Beyond calling it racist which is interesting since I assume the beggars are all European, are the protestors offering up a solution to the problem? Or is their solution to let people sleep on the streets? If that's the case, it doesn't sound like a solution so much as letting people who aren't the same race deteriorate on the streets. Which sounds kind of racist to me.
Again though, it's the implication that we too, are propping up these unfair business models that bothers me. Musicians get screwed on the back end. We get screwed by paying money to advertise on their sites up front.
My other reason for pointing this out is that the majority of people have a very unfounded negative view of advertising. And I want to dispel those myths whenever possible. We get blamed for all kinds of things, most of which we have nothing to do with. So when I hear the phrase "ad supported piracy,' yeah I shake my head, but "ad-supported legitimate businesses," is a different story and I'd rather it not be lumped in the same category.
I'm also wanting to remind any musician or organization who uses the "we're are musicians, but they don't work in the music industry," argument that you don't have to be "in the industry," to be in the industry. You don't even need to make music. You just need to make something. Anything.
Spotify/Pandora may indeed not give a rat's ass about music but that's because they treat it the same as books, blog posts and Charlie Bit My Finger videos: It's content. Silicon Valley's business practices don't just hurt musicians. They hurt all content creators. The authors, photographers, professional and amateur alike. They also hurt the regular guy putting whatever content up for free in exchange for using a free site. They hurt the whole process because now the prevailing fact is that content has no value anyway. Of course, if content had no value, then why does google and Spotify need it so much?
The next musician who talks smack would do well to remember that they aren't the only group getting fucked.
Advertising is very closely related to the music industry and have been feeling the same effect. We hire vendors all the time whose job it is to license music, or create it. Adam Weber, head of music production company Agent Jackson had a lot to say about the state of his business thanks to the consistent devaluation of content, i.e. music. And that's just one example.
Spotify and Pandora have the ears of politicians and a much better handle on PR. Musicians should think about getting as many people on their side as possible. And while we're great at exposing new music to audiences (legally) we're also kinda good at solving problems too, since it's our job.
I feel like I just recapped my article, but maybe if people read the shorter version they'll understand it better.
I'd also like to add one more: We're making it easier not just to get your music heard, but to know who is playing the song. A lot of commercials now feature Shazam buttons as a reminder for people to look up the song. And then hopefully buy it.
In case you didn't grok it, the point of this article wasn't a defense of advertising but more or a caution against generalizing an entire industry. Not everyone in advertising is a sleaze ball, just as not every musician has a heart of gold. Sooner we get past that, the sooner the both of us can find a solution.
After all, that's what we do for a living: We solve problems.
Thank you to all Roger Hodgson fans for weighing in. If someone knows him please get in touch and let him know we'd love to interview him and write a sponsored post about his second life in advertising. We have very reasonable rates, and we're huge fans of his music.
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