The RIAA Armageddon has begun

"follow the tour bus, sweetie!"

Are you being deliberately disingenuous now or what. xxp

and then he comes back, and baby be downloadin' the set!

johnny wasn't actually rebutting the point of aero's post, just missing/ignoring it to nitpick the specific wording, jeez guys.

Pierced Arrows to thread

Are you being deliberately disingenuous now or what.

No, I'm not. aero made a thoughtful post about his own situation, but then capped it off with a dilemma that affects moms and dads in all professions. I pointed that out without considering the context that it might be a few more days before he gets to see it. Though, again, there are other professions besides musician that require extended travel (perhaps not for months or weeks at a time, but it could be several days before Jane at Widgets-R-Us gets to see her child walking because she's been in meetings across the country with her Taiwanese part suppliers).

"curse this road life, I've missed baby's first step-ball-change"

I'd be pretty interested in reading an article on how the live side of the business has changed. Has it? Are ticket sales down too? In a way that doesn't just reflect the lousy economy?

there's a lot of stuff about the summer touring circuit (and the increased economic necessity of it) in the new issue of Spin actually

I have a trench-level view of the attitude lowery is decrying, where I see ivy league college students trying to stroll into warehouse shows without paying the cover, or folks who "love this band" but spend more on their beer tab than they do at the merch table cuz they'll just download that shit later. that's not to say those ppl are disgusting savages, but maybe they just don't get the connection between that $5 cover or $10 CD and the $100 in gas the band needs to get to the next show. explaining those dependencies can sound patronizing or badgering, but it's as much of a reality as "tip your bartender", and arguing against it makes you sound like mr pink.

obv that's a microeconomics perspective, but that same attitude extends to the macro-level, and appears to be more widespread in younger generations. it's not a bad thing for somebody like lowery to pull back the curtain and explain some of the mechanics, to dispel some of the romanticism around being a musician. as mr aerosmith said, touring is one of the few ways to make money nowadays. some folks may say "boo hoo you have to go on the road with your blow and groupies, dl'ing yr album now" but touring is hard on the body and the soul for real, not to mention high risk - bands can be one van break-in away from losing everything they made on tour.

one million xps

^^ quality post

Anyone notice the price increases for album downloads on both Amazon and iTunes recently? In most cases just a buck or two but it's still significant (iirc, the standard was $8.99, now showing a mixture of $9.99 and $10.99 usd). Not sure if this is at all tied into the July 1st RIAA/ISP crackdown but thought it was interesting.

When was the standard ever 8.99? It's been 9.99 for as long as I can remember.

blow & groupies:tour::big royalty checks:album

You know, one of the things I tried to find on the internet a couple years ago was:

"The price of LPs and singles through the years"

I remember being shocked at the price of singles going from 50p to 99p back in 1979 or so, albums were £2.99 or £3.99

Since then, they have yoyoed. I remember buying a BAD album for an extortionate £8 whenever it was,

And So On...

Really? I don't remember ever seeing a 9.99 album with the exception of double albums. I could be wrong though, nevermind.

I remember buying a BAD album for an extortionate £8 whenever it was

this is the kind of childhood trauma i think about when i'm tempted to crack my cd-rs in a fit of guilt

Exactly.

Yeah, I buy a ton of albums off itunes and the standard has been $9.99 for years.

I still remember paying $19.99 + tax for Outkast's Aquemini CD at Warehouse Music back in '98. Don't miss those years.
xpost

spend more on their beer tab than they do at the merch table

Wait, who *doesn't* do this aside from teetotallers? Beer is expensive, man.

"I still remember paying $19.99 + tax for Outkast's Aquemini"

Worth every penny.

Wait, who *doesn't* do this aside from teetotallers? Beer is expensive, man.

lol you should have seen me at 90s Cure shows, I would basically buy one of every t-shirt

I think the first 3 times I saw them I dropped $300 on shirts without even blinking

then I looked at a pile of t-shirts that would take me a month to go through and I started blinking

Cor blimey. I don't have anywhere near enough money to do stuff like that. Anyway, even if I drop £15 on an LP at a show, I will have spent at least £20 on booze... I don't really think that because booze is expensive I should have to buy another bloody 7" or something, I've already paid in to the goddamn gig.

Someone had to keep Robert Smith in hookers and blow eyeliner and pies xp

LOL@DJP's extensive shirt collection.

