This time from Damon Krukowski of Galaxie 500 via Pfork.

http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8993-the-cloud/

i also enjoyed some of the replies, especially http://detroitgorilla.com/post/35753565 ... -reporting and http://maura.tumblr.com/post/3576881380 ... -music-you, respectively.

glad you posted that 2nd link for counterpoint

it always makes me cringe when the tough guys come out demanding everyone just go on tour

it bothers me when someone bitches about streaming internet royalties they make off a song they wrote 25 years ago. what do they make for radio plays of that song? oh wait it doesnt get played on the radio. how much does it cost them to have the song on pandora? oh nothing. okay. i feel bad that they never made money off the release of that record, but i assume that they have made some off the reissue. oh and im sure they have made money from itunes sales.

streaming music will survive because its a model to make SOME money off of music that would otherwise be pirated. even if the big record companies buy spotify/pandora etc, at least its generating some revenue.

edit: in my defense ive had a bit to drink

Aren't radio royalties more of an ASCAP thing? Do the same companies work with internet streaming as far as that does? (and third, do I even care? Now that I've typed this, I'm thinking no.)

While I always find these interesting, especially the ones with hard numbers, I'm pretty sick of the "industry is doomed" articles. Reading this tone for a decade straight while the industry is still standing doesn't exactly convince me they know what they're talking about.

ASCAP/BMI/SESAC collect royalties for sirius XM, spotify, rhapsody, youtube, pandora, and other streaming services. one of the songs i administer was played 6800 times on pandora last quarter, making my company a whopping .09c after the split with other songwriters and sub-publishers.

meanwhile, the same song was played once on local public broadcasting during the same time period and made $2.24.

That's "happy meal" money

I don't think Damon Krukowski is saying "the industry is doomed". He's saying "here's where the industry is now" and "here's how it looks from my side".

And it's an interesting read. I feel like his write-up is one of the better ones I've seen on the topic. What's most interesting is that he points out that Spotify and Pandora aren't really making any money, either. There's no real money being made in this, and it'll be interesting to see what the future of those two companies turns out to be.


This guy apparently didn't even read all of Krukowski's article as he goes on to make a point that Krukowski himself already made - that Spotify doesn't actual make any money. Plus it's totally misreading the original article to interpret it as complaining or whining ("boo fucking hoo") about the current state of things.


And yeah she takes apart the rest of his "counterpoint" pretty handily.

This is so true. I'm not making any money off the work I did in 1988 either, and it pisses me right off.

Honestly, I don't think the music industry or at least having music produced is ever going away because so many people love music and want to produce it and don't care if they make money at it that people will keep cranking out product for nothing. But what I do see fading are the longer careers and long term artist growth for those who aren't mainstream enough to sell out to commercials or license their stuff for TV and all that. Or, they're not part of the massive pop machine. Because just making money on the road and not having any infrastructure support just isn't feasible over the long haul. So yeah, we'll still have music. But I think a lot more of it will be bands making a couple albums for a few years and then going off to get a straight job unless things change or someone figures out how to get the bands some money outside the whole... just tour 11 months a year to pay the bills, have no retirement, health care or experience for the future. I think we already see it with hundreds of self produced or micro indie albums flooding the market every month by bands that just disappear quickly after. Fewer and fewer non-mega-pop stars are able to stick around for long. Life gets in the way without any money coming in.

touring makes you a lot poorer, way more often than not

Yeah, I hadn't actually read it when I posted that. I'm getting so sick of the doomsday mentality that I don't read this type or article like I once did.

Having read it, I didn't think it raised many points--the change in industry is interesting, and the lack of open information about royalties is suspicious, but I def didn't like his voice as a writer. By tying it all into his personal situation, it comes across as whiny when all he had to do was ask like 3 friends' bands for their stories.

I'm more intrigued that you could press 1000 7"s for uner $1000 in 1988.

Sounds about right to me. Late 80s was probably when the supply of record pressing plants outnumbered the demand.