...you know, first the "artists" were pissy about illegal downloading; now that there are legitimate means of downloading, it's still not quite enough for 'em...I understand that Al wasn't bitching but plenty in the music world do...It's getting real old, real fast...there are more outlets available now than ever to distribute music to the masses...as I said before, they need to find one that works for them...if that doesn't work out, Burger King is hiring...

Jestyr said:

No can do. I can't live without my mp3s.

Jestyr said:

Dude, just because everyone isn't up in arms about the injustice of spending money to legally purchase music, that doesn't entitle you to this type of outburst.

Well i think in the end what will happen, is that artists will start to block the digital sale or get a bigger cut, which will mean....u will be paying more for your downloading. Now I have an Ipod and have had it for over a year or so, i have purchased about 5 songs, I just dont have the patience for it, i want to physically make the purchased i guess and then put the damn thing on my Ipod if i like that much. I look at my Ipod as a Giant CD mix, not just crap i can turn on Mtv and see. Now im also not one of those people who has to sample tracks first, I mean its a CD, buy it or dont, im tired of this generation crying over the "new cd" they bought and have of it sucks, tough, I didnt cry when I got home with my Don Johnson "Heartbeat" album and didnt like it, i didnt go back to the store and demand money back, People get a life, if U dont wanna take the risk dont buy it.

lastdecember said:

You didn't like his Heartbeat album?

minneapolisgenius said:

Well some of it it was better than Phillip's "Living the Book of my life"

lastdecember said:

when you buy clothes do you try them on first to make sure they fit or look ok? if not, when you get home and they don't look as good as you thought they would or they simply don't fit, do you keep the article of clothing and say "too bad they don't lookgood" or do you return them to the store? i know if i don't like something i don't want to be stuck with it.

i don't necessarily have a problem with the artist wanting a bigger cut. i also don't see why a petty recording artist needs to make millions of dollars. what the hell is a musician doing that is worthy of all that money, meanwhile teachers get paid peanuts and do far more important work. i'm sorry but entertainers get no sympathy from me when it comes to money matters. they supposedly LOVE the work they do. they started in the business making practically nothing with no guarantees of ever making money and nobody forced them into it. then they start making money and suddenly its not enough. pfft, whateva treva. go pick up a trade that pays what you want and do that instead.

its great that you, lastdecember, are in such a financial situation that you don't feel the need to check out an unproven artist. many of us, on the other hand, don't have 14 bucks to throw out every time some new flavor of the week comes out with a shite record. so you do what you want but you shouldn't tell the rest of us we should live by your budget.

CuntOMatic said:

The only way to ensure that your music collection is safe, is to share it.

Jestyr, I don't know who pissed in your Cheerios recently but you've been a bitter ass insulting dude lately. If you wanna blame anybody for the use of decline of CDs and disposable music then blame the industry... not the consumer. No one wanted to pay a suggested retail price of $17.98 for an entire shitty album that the record companies are only promoting so they can see a return.

If you're going to get mad at iPods, then get mad at compact discs, cassettes, reel-to-reels and 8-tracks because they all fucked vinyl LPs over.... remember those big black cds that heads of record companies used to use as tools to further artist development and profits?

And no, I didn't read the article because I truly don't give two shits and a handfuck about a Weird Al Yankovic. Ironically, your first reply about "killing the creators of music" contradicts any empathy one might feel toward a motherfucker who made a career of making parodies out of hit songs.

Romera and Dansa... I freakin love yall

sallysassalot said:

First of all Im not in a financial situation that i can check out an artist that im not sure of, but with this generation of music I can tell whats going to suck and what i might like. Artists coming out today are pretty much all the same, sure once in a while you'll get a Norah Jones or Van Hunt, but 90% of the time youre gonna get Good Charolette or Ne-yo or something like that. As far as a money type thing, sure CD's are expensive well thats because the labels employ all these useless people like, lawyers, publicists, and also with the emergance of Videos, you can tack a video budget on to the price of your CD. But in retrospect technology advanced which im sure is what people wanted so in the end you cant have it both ways.

