Feeding the Starving Musicians of Tomorrow

Music used to make millionaires. There was a time when Rock Stars were right up there with Russian Oil Oligarchs, a steady stream of champagne and cocaine trailing behind them as they traverse the globe on their private jets. Nowadays ‘rock stars’ are more commonly found lining the pavement leading up to the Job Centre. I know, I’m one of them. And whilst I, like most people, didn’t get into making music to be rich, as I sit and eat my Tesco Value beans on toast, I can’t help but ponder what the future holds for us all. So how did we get here? What went so wrong?

Well, to begin with, the aforementioned trails of champagne and cocaine carry a fairly high price tag (so I’m told…), and ultimately I suppose the burden of this bill fell on the unsuspecting music fan. Thought you were paying for talent and recording sessions when you bought your last CD (back in the 90s probably)? Well think again. You were paying for Limousines filled with high-class hookers, their ample bosoms adorned with lines of Colombians finest. The sad thing is it wasn’t just the artists lapping this lifestyle up, but the office drone record execs too. When you stop to think about it, why should the discerning music buyer continue to support this industry of excess?

Enter Piracy. Now we’ve moved on from keeping our cassette recorders tuned to our favourite radio stations, ready to pounce on the record button and capture new songs for leisurely playback later. Entire albums are delivered to you in minutes. The quality is just as good, if not better, than the CD. The cost? Nothing. I’ve probably spent hours of my life arguing the relative merits of stealing music as opposed to buying it but nothing changes the fact: if people just want to listen to a bit of music, they will do it for free if they can. I’ve experienced both sides of this coin – from starving music buyer to starving musician, and I can tell you…. something’s gotta give.

The problem is that making music costs money. If no one is buying it, guess where that money comes from? Unfortunately it’s the struggling musician, desperately trying to nurse his battered old Metro down the motorway to his £20 gig, burning £30 worth of petrol to get there. He does it for the love, you know. The thing is, love wears thin when you’re working hard and getting very little to show for it. Musicians need support. I don’t just mean fans, but financial reward too… Incentive to keep doing what they’re doing, and not to give up and drive a bus. We used to have a sympathetic government that provided some funding and support, but Austerity has hit the industry hard, and the money just isn’t there anymore. The thing is, knowing all of this doesn’t change the fact that I simply can’t afford to pay for all the music I want. I do my best to support the artists I like, but we need a better solution.

There is a little hope though. From the ashes of our old industry a new kind of industry is growing. One where innovative new monetization models provide real income for that struggling musician. I speak of services like YouTube and Spotify, who share their ad revenue with artists. You listen for free, the artist still gets paid. You just have to put up with the occasional advert, but we’re getting pretty good at that! Another service which has recently launched gives me even more hope – you might not have heard of it yet but it’s called fametune and it works in a pretty unique way. Basically, as a music fan, you are literally paid to listen to music. With each track you like, you pen a short review (no bigger than a tweet) and share it on your social networks. That’s it. You get paid. Artist gets paid. Everybody happy.

The reason why I think this model is so great is two-fold: firstly, the money is entirely generated from the sale of music, not annoying advertising. When you share your thoughts on a track, people see it. The fact that those people might go on to buy the track has value. When that value is multiplied by the viral nature of social media, it becomes feasible that everyone can get a little share, and the artists can be well taken care of. It’s crowd-funding for musicians, essentially. When you think about it, you probably already help some artists generate sales by sharing the music you like, this way you’ll just be getting paid to do it! Secondly, for the artist who doesn’t have a lot of promotion budget (which would be every artist in my experience!), it presents a great way to get some exposure for very little outlay. Take your music beyond your own social channels, get serious reviews from strangers, and you should see your profits and satisfaction go way up.

OK, so maybe the solid gold mansion is never going to happen, but at least with services like fametune, you can realistically make money from your music without placing a premium on it that no-one can afford. The future of music distribution? Quite possibly.

Joel Elwar is a music producer and technology expert, based in London, England.