When The Music Is Over
Written by Major Tom
Filed under: News & Info, Music
October 9, 2007
“When the music’s over…Turn out the lights.”
— Jim Morrison, The Doors, in the song “When The Music’s Over”
When Prince teamed-up last June with UK’s The Mail newspaper in releasing his Planet Earth album for free to millions of fans, Time Magazine considered it a very good ploy. Good to whom or to what, it is not exactly clear. For certain, record companies were not happy with the Prince move and in fact, one record company executive was so pissed off that he had warned (and perhaps wished) that one day, Prince might just end up being known as “The Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores”, referring in half-jest to the American rockstar’s all too all-too-well-known ploy in the past of not using his known screen name in referring to himself but merely by a symbol he had designed himself and thence was referred only to as “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince” for some time about a decade ago.
Now comes Radiohead with it’s new album release “In Rainbows” being made available online before copies of it would hit record stores shelves (if it would ever will), and guess what, digital version of it could be downloaded starting tomorrow, for everyone to get for “an open price”, where the online customer r customers could decide for themselves on what price to pay. So it’s not so free like that of Prince’s Planet Earth, you might want to ask. It is not. But you got to choose the price, which could be as low as two cents. And that’s virtually free, if you ask me.
Why would a big rock band like Radiohead would do such a thing?
They are a very popular band and have become so rich for that. This perhaps where the answer lies. They could be so rich already that they could afford to do such thing just for fun or for some experimentation. Or perhaps, they just want to thank their fans for making them so rich in the past.
But in general truth, I feel that popular musicians releasing free music online (or virtually free music such as this Radiohead “In Rainbows” album) has become such a gradually descending phenomenon in the international music scene, as a general reaction to the overpowering flow of music file-sharing schemes, which goes on so strongly up to this time despite rigid legal battles that had been waged by big record companies against online file-sharing companies as well as against individuals caught illegally downloading copyrighted materials into their personal computers. Days ago, a Minnesota single-mother was adjudged $220,000 for having been caught with illegal downloads in her PC.
The onset of the digital music, especially in easily downloadable MP3 and MP4 formats has completely changed how music is being sold nowadays, and maybe one day, how music will be made. Perhaps, the days of the CD format music record will be one day gone, sooner than we can ever think, and every music that we ever want and would ever need would be gotten merely from online stores. In our city—-small but highly urbanized—almost all record shops here have closed down, and every music section in department stores and shopping malls has already been scrapped. Such is how music retail has changed so radically in this town as downloading and CD-burning services have started to sprout all over the city. When one wants the latest music, all one has got to do is get to the nearest DSL Internet café and get all the music one wants for a very reasonable price. It is like a buffet table over there. You can eat all you can for one regular price.
Is this good? Is this bad?
For a music lover like me, I like the very salacious idea of having a lot of music in one burned CD for a price so much lower than what I would have gotten if I bought them at record stores. But it’s bad since it would have negative effects for the record music industry, with record stores going bankrupt and becoming a thing of the past, like ice cream parlors and sarsaparilla.
And besides it’s illegal. I do not mean to be hypocritical here and I could not deny that I might have downloaded some of the music I had without paying for it. But what gives. Even if I wanted to pay for it, the record stores here don’t have any new music anymore. Not everyone has a credit card to buy all the music online or a DSL connection to get it through the PC at home.
So where’s music going to in this digital age? I have a feeling that online file sharing schemes would always be an Internet age reality and may not go away completely anymore despite how much the huge record companies are spending in millions to combat and prosecute them. There would always be new ways to download that illegal music copy.
Maybe music artists of today are meant to adjust to the new digital environment anyway. The days of selling millions and millions of albums or CDs through record stores would soon be over. Future record artists would have to find some other way to make real good money. Maybe they need to stage more and more concerts in order to get more and more out of their work. Live concerts or tickets could not in any way be illegally downloaded that’s for sure and they won’t have to worry about Limewire or Bit Torrent putting the ticket concerts for online sharing.
Maybe, music was really like that even in the beginning. Before the phonograph was invented in 1870, one would only be finding music if one gets to the concert or an open field exhibition. No vinyl then, no record tapes, no CDs and for certain, no MP3 players.
Maybe, music is just returning to where it once belongs.
Live and in concert.
If I may ask, Major Tom, were you a radio dj before? You know a lot about music in any genre.
