The MP3 Thing
by Chris for oustedproductions.net

Forgive me if this sounds jumbled. I'm typing this while I'm at work (I work in a record store, and Hank Williams is on the stereo. Good ol' Hank).

I was talking to my co-worker a few months ago about the whole mp3 controversy. He made some good points, which I'd like to address here, in addition to my own opinions.

First off, I'm GLAD that Napster was invented. Because what it has done is basically single-handedly destroy the music industry as we know it. And that's a good thing.

Since the 50's, the music industry has been run by the suits: the fat executives who could care less about true ART. All they want is profit. They know nothing about good music and have relied on "scouts" to find the good stuff to make money for the Man. This whole process disgusts me. It was like this for 50 solid years. And then Napster came around.

As a musician, and passionate fan of music of all styles, Napster was a godsend to me. It enabled me to find songs I had been looking for for years: rare songs by the Primitives, live Smiths bootlegs, b-side tracks by The Sundays, and tons of 80's singles that I didn't have the resources to buy ("The Promise" by When In Rome, "I Go Crazy" by Flesh for Lulu, etc.). I downloaded soooo much stuff when Napster came out. It was so exciting. I didn't even have a CD burner yet, in 1999, but me and my trusty Winamp player were gaga over MP3 and its possibilities.

Of course, once the bigwigs got wind of the whole MP3 thing, they wanted to kill it. I mean, of course they did! How could MP3 make them even more rich than they already were? Again, they didn't care about the music. They wanted sales: CD sales, t-shirt sales, sticker sales, keychain sales, magazine sales, whatever.

Ok, so let's stop for a moment and figure out exactly why MP3 and P2P sharing was bound to exist at some point or another.

1. Most mainstream music is shit. Come on, it is. I won't say ALL of it, because as indie-minded as I am, I know that there is some great stuff out there that TONS of people love that I love so much. Some examples of some great music are bands like Panic at the Disco, Coldplay, Incubus, Jimmy Eat World, The Killers, and artists that kick ass include John Mayer, Dido, Eminem, Vanessa Carlton, and Norah Jones. Ok, so you have a small handful of music that is consistently good: most, if not all of the album, is full of great songs that will withstand the test of time. Would I pay $20 and up for each of their CD's? No, never. Here's my next point.

2. I know for a fact, and from personal experience, that CDs cost VERY little to manufacture and promote (especially on a major-label budget). Let's do some math. Oh stop bitching, bear with me.

If an unsigned band presses 1000 CDs (typical pressing of a debut album for unsigned artists), the discs cost about $1.50 or less, each, to manufacture. (Total $1500). Promotion is basically free for indies thanks to the internet (another godsend). Ok, so say this band sells their CD for $10. Say they sell every single copy. They walk away with $8500 profit. That's not bad for an indie band. So now, let's say a record label presses 500,000 CDs of their debut artist (for example, someone like Jason Mraz)... the price for each disc drops drastically. There is no $1.50 per disc rate here. We're down in the 50-cent range, and that's HIGH for a 500,000 CD run. Ok, so say it costs 25 cents per CD, for 500,000 copies. That's an initial investment of $125,000 from the record label, in manufacturing costs alone. Ok, great. So let's say this record label charges $20 for each of Jason Mraz's CDs (That's what YOU pay). The distributor that gets the CD in stores charges $12 for it. The store marks it up $8 so the store can stay in business, the distributor takes $2 each disc for their service, so that leaves $10. Do you think the artist gets even 10% of that? Hell no. So check this out. Say Jason Mraz sells every single copy of his debut CD. Take 500,000 and multiply it by $10 and that's 5 MILLION FUCKING DOLLARS that goes to the record label, with maybe.. MAYBE half a percent going to the artist in royalties and the like (not all at once, over time). HALF A PERCENT. Half a percent of 5 MILLION is only $25,000. Where the fuck is the other $4,975,000 going? Who is it going to? Not the artist. It's going to the guy in the huge office with the great view of Los Angeles or New York City, smoking a cigar and laughing all the way to the bank as he listens to his shitty Celine Dion album on the way to the bank cause he has NO FUCKING TASTE in music and has NO IDEA what REAL art is.

You can read all you want about record labels complaining that MP3 "hurts" the artist, and "hurts" their sales. That's a bunch of bullshit. If anything, it HELPS the artist's exposure. Most musicians are NOT EVEN CLOSE to being rich, especially if they're on a major label. Because the labels they're on are complete greedy money whores. Major labels only promote their best-selling and best-looking artists, even though they may have a full roster of great music (100+ artists PER label). Most artists on majors are lucky to sell 10,000 copies. You never hear about these artists because they're not hot like Britney Spears or Good Charlotte. Even though their music may be 1000 times better and of higher quality than that Britney shit and phony punk Hot Topic music.

MP3 does not hurt the artist. MP3 is like word-of-mouth advertising. MP3 brings a lot more people to the show when the artists comes to town. Maybe instead of buying a CD, maybe the consumer will buy a t-shirt instead. Maybe the consumer will tell his or her friends about how great the album is. Word of mouth is the best advertising.

