peterkondas-blog

[peterkondas-blog]

Does Intellectual Property Has Any Value?

We can argue about this title a lot, but we need to look this question from different perspectives. Not everyone will pay to download a piece of music. Therefore it doesn't have any value to someone, despite the fact that musicians say that it does have a value for them. We can’t force anyone to pay for something that he/she doesn’t like or need. So how can we fix this? From my point of view, we can try few options. Most of the artists are not making much money from their music anyway, they rely on touring, merchandise, adverts, they should try and focus on these activities. The governments are prosecuting the illegal downloads & illegal use of intellectual property, but despite this pressure, millions of people are still downloading illegal music every year. Copyright normally in the UK lasts the lifetime of the creator plus 70 years  (Society, 2017). What if we would just make this period a bit shorter for example 20-30years? It would be easier to track the progress of it, and probably would be easier to catch the violators, and provide benefits for the authors. Or for example, if there were no IP laws, how could a musician prove that his music has value?! Lot of streaming services are ripping off artists, not paying them much after the streamings, but artists can add value to their tracks, for example, offer some of it for free, which are not uploaded to these streaming sites, and also they could offer something like extra footages of the life of the artists, or extra live songs, vocal and other samples, etc. The artist should figure out the way to avoid these streaming services, and they would be able to achieve greater profits if they could approach the listeners openly. For example on Spotify, a signed musician gets a typical share from a stream from the record label is about $0.001128 (Dredge, 2015), not is not much to be honest, but the situation is just so bad at every streaming service. Nowadays we can even fund artists and other creatives projects on the website Kickstarter (Kickstarter.com, 2017) if an artist gets enough fund for her/his projects they will complete it. There are no limits you can send them any amount of funds you wish. My opinion is that the society should act more wisely how they’re phrasing these IP laws so that the artists can get more of the benefits and could have more trust in us, and at the end of the day, we will benefit from their creative processes. Society, D. (2017). DACS - Knowledge Base - - Created for artists, by artists.. [online] Dacs.org.uk. Available at: https://www.dacs.org.uk/knowledge-base/frequently-asked-questions [Accessed 4 May 2017]. Dredge, S. (2015). How much do musicians really make from Spotify, iTunes and YouTube?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/03/how-much-musicians-make-spotify-itunes-youtube [Accessed 4 May 2017]. Kickstarter.com. (2017). About — Kickstarter. [online] Available at: https://www.kickstarter.com/about [Accessed 4 May 2017].

[peterkondas-blog]

Is A&R fading in the current economy climate of the music industry?

  As our digital economy has changed in the last couple of years, the role of the A&R (Lindvall, 2011) has changed too.  

In the past A&R was responsible for going to concerts and gigs, to discover talents, bands in pubs, bars, wherever musicians played live music, also, help them to evolve.

These days A&R is still looking for talents, but the numbers they sign are very limited. Before they sign a talent they’re more focused on their followers, online presence (Rys, 2012), how many fans like their songs and interacting with them, their streamings, how many people go to the their gigs, all their previous successes, and addition to this, one of the biggest factor is the image (Blogger, 2014; Staggers, 2014) and self-presentation.  

A lot of people think that music is the most important factor in the industry, and I would argue with that theory, as in fact, that is the complete image.

Musicians can be very talented and have a lot of great songs, have great marketing, but if they can't deliver a strong message with their image, they won't be as successful as their counterparts. With the help of the image, record labels can enhance the brand of the artist, which can sell songs. At the end of the day, this is like all the other industries, to sell the artist and to make the most money out of them.

Some of the A&R likes to enjoy the music, found out whether it’s captivating, does it make a great story, does it make a great potential to sell albums, sell merchandise or sell out gigs and arenas. Though the are no rules they have to follow.

Some of them suggest not to pursue the contract with the label, pursue your passion, make followers, make a buzz, stand out from the crowd and the right A&R people will find you.

At the biggest labels, A&R is having a close relationship with their artists to ensure the confidentiality, partnership, and their future success.

Nowadays A&R have much harder job to roster the potential talents, as they have to take a lot of factors to consideration and thousands of talents competing against each other every day, but that doesn’t mean that A&R it's fading, only had to change its direction to be relevant in the industry.

  Blogger, G. (2014). Your image is more important than your music, and here's why. [online] DIY Musician Blog. Available at: http://diymusician.cdbaby.com/musician-tips/image-important-music-especially-indie-artists/ [Accessed 2 May 2017].

