Pirated & Shared Music and the Artist Who Wants To Make it Big

I would like to begin this post with the following video, by the Canadian rock band Shocore. The video accompanies their single, 'Bonecracker':



I discovered this song ages ago; back when people still used KaZaA to share poorly encoded mp3 files of popular music with millions of other people around the world- the golden age of extremely compressed and muddy sounding mp3 files. It all started when a friend of mine asked me if I could burn for him a CD with music he liked and eventually that led me to finding out new and interesting music by myself through Kazaa initially.

Without the internet, I would say that there's no way I'd be listening to the music I'm listening to now, there's just no way ever I'd find out I like an album such as Tough Guys Don't Dance, or Blood Sugar Sex Magik. So through Kazaa I was able to discover Shocore's rather infectious breed of disco beats, funky basslines, hypercrushed guitar riffs and aggressive rhymes- and for a couple years I really really wanted to find another band playing a rap-metal as well made as this (I liked Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit a bit for a while but nowadays I can't really stand them... gack!), and I guess that desire to see people getting two very different genres and sticking them in a blender and making something one part each really shaped me as a musician, and that's why my music hops between musical styles and blends them.

Now, without going off topic, I also introduced with this video because I rediscovered it a few months ago, and commented on the video, wondering what happened to those dudes and their catchy music and why they stopped making music (I heard some other songs by them and Shocore seemed pretty varied to be honest). I wasn't expecting an answer, but a fellow user left me this comment:

Simple . Downloading. Everyone bitches about how there's no good music anymore, well thats why. It actually costs money for someone to get a song out and you get ZERO back, so FUCK IT! I write music for myself, and I wont release it as long as people expect it for free. And I had a hand in writing this song. Just the truth. People are going to get more and more crap because they wont pay the damn 99 cents a song.

Underfunded bands and artists have it tough. Making it big means extraordinary work. I appreciated the answer he gave me (although I was somewhat sceptic of him actually having been involved in the songwriting of Bonecracker, you can't take anyone on the web seriously often), so I left him the following personal message:

Hey mate, thanks for answering. Did you really have a hand in the writing of that song? Kudos (although because, you know, the whole internet anonymity I can't be 100% sure). I can certainly imagine how the band felt, investing hard money and work into the music just so that it doesn't sell, ripped across the internet. I'm sorry to find that they stopped playing because of that.

I compose and record music independently and so far, I've just been giving it away for free. I don't know, maybe it's because my circumstances allow me to, even though I'd really love to make a living out of it one day, and because I genuinely believe that getting the message out, with or without cash in return is better than locking away great music and not letting the world ever hear it. I know you will probably disagree, but hey, it's just my opinion.

Anyway, thanks dude. Keep rockin'!"

I had been thinking for a while before writing that message, there was a lot he gave me to think about. Also, since I've been giving away my music for free in Bandcamp and now in SoundCloud for a while now and spreading the word of it (without much attention from the web so far) I've had to consider this myself too; I worked my ass off on most tracks and being still a newbie in the world of recording and music in general, I'm probably not gonna get many sales in the short term.

I didn't expect him to answer again, and I totally forgot I wrote him that message for a few months, until one random day I decided to check my inbox in Youtube and find the following by him:

Hey thanks! Yeah, I wrote the bass line and then they added guitars and the synth and the rap. And I ended up getting pretty much dick all for it. Pretty frustrating when it was on Ford commercials and Xbox games and I wasnt getting a dime.

Back then the primary source of income was still CDs, and the label was charging 25 bucks EACH for one! I was like, who is going to pay that for on song they can get off Napster? The label was not smart.

I dont know what to tell you about your situation, except make sure you love what your doing, because doing it for money or fame never works out. I still write all the time, but I think the only decent chance of making a little money is at scoring or jingles. They pay, you only have to play it once, and the company you sell it to cant download it from you for free.

I went back to being a carpenter, which is fine. And I play now what I want (there were a LOT of compromises in being in a band, and if you get any success, the compromises pile up even more).

I wish you luck, send me some of your stuff if you want- [insert email address here].

Regardless of him actually having a hand in the writing of that song, I thought, I still felt guilty for contributing in a way to the band's downfall, somehow, even if it's to an infinitesimally small degree, by downloading the song illegally more than 5 years or so ago.

Also, I never considered that; writing jingles and scoring certainly seem to be safer and better at giving you a chance to earn a buck (although when I think of jingles I imagine Charlie Harper stitting next to his grand piano, getting drunk).

But more importantly, I'm grateful for the kind words there and the advice and experience. I better watch out and make sure I get my royalties if I ever do!

Apart from that, I'd like to link the notion of harm through illegal distribution. I am NOT saying that the unauthorised distribution of copyrighted music does not harm the artist in any way, but I have here two articles I'd like to quote on how it can actually help:

New Music Strategies: Should I be worried about piracy?

The distinction between distribution and piracy is made and then these (in my opinion) important points are made, among others:

"2) The fluidity with which your music can pass from hand to hand is not an impediment to your success, but a technological advantage that you can leverage to your own ends. The overwhelming cry from the independent musician twenty years ago was ‘How can I just get my music out there?’ Problem solved. Now what are you going to do?

Now, of course, this raises more questions than it answers — and of course, things are far more complicated than I’ve laid out here — but as a general principle, it’s worth considering that rather than fret about unauthorised copying and expend time and energy in the fruitless task of preventing people from engaging in it, that time and energy can be better spent elsewhere....

...And here are three more things to consider:

1) People who share your music are recommending you to people who respect their taste and opinion;

2) The vast majority of people who have unauthorised copies of your music would not have ordinarily paid for it anyway;

3) Do you really want for people who cannot afford your music to be prevented from ever hearing it?"

1,000 True Fans

"A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans."

Ultimately, I think, the way technological, social and human developments are going, information of any kind, when stored is bound to end in the big collective knowledge of humankind (unless a massive disaster occurs that could bring about the information age to an end). A person who truly appreciates what you do will buy what you do at least once. I understand where this guy who was involved with Shocore comes from, but I have to say that I would have never even known who Shocore were if it not were for people distributing a song by them that they considered great and catchy and worth the time putting there for everybody else to hear. What does the person who shares it get in return anyway? He's giving away bandwidth anyway. It's people who sell someone's work without permission who are the real pirates and the music industry needs to wake up.