Results of interviews with musicians

From these interviews, we have discovered that while artists have been affected negatively by loss of revenue for record companies, the digital music market has been mostly beneficial to them, as is evident in the pros and cons listed below.

Negative impact:

* Loss in financial support from record companies.
* Sound quality has been sacrificed for accessibility with digital downloads.
* Sentimental value of physical CD’s has become somewhat obsolete.

Positive impact:

* Widening of fan base.
* More recognition from overseas musical acts (e.g. SFK got to support Evanescence and David Bowie).
* People have immediate access to their music.
* The barrier between artists and fans is being broken down.
* Music should be for everyone, and now it is.

Interview with Kosta Linardos, Editor of MixDown Magazine

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Next, we interviewed Kosta Linardos, editor of MixDown Magazine Australia. We asked Kosta similar questions to those we posed to Clint and Whitt. As we had hoped, he provided some really in-depth responses that varied from those of the musicians. In his opinion, there is very little the recording industry can do to make money online. He believes that record labels have ‘had it coming’ for a long time, and have outstayed their welcome as the long-standing ‘owners’ of commercial music.

This is similar to what Russell Rains, Director of the MBA Program in the Digital Media Management Program at St. Edward’s College in Austin Texas, discusses on the topic of “CD’s vs Digital Recordings” in a video posted on academic music blog Artisthouse.org. Rains claims that “the record industry killed itself”. He believes that the implementation of the container charge (where the record label takes 25% of the artist’s royalties to cover the alleged costs of making their CD’s and distributing them), and the fact that record labels had the cheek to sell CD’s essentially worth US$1 for US$17, is “nonsense”. In his opinion, with the decline of CD sales and revenue for record labels, “They have paid for that gluttony.” Kosta similarly believes it is ironic, yet positive, that the role of record labels and consumers have now been usurped.

According to Kosta, the advent of digital music is better for artists in that they are able to reach a wide audience without having to rely on record companies to handle marketing and distribution. If the demand for recording contracts lessens, the commercial side of music production (primarily, marketing) will slowly die out, resulting in an honesty and a rawness surrounding the music world that has not been seen before. No longer will record companies be able to pick a bunch of good-looking males and make them into instant stars; success will be based on talent, and this will be decided by the public, rather than the corporate companies. Kosta predicts that live music performance will become more and more prominent in the years to come, which will contribute to this sense of honesty, whilst providing artists with added credibility and a solid revenue. He gave an overall impression of approval at the way the music industry is heading.

Impact of digital music on signed artists: interview with Whitt from Spiderbait and Clint from Something For Kate

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We began the interviewing process by interviewing Clint Hyndman (Something For Kate drummer) and Damien "Whitt" Whitty (Spiderbait guitarist). Both musicians Whitt and Clint had some extremely valuable things to say about the world of digital music, and the role of record companies within it. According to them, the impact on artists as a result of music being available online has been mostly positive. They believe that it has increased their fan base, and has been beneficial in terms of personal use, such as finding out about new (and old) bands, and having immediate access to their music. They believe that music is for everyone, and that the digital revolution has really captured this idea, particularly in that it has broken down the barrier between artists and fans. I thought this was an interesting statement to make, coming from the perspective of a musician.

On the negative side, they said that a lot of the more sentimental aspects of music have become, for the most part, obsolete. Clint talked about the “mystery” of hearing about an artist for the first time. He described it as enticing, not knowing who this person is, where they’ve come from, how their music got picked up. But this sense of mystery has been destroyed by the all-knowing internet, which can now track down and reveal all these details. This kind of exposure is, of course, part of the process of weakening the barrier between artist and fan. Clint and Whitt both agreed that the value of this mystery, and of having nothing but an artist’s physical CD to reveal who they might be, has become pretty meaningless since the advent of digital music. They also mentioned the quality of digital recordings. In their eyes, the quality of a track that has come straight from the studio is far superior to that of a file downloaded from the internet. This is another aspect of music that is not so important anymore, and has become second to accessibility.

In terms of what record labels can do to make money in the online music market, Whitt said, in plain words, “Catch up.” We thought this was a very succinct way of putting it. He and Clint believe that it’s all about finding a connection with your fans. If this can be established, they reckon fans would be much more willing to shell out in order to sustain the careers of their favourite musicians. Take Radiohead’s In Rainbows album, which we will discuss in more detail later (see "Results" post).

Overall, Whitt and Clint spoke generously on the topic, and this made for a really worthwhile, useful interview. We were a little surprised about the fact they said the digital revolution has been mostly beneficial for them as artists. They, of course, acknowledged the fact that when record labels lose money on CD sales and such, the artist also loses money. However, they believe that the good outweighs the bad, as both have had increased interest in their music that would not have been possible otherwise. As mentioned previously, Whitt stated that music is for everyone, and that the digital age has really brought this idea to life. The interview was great because it challenged our assumption that artists have suffered as a result of online music, informing us instead that they’ve really benefited from it.