I was one once, in my younger years, - during college, and so was my boyfriend that time. With just a note of a song, I could tell the title and knew whether it was from the original artist or not. But as the years passed, especially so that I devoted most of my time to family, I have lost touched, though i still remember a lot of ‘em good songs that played special memories in my life. A few of these are Pink Floyd’s Us and Them, Wish You Were Here; but my all time fave is Joan Collins’ Send in the Clowns. Gosh, I felt being transcended to another dimension when I heard this song at two a.m., with only me awake while working on my college thesis.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5yG1Dy5b4A
Comment by rhodora — October 9, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
I used to buy songs and albums from iTunes store, but when I sent an ipod to my niece (when bibs was still in Pinas, now she lives in California) and gave her my account with iTunes, i was wondering why she only bought one song for 99Cents. She told me that she can download all the songs she wanted and 2 days ago told me that she have already thousands of song in her itunes and asked for an upgrade to a small 8G nano which is complete with video that can also be downloaded free. (kids are smarter)..
I don’t know what’s the consequence in other parts of the world, but it is ok here as long as we don’t do it for profit, like reproducing them for sale. we already had a favourable courts ruling, that some u.s. movie studios threatened to stop making movies here, but it an m.t. threat, because they save a lot shooting in hollywood north…
Comment by vic — October 9, 2007 @ 3:13 pm
I am not a DJ although I once dream to be one when I was in college. But since my course was so heavy, couldn’t work at night, where new DJ’s often get scheduled. I use to hang out with DJ friends on radio booths, but that’s the closest I ever got to it.
But I am sort of an audiophile since I have a huge collection of records, from rock to alternative, to 60’s to classcal, to jazz. But in most sense, hindi masyado gaano kasi I still feel that my knowledge on music is not so full like other audiophiles I know. In fact when I go to snglguy’s site and he’s talking about some old music, marami ang hindi ko alam.
But I do love music so well that’s why perhaps I can talk about t so easily and on a fairly informed basis.
Nice Youtube link by the way and I love that song too. It’s true that it’s very melancholic and would you believe that when once I was in Manila, I heard this song on one lonely Sunday afternoon and then I suddenly missed my kids and of course my wife (corny no?), that I felt teary-eyed a little.
Comment by Major Tom — October 9, 2007 @ 3:40 pm
To Vic: Good for you out there. I think you mentioned this court ruling once in your blog or in one of your comment. Somehow, I couldn’t imagine it happening coz it is still so improper and illegal here. Maybe, one day the big record companies would just let go of it since there’s no palpable way of stopping it.
Comment by Major Tom — October 9, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
Musicians may have realized how exploited their talents are and now trying to find the right balance between art and profit. Music was never intended to be sold, it was meant to share, its supposed to be an experience, not a privilege.
I have thousands of CDs in my collection. I have been converting them to MP3 format. I know that eventually, my CDs would deteriorate. Take away the cost of producing a CD and you make everything cheaper. So even if they are sold dirt-cheap in cyberspace, the artists will still be making a modest profit.
Middlemen make huge profits with no capital. Its time to make them work for their money.
Comment by Schumey — October 9, 2007 @ 8:26 pm
ah, this is one hotly debated topic on the net - free music, RIAA & DRM.
i am all for this. Go Radiohead! At least whatever amount is paid, it will all go to them, not to big record labels.
Comment by ipanema — October 9, 2007 @ 9:02 pm
To Schumey and Ipanema: I realize now that perhaps, with the power of the Internet on their hands, artists could possibly circumvent the middlemen and make music more affordable to download more than ever. It could be one of the evolution that would take place in the record industry.
Comment by Major Tom — October 9, 2007 @ 9:30 pm
To schumey: So you are one audiophile. Maybe you’d be posting on this aspect of your person once in a while. At least we get to know more of you that way, the lighter side ika nga…
Comment by Major Tom — October 9, 2007 @ 9:32 pm
I guess this is why the big record companies are up in arms against internet users. They’re losing big time!
Comment by snglguy — October 10, 2007 @ 10:57 am
that is so true. from the posts i was reading since months ago, i learned that out of the $19.99 one pay for a CD, only $0.72 goes to the artist. the rest to the record label. imagine that.
with the internet, even if they say “pay as u like”, it is still a good scheme. no middle man. say i pay them $1 for one music download, they receive the $1 not $0.72 if we decide to buy the CD.
