Steve Albini discusses the music industry

[Dave W]

Transcript of a speech he gave in Melbourne last month:Steve Albini on the surprisingly sturdy state of the music industry

A bit long but well worth it, IMHO. Says what I believe better than I ever could express it.

[Rob]

Long but an interesting read.

[uwe]

I can see where he is coming from with his grassroots distribution/availability approach. Whether the new infrastructure will create music of the cultural impact and the longevity of the old one remains to be seen. I'm doubtful whether a new Sgt. Pepper is gonna come up this way. But Albini probably thinks that is a good thing as long as 100 indie landfill bands get an outlet for their mp3 demos.

[Granny Gremlin]

As much as I reference his thoughts on such things a lot (that breakdown of record industry accounting is legendary, and I have been referencing it at other people regularly for about a decade), but I feel that he is ignoring some very important things here; mostly his own notoriety.  His was a household name before the internet took off (In Utero did that; I was online at the time, or shortly there after, but otherwise it was middle-aged perves and the dudes who were getting their lunch money taken on a daily basis, who I had the, in retrospect lets call it  foresight - because I totally wasn't dropping acid and playing D&D with them on the regular at all, to befriend). Sure, the internet will be a great marketing tool for anyone with that much name recognition, but just as much as the internet is able to connect people, it is also amazing at letting people be variously completely ignored (a tiny dot in a sea of artists on myspace/bandcamp/whatever's next) or mocked.... either way not getting paid at all (one of my former bands is the reason that my website gets 80% of the traffic it does, mostly from online radio, aggregator/leech sites and direct links to song downloads from various blogs; we've never seen a dime, not that we should, but case in point).  It is better than the old way for sure,  but the fundamental problem of the internet remains (there was a John Oliver bit that I can't locate now where he closes with something to the effect of, 'nobody wants to pay for anything on the internet').  It ignores that there is not, and never has been so far, anything like a meritocracy (if that is even possible in the case of something as subjective as musical appreciation).

It's all great that the internet has enabled Steve to tour "'The Balkans"' (new and improved; now includes Poland, Turkey and the Czech Republic) to find packed houses before they ever sold a record there, but even if one of my bands were huge on the internet, we wouldn't be able to go tour (there) due to not having the backing or the budget, but instead day jobs and other responsibilities.  I've toured around a bit locally, but even going to the States is prohibitive ($800 to over 1K per head, including crew just in case they clap on stage during a song, for the permits).

I don't need to make money from my music.  Sure, it would be nice if I could quit my job and do it full time, but I don't expect that at all, and haven't ever really tried particularly hard to chase that dream.  I will continue to make music anyway, for the rest of my life as far as I am able, because otherwise I am going to f***ing murder somebody.

[dadagoboi]

Albini does what he wants how he wants.  He refused points on the 'In Utero' album and as far as I can tell, everything he's ever engineered.  He takes a fee, period.  He runs a studio with a 30K a month overhead and has at times made payroll by playing poker.

No, there probably won't be another Sgt. Pepper...or In Utero in terms of sales.  But there will be a lot more musicians working and getting a bigger share of the fruits of their labors, actually making money going direct to their audience.  That's a good thing.   Those who take the risk of quitting their day jobs (or never having one) to make music should have a better chance of scratching out a living doing it. Without getting their blood sucked.

The internet is the new radio, it's advertising.  Want to make a living, take it on the road.



Almost every band was an indie band once.  Including the one that made a crap demo of 'Ain't She Sweet'.

[Rob]

Almost every band was an indie band once.  Including the one that made a crap demo of 'Ain't She Sweet'.

[Highlander]

They've just finished broadcasting the Foo Fighter's videos for each of the new songs (8 x 1 hour documentaries) - I think the first was at Albini's studio, iirc - not watched the last 3 yet...
I'm tied up with stuff at the mo so will read this later...

[uwe]

"Almost every band was an indie band once.  Including the one that made a crap demo of 'Ain't She Sweet'."

Very true!

Wait ... Deep Purple weren't! They were "manufactured" and hand-picked by a bunch of businessmen who wanted a band as a long term investment. After some rocky years, it wasn't such a bad investment either.

[Highlander]

Oh my Gawd... Corporate Rock...!

[Pilgrim]

Hmm.  Never heard of Albini, so I looked him up.  Now I know more than I did before.  I'm sure he has an educated opinion on the topic.

My own opinion isn't that different - I'm convinced the music industry is fighting change so hard they're forgetting to look for new opportunities.  Way too tied to old models - which isn't surprising, since that's how they made their bucks.

[uwe]

The old business model wasn't angelic, it was geared to make money. Most things in capitalism - where is Ayn Rand when you need her? - are btw. That capitalist drive is not inherently evil either, it's just a motor for things, good or bad. And this motor provided us with some remarkable music/pieces of musical art for some decades (just like the sponsorship of European royalty provided us with some remarkable painting art over the centuries). I accept that this same motor als squashed a few careers along the way though it is my impression that record companies have in the past also backed acts regarded as less than commercial if there was the faintest chance of a buck to be made from them. In many ways it was a scattershot approach which gave a wide array of bands a chance to make it. And, granted, lots and lots of failures too, many of them undeserved.

People made music before the advent of the LP as the medium to transport music and they will be making music long after all means of physical storage for music are long lost in the cloud. That is not my point though. I question whether rock music will retain its cultural influence if it hasn't lost it already.