Matt’s Nerdlog

This is a paper I wrote for an English class about 3 years ago. It is probably in need of editing and updating, but I thought it might be interesting to someone, so here it is as-is.

Filesharing: The End of Music or the Beginning of a Revolution?

David Kusek, Vice President of the Berklee College of Music’s Berklee Media says that in 2003, CD sales were down 26% (Kusek 7). Major record labels like Sony, BMG, Universal, EMI, and Warner, and big name acts like Metallica are quick to blame shrinking sales on the prolific amount of free filesharing over the internet. But is online filesharing actually the evil that it is portrayed to be? Has the illegal trading of songs really caused the decline of record sales? Or could it be because independent labels now have a method to circumvent the major label controlled radio as a tool to promote their new releases, and the industry is shifting to smaller, higher quality production?

Steve Albini, who has produced records for Nirvana, the Pixies, and Cheap Trick, says that as a result of filesharing on the internet, users have access to a wider range of material and are buying music that they would never have the opportunity to hear (McLeod 528). In his article “MP3s Are Killing Home Taping,” University of Iowa communications professor Kembrew McLeod states that many smaller independent music labels are more successful recently than they have ever been (529). Though overall record sales have gone down, filesharing has, and will continue to improve the quality of the music industry.

According to Peter Spellman, the Director of Career Development at Berklee College of Music, independent music labels and artists are “…the life-blood of the music industry” (Spellman). Rich Egan, president of Vagrant Records, the home of Dashboard Confessional, was quoted in the New York Times, saying that independent labels are more concerned with developing their artists over time and supplying a high quality product than they are with lining their wallets (Nelson). Egan cites Dashboard Confessional’s album The Places You Have Come to Fear Most, which took more than two years to sell 434,000 copies (Nelson). While Vagrant kept promoting the album over several years, a major label would have been likely to just drop the band when the album didn’t seem to be an immediate hit (Nelson). The founder of Alligator Records, Bruce Iglauer, in likening the major labels to McDonalds, says that independents would rather be the small gourmet restaurant around the corner, noting that “it’s the menu that counts, not how many are served” (Spellman). Kusek explains that while major labels try to disrupt musical trends, independent labels recognize and develop them (Kusek 8). Spellman concurs, commenting that independent labels are “artistically and creatively on the cutting-edge of new music” (Spellman).

Not only do independent labels work to develop new music and take it new places, they are also a better option for the artist. McLeod asserts that “without the major label system, the lifestyle of the vast majority of musicians … might very well go up” (McLeod 530). A Tribe Called Quest, a rap group from the early 90s, sold 1.5 million copies of their album Low End Theory (523). The group received a 14% royalty rate, translating to $1.12 per album (523). After paying off the record label for recording expenses, and paying various other fees and taxes, one member of the group, rapper Q-Tip, “made less that year than he would have working at a convenience store” (524). Dave Marsh, a rock critic for the magazine Creem, states that besides giving artists low royalty rates, major labels exercise “creative accounting,” charging breakage fees against artist royalties, and “charge you extra money to make CDs even though CDs are cheaper to produce than cassettes” (522). read more »

So I guess I have a blog now. Stay tuned for sweet posts!