Anti-Climacus

I agree with Alan Jacobs about the problems with the article he links to on copyright and the internet. It is, as he is too kind to say explicitly, all kinds of dumb, not least because it conflate the ability of an industry to make money with the ability of particular artists to make money. I mentioned this yesterday, but it's worth repeating: I'm not sure the market for indie or even-more-niche-music-than-indie has grown in the last 20 years, but it's almost certainly easier to be a band who can sell 200,000 albums and tour regularly than it used to be.* And given how legendarily bad a deal it used to be having been signed to a major label (obligatory link to Steve Albini explaining how a year's worth of touring and recording used to net around $4000 a year for a band member), I'm not sure the destruction of that system is a bad thing. And, as Jacobs points out, the one unmitigated good provided by a major label--distribution--is now broadly available to everyone. In other words, a win-win.


*And, it should go without saying but probably doesn't, accordingly easier to keep the money made through these exercises.