Now, there are plenty of caveats to go with this, since many, many musicians who release music are unable to do so full time, so they don't show up in this chart at all. But by all indications more part time artists are also earning more money than ever before as well, with thousands of artists now being able to make some money, whereas in the past they couldn't make any.
Of course, it would be great to get even more artists making a full time salary, but the argument made by the RIAA and others that now is a bad time to be a full time, performing musician, making and releasing music, just doesn't seem supported by the numbers. It sure looks like there are many more full time, performing musicians now, it's just that many of them are independent (and making more).
Raises Hand: I've been making music and releasing it via Bandcamp since 2010 (and other Digital Music Services since 2012). I can indeed testify to the truth of the reality of the part-time musician because I am one. By day, I program for the Brooklyn Startup The Conspiracy™. By Night, I am Iron Curtain, Chip Musician. That is, I make new music on old video game systems. It's quickly becoming mainstream, as shown by what my buds in Anamanaguchi is doing (i.e. their kickstarter for their latest album Endless Fantasy, which led them to place #2 on last week's dance charts, #1 on last week's Heatseekers charts and #102 on the Billboard 200. All without a record deal (even though they did get a Distribution deal with Red Eye, but that's another story).
Still, the chip scene is a very communal and intimate scene and the people do this mostly as a hobby, albeit with hopes to get money on the side. Even though there are people who do this as a living (like Danimal Cannon and Infinity Shred) and even rarer are the mainstream breakouts (like the aforementioned Anamanaguchi), it's still a rare feat for a chip musician to make a breakout success. We do this for love with the hopes of getting money secondary. Sometimes there are artists that branch out into mainstream EDM (like Sabrepulse, Shirobon and Henry Homesweet), and that usually gains a more mainstream reception, but even so, those that do do it for love and not $$$.
Gaijin Games sure are good peeps. I met their dev team at Blip Fest 2009. Some of buddies in the Chip Music scene (like Anamanaguchi, Minusbaby (who did the artwork for my album The Aftermath) and Bit Shifter) have their music in their Bit.Trip games.
THIS is one that reasonable people could flip a coin over because so close, BUT still doesn't legitimize the grifting. If Kirtsaeng wants to profit from selling books, he should first write one, fact check and peer review it, find capital to get it published and marketed, pay all applicable taxes, risk it being pirated and him not getting money back, and so on. The rampant grifting where others do all the work and take all the risks needs to be outlawed.
I'll bookmark this quote the next time you have a garage sale (or yard sale, stoop sale, boot sale, etc.).
St. Thomas More is like the embodiment of an honest, idealist politician than politicians in general. Hell, I have a feeling that if he were a Senator in the U.S. Congress, he'd actually (and genuinely) work for the benefit of his constituents instead of the corporations/Hollywood/[insert lobbyist group here].
So you're basically saying he'd be Ron Wyden, right? :-P
I suspect (without much boldness) that large Kickstarter success stories are still dependent on a preexisting support structure of funding and promotion, and perhaps that rather than functioning as a kind of crutch or welfare system for starving artists the site is simply a way of outsourcing more of the costs of their chief financiers to the eventual consumers.
That is, without a doubt, true. Still, it must be noted that I have backed some artists I never heard before because I liked their idea. Like this one and this one. Sometimes, the strength of one's ideas alone is enough to say "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"
Geez, don't get your panties in a twist. People frequent attack the substance of an article and attribute it to Mike and get flamed over it.
I guess what you are saying is just the opposite- that attribution of anything in an article to Mike is proper as "...they were done with his knowledge, consent, and/or will. It's ridiculous to assume otherwise."
Glad to see we agree.
You miss the point. If a post is done on the main page by another author on Techdirt, attribute it to said author. However, assume it's done with Mike's blessing. That's what I was talking about, not attributing posts by other authors to Mike himself, but since this is his site, it's extremely fair to assign responsibility over Glen Moody's, Nina Paley's, etc.'s posts to him.
Perhaps you need to check the byline. Mike didn't write the story. I don't recall if he commented, but doubt it.
I know Mike didn't write the story. That's why I said 'I thought this site and Mike "Torrent/Pirate Mike" Masnick were shilling for Google™!' When I said "this site", I meant all of the people on Techdirt other than Mike Masnick, Chris Sprigman included.
And even though Mike didn't write those two articles, it's extremely safe to assume that since those posts were on Techdirt*, i.e. his website, they were done with his knowledge, consent, and/or will. It's ridiculous to assume otherwise.