I don't go to a lot of shows (try living two hours from where anyone plays), but I chip in at the merch table when I can. Though one of the last shows I was at, it was nothing but vinyl. I guess that's great for some people, but I haven't had a turntable in 20 years.

The merch table at the Acid Mothers' show was mind-boggling. Musta been thirty albums laid out.

I refuse to pay eight bucks for a shot of cheap whisky.

I usually buy a t-shirt if it's a band I'm really into, or if they have a good poster I'll score one of thsoe

*those

Aimee Mann ‏@aimeemann

Thanks for the update! RT @darklordjames: @aimeemann You and most musicians need to learn that your product isn't worth $10 any more.

I have a box in our basement storage that has something on the order of 50 t-shirts in it, half of which are Cure and Prince concert t-shirts, that I haven't even opened in 11 years

in summation: 90s touring artists I saw, you are welcome

lol you should have seen me at 90s Cure shows, I would basically buy one of every t-shirt

Hahah um....

Haha, Mat Mt, I'll only buy vinyl, so I feel that way about CDs... until I find out that actually the record will never be pressed on vinyl and I really should have bought the inferior format while I had a chance. I will buy demo CDs by new bands for a couple of quid, though, and the odd cassette release.

I wear a tie most of the time so I've kind of stopped buying band t-shirts, as it's difficult to rock a logo and a tie simultaneously.

Mat Mt? I meant Matt M. Sorry for inadvertent anagramming.

Make note aerosmith, there's a growing demand for band ties/tie pins out there these days

The ability to record and encode and share and stream music efficiently and inexpensively is the greatest thing.

"Free music" is like so bloody amazing I can't understand this argument.

Oh man, a proper band tie pin would be the most awesomely rad raddest thing.

xposts

spend more on their beer tab than they do at the merch table

guilty!

Lowery is like one of those American politicians who continue to insist that Americans *should* pay for health care.

Sorry I'm having my own private idaho right now, I just tuned in

OK but hey -- people also get to produce and distribute and consume video much more easily and inexpensively now than before the internet, but people who work in TV and movies and the monetized end of web video haven't had their livelihood remotely as endangered by the new reality. there could probably be some middle ground between that and what's happened with music.

Lowery is like one of those American politicians who continue to insist that Americans *should* pay for health care.

I imagine if he read that his head would explode.

spend more on their beer tab than they do at the merch table

Wait, who *doesn't* do this aside from teetotallers? Beer is expensive, man.

― emil.y, Tuesday, June 19, 2012 11:56 AM (35 minutes ago)

you clipped the end of my statement which implied spending $0 at the merch table. I'm talking about ppl who never visit a merch table but don't think twice about dropping $20 on beer because they can't download a beer for free. I guess if they could we would have a big long thread about the value of getting drunk and the long hours brewmakers spend cleaning out their tanks.

lol at "@darklordjames" weighing in

Lowery is like one of those American politicians who continue to insist that Americans *should* pay for health care.

More like an American doctor

yeah i mean 'owning your master recordings' as something even on the radar of many musicians as any kind of priority seems like a relatively recent development that we can probably thank diy indie for to some extent

Ray Charles made ownership of his master recordings a condition of signing with ABC in 1959. I don't know how much (if any) precedent there was for it at the time -- the biopic naturally dramatizes the point to make it look like absolutely no one owned their masters. But I always wondered if/how many other artists started making this demand once they got wind of Ray's deal.

Oh man, a proper band tie pin would be the most awesomely rad raddest thing.

Pretty sure Laibach had these when I saw them in '92. Hell, they may have had their own line of ties.

Not so sure about band logo ties, really, it seems a bit 'zany'. But a tie pin, yes yes yes. Nice neat little logo you can pin on to whatever tie you like.

I imagine if he read that his head would explode.

xp I'm sorry to take that tired socialist gambit here, but Canada and Europe are filled with OK-paid musicians who back up their tour budgets with grants and publicly/privately sponsored events; their recordings are paid for by licensing deals; they have jobs, too, that don't necessarily require insurance plans.

I don't think any argument can be made about "life sucks for American musicians" without getting to the root of the problem, which imo is America's health care system. Blaming an intern for not taking care of a depressed/addicted songwriter and a paraplegic/depressed songwriter and citing "medical bills piling up" is a reenforcement of free market economic stupidity