Downloading Music From The Internet:

• What do you think about downloading music from the Internet without actually paying for it?
• How does it affect the artist?
• Would their life or music career be quite different if no-body did this?
• How different is it to lending a friend an LP of yesteryear for their own music library?
• Did it make one feel guilty back then when life seemed simpler?
• Has the music industry always been about money?
• Is there room for sentiment?
• How different is it to giving friends your music mags once you're done with them?
• Does downloading music from the Internet make that much of a difference to the artist?

So many questions and there is an argument either way I feel:

Years ago there were a lot less people on the Earth, so that must have made a difference you may say. But did it really though, because everything is relative. Okay, there are more of us on the planet, but surely everything goes up with the population. How many records did an artist have to sell before they became number one in the sixties compared to the amount needed today?

In London during the sixties you could go into most pubs at the weekend and see a band for free. Jazz music, rock or blues bands would play on a Sunday afternoon and you could enjoy the music whilst the artists were learning their craft. While they are gigging in a pub for free it takes the pressure off them. They probably would perform better for that very reason. The punter would buy the artist free drink and everyone was happy.

Playing in a big auditorium gives an artist the pressure of selling out first and how much they charge a ticket. They then have to live up to that price. Its not good for them to develop their craft in that setting. Let them save those pressures for later on in their music career. Like anything we do in life, experience counts for so much. We definitely get better with age, that’s why music bands like Pink Floyd, and artists like Elton John and the Rolling Stones are still as good, or should I say better with age. These bands started in the pubs and clubs of yesteryear, gigging for free.

You could go to The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London every Sunday night for 10 shillings (50p) or even less (25p) seeing musicians that would go on to become top bands worldwide. Where do new bands today play and learn their craft now? Not in the pubs and clubs on the scale they did. There is far too much bureaucracy, health & safety and red tape in existence. For example a pub can not have more than two people playing before they need a music licence which involves time and money. How can they learn to do live gigs if they can’t even get them? I know it’s always been to do with money, but were there morals that are no longer with us today? What is happening with the young artists in 2011?

What about us, the public, “they like things the way they are” you may say. Do they? I’m not so sure. The public may think they like things now because nothing else is on offer to them. The record producers are in control and the public are hearing the same records over and over again. Inevitably the music becomes familiar to them.

This is what I think the artists need to do: Utilise advertising, like commercial stations do. Take the internet as an example. The public don’t have to pay anything to get enjoyment from many sites (except for the ISP). The Internet does not work as a charity though. People who own the sites are making lots of money. "How?" From advertising. Young artists today could follow suit.

• More live gigs
• Advertising
• Merchandise
• T Shirts
• Cups
• Key rings
• Novelties
• Anything, as long as it appeals to the fan
• We want to keep the music industry alive!

Copyright © 2011 Lesley Sherwood