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*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
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There's a lot more to this than the users
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
Google early adopter/commoditisation model....it's happened to music as it did with iron and steel
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
There are many to blame for the change
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I have no illegal downloads either but I no longer care about ticket prices - I'm now of the opinion stadium shows are largely rubbish for the listener and you may as well watch on DVD. Anything bigger than Barrowland loses the atmosphere and connection between band and fan that makes live music a worthwhile experience...and you'd get 3 or 4 gigs at that scale for the price of an enormo show.
Go see Coldplay in a stadium....you'll change your mind
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
Unfortunately, although this seems like a convenient argument it's completely untrue. As someone who has never downloaded an illegal album (far too obsessed with the physical item), has worked in both recording labels and publishing house and knows several managers and TMs of currently active bands from the gargantuan to the tiny I can safely tell you that the 'demise' of the music industry has very little to do with downloading and completely to do with money men and the dinosaurs that milked the cow during the prime years of popular music effectively pulling up the rope ladder behind them.
Firstly to look at the money men. There was a time when labels scouted, researched and invested. The music industry was about musicians as marketable artists not saleable assets. This meant that as a labels you lived and died by your ability to spot talent or market it. Record companies, now being managed by second generation rich kids (which isn't the cause, it's just an aggravating factor) know virtually fucking zilch of music and are obsessed with sales figures.
People look at the music industry and say "Where are the working class bands tapping into societal conscience? It's all middle class kids regurgitating trite shit now!". Will we ever seen a punk or grunge movement again? Like fuck we will. The reasoning is really simple. Do what they do and forget about music and look at it like you would stock broking. Why would you invest your money in a talented working class band on the dole, whose time may not just be now when in reception is a pretty rich girl with acoustic guitar, a ready to go CD daddy paid for, along with a thriving Facebook and Twitter page managed by a design company in the city and topped up with tens of thousand of Facebook likes and imaginary Twitter followers purchased and created illegally from Mumbai?
To reference what particularly has kicked of this is David Gilmour's ticket pricing -
How the fuck has illegal downloading effected Gilmour's kitty? If he was struggling to survive on the multi-millions he made of records in the first 30-40 years prior to downloading, plus the fact his record still rate incredibly high on physical sales, then in reality it isn't his ticket pricing he need to be looking at upping, it's he financial advice. Thousand of smaller bands are kept going solely because fan still buy physical vinyl and CDs and are more than happy to go to their local venue and pay to get to see them.
Clearly gone are the days when Gilmour could remember sowing the seeds of his success based on a swelling student fan base. It wasn't old rich people that made Floyd successful, it was youngsters supporting them. I'm sure loads of struggling young musicians and students are going to be queuing up to spend two weeks food budget on a visit to the RAH.
Like sport in this country it's not attracting the young and the lower classes but rather becoming an elite club. I would have more respect if he did a Masons only gig. If Gilmour or the like are that desperately concerned about money then I'd sooner them stay at home and count their fortunes rather than insult us that extra measures like photo IDs ensure us that only 'real fans' can go. What utter bollocks.
What separates Gilmour success from equivalent and equally talented classical musicians of his era is the size of the fan base. Classical music has traditionally sold better to the middle and upper classes, whilst popular music has managed to penetrate the far larger market that is provided by the working class. So to put it quite simply the likes of Gilmour et al owe the larger part of their success and wealth to hard working, lower class people who were willing to invest a larger percentage of their earning into purchasing albums and supporting the band. The response of the over fat money grabbing dinosaurs, under the advice of their sycophantic accountants it to cut those people out so they can squeeze a bit more cash out before they dive headlong into their graves. Presumably the extra money will be put towards a solid gold 'middle finger' headstone.
Gilmour and the like owe people fuck all. They can do what they want. What they cannot do though is hide from the fact that they are a large factor in a declining music industry. They don't owe anything to the struggling musicians following up behind them but ultimately their ignorance of this will kill the industry quicker than any amount of illegal downloading. Classical music and art has survived centuries because patrons have constantly reinvested, passed on knowledge and facilities and taken on apprentices to ensure the art lives on. The money chasing attitudes of both the business men and the 'legends' with short-memories will ensure that without a serious reform or awakening the relatively infantile popular music world with struggle to function. Exactly like the majority of the sporting world an industry built on the interest and enthusiasm of the mass populous has been taken over and hijacked as a play thing for the rich and elite.
In December I went to the RSC at £50 a ticket. As a value for money experience this craps on arena gigs and Shakespeare isn't promoting a new album.
Off to see Robert Cray in October. I think that's £30 a ticket, pleasant venue and even the back rows can see him. I might buy a t shirt or CD on top as I won't be spending the evening feeling I'm being fleeced.