*This does not apply to comments or Step 2, only the main posts.
I think I'll highlight these paragraphs [Note: bold mine]:
For example, Glyn Moody's post on Google's offer to pay French publishers 50 million Euros in order to settle the dispute over Google's display of news snippets in its search results. This is bad news on a couple of fronts. First, it suggests that the French newspapers have a legitimate copyright claim, which they don't. Second, although Google can afford to pay for the privilege of doing what they are entitled to do for free, many of Google's potential competitors will not be so fortunate. So Google throws the French newspapers some of its spare change, and in the process raises barriers to competition. Yuck.
This hasn't been a good week for Google's promise not to do evil – and for some reason France is the epicenter of the bad behavior. Big Search has agreed to pay French ISP Orange for preferential handling of its traffic. Which is precisely inimical to the net neutrality principles that Google has been fighting for in the U.S. That said, Google's move is consistent with a French proverb that applies to a lot of its conduct lately -- Autre temps, autres moeurs.
If the trolls were right, I thought this site and Mike "Torrent/Pirate Mike" Masnick were shilling for Google™! And then here comes a post wrapping up several posts showing disgust with Google™'s actions? Do the trolls not realize that their claim that anyone fighting for digital freedom is in the pocket of Google is easily debunked?
Seriously, we need better trolls, because their criticism of Google™ may be evidence enough that they can't use the simple search function in the upper-right corner to find evidence to the contrary.
Actually, from my personal experience, I don't think I would have become a songwriter or a musician if it weren't for the internet.
My last album The Aftermath, (which you can buy here) made me $180 if you remove the money I paid bandcamp. For an unknown who rarely plays concerts and makes music as a hobby, I'm doing pretty well! As I said before, this would have not happened to me without the internet.
BTW, I'm one of those musicians who actually WANTS his stuff to be torrented; that way, I know that people are interested in me! After all, as Tim O'Reilly has astutely pointed out: For people like me, the problem isn't piracy but obscurity!
your kidding right? there are literally hundreds of "in the style of glee" covers on itunes and now coulton's is just another one, so what?
Except that Coulton made no changes whatsoever to his "cover of a cover of a cover" as compared to his original cover. In other words, IT'S THE EXACT SAME SONG AS THE ONE ON THE FIRST THING-A-WEEK DISC!!! But people are buying it up anyway (some of which already have the Coulton's original arrangement from the Thing-A-Week series, myself included) in a show of solidarity.
Is techdirt suggesting stronger protections in copyright for artists than currently exist?
I'm a statistic
Raises Hand: I've been making music and releasing it via Bandcamp since 2010 (and other Digital Music Services since 2012). I can indeed testify to the truth of the reality of the part-time musician because I am one. By day, I program for the Brooklyn Startup The Conspiracy™. By Night, I am Iron Curtain, Chip Musician. That is, I make new music on old video game systems. It's quickly becoming mainstream, as shown by what my buds in Anamanaguchi is doing (i.e. their kickstarter for their latest album Endless Fantasy, which led them to place #2 on last week's dance charts, #1 on last week's Heatseekers charts and #102 on the Billboard 200. All without a record deal (even though they did get a Distribution deal with Red Eye, but that's another story).
Still, the chip scene is a very communal and intimate scene and the people do this mostly as a hobby, albeit with hopes to get money on the side. Even though there are people who do this as a living (like Danimal Cannon and Infinity Shred) and even rarer are the mainstream breakouts (like the aforementioned Anamanaguchi), it's still a rare feat for a chip musician to make a breakout success. We do this for love with the hopes of getting money secondary. Sometimes there are artists that branch out into mainstream EDM (like Sabrepulse, Shirobon and Henry Homesweet), and that usually gains a more mainstream reception, but even so, those that do do it for love and not $$$.
Thank you for listening to my rant.
Re: Re: Re: Gaijin Entertainment, not Gaijin Games
Sorry, "Some of buddies" should be "Some of MY buddies".
Re: Re: Gaijin Entertainment, not Gaijin Games
Gaijin Games sure are good peeps. I met their dev team at Blip Fest 2009. Some of buddies in the Chip Music scene (like Anamanaguchi, Minusbaby (who did the artwork for my album The Aftermath) and Bit Shifter) have their music in their Bit.Trip games.
My favorite would have to be Bit Shifter's "Strange Comfort".
