Simon Fairbairn – Aural Antidotes for a Prescribed Life

Update: Frank has written another post on this subject which is a little more level-headed and reasonable. He also had the decency to retract the part that made him seem arrogant. Seems like everyone is calming down all round. Also, dude reads his comments so fair play to him for that.

Update II: Another point of view from another independent musician. “But like I said, I’m not worried about sharing. The more people hear my stuff, the more likely the fan base is to grow, and then there are more people supporting me as best they can afford, which is what lets me do the music full time.”

So a little bit of time can make you realise that what you meant to say was not quite what you said. So, here it is. I stand by most of what I said, but not in the way I said it. I offer my unreserved apologies to Frank and his fans for the unnecessary personal attacks.

A More Reasoned Approach

I still really don’t like the idea that Frank somehow thinks that everyone who downloads music illegally is some kind of cowardly thief.

Notwithstanding the P2P study that I cited (which suggests illegal downloaders buy an additional 1/2 a CD more than average for every 12 tracks they download), there are also many legitimate situations where people cannot get hold of a piece of music by any other means. For example, a CD that is no longer stocked anywhere and isn’t available online. Are these people really the same as a shoplifter? Are they even the same as the pirate that downloads every track going and never pays for anything?

I know that Frank is probably talking about his music, which is easily available, but that’s not what he said in his post. To tar everyone equally with the same legal brush without having any regard for the grey areas that exist everywhere in life is a little harsh.

Separating out the morality and legality further: If a shop had an infinite number of items available, and the security was so lax that only 1 in a million people were ever caught, don’t you think that there would be a dramatic rise in shoplifting? I’m not saying it’s right, I’m just saying that it’s human nature. With that – and this is the moral collapse of the rising generation that he mentions – would come a more socially-acceptable idea of shoplifting. The same way smoking weed is more socially-acceptable than injecting heroin.

To be fair, Frank recognises this himself, but there is a further dimension to this with regards music.

Specifically, he bemoans the guy that emails him and says that he downloaded an album, but will definitely come to the next show and pick up a T-shirt. Frank can’t stand it because he sees it as a theft – a lost sale. But who knows if the guy would have bought the CD or not (the study suggests not)? Fact is, when he heard the music he became a converted fan!

Now, imagine if for every 10 people who download it, only one ever intended to buy it. You have one lost sale and 10 new fans. What if it was 1 in 100? Or a thousand? Think of all those potential fans you could reach if you just accepted it or, and this is where musicians get really upset, encouraged it.

Another analogy (I’ve been told I’m not very good at these, but bear with me): Internet marketers build their mailing lists because they know that the more people on their list, the more people are likely to buy. They give away stuff for free just to get the name on the list. They know that having a huge amount of fans is more important in the long run than jealously guarding their products, because having ravenous fans allows them to sell more expensive products further down the line.

Speaking of products, I also believe that Frank’s ‘basic facts of economics’ are flawed. I outline the basis of this in my previous post, but further to that, there are many situations where people created stuff that nobody wanted to pay for: Van Gogh being a famous example.

“A situation where people labour and are not reimbursed is untenable and unjust” – I agree, but many people do things (especially artistic things) who would like to be reimbursed but aren’t. Just because the thing created wasn’t free to create does not automatically mean that the creator will be reimbursed. The trick is to find ways to monetise the things surrounding the creation if the creation itself cannot be sold.

Jell-o gave away created free recipe books to give away, knowing that the recipes would encourage sales of their primary product. Books aren’t free, but they were playing the long game.

Another example: No one would pay for a flyer, yet there were design costs (in materials and people’s time), printing costs and distribution costs associated with it. The thing is with the flyer is that it’s an upsell to something more valuable.

Perhaps this is how musicians should be looking at musical tracks and P2P, instead of calling everyone who does it (which must, though reading his comments would suggest otherwise, include a large number of his fans) names.

Finally, the technology is here whether we like it or not. I guess the biggest disappointment was watching another musician seeing only the punishment and not the potential. More ears on your music can only ever be a good thing in the long run. When you have an independent, empirical study suggesting that you’re not actually losing out on sales, perhaps it’s better not to beat your fans around the head too much and embrace the potential (Trent Reznor is leading the charge in this regard).

Right, I am done with this now. This is the post I should have written in the first place…

Update: OK, seems the best way of responding to a whiny rant is not with a whiny rant. I get that. You don’t have to keep calling me names (unless they’re really awesome names – like Slack-jawed Junkslut).

Update II: Here’s a report that suggests that P2P sharing has no effect on CD sales.

Update III: Lawrence Lessig discussing copyright.

Update IV: OK, guys, I learned my lesson. I should have taken a deep breath and thought about this a little more before I went and posted it and I’m sorry if I offended anyone (especially Frank – ha, like he cares what I think!). I’ve prepared a more reasoned and less vitriolic article here.

Go read that! Seriously, this one will just make you mad (and make me wish there was an undo button for the internet)! Oh, if you must (but comments are disabled cause I know what you’re gonna say and it’s mean).

