Tonight is the 39th Annual Dove Awards.
I spent the majority of yesterday and today sitting in the audience of the Opry house during rehearsals, slowly but surely falling head over heels with Switchfoot's new single "This is Home," from the new Narnia film. The song is new.
So, yeah....I snuck into iMovie and recorded a little bit of it so I could listen at home. Jon Foreman's voice just melts me (not to mention that he looks a little Cobain with his bed head blond hair). I'm really into movie soundtracks right now, too. Anyway, I'm listening to it, and I'm like... man, so what if my job means that I will likely get this for free if I want it... I want it NOW. I want to buy it.
So, I go and hunt around online...
Whadafreak?
I can't find it anywhere except other soundcheck/live performance bootlegs. That's right... my recording is one of about 7 recordings in existence (and no, you can't have it). Here I am, a member of the small group of people somewhat rightfully entitled to free musical product and I actually like the track enough to go spend an hour hunting around for a place that I can buy it... only to find that it isn't available anywhere...ON THE NIGHT THAT IT DEBUTS ON TELEVISION.
Digital musical product does not require manufacturing. There are no costs to produce additional copies of a digital piece of product. It is self replicating, automatic, an endless effortless supply.
The music business is now completely a consumer industry. This is not "if you build it, they will come" territory anymore. We must be there like butlers waiting for the consumer to pick and choose what they want from us around every corner. If they come knocking and we don't have what they're looking for, we lose them...in the same way that we're losing people like me as consumers.
I found the song online.
http://wm.allaccess.com/allaccess/switthis.wmaRight there. Yeah, for free. Full blown studio recording on a semi-official looking band blog site. How can we, as music professionals, expect our consumers to NOT turn to downloading product for free when we aren't there to meet them with product for sale when they do take the time to come looking?
Yes, I download music illegally. However, I have rules to my illegal downloading practices. I think they are worth listing.
STEPS FOR DOWNLOADING SONGS ILLEGALLY WITHOUT THE GUILT1. Spend 30 - 60 minutes fiercely searching the artist's web site, iTunes, Amazon, Google, etc. for the artist/song/album for SALE. If unsuccessful, proceed to step 2.
2. Download that sh*t! Find it somewhere for free. Go and rip it off of a MySpace profile, if you have to. Do it. If you couldn't find that track for sale after spending an hour searching for it, it's not your fault anymore. I step aside and tell you to GO FOR IT, and make a smug "breakin' the law" face while you're at it. If you partake in step 2, step 3 is REQUIRED.
3. Put that illegal track in your iTunes. Every time you listen to it, pop over to see if it's for sale in the iTunes store, just to give your little courtesy nod to the artist who put some heart into makin' it (not for whatever suits who failed them in not getting it up for sale).
If it's for sale: BUY IT
If it's not for sale: listen to your illegal product and feel bad for the artist who made that song and is missing out on the chance to recoup that $ they owe the label so they can actually start makin' some money...then go to their web site and browse for any merch or concert tix just to see if there's another way to give back to the artist and bypass the suits who failed to make the product available when YOU, the consumer, were ready to shell out some cash for it.
The longer we sit on this musical product, the less valuable it becomes.
I don't get why we would covet a piece of our business while we figure out how to market it, when we already have potential consumers willing to purchase it and start the word of mouth marketing for us to give us a head start... how could our egos be so big to think that we don't need consumer enthusiasm to help build our product? Our consumers are our livelihoods...we need to give them what they want. After tonight, we'll leave thousands of people wanting something that we're not willing to give to them.
I wonder how many of them will still be around with their wallets and ears open when we're ready to let them buy it.
I wonder how many people will go out and get it on their own tonight in the same way that I did...people we'll never know even existed...