We are wired to share (Botsman 2012).

Image source: www.flickr.com/photos/asterix611/9480969863/sizes/m/in/photostream/

File sharing and peer to peer (P2P) technologies allow artists to have greater control over the production, distribution and earning power of their creative output.  This is highly disruptive to the music industry business model.

When controversial performing artist Amanda Palmer’s label wanted to delete video scenes showing her stomach, outraged fans mobilised with The reBellyon.  Palmer’s counteraction to this devaluation/validation struggle was to leave her label and seek support through crowd funder, Kickstarter. 

Image source: http://jezebel.com/5101424/rebellyon

Author Cory Doctorow is another high profile file sharer.  He argues that distributing his books in this way means more people get to read his work; further, it’s ‘good for business’ as it brings him other opportunities (Doctorow 2008).

Palmer is motivated by trust of her fans and has been asked how she makes people give her money (for seeing her perform).

“I [don’t] make them, I let them,” she says (Palmer 2013).

Melbourne jazz pianist Nat Bartsch also recently crowd funded, via Pozible, her latest album, To Sail To Sing, facilitating and speeding up alternatives to music industry processes.  Nat acknowledges the benefits of independence for artists from a business whose products (CDs) are becoming less and less in demand (Bartsch, N 2012, email interview).

Image source: Samara Clifford, http://natbartsch.com/about-us/

Palmer provides an example of what Martin, Moore and Salter (2010) describe as ‘competing injustices’.  Palmer’s request for musicians to join her on stage (only hugs and beer as payment) was met with scorn from musician industry groups, who countered that musicians should be properly compensated (Wakin (a), 2012).  Palmer subsequently reversed her decision and paid the musicians Wakin (b), 2012).

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke also exemplifies the dichotomy in the changing landscape of the music business.  I remember the buzz around my household in 2007 when In Rainbows was made available as a download, with the suggestion that you pay whatever you want.  My sons downloaded it without paying, while my husband paid £10.  However, Yorke is now castigating music streaming service, #Spotify, claiming that “… new artists … on #Spotify will (not) get paid. Meanwhile shareholders will shortly being rolling in it” (Spangler, 2013).

Stevens (2003, p53) points out that the dominance of the media oligopolies is not absolute as new technologies of production and distribution change the way creative industries operate. 

Martin, Moore and Salter (2010) also raise the question of alternatives to the industry model and both Palmer and social innovator Rachel Botsman (2012) discuss the ‘currency of trust’ and how collaborative consumption empowers people to ‘make meaningful connections and engage in a marketplace built on personal connections’ (Botsman 2012).

References:

Bartsch, Nat 2012, email interview conducted with blog author.

Botsman, R 2012, ‘Rachel Botsman: The currency of the new economy’, TEDGlobal, Edinburgh, June 2012

http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_the_currency_of_the_new_economy_is_trust.html retrieved 5 August 2013

Doctorow, C 2008 Content, Tachyon Publications, San Francisco, USA

http://craphound.com/content/Cory_Doctorow_-_Content.pdf retrieved 5 August 2013

Martin B, Moore C, and Salter C 2010, ‘Sharing music files: tactics of a challenge to the industry’, First Monday, Vol 15 No 12, 6 December 2010

http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2986/2680 retrieved 5 August 2013

Palmer, A 2013, ‘Amanda Palmer: The art of asking’, TEDConference, Long Beach, Ca, USA, February 2013

http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking.html retrieved 5 August 2013

Spangler, T 2013, “British artists yanks solo album and Atoms for peace project citing music service’s payment terms’, Variety.Com, 15 July 2013.

http://variety.com/2013/digital/news/radioheads-thom-yorke-pulls-music-from-spotify-in-protest-1200562760/ retrieved 11 August 2013

Steven, P 2003, ‘Political economy: the howling, brawling, global market place’, The no-nonsense guide to global media, 2003, New Internationalist/Verso, Oxford, pp. 37-59

Wakin, Daniel J 2012, ‘Rockers Playing for Beer: Fair Play?’, The New York Times, 12 September 2012: C1(L). Expanded Academic ASAP.  Retrieved 12 Aug. 2013

Wakin, Daniel J 2012, ‘Musician Changes Tune And Will Pay Volunteers,’ The New York Times, 19 September 2012: C2(L). Expanded Academic ASAP. Retrieved 12 Aug. 2013