Revisiting The Danger of Money in Music
I wrote an article in my last 'zine (Unite Magazine), called The Danger of Money in Music, outlining my beliefs that the music industry gets warped and ruined under the influence of wanting to make money.
The eternal question of "selling out", money ruins all things creative, right? How can we, as fans of music and art, expect an artist to create something for the pure love of their art if they, in return, want money for it?
This all reminds me of my experiences with 'zines, promotions, and bands before doing REV. My first 'zine was a 16-page, black and white print called UnScene. Printing up 2,000 copies was $700. UnScene fell apart, but then I printed Unite Magazine. Another 2,000 copies, another $700.
At the same time that Unite came out, I also threw a fashion show with live bands with my friend Alison at Purdy Lounge. I paid to have a custom stage built, I printed up fliers, and ended up blowing $900 on the show (even though I happened to make back $250 from the bar, which wouldn't have covered the cost of fliers). Also I doing a ton of other projects that were draining my pockets faster than the first desperate drink of an alcoholic.
At the time I was working at Borders Bookstore making a little over minimum wage. I was running myself into the ground.
By the time I stopped to take a look, I had $8,000 in credit card debt because I didn't want to "ruin the integrity of the 'zines and shows" by making some money off of them.
I wish I could say this is something that would only be found in the world of printing but musicians have just as many obstacles. Quality instruments run from $1,000 to tens of thousands of dollars. Bass amplifiers and cabinets run at about two dollars a watt and you need at least 200 watts to be able to play a live show with decent sound.
Most musicians, for a decent setup, spend about $5,000, and that isn't even "pro equipment".
Don't even get me started on the costs of running a venue or record store. The amount of money, effort, and time is incredible.
The thing is that every single one of us do this for our love of music. Sure, sometimes things get popular and we'll make a good deal of money on it, but for the most part it's worse than gambling.
Sure, some people who see that giant pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and care nothing more than making a buck will come into the music industry and rape it; leaving it in shambles, but thankfully they don't last for long.
Look at the current state of the Major Label Record Industry (for an absolutely brilliant article on the state of the Record Industry, check out The Big Takeover's issue 61, the editoral titled Rick Rubin, Radiohead, "Record Men," and The Revenue Redirect). Right now the entire mainstream industry is in shambles and they're scrambling to find any way possible to be able to re-invigorate their companies.
What are their solutions? They're turning back towards the people who care about and love music while getting rid of the guys in suits. Additionally, look at the recent success of Indie labels. Indie bands are getting a lot of mainstream success (The Decemberists, Franz Ferdinand, Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, etc.) and the Indie labels who "care about music" are getting huge benefits from it.
Nothing can be absolute when it comes to this industry. Too much love, not enough business sense and then people lose their ass and the stress causes them to leave their passions behind. Too much business, not enough love creates a cold industry that puts out a crap product that eventually dies from a lack of interest.
I guess the real point is that maybe the idea of "selling out" needs to be put to rest. I think we can all agree that douchey "music executives" should go off to some far part of the world and leave the industry alone, but in the same regard maybe it's time that the people who really care about music start viewing money as a form of empowerment as opposed to a tool that ruins their art. Let it be part of the fuel that gets art moving forward, rather than let it be a "burden" that artists and musicians avoid. In the end, there would be a lot more musicians and artists able to focus and create their art, and isn't that what we, as fans, really want anyway?
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