Banana's Beard Emporium - The Off-Topic Chat Thread

I dunno, the idea of having 14 year olds try to force themselves on me is a little bit disturbing

 

Some truth in that JFB, but the film industry has been nowhere near as decimated by piracy as music. To date, anyhow.

 

Laura is making a face that makes me think you shouldn't. But suave Jan is saying to me, you know what to do kiddo

What about the flip side of all this, if there is one at all. With the likes of Youtube and media in general these days, does that mean that more alternative types can get noticed in the first place at all now, when previously they may not have? I really don't want to live in a world where it is just X Factor kids.

 

Obviously piracy is massively detrimental to the music business, but I can see the reason people pirate music. I'm into a lot of music and if I like an artist and appreciate the album I will always, without fail pay for it. But I can't take the chance at £10 per album for every single artist I discover. I know that's still pretty bad, but I feel less guilty than if I just pirated everything.

 

Okay, I get that, but then previously that's what singles/radio play was for, and now, more than ever, you have the opportunity to listen to albums on the likes of Spotify (or get clips of all the songs on iTunes) prior to buying. So if anything, there's less reason for stealing stuff now than ever.

Thank you for paying ultimately though!

 

Yes, you can get noticed, but realistically you won't get supported by a label until that point reaches a huge tipping point of figures. It's now become "who is most effective at social media" more than "who's making the best, most interesting music". Hence why you've got people trying to make a living by making covers on YouTube.....

 

.....and before anyone says "but, the Arctic Monkeys....." or "but Jessie J...." - both of those had significant label and PR support prior to being 'noticed' on YouTube - that was all a carefully managed marketing ploy to make it seem like they'd self-sufficiently made it big through YouTube.

 

That's true. I do discover a lot of alternative music on YouTube now. As I said, I like having hard copies of my favourite bands, if I'm really into a band there's nothing better than blasting their CD out in the car

 

Ah I see, was kind of coming to that conclusion as I was finishing off writing what I had written.

Funny you mention Arctic Monkeys, when I was travelling around Australia I was doing a stretch with a guy from Sheffield. It was around 2005 and he had been sent a demo type CD of them, and played it a few times, saying these guys were going to be big. That guy was awesome, he made me come along to an Ian Brown gig which was great, apart from the fact Brown seemed to stop the band all the time and start the song again, he wasn't happy about things not being just right!

 

Who's gonna post the torrent link to Fable's album when it comes out then?

(I'm joking of course, don't hurt me LTL)

 

Being from Sheffield myself, Arctic Monkeys used to play a lot of small gigs around the city in around 2003/4. Most people with an interest in music in Sheffield were well aware of them before they properly exploded.

 

Yeah I think the guy I was with knew of them too. Me not being from Sheffield and having spent the year in Australia hadn't! It also didn't help that leading up to that point I was a strictly electronic/dance music fan and rarely listened to anything else. I consider that time in Australia as my musical awakening

 

To give you a live, current example - Fable. The girl is an extraordinary talent and pre-piracy days, as a result I would have been able to have her signed onto a 3 album development/recording deal by now and we'd have had the album and marketing spend funded by the label. You'd then have a pr build up before having a great album out there for you lot.

The reality here though is, we have 3 songs recorded which has to date cost us £2,000 (and that's incredibly cheap). I've had to fund that myself. They're not mastered, so we can't get those to radio yet (mastering just those three properly will be another £1k) and to record the rest of the album will cost about another £5k. I cannot tell you how cheap that is (you'd normally spend at least £20k recording an album). Now I can't afford to fund that, so what do we do? You can tour the music, and we will, but that will cost money and be at a loss too. She has rent to pay and all that stuff too remember (as do I) so needs to work in a flexible enough job that she can take time out to play around the country as well.

In the meantime, she needs to be adept enough on social media to get at LEAST 50,000 likes/followers before any label will bat an eyelid, because what she's doing is a little different/more interesting/more challenging than what's out there. To get that, you also really need external PR too. At around £2k per month if you get a good deal.

That's not really even the half of it, but you get the picture. So you'll either get talent show winners, bands close to what is out there at the moment, or people who have independently wealthy parents/backers to fund it (step forward Lana Del Rey).

Not a great situation, is it? But, y'know, as long as Olly and his mates are alright, sod everyone else, yeah?

 

Yep. That's what all bands do. But being known locally in one city very seldom gets you too far.

 

It's pretty tragic that you're just singling me out. Millions of people download torrents every day all over the world. You're just embarrassing yourself there.

 

Well no, you're the person that's pushing the idea of piracy as acceptable on this forum. Who should I direct this too? I'm trying to give you a little bit of insight from the other side, and how (you may not realise) it impacts that. The fact you're trying to close your ears to that is the embarrassing part.

 

I'm not It closing my ears to it, I'm just saying that I can't justify spending the money on an album when I know I can get it for free.

 

And what's frustrating is that you can't see what's inherently wrong with that.

 

If you got really good at shoplifting, you wouldn't have to pay for food. Is that okay?

 

It's only wrong in your opinion. As I said, I consider it sharing. Which I have no issue with.