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Are artists who have no concepts how music can be sold...


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lost? No. At a severe disadvantage? Yes.

Obviously, in a perfect world, creative people would be free to simply create, and their art would find a market by dint of its own merit. But as we know, this is not a perfect world.
In a less than perfect world, creative output would be recognized by someone who could get it to the market to the benefit of the creator. That less than perfect world is fading faster than a drill sergeant's smile.
In an imperfect world, everyone creates and throws it on a communal wall (the internet) and sees what sticks...and maybe, just maybe, the true artists get something out of it, but probably not.

ars gratia artis...not just a film production company motto anymore.

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In an imperfect world, everyone creates and throws it on a communal wall (the internet) and sees what sticks...and maybe, just maybe, the true artists get something out of it, but probably not.
With that line I can half heartedly agree with.


What i miss so far is a statement like:

"I make music for my own pleasure and sing a lot with my kids, no chance a larger group of consumers would buy my music..."
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Quote Originally Posted by daddymack View Post
lost? No. At a severe disadvantage? Yes.
basically this - since this is a music biz forum I assume we are talking about music as profession, not art pursued for its own sake

Obviously, in a perfect world, creative people would be free to simply create, and their art would find a market by dint of its own merit.

In a perfect world, I don't think there'd be markets at all. I don't mean they are "evil" or "controlled by the man" or anything like that, I just mean that they are an artifact of imperfect distribution of resources and need....which means we don't have a perfect state (some operators in are not satisfied).
I'm not trying to be overly abstract...actually I think even trying to start from a perfect world (Utopia literally means "nowhere" -- that why More used it) is overly abstract - then we try to attach our practical concerns to and it just doesn't translate well.
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Quote Originally Posted by Napoli Stiletto View Post
What i miss so far is a statement like:

"I make music for my own pleasure and sing a lot with my kids, no chance a larger group of consumers would buy my music..."
That wouldn't really follow the context of a music biz forum though.
That's more pure artistic pursuit..."amateur" in the original sense (for the love of it)

There are other forums for that
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Quote Originally Posted by Napoli Stiletto View Post
With that line I can half heartedly agree with.


What i miss so far is a statement like:

"I make music for my own pleasure and sing a lot with my kids, no chance a larger group of consumers would buy my music..."
Let's see the links to the stunning art you're creating, hotshot. I'm thinking we'll see a pink unicorn farting glitter before that happens.
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Quote Originally Posted by BlueStrat View Post
Let's see the links to the stunning art you're creating, hotshot. I'm thinking we'll see a pink unicorn farting glitter before that happens.
Blue, this is the usual response of internet assumption is the mother of {censored}uption too curious folks.

However, I listen to your songs and it is pretty good, so if you want you can send me a PM and I offer you a worldwide exclusive deal for that album, then you find out what I do and who I am, as well you find out if your album sells and if you become a hotshot.
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It seems to me that the choke point is becoming not the avenues for selling music, but the decline of the push media. These days people don't have music put in front of them, whether through radio or record stores. No longer are people browsing a record store and buying a random album on a whim just because the cover art is cool. You can't browse Amazon or iTunes like you used to browse a stack of vinyl, and you can't hang out with your friends or meet artists at online stores.

Instead, what we have is that buyers must actively go and seek out the music before you can sell to them. Unless you're at the level of Clear Channel Radio or Pandora, the chances of them coming across your music by accident is close to zero. Sure, at a gig you can point them to your website, give them a free download, whatever, but playing your music when you give them a url is about as likely as that guy at work who "will definitely come out to see you" ever showing up at a gig.

That's where the world has changed. Push media just isn't there anymore, and it's really hard to get people to buy (or even listen for free for that mattter) unless they're pushed.

So knowing how music can be sold is only maybe 10% of the battle. The other 90% is getting them to overcome apathy and momentum and seek it out in the first place. And that's the really hard part.

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Quote Originally Posted by BlueStrat View Post
Is English your third language? This makes no sense at all.
No! The 6th languague.

How many languages do you write as bads I write English?



Blue, this is the usual response of internet assumption is the mother of {censored}uption too curious folks.
Any other Americans who do not understand this? ^^
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Quote Originally Posted by Napoli Stiletto

View Post

I clean the streets for free, for several reasosn, one is that I don't feel good about working for a salary in that job, because I'm maybe not good at street cleaning, and the street is anyway dirty again next day.

 

Point well taken.
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The biz today is such that artists have to be businessmen as well, and the two are pretty much mutually-exclusive. That's why record labels existed in first place and why most of those that were started by musicians ended up being total busts. It's also why so many artists got taken advantage of.

I suspect that even in the new age of DYI internet bands, the most successful artists are STILL going to be the ones who do the business-aspect of it well. There might very well still be a need for "labels" of some sort to do the business work for the artists.

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Believe it or not I have made money by selling music. Not much but I have sold quite a bit for a non-performing do it for arts sake type.
I have a day job and hold no illusions about doing music for a living. Not talented enough, I know it and I'm OK with that.
None of that stops me from putting my original songs out there and I'm lucky to have a few followers and supporters of what I do.
Best place to sell music hands down for independents is BandCamp.

So as not to repeat a previous response here is a detailed list of reasons why BandCamp is best:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/...1#post46913145

BTW, since I have a career I'm quite happy with and self employed all the money I have made from my music has gone directly to charities of my choice.

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