 Staggers, B. (2014). The Importance Of Image & Impact For Musicians. [online] Independent Music Promotions. Available at: https://independentmusicpromotions.com/image-impact/ [Accessed 2 May 2017].

 Rys, D. (2012). The Changing Role of A&R and 'The Dark Arts of Record Making' at New Music Seminar. [online] Billboard. Available at: http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1093004/the-changing-role-of-ar-and-the-dark-arts-of-record-making-at-new-music [Accessed 2 May 2017].

 Lindvall, H. (2011). Behind the music: Is the A&R era over?. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2011/jan/27/behind-music-industry-a-r [Accessed 2 May 2017].

[peterkondas-blog]

Can Musicians Make It Big Without The Help Of A Major Label?

There are a lot of arguments over the past few years whether a musician can make it big in the industry, without the help of a major label.

We can hear all sorts of stories, that well-known artists who are signed to major labels are not satisfied with their current situation, the lack of their control over the management and other issues, and therefore they want to leave the label.

Major labels can be particularly good in marketing and widespread distribution, but at this day and age, the internet and social media made so simple to reach out to fans.

The only question is how the artists will promote themselves, but thanks for the technologies artists can respond to their fans needs faster and more accurate.

Or for example, after a well-received event in the club, an artist can collaborate a lot quicker with an indie label to release a song or album.

While the major label can waste a lot of time because it has priorities, different projects or artists.

Soundcloud (Bassil, 2014) is one of the marketing tools for new talents to get heard and discovered, but major labels are not particularly keen on Soundcloud, as it’s not monetized and they can’t earn any money on it.

 In electronic music or Hip Hop artists seems to do better with indie labels.

The artist can work fast with the indie label and have all the attention working with a small group of people, meanwhile, at a major label, they have to fight for the attention and their rights.

 My opinion is that in case of very big stars like Rhianna or Madonna, major label can work really well, and do the job effectively on a very large scale, and also I would say artists who have large number of followers though they’re not a big stars yet, the major can provide an extensive amount of help, local expertise in distribution (Lindvall, 2012), not to mention the financial support.

After to read all these stories  my conclusion is that I won’t say anything bad against any label, because all of them has it’s pros and cons, but for sure after a certain amount of fame and followers, every artist should have a label for direction, support, connections, marketing, accounting, etc. and every artist should decide which direction to take, and which label will serve his/her best interests.  

What I think is that obviously, a major label has more attention for a bigger artist. Therefore I suggest for smaller artists to take their time try indies first, and if that doesn't workout, they still have a chance to approach a major label and find out whether they can work together.

  Bassil, R. (2014). It's Not Me It's You: Why So Many Artists Want To Break-Up with Major Labels. [online] Noisey. Available at: https://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/article/are-major-labels-broken-azealia-banks-mia-childish-gambino-2014 [Accessed 1 May 2017].

Lindvall, H. (2012). Behind the music: What do record labels actually do? You'd be surprised. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2012/feb/02/behind-music-record-labels [Accessed 1 May 2017].

[peterkondas-blog]

Does piracy have any benefits for the music industry?

Well my first thought is that it shouldn’t have any, but after a bit of research on the internet, on couple of articles and websites, made me realize that despite the millions of illegally downloaded songs and albums every year, and huge losses for record labels, music companies and artists, the piracy arguably might have few benefits too.

For example, a U.S.News (Koebler, 2012) article explaining a research, done by North Carolina State University, states that frequently pirated music more likely to sell legally too. Therefore well-known artists might get the total benefits of it. What is that mean? In theory, music leaked before the release date from a well-known artist obviously gets more illegal download, so the fans can hear whether is that music any good and if they like it, later they surely go out and buy it legally.  

But what about the ‘’small’’ artists, the ones without the big fan bases and big labels. I would argue about the fact, that this doesn’t mean, that is necessarily beneficial for the whole of the industry.

 As a strategy to fight against piracy the industry not just working together with Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) and trying to catch illegal downloaders, but it’s also collaborating with all sorts of law enforcement agencies ("Music Piracy — IFPI — Representing The Recording Industry Worldwide"), online stores, educating people about piracy .

