MUSIC FOR FREE?

For anyone interested in music, but especially artists, the topic of free music is almost always going to come up throughout your career. Since the days of Napster artists have been trying to defend the rights of their music, and companies have spent time trying to find ways to get music for free. The internet can be seen as a very important thing both positively and negatively for the music industry. It has basically eliminated actual CD's and the stores that provide them. Not only that, it has given people the impression that they should get music for free, and music sales have dropped dramatically.

This is all stuff I'm sure you have heard before, but I want people to really think about it. Musicians are now making the majority of their money off of ring tones and tours, and barely anything off the actual music they create. If you just think about that, it's pretty strange. Musicians are now more than ever just "entertainers" as opposed to artists. It's weird when you make your name by creating music and writing lyrics but you get paid for performing not for the rights to the thing you created. I can't really think of another industry like that, but I know there are not many business's or products that work that way.

The reason I decided to post about this is because as of a few days ago thanks to Google, China will now be receiving free music. That's right, they never have to pay for music again. That is crazy because as a musician, that means the window for making money off music is closing dramatically. I believe that hurts the hip hop industry more than anything. Hip Hop music is by far the most available genre of music online for free, and it is also the least popular form of music live. Bars usually don't book indie rap artists as often as they do rock acts. This means that as music becomes completely free, if you are not performing, indie artists will be unable to make anything off their talent. That's some scary shit to think about.

What you guys think about this issue?


peep some articles on it: Fox News

Seattle Times