As far as the clothing comparison, of course u check the size first, but that comparison is not accurate. I mean u cant go out and buy a Book, Read it and then bring it back, i mean lets be serious here. I mean if u go to a movie and hate it, do u get your money back??? So comparing clothing to Entertainment and Media just doesnt work. Its a matter of taste, if U think that a new artist might suck, dont get it, if your buying because the artist has a catchy song on MTV, pretty much be sure the cd is gonna be bad, and save your money. So im not telling people to live by my budget, which aint shit by the way, im just from a generation where artists were good, and this generation, well most of them SUCK, sorry to say, between Producers and MTV its all about to crash and burn. I stick to the artists that I grew up with, every now and then I will try someone new, but Im not plunking down 15 dollars, on flava of the month, HELL NO, first Rule if I see U on MTV or TRL im not buying you, just on principal, if you are selling to that Genre and "Mindset" then i have no respect for that artist right off the bat, so thats how i budget myself, i dont buy shit.
[Edited 6/25/06 14:51pm]
[Edited 6/25/06 14:53pm]

Justin1972UK said:

Inhale this.
[Edited 6/25/06 15:31pm]

uh, i've had an ipod for three years and i've never bought anything from itunes. know what you're talking about, thanks

Well this is off topic, but my ipod died in about a years time. So i wouldn't want to buy a new one anyways, waste of money imho.

roodboi said:

The MOST REFRESHING THING I'VE HEARD IN A WHILE!!!!! AMEN!!!!

Jestyr said:

First of all,it's not as if Weird Al is a "real artist" anyway.His songs are parodies of other artist's songs and no,I don't have alot of appreciation for the silly,novelty bullshit that he releases.Secondly,as I pointed out in my post,Al (or any other artist) doesn't have to play the "major label game" if he doesn't want to.He can simply become an independent artist and release his shit on his own site,without any iTunes involvement.He's more of a cult artist anyway,so I can't imagine why he would be on a major label anyway.


"I'm amazed at the lack of empathy for artists on the part of people who claim to appreciate them so much"

There are people in the world who are starving....there are innocent people (civilians and soldiers) getting killed in the Iraq war.Those are the people I have empathy for.Sorry,I couldn't care less about Weird Al's finances.

roodboi said:

BSK3601 said:

I love you too.

DavidEye said:

Jestyr said:

HERE's The Post Of The Week!

I am really disappointed by some of the responses on here. Some of you dont' seem to care whether these artists who make the music you love live or die by some of the responses I'm reading here. It just shows how precious little some of you REALLY know about the music industry.

Let's use Van Hunt as an example. I have some friends who work close to him and do some booking for him. ON a theatre show, he may make about $3000. But out of that, he has to pay his band, pay any production costs for the gig, as well as pay for food, hotel, etc. Now how much do you think he gets to take home after all is said and done? Probably not much. And this man has a wife and child to support.

Did you also know that a 4 member band who sells 500,000 records MIGHT take home about $18,000 apiece after all is paid for? Contrary to what most of you believe, most artists dont' have the power in the industry that Prince has. Wake up!

AS an artist, I feel a bit insulted at some of the responses. No, I'm not making much money, and no I'm not signed, but really, most signed artists aren't much better off than I am. Yes, a mojority of the problems stem from the industry and from artists selling themselves at too low a price, but the general lack of respect for artists by the public doesnt' help. Yeah, we make the music that enriches your lives but some of you dont' care whether we eat or survive so we can write more of that music. "Shut the fuck up and write another hit so I can put it on my iPod." Is it really all that wrong for an artist to demand a fair wage?

Yeah this probably sounds a little dramatic, but the total lack of respect by some of you really irks me. Why dont' you try going a week without listening to music at all and see what kind of quality of life you have.

guitarslinger44 said:

I respect an artists ability to make a living as much as I respect anyone elses.

No more, no less.

If an artist doesn't like the deal he's signed, then he should handle his shit. I'm willing to pay for your product if it enriches my life. Not making enough? The line starts to the left.


I've gone more than a week without music. It's actually kinda nice to get away from it every so often and tend to other means of enriching the old gray matter. ymmv.

you can lament about artists not getting a fair cut of profits all you like, but the fact remains...the artists signed the deals. they saw nothing but dollar signs and signed that contract, not caring one way or the other whether it was a fair deal or not. and the record companies KNOW that 99% of artists are just going to cave when they show them those dollar signs, whether it be in the form of a quickly whittled-away advance or whatever. and thats them set, they've screwed the artist out of so much money. as soon as artists start having more input in the industry and stop acting like whores things will change. fortunately the internet can play a large part in this in allowing artists to break themselves and prove themselves potentially profitable all on their own, to allow them to put themselves in a position to make demands of the record company. i mean a 4-piece band taking home $18000 a piece from 500000 records is a band of idiots for signing that deal. why would you screw yourself like that? and there's no reason why more artists should not just go the independent route either, it's extremely profitable if you know what you're doing and are actually a good band: one thing to always remember is that the guys in fugazi have big fucking houses.
[Edited 6/27/06 9:12am]

guitarslinger44 said:

I agree with a lot of that, but the undercurrent of these statements implies that as a recording artist, getting rich and famous is a done deal. Just as with any other job in the arts, no matter what your qualifications it just isn't necessarily so. You can make the best art/music/film in the world and still scramble from gig to gig or from check to check.

