YES. ALL OF THIS TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. I keep thinking of this one lecture which Stephen Fry did, in which he patiently explained that people who are capable of paying for stuff tend to pay for stuff that they care about. And it's absolutely true. I don't buy less stuff because I can download. I buy more stuff, because I care about more stuff. Re. Cory Doctorow, I adore both his writing and his politics. And because of both of those things, I have physical, paid-for copies of two of his books on the shelf right above my head and another one which I physically bought for my younger brother.
Re.meloukhia's comment on bypassing record labels-- YES. We have this one class in school where musicians and producers and radio guys and record execs come do guest lectures on their part of the industry. And one of the people I remember most was the CEO of a Canadian music retailing company who explained, in great detail, exactly the degree of fucked most small-fry popular musicians get when they accept a traditional record deal. I'll sum up his half hour-long explanation with: so fucked. People get record deals and think they're going to be the next big thing and end up broker than they were before. So while it's true that not every artist should be obligated to be Ok Go, many might prefer to be!
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Re. Cory Doctorow, I adore both his writing and his politics. And because of both of those things, I have physical, paid-for copies of two of his books on the shelf right above my head and another one which I physically bought for my younger brother.
Re.meloukhia's comment on bypassing record labels-- YES. We have this one class in school where musicians and producers and radio guys and record execs come do guest lectures on their part of the industry. And one of the people I remember most was the CEO of a Canadian music retailing company who explained, in great detail, exactly the degree of fucked most small-fry popular musicians get when they accept a traditional record deal. I'll sum up his half hour-long explanation with: so fucked. People get record deals and think they're going to be the next big thing and end up broker than they were before. So while it's true that not every artist should be obligated to be Ok Go, many might prefer to be!