I don’t produce music. I create it.
I’m not in the manufacturing business.
I’m an artist. A musical artist.
That is my position. We need a state change in the way we think of music, and how it is paid for. Enough with the manufacturing paradigm. It was never true in any case. And it NEVER compensated all of the contributors fairly. It’s time to be the artists we are, and to act accordingly.
How do we create music, that requires the active and whole-souled participation of our community of fellow musical artists? And how do we do that without using the rapacious, “extractive” business model that has its equivalent in mining and oil companies, in businesses that rely on cheap labor or others who squeeze their workers and creative partners? How, in an industry that has virtually dissolved over the last 20 years, can we continue to sustainably create the music that inspires us?
To do that, requires a willing investment of time, energy and the hard costs of studio time, mixing and the rest. And it requires this of every single person involved in the process.
How can we do this in an environment where music is essentially free?
We collectively need answers to these questions.
From the artist’s perspective, we can’t continue to conduct ourselves in the way that “producers” of music have operated in the past. We have to find a new way to do our art in a fair and sustainable way. And unless we are independently wealthy, we can’t finance everything on our own.
From a listener’s perspective, we can’t afford for musical artists to step back from creating musical art. We have to provide a modicum of support, if we ever expect the future of music to live up to the legacy of our history and our culture.
Music is a vital expression of our culture. It is the voice in the wilderness.
It has value.
And we have to be willing to pay for it, if we can.
Or all of this goes away, and we live in oldies radio for the rest of our lives…
OoooWee!