guitarslinger44 said:

i don't think its about a lack of care, i think its about the sense of entitlement some people approach others with. i have worked many jobs where i didn't feel i was being paid enough for my work. to make it worse, i didn't even like those jobs. at least the musician likes his job AND STARTED IT KNOWING HE COULD BE BROKE FOREVER. that's a very important detail.

i'm all about fair trade. i think its really pathetic to see capable and free people moan about how little they make doing the work they love while there are others out there making pennies a day doing some crazy manual labor just to survive. there are other options for musicians if they don't like the way the majors operate. why do they stick with the majors? hmmm...could it be out of hope for millions one day? if my boss is underpaying me and ripping me off all the time, how long do you think i'm going to keep working for him? and if i choose to continue working for him i've got no space to whinge about it.

the general public does not owe a musician one single thing. we did not tell that person to devote their life to music and, if anything, we've supported them by buying their work -- in ANY form. why should the public feel the need
to use technology that's best for the artist? why should i compromise my life for something as petty and common as the dollar bill, and someone else's at that?

i love my ipod. i love that i can take it to the gym, or on a plane, or on the subway, or wherever and it has my entire music collection on it AND takes up practically no space. i love that i can buy a song for .99 or a entire lp for 9.99. and if the musicians don't like it, they can go about their business in any other variety of ways or they can quit the biz and get a real job. then they'll find out how tough it is being underpaid, overworked, harrassed by bosses, and on top of that, there is no pay advance.

I think what we mainly do is "lump" all people into one. So if an artist has a beef with industry we look at it as a consumer, and who cares is the attitude we take, this was 99% of peoples views with napster until everyone realized it was stealing. Now its Itunes which obviously isnt in the Napster category, but for alot of artists Itunes was something not in the contract, its like that thing that gets added on. To just say "well get out of the business if u dont like it" is not a proper attitude to take, if everyone did that then there would be no change. At the end of the day Itunes is something new to most artists contracts that signed 5 or more years ago, so they have a right to make some effort to get at least the same cut as they get for a cd. I think we mainly look at singers as "super rich" but everyone aint Madonna or Mariah, so they have to look out for their best interests, just like we would want a fair pay raise they want one too, most of them dont make alot of money at all. But i think we should also remember that Prices are going to go up, but dont blame the artists, blame the labels, now that they see how much Itunes is making them get ready for 1.29 a song and 11.99 a cd.

guitarslinger44 said:

I don't listen to (or buy much of it) new music anyway, so this doesn't really apply to me. All the artists I have on my iPod are already multi-millionaires and have been for quite some time.

lastdecember said:

Good response. Most artists out there aren't rich. Even the ones you THINK may be rich aren't. And record companies look to exploit any loophole they can if they think it will make them more money including what you said about iTunes not being in contracts.

you know what? i don't care who's rich because i know i ain't. i want music and i want it conveniently and legally. if i only like 4 out of 12 songs, i wanna be able to buy those 4 songs. its better for the artist that i buy those 4 songs than if i buy nothing at all.

guitarslinger44 said:

Most people aren't rich. Even the ones you THINK may be rich. Am I all that concerned about how much money most people are making? Or vice versa? Not really.

Like sally said, I'm absolutely willing to pay you for music conveniently and legally. Which is more than alot of folks are willing to do.

If that means an artist gets less money than they could if I purchased the music on a more inconvenient format, well that truly sucks for them.

Should they try better their situation? Yup.

Am I willing to spend more of my hard earned money than I need to support thier situation? Nope.
[Edited 6/27/06 17:53pm]

...since when did a consumers lack of concern towards an artists finances equal a lack of respect?...this whole "respect the artists" arguement blows me away anyway...I don't know these people!! I like a few songs they produce, so what??...I like the food the guy serves me at McDonalds...hell, I even got a fair amount of respect for the fella, but do I care what his hourly wage is or if that overbearing manager has been treating him fairly and giving him enough hours to make a decent living??? no!!!...if you're doing what you love, I'm happy for ya...if you're going broke doing it, I don't know what to tell ya...
...at some point, the artists have to make a decision, stick with it and accept the financial terms available or move on...Its the same choice EVERYONE in the working world faces...I like my job, I make decent living but if the day came where I felt overused and underpaid, I would move on...I, too, work under a contract..if I leave the company I am with now, I have to abide by a no compete clause, meaning I could not do the same job I do now with a different company...I would have to change my career...if I could not make a fair living,thats what I would have to do...
...maybe it's a pride thing with some of these artists, who knows...but pride don't pay the bills...
[Edited 6/28/06 2:06am]

Just be glad some of us play for music
theirs still alot of us who DL for free...

We all saw this coming though, the only way for the artist to make his money is to erase the middle man...
The record company...