[clug] 'Rip!' on SBS, last Tuesday night

[Alex Satrapa]

On 11/01/2010, at 11:26 , Ric de France wrote:

> I believe the model you've suggested has worked very well for many years
> (especially during the renaissance) - having a wealthy patron. The problem
> with that is most patrons (not all) do not release the artists works for the
> public to enjoy.

I'm not talking about singular rich patrons. I'm talking about a plurality of middle-class patrons. The patrons are no longer responsible for commissioning works, they're responsible for paying for performances or purchasing fixed works.

That is, the "patron" of an artist in the modern world is the same as the "patron" of a bar - just you and me, giving money to someone for a thing of value to us.  Beer or live music to me are the same thing - a recreational good or service.  Recorded music is different, but not much so - a musician can sell a lot more recordings of a once-off performance than they can sell tickets to a gig.

My vision of the music "industry" of the future is having independent artists contract a producer, with the cooperative then going on to publish their work either via mail order web site (for physical CDs) or through paid downloads from their own website, or through a merchant such as the iTMS.  As a customer (I'll never be paid to play music - I might get paid to not play one day), I'd probably stumble across an artist's work through TripleJ or from a friend's collection.  Then I'd go searching for that artist, find their collection in the iTMS or on their own website (or the producer's web site, depending on the deal they hash out), and fork over their well-earned money.

This relies on a culture of awareness, which I believe is much easier to attain than legislating everyone into compliance.  The laws of a country should serve the people, not the corporations.

Alex