Just seen Frank Turner’s views on filesharing. Once again, this blog becomes all about calling people on their bullshit. Seems like being all anti-authoritarian and political is fine, just Not In My Backyard.

Let’s look at some of the choice nuggets he’s got going on.

I Hate Everyone

“…it’d be naive not to notice the danger that a generation of people are coming up who do not understand why they should pay for music at all.”

Wow. Way to tarnish millions (billions?) of people with one giant brush there, Franky-boy. The inherit fallacy of this statement is incredibly obvious. iTunes does alright. CD Baby is still going. Can’t all be middle-aged folks on those sites, right?

“My time isn’t free either – I work hard and I expect to get paid for it.”

This is arrogance beyond belief. It’s simple: No one asked you to do this. Would the world end if your music didn’t get made? Probably not. I’m sorry if it hurts, but there are a million other musicians out there waiting to get heard who would do a lot more for a lot less than you would.

Don’t like it? Fine. Stop doing it.

Edit: Also, gratitude. Be grateful for the fans you’ve got.

It hurts. I know this. I spent my youth playing video games. I worked hard at it. Why isn’t someone paying me for that? I was awesome at Goldeneye!

Turns out we need doctors to reach high standards for the good of us all. The market demands this, and we give them a ton of money in return for the time and dedication required to reach these agreed standards.

Musicians, not so much.

Musicians work just as hard as doctors (if not harder) but, and here’s the kicker, if we stopped paying musicians altogether, music would still get made. Plenty of people out there willing to do it for free. And, now, plenty of people out there willing to give away their music for free.

Simon! All you’ve done is attack! Where are your solutions?

Well, the bigger question is how do you compete with free? Chris Anderson wrote a book about this (which he gave full and free access to on Scribd for a month after launch).

You don’t act like a whiny bitch. You definitely don’t punish your fans with DRM and tighter controls. You wise up and move with the times. You have to figure out some other way to make money out of it. File sharing can be an opportunity for musicians (especially smaller, independent musicians) if you can see it as one.

The internet is setting information free. It is democracy writ large. The only barrier to accessing a world of entertainment and education is the cost of a computer. This is the greatest achievement of humanity! People love to share, and only this capitalist ideology is preventing us from being more wholesome individuals.

I give away my time for free on the Wordpress forums because, wow, I love doing it! The intrinsic love of the thing is motivation enough. It’s not for the money – the pay sucks.

Marketing

But let’s not sugar-coat this, in this Brave New World, the odds are stacked against you. With the increasingly easy access to the entire history of music, your new tracks are now competing with, for all intents and purpose, an infinite amount of music (no one can listen to every single track produced thus far in one lifetime). Why should anyone LISTEN to your tracks, let alone pay you for them?

If people are downloading your music, it’s a compliment (what, you actually thought they were going to BUY for your music if they couldn’t get it for free? You make me larf!) that could turn into a fan that could turn into a sale down the line.

Shouting at them ain’t gonna help.

Musicians need to learn some basic marketing strategies. Any small business owner has to learn the basics of marketing and, finally, musicians are being shoved out of their rock star bubble and into the real world where they have to do more than fuck and snort their way to that Lear jet.

Hear. Like. Buy. It’s simple. Ears are more important than dollars.

Frank-la tackles the Political Motive

The people who download music want to hear music. Sure, there are a few that think they’re shoving it to ‘the man’, but most just want the tracks. They couldn’t care less about the big politics and the bigger money.

However, if they feel they get to know you (and not some iconic, bland rock star face, the real you), and you explain to them, calmly and reasonably that you’re touched that they listened to your music but you’re not eating very well so could they throw a few coins into the hat, then magic things might start happening.

Yes, people give musicians who act nice about downloading money. Check out Jonathan Coulton’s donation bar. Odds are that at least one message is along the lines of ‘I downloaded your music and I really loved it so here’s $5′. I’ve seen it on his site a bunch of times.

“The people hit first [are] smaller or independent artists.”

How does that work? You think that buying a million more Britney Spears albums are going to allow smaller acts to get deals? Don’t think so. Top brass gets bonuses and Britney gets a new car. That’s a no-brainer. The industry shafts musicians every which ways. Don’t believe me? Get a 360 deal and see how you feel.

For once, thanks to the power of technology, musicians are not at the mercy of the gatekeepers in charge of distribution. We can do it all ourselves! And what’s P2P? Distribution on steroids. We also have the bonus power of the micro niche, baby. We gots the power of the Long Tail.

Finally, he comes up with this little gem: File sharing is

basically shoplifting for cowards.

It’s no where near that simple. It takes an ignorant mind to come up with shit like this.

If I steal a box of cornflakes from Tesco, Tesco has one less box of cornflakes. It cost time, money and resources, so they’re really losing out. If I download a tune, that tune still exists on the server. I can download it a million times and it’s still there. It’s a magic box of cornflakes.