Comment by ipanema — October 10, 2007 @ 11:32 am
To sngl: They’re so pissed off in fact that they a spending hugely on legal fees.
Comment by Major Tom — October 10, 2007 @ 7:54 pm
To ipanema: Now everything make sense to me now. Radiohead can charge at such very low rates for their music download but still would earn more than what was usual with those huge record companies. The prices you mentioned is just too disparate.
Comment by Major Tom — October 10, 2007 @ 7:57 pm
I was gonna get that Prince CD, but I’m not a big fan… my loss.
Isn’t it great that we just download the songs we want… I’m all for this, and good for radiohead, the creeps:-)
Comment by pining — October 10, 2007 @ 8:34 pm
Tom,
I’m a music freak. I love to sing in the shower. I collect music from classical to rock. When we finally rid our country of its ills, I’ll definitely blog about the things dear to me.
Comment by Schumey — October 11, 2007 @ 7:26 am
I once had those file sharing programs on my computer and downloaded quite a bit of music. I realize however that it’s not fair to the musicians to download their product (that they worked hard to produce) without paying them. Thus, I no longer have file sharing programs on my computer and I buy their music only via legal means like Real Player’s music store or itunes.
Comment by Wil — October 11, 2007 @ 8:32 am
To pining: I was a really great Prince fan but his more recent works are far to my liking. It’s like he just made those songs in n minute a piece.
But Radiohead, they’re always OK.
Comment by Major Tom — October 11, 2007 @ 9:12 am
To Schumey: I believe that time won’t ever come. But I am crossing my fingers…
Comment by Major Tom — October 11, 2007 @ 9:14 am
To Wil: I did also dowloaded a lot in the past but right now hav mellowed b’coz of ethical questions. But once in a while, I feel the temptations and they’e hard to resist.
Comment by Major Tom — October 11, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Problem with Prince is that he’s so incredibly prolific that he didn’t want to wait a couple of years before releasing another new album. This has been an ongoing dilemma between him and the various record companies he had dealt with in the past.
Remember Napster? Boy, that was fun. As for Radiohead’s online marketing ploy, I’ve a feeling it’s more of the artists’ intense desire for their music to be heard by the public more so than making gazillions from their efforts as in the past.
Truth be told, I haven’t been much of a music aficionado these days. But I do like the idea of music becoming more of a shared experience — in live concert settings, I mean
Comment by eric — October 11, 2007 @ 11:18 am
the times, they are a-changing talaga.
Comment by Atticus — October 11, 2007 @ 12:00 pm
Off topic: I have something for you in my blog.
Comment by ipanema — October 11, 2007 @ 9:40 pm
ur observation on their recent actions were right and i agree with them. it’s just that cguro kailangan nila ng mileage na yan. especially ngayon na what dominates the charts are hiphop tunes na.
not that i dislike that kind of music. nangingibabaw pa rin ung love ko sa lyrics at music. remember those old elton john songs? heheheheheh
Comment by intsik — October 12, 2007 @ 5:43 pm
To eric: That’ s what I’ve observed with Prince, he seems to make music these days like he is just eating peanuts in the park, that way the quality gets diluted. It’s not good at all. But when he is good, he is really good.
Comment by Major Tom — October 12, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
To atticus: Talaga, from phonograph vinyls to Ipods…and then all the things to come. The possibilities is so wide open.
Comment by Major Tom — October 12, 2007 @ 10:04 pm
To ipanema: Thanks so much for the Breakout Blogger Award. I am deeply honored by this.
Comment by Major Tom — October 12, 2007 @ 10:18 pm
To Intsik: That’s perhaps one reasn why Radiohead did this, it must be a very innovative way t gain media mileage. It make sense that way and say, nothng’s wrong with that.
Comment by Major Tom — October 12, 2007 @ 10:21 pm
I like that very much — returning music where it once belonged! Music so likest God’s voice it belongs to everyone. An ideal. But musicians and artists have to earn too. And so thank God for little mercies — like Prince’s marketing ploy.
Comment by annamanila — October 13, 2007 @ 11:37 pm
To annamanila: Maybe music really ought to be free, as it is a natural beauty, ethereal and flowing, like bird’s chirpings, or the sound of summer wind as it touches the waving leaves of the trees. As you say, it is Go’d gift.
Comment by Major Tom — October 14, 2007 @ 4:30 pm
Test comments
Comment by Major Tom — November 1, 2007 @ 7:01 pm