3. The reason everyone hopped on the MP3 bandwagon is because CDs ARE TOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE for consumers like you and me. The current minimum wage in the United States is about $6.00 (depending on where you live). There's a shitload of people in the USA that don't make a lot of money, but who LOVE music. We make just enough to get by. We can't afford to buy all the music we want. We have to work three and a half hours working minimum wage to buy ONE CD at $20, and the CD only has three good songs and nine shitty ones. FUCK THAT! Everyone wants MP3s because most music fans are into music because MUSIC IS FUCKING AWESOME. And I'm talking about REAL music fans, not those idiots who are brainwashed by rock and top 40 radio, which unfortunately means most of this country. We want all that we can possibly handle! I personally collect MP3s and used CDs all the time. My collection is way over 2500 CDs and thousands upon thousands of MP3s. I LOVE MUSIC! I LISTEN TO FUCKING EVERYTHING. I'm a musician! I need all the inspiration I can get! I can't afford to pay $20 for a CD when it takes me 3 hours of work at my current wage. If I want 10 CDs, I'm not dropping down $200 to get them. That $200 needs to be spent on my car payment, my grocery money, my cable internet connection, and rent.

As I'm typing this, I'm getting annoyed. This whole MP3 controversy exists because CDs need to be, and CAN BE, less than $10 each. That would solve all the problems. It really would.

4. There are hundreds of artists who are against P2P trading, and against the MP3 thing in general. Do you know who they are? I know. They're all the artists who are rich and famous to begin with. All the superstars of pop and rock music: Metallica. Jewel. Celine Dion. They don't need to support MP3 because everyone in the whole fucking world knows who they are, and always will. The artists that support MP3 and like its idea and possibilities are all the artists that write great music and who need the exposure. There isn't one exception to this. Let me clarify: MUSIC SUPERSTARS ARE AGAINST MP3. QUALITY ARTISTS WHO MAKE A MODEST LIVING OR WHO STRUGGLE, ARE FOR MP3.

I'm going to make four important points, because my brain is going nuts trying to arrange these thoughts.

POINT ONE.
CDs cost very little to make. They CAN be $7-$10 each, and artists will profit. IF the fucking major labels would stop being greedy (which they will never do). Indie labels such as Jade Tree Records and Guidance Recordings have already started selling their CDs for around $10-$12. Good start. Will the major labels follow their good idea? No. Because the majors want even more money than they already have.

POINT TWO.
The people who are against P2P trading are ALREADY RICH. The people who are FOR trading are JUST LIKE YOU AND ME. And believe it or not, we outnumber those evil bastards.

POINT THREE.
MP3s are like word-of-mouth advertising. It spreads like wildfire. The music is out there. We're listening to it. We're enjoying it. We're buying the shirts. We're going to the shows. We're buying the stickers. We're buying the magazines the artists are featured in. We're STILL SUPPORTING the artist. We'd support them more if their CDs were $8 new (see point one).

POINT FOUR.
If you buy a CD from an artist directly, you are supporting them, NOT their greedy-ass record label. Support indie music, and turn the fucking radio off. Go out and discover great unsigned music. WE'RE the ones that need the money. WE'RE the ones providing the GOOD music. Why are you buying that fucking Nickelback CD? Because it's all over the radio, television, and magazines? DON'T BUY MUSIC JUST BECAUSE IT'S SHOVED DOWN YOUR FUCKING THROAT all the time. Read lesser-known music magazines such as Magnet, Outburn, CMJ, and Lollipop. Visit music websites such as pitchfork-media.com, cduniverse.com, epitonic.com, insound.com, and LISTEN to all the free music clips they offer. Several of the websites offer full song downloads (cleared and ok'd by the artists themselves). These sites CARE about good music. GOOD MUSIC is out there, and it's CHEAPER THAN THE SHITTY STUFF.

POINT FIVE.
Download it. FUCK THE MAN. Scared of getting arrested for downloading? Buy a firewall program and go stealth (invisible), so they can't even see your computer, let alone know you exist. Don't use KAZAA or any P2P programs with spyware components. Go on mIRC and learn about P2P sharing through mIRC channels (it's all automated, and private). Once you download an album, move it to a hidden, unshared folder. Don't share any major-label music or any music one labels which are affiliated with the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA). Check the riaaradar.com website to see what is safe to download. Burn CDs for your friends. BUY USED CDs!!! They're cheap and you can listen to them in full before you buy them! Get the music OUT there. GO to the shows. BRING your friends. BUY a sticker. BUY a t-shirt. EMAIL the bands if they have contact information on their site. Let them know how much their music means to you. Let them know how you hate how labels (mostly majors, not the case for most indie labels) care more about making money then getting more music out there. Because that's how it is.

MY POINT ABOUT MP3s.... I love the technology, it's awesome. I'm glad the music industry is crumbling. It took 50 years, but things are finally changing.

WE NEED TO BRING MUSIC BACK TO WHERE IT BELONGS: THE ARTISTS, AND THE FANS.