Who will feed the artists? Creating art can easily take as much time as a full-time job. Five minute songs don't take five minutes to make.
i don't think so, i'm probaby not being clear. part of the problem might be the word "art". let me just ask you; do you consider the sopranos and coldplay "art"?
That's my point. If you're against people making a living from art, then what option do artists have? Stop making art, get a full time job, no more art. Problem solved?
Where you make art and then decide to sell it are two different things. But what's wrong w/ doing both steps? No one owes you their art just for the sake of it. Maybe I'm missing your point. But there have been quite a few posts responding to yours, and you haven't really clarified it outside of 'artists have to create'. That's cute. But that's not life. I write music. I'm always working on demos in an attempt to get stuff released on a label. And I'd love the opportunity to write a lot more music then I do now. But that nagging thing...what is it....oh yeah a full time job so I can eat, have health insurance, pay off school loans, etc. prevent me from doing that. As such I only finished one song in the past 3 weeks. Actually I still have to work on the final mix so I hope I can finish that in a few days. It's a longshot I'm not betting on, but if I could make a decent living off making music, I could make a lot more of it, and we'd all win (or not...depending on what kind of music you like )
from jeff's link: There's this widely held idea that music is this pure and natural expression that happens creatively and artistically among human beings, and then commerce comes along and corrupts it all. ^ this is not my position and i disagree that it's widely held I say that's obvious nonsense. Music and Commerce aren't individual concepts or entities that exist 'over there', separate from People. Music and Commerce are both Things That People Do. ^ ORLY? Sure, some music is ruined by attempts to reshape it for greater commercial acceptance, but in fact the more fundamental truth is without commerce, no music. professor jay, you make music, right If there were not concerts, records, marketing, patronage, equipment sellers, promoters, retailers, managers, professional teachers, venues, publishers and music press, there would pretty much be no music as we know it. At its simplest level, who's going to form a band if we have no cultural reference for what a band is and what it's for? ^ hogwash
not to go all misty-eyed-liberal-d&d'er on you, but this is a great post. it's important to remember however that relatively few musicians make money from recordings. which is not to say that it's ok to steal from those that do, but rather what's changing is the business of music, and the models the mojor record labels have developed since the advent of CD. record company profits have been hugely inflated the past twenty-odd years as many people rebought recordings in "perfect" sound. many labels stopped finding, developing, and investing in new talent, so that now most major label acts suck (worse than before), and many consumers see no need to buy recordings that may have been fully amortized years before. but there are new opportunities for artists to go directly to their fans, as radiohead and madonna have done, and concerts and merchandising will continue to be lucrative.