 A study done by the European Commission Joint Research Centre found that people who downloaded music illegally, they wouldn’t have done it, if they wouldn’t have access to these illegal websites in the first place and also the study found out that people who like music a lot, are more likely to download from different sources, more likely from illegal sources too. And I kind of get these points, and it makes sense to me completely.

Rothman (2013) states that further findings include,

  ·      Women and men stream music about equally, but men download more.

·      People with higher education levels stream more music, but income does not affect streaming levels.

·      Spanish people click on illegal downloading sites 230% more than Germans, with Italians coming next at 134% more than their neighbours to the north.

 Contradictory to the research of the first website, Ernesto ("Why Most Artists Profit From Piracy - Torrentfreak") on TorrentFreak explains,

 ·      Music from highly popular artists is widely available on file sharing networks. If pirates mainly download albums from these artists, they will have more money left to buy albums of less popular artists.

·      People have the opportunity to discover new music for free. It is thus easier to find new, and less popular artists. It is likely that people will buy albums from these artists as well if they like what they hear.

All these statements made from a study by a PHD student called Blackburn from the Harvard University in 2004.

 I have checked about 6-7 websites regarding this topic, but none of them could convince me exactly,  which theory is more believable,  and has the more benefits for the artists. It doesn't say the level of degree these research were performed.

I believe more the fact that bigger artists have more exposure, and they get more illegal and legal downloads and therefore more profits.

Also, I wouldn’t say either,  that the Pirates will spend money to buy the albums of less popular artists, they can download it illegally too, why they would risk their money on somebody unknown, isn’t that correct?!

So in my opinion, is much more thorough research needed, because every website was saying different things, and that doesn't convince me whatsoever.

    Koebler, J. (2012). Report: Album Piracy May Help Musicians Sell. [online] U.S.News. Available at: https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/05/29/report-album-piracy-may-help-musicians-sell [Accessed 25 Apr. 2017].

 "Music Piracy — IFPI — Representing The Recording Industry Worldwide". Ifpi.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

 Rothman, Lily. "Your Illegal Music Downloads Not Hurting Industry, Study Claims". TIME.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

 "Why Most Artists Profit From Piracy - Torrentfreak". TorrentFreak. N.p., 2006. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

[peterkondas-blog]

Music markets, music industry and brexit

I'm a passionate Dj and Dance Music fan since I was fifteen, it really matters to me how much are going to cost the different Dj and production equipment, the ones I’m using in my home studio. Since we had the Brexit referendum last year on 23rd of June, in Britain, everything has changed, we can witness that the prices of the musical goods are rising rapidly, as well as other general goods imported from EU.

In London a music equipment retailer at Westend Dj (Mixmag, 2017) explains, that for some of their Pioneer Dj controllers they are charging now up £200 more, which can be quite hefty above £1000 , also the prices of some of their top of the class music industry favorite Apple laptops, has risen up by £300. The retailer claimed that since the Brexit referendum the pound got weaker, and we can expect further falling until the UK finally leaves the EU. Since the UK imports the majority of Dj equipment from the EU, the changing exchange rates seriously affect the prices.

Some of the UK based Vinyl broker companies are concerned that won’t be profitable for them to do business anymore in the UK. These companies are willing to relocate to EU mainland area because the market is so big and profitable there, they won’t have to deal with the exchange rate fluctuation, as there are no borders and also business customers have the opportunity to continue to trade on favourable VAT rates.

I know a lot of people doesn’t care about politics, (or the laws) personally I’m quite intrigued about these things and like to have an understanding, and get an explanation from the back, why certain things has to move in certain ways.

My view is that certainly, we can’t leave the politics out of the music markets & industry.

Britain is the part of the European Community since 1973, which later has been transformed to the European Union in 1993. The UK has a long, strong diplomatic relationship with Europe and therefore Brexit is one of the most complex leaving processes in Britains history, whether we like it or not we have to face the consequences. The music industry, labels, music companies shouldn’t try to fight against it, instead, they should adopt it, and try to get the best out of it.

In addition to this Theresa May has announced couple of day ago, that will be a snap general election on the 8th of June, which can go either way and will be interesting to see what’s going to happen, but what I believe is that Britain is a strong country and I’m quite optimistic about that after a certain time, maybe years the economy will stabilise, and music businesses and the country will thrive again.

Mixmag. (2017). Brexit: The impact on dance music so far. [online] Available at: http://mixmag.net/feature/brexit/ [Accessed 21 Apr. 2017].