I’ve written and recorded music – I know how much work goes into it – but the above fact makes the traditional supply and demand economics obsolete. The internet is fucking with the world, and the People of the Past are scared out of their minds.

In a digital world, supply is infinite, so the price tends to 0. Doesn’t matter how much work it took to make the damn thing. Competition drives down prices – increased supply creates less demand – doesn’t matter how much the thing cost to make. That’s how Tesco forces the little guy out – they create increased supply to force their prices lower.

The ever-innovative Google is scaring the crap out of Microsoft because it offers most of its services for free. Luckily for them, it’s found a business model that is compatible with this.

No reason musicians couldn’t do something similar. Just need some imagination is all. Plenty of independent artists writing and recording out there and making a pretty good living despite (because of?) downloading.

What you need to do is build a base of rabid fans and sell what you have that is scarce (live shows, personal appearances, the chance to appear on your recordings, memberships with discounts, special edition vinyl, fluffy toys, socks). Frank says he gets this but “it’s not quite there”. No, it is here and trying to monetise musical tracks these days is a mugs game.

Check out this graph: New Music Strategies.

Musicians have a choice. They can either wish it was the past and get left behind, or they can look for the opportunities that exist and get moving into the future. One method involves tireless dedication, innovation, imagination and hard work. The other involves getting a blog and a bad attitude.

I’ve just been over to Plugin ID and read Glen’s latest post. I’m a big fan of this blog – Glen’s writing is open, personal and honest – and I find it often offers fresh perspectives on life.

Today’s post, however, has been more thought-provoking than most. It’s basically about happiness and the importance of living by your own standards of happiness. I’ll let you go and read it, then you can come back here and read about my reaction.

Pretty controversial, huh? Apparently, alcoholics are doing what they love to do and we should just stop judging them. Initially, I thought that this was a pretty interesting idea. Maybe there’s something there – they’re living life exactly how they want and damn the consequences – but then I thought that it can’t be that simple.

A number of commenters started questioning this idea and it dawned on me that there were holes in this argument. It started when Dr Alex suggested that, actually, alcoholics aren’t really happy and suggested this:

How often do we pursue an activity thinking it will make us happy only to discover it has the opposite effect?

To which Glen responded:

Then you stop

The good doctor then went on to suggest that

If we want to become happy, it seems to me we should strive to awaken wisdom in our hearts that really will lead us toward it.

To which Glen responded:

I think saying like that are just ‘nice’ and not entirely reality.

This is where I start to diverge away from Glen’s views on life. You see, the problem with sayings like that are not that they’re not reality, it’s that they’re just really really difficult to actually follow through. To gain the wisdom of total self awareness and internal peace is a lifelong struggle and not something that we should dismiss so flippantly.  I’m guessing Alex didn’t mean literally open your heart and look into it (though, as a doctor, I’m sure he has the means to do just that should the fancy take him).

What it actually means is that you have to be totally honest with yourself. Totally and absolutely honest. In the quiet, dark moments that you don’t talk about with others because you actually see who you are and wonder if you couldn’t have become so much more.

It’s the battle of discovering what you truly want versus what’s been placed there by parents, peers, advertising, society. It’s remembering those moments of flow and figuring out how you can reach them again.

It’s easy to cover up this contemplation with booze or drugs or women or sleep or food or TV or whatever. It doesn’t matter, so long as you keep the noise raging and remain in a state of oblivion so you don’t have to sit in silence and contemplate your own insignificance.

For me, that’s where the addiction comes from.  That’s why you can’t ‘just stop’ and that’s why you tell people you ‘love drinking’ even though it’s perfectly clear to anyone a hundred yards away that you’re really not happy at all in the slightest.

You see, those are really difficult questions and may lead to answers that you don’t want to fully acknowledge. What if the woman you’ve been with for 20 years isn’t the right one? What if you actually want to do something that involves massive changes to your life like selling your house, quitting your job and moving to Tahiti?

If, when you truly contemplate it, you decide that all you want to do is party hard forever, great. Go do it. At least you know. At least you’ve got rid of that little nagging voice that says “you should be doing something more with your life”. Otherwise, can you be sure that the partying isn’t covering up some greater desire that you’re just not acknowledging?

While the post is mostly on the right track in terms of living life to the full, I don’t think claiming an alcoholic was doing just that was a particularly smart move.

I do agree that we shouldn’t judge the alcoholic, but I don’t think that the problem with people judging wasn’t because the booze hound has found his happiness, it’s that they’re as equally unhappy as the alcoholic and have no right to judge.

Really, I believe that the thrust of the post shouldn’t be “don’t judge, he’s living his life how he wants”, it should be “don’t judge, your life sucks just as much as his and you’re going to die soon so do something about it”.

OK, world, this is really important! I have a redesign pending on this site. Music will be available. It’s all going to be very jolly!

OK, it’s been a while. I’m back now. Working on a new tune that could potentially be very nice.

I also have to do a bit of site overhaul, which could result in some broken links and stuff. Will try to minimize the disruption, but if you find anything not working as it should, please let me know!