. But it's awfully nice when one of them turns out to be so. The superb singer/songwriter Richard Shindell has some thoughts here and more here on being an artist in the age of illegal downloading. He speaks sense.
While I think a lot of anti-piracy measures and attitudes have been hamfisted, insulting and obnoxious (and I don't use P2P myself), I don't make my living from music so I can't begrudge those who do their strong feelings on the matter. Still, when he talks about the "better angels" attitude, and respect between consumer and artist, that makes sense to me. I think there are lots of things that can be done to turn pirates into people who support artists -- not least of which is "the passage of time" and "embiggening of musical tastes" since (IIRC) it's teens/uni-aged kids who do it on the grandest and most unthinking scale, and it's mostly directed towards the more top 100 end of things. eMusic's corporate line has long been that it pitches the long tail and independent acts to "mature" music fans who are vastly less likely to fileshare. This was actually borne out when Random House tracked piracy of it's eMusic DRM-free audiobook files and found ... none. (can't dig up the thing I read about this, will add link later.)
Richard still thinks it's important the artist gets paid (in this case, him) but he's actually doing some constructive, realistic things about it. Go, Richard!
By coz
on May 2, 2008 1:55 PM
While we download free to air TV, I have never done music.
I wanted to buy the new Nick Cave and Mountain Goats CD while we were back in Oz. I didn't get to it but was willing to pay $30 each.
Finally I bought them off iTunes for $9.99 each cause we wanted them (and the Ipod is soo handy for the days on the road for work), and it was quicker than Ebay.
I'm assuming the artists are getting profit from it.
I may still buy the CD's, just to have the physical thing.
ps- i just found Bright Eyes (via Rolling Stone and half remembered JJJ)...do you like/know him? I think i love him.
By Amanda
on May 2, 2008 2:24 PM
Yes, in terms of artists getting money iTunes is superior to eBay because from second hand sales they get nothing (always the case of course.) The biggest victims of my eMusic addiction -- which is also legal, like ITunes -- is eBay and other 2nd hand purchases. I've bought one in the last six months I think.
You're lucky to have US itUnes access Cozzy -- on the Aussie version you'd pay $17 even with the AUD at near parity. SOOO overprices and the main reason I hardly ever use it.
Connor Oberst? That's Bright Eyes, right? Haven't hard anything recent but he was the Big Thing a few years back and never took me by storm. Recommend away, though.