Music is a sacrament. This has been true for thousands
of years of human history, save the last 100 or so.
I'm sure it was not Edison's purpose to debase such an
important aspect of our collective liturgy, but what
would one expect when something that was once
ephemeral and could only be experienced at the behest
of other humans is reduced to a commodity on a shelf.
The mechanisms of music, how and why it affects us the
way it does, are still mystical even to a cynical
older record producer like myself. Anyone who denies
the depth and power of this medium has simply
forgotten, in the face of the relentless Philistine
argument, that all things can be commoditized
regardless of their sacred origins -- that all music
is worth exactly what the RIAA (Recording Industry
Assn. of America) says it is.
Most musicians who have enjoyed any success under this
model are in an ethical bind: On one hand, you may
believe that your survival depends on effective
marketing of a commodity; on the other, you realize
that your truest expressions are being trivialized to
fit properly into a prealloted space. How many times
have I heard the argument, "Love the record, but we
don't hear a third single -- back to the studio?"
I must remind my fellow players that for the vast
majority of history we have only been appreciated for
the quality of human expression we could produce at
the moment. Great performances were only memories in
the minds of those who witnessed, each unique except
perhaps for the calliope at the local merry-go-round
which was, of course, a machine.
The plain reality is that, except for a few notable
aberrations, musicians will always be more
appreciated, certainly in a financial sense, by live
audiences than by labels and the listeners they
purport to represent. The seemingly quaint idea that
recordings were promotion for great performers is no
less true today. Ask Phish.
Ask also whether, as a musician, you ever believed the
RIAA was actively protecting your interests until they
got into a fight with their own customers and started
using your name, your so-called well-being, as
justification. And when the customers became skeptical
they became the enemy. And to follow the RIAA's logic,
customers are therefore the enemies of musicians. Let
us ignore the fact that if you ever got compensated
for your contribution, it would have been because your
manager and lawyer (and many before) forced the labels
to recognize your labor in financial terms.
The reason why the RIAA comes off as a gang of
ignorant thugs is because, well, how do I put this --
they are. I came into this business in an age of
entrepreneurial integrity. The legends of the golden
age of recorded music were still at the helm of most
labels -- the Erteguns, the Ostins, the Alperts and
Mosses by the dozens. Now we have four monolithic (in
every sense of the word) entities and a front
organization that crows about the fact that they have
solved their problems by leaning on a 12-year-old.
Thank God that mystical fascination with the world of
music has been stubbed out -- hopefully everyone will
get the message and get over the idea that the
musician actually meant for you to hear this.
The RIAA protects musicians like the musicians union
protects musicians: They reward hacks and penalize
those outside the system. The labels are not making
this stink out of principle. They are not interested
in the rights of musicians who don't sell any records
for them. That myth was exploded when Warners dropped
Van Morrison for "lackluster sales."
This stink is about a bunch of dumb-asses blaming the
public for doing what the labels could have -- and
should have -- done 10 years ago. I know because I
told them so, each and every one individually and
relentlessly: Put the music on a server so you can
deliver on-demand services to people's homes. Seems so
stupidly simple now.
After nearly 40 years in this business I know who my
friends are. I know it isn't the labels who lost
interest in my "fringe audience" decades ago. It is
that fringe audience who still await any recording or
performance I may come up with despite the RIAA trying
to drive some symbolic wedge between me and my
listeners just because their ass is in a sling. Don't
do me any favors.
Audiences and musicians are on the same side.
Musicians come from the audience (unlike record execs
who come from the ranks of failed musicians). We
experience together the mystical sacrament that a
musical performance can represent. Additionally, we
will be comfortably if not handsomely compensated by
that audience if we can deliver a suitably affecting
performance with some regularity.
It's time to let the monolith of commoditized music
collapse like the Berlin Wall. Musicians can make
records if they feel like it, or not. Wide open pipes
are ready to transport us, mainstream and fringe
alike, into the ears of an eager audience who
appreciates us and is more than willing to financially
support us. Get out of the way if you can't lend a
hand because ... you know the rest by heart.