Be careful what you wish for…
I'll bookmark this quote the next time you have a garage sale (or yard sale, stoop sale, boot sale, etc.).
Re: Re: Re: And this is why...
So you're basically saying he'd be Ron Wyden, right? :-P
You missed one…
You forgot Poland, er, I mean Sintel.
Re: Not quite Kickstarter-funded
That is, without a doubt, true. Still, it must be noted that I have backed some artists I never heard before because I liked their idea. Like this one and this one. Sometimes, the strength of one's ideas alone is enough to say "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!"
Re: Zoë Lofgren
I would love it if Zoë Lofgren replaced one of the two Senators currently serving California, especially Dianne Feinstein.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Where are the trolls?
Yeah, we're good. Sorry about that.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Where are the trolls?
You miss the point. If a post is done on the main page by another author on Techdirt, attribute it to said author. However, assume it's done with Mike's blessing. That's what I was talking about, not attributing posts by other authors to Mike himself, but since this is his site, it's extremely fair to assign responsibility over Glen Moody's, Nina Paley's, etc.'s posts to him.
Do you understand the difference?
Re: Re: Where are the trolls?
I know Mike didn't write the story. That's why I said 'I thought this site and Mike "Torrent/Pirate Mike" Masnick were shilling for Google™!' When I said "this site", I meant all of the people on Techdirt other than Mike Masnick, Chris Sprigman included.
And even though Mike didn't write those two articles, it's extremely safe to assume that since those posts were on Techdirt*, i.e. his website, they were done with his knowledge, consent, and/or will. It's ridiculous to assume otherwise.
*This does not apply to comments or Step 2, only the main posts.
Where are the trolls?
I think I'll highlight these paragraphs [Note: bold mine]:
If the trolls were right, I thought this site and Mike "Torrent/Pirate Mike" Masnick were shilling for Google™! And then here comes a post wrapping up several posts showing disgust with Google™'s actions? Do the trolls not realize that their claim that anyone fighting for digital freedom is in the pocket of Google is easily debunked?
Seriously, we need better trolls, because their criticism of Google™ may be evidence enough that they can't use the simple search function in the upper-right corner to find evidence to the contrary.
Re: Mix A Lot Speaks
I was just about to post this. Thank you for doing the job I won't have to do!
Here's how I put works in the Public Domain
Well, when I say "grant works into the public domain", I really mean use this: http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Still, it completely sucks that there isn't an official, legally-recognized way to actually DO that, so Creative Commons it is…
Re: Re: My personal experience
You're really blaming Mike Masnick for the structure of the internet? Who do you think he is, Tim Berners-Lee?
Are you from Denmark? Because you're offering quite a bit of Red Herrings here. (No offense to any actual Danes here)
Re: Re: What say you…
[citation needed]
I agree. Copyright Law as it stands now is disgusting.
I'm in the ©-reformer camp, and considering how the terms just keep getting extended and extended (extensions that were upheld by the US Supreme Court a decade ago), I will dedicate everything I have ever created into the Public Domain upon my death. Not just "created and published," created. I have even dedicated some works into the public domain already, which you can find here, here, here, here, and here.
What say you…
So what's your opinion on bandcamp?
My personal experience
Actually, from my personal experience, I don't think I would have become a songwriter or a musician if it weren't for the internet.
My last album The Aftermath, (which you can buy here) made me $180 if you remove the money I paid bandcamp. For an unknown who rarely plays concerts and makes music as a hobby, I'm doing pretty well! As I said before, this would have not happened to me without the internet.
BTW, I'm one of those musicians who actually WANTS his stuff to be torrented; that way, I know that people are interested in me! After all, as Tim O'Reilly has astutely pointed out: For people like me, the problem isn't piracy but obscurity!
Re: Re: Johnny C. Responds in the best way possible…
Except that Coulton made no changes whatsoever to his "cover of a cover of a cover" as compared to his original cover. In other words, IT'S THE EXACT SAME SONG AS THE ONE ON THE FIRST THING-A-WEEK DISC!!! But people are buying it up anyway (some of which already have the Coulton's original arrangement from the Thing-A-Week series, myself included) in a show of solidarity.
If you actually read Michael Masnick's post here, he is not suggesting that at all. If anything, he is suggesting that © is not necessary because JoCo decided to go the public shame route. If you're conflating the commenters here with the official position of Masnick, Geigner, Beadon, Paley, etc., I would suggest that you stop because the commenters' positions are representative of their own and not the site. But then again, that should go without saying.