Buy from the table

[jsmalleus]

I definitely agree with you on both those points, the whole streaming model is not ideal. Which is why I buy cds, vinyl, merch, go to shows, etc. give them a good listen when I can give them the attention, and then for casual listening stream them or videos or whatever on youtube or one of the sites. I just believe in regards to this particular royalty payment increase it's overdue and affordable, so for the streaming services to be challenging it is just corporations doing what they're designed to do: be soulless income generation vehicles for shareholders above all else. The only reason apple probably didn't jump in is because they likely did research and found that hopping on that train would hurt them more elsewhere since most of their die-hard users and their whole commercial image is based around artists.

Corporate nature doesn't completely dictate how a corporation runs though, it comes down to priorities of the company leadership too. Do you want to pay the artists that enable your business a little more in gratitude that they are the real creators that provide the product with which you make your living on, or do you want a lush office building and to look like you're hip in the biz? Our corporate headquarters in in NYC so I go up there pretty frequently and can say without a doubt that exec level white collar work in NYC is pretty much one big dick measuring contest with everyone involved gunning to feel like the big cheese who is more important than they really are. It's human nature combined with tons of people being packed together competing for attention, proverbially pounding their chests, & the whole cultural image of "making it in the big apple". That's just the mindset of that environment and the people wrapped up in it. I just think it'd be nice if they were gracious enough to the artists driving their business to be content f***ing them over with the 8"er and letting them have their pittance of an increase in royalties rather than prioritizing increasing the size of their own egos & wallets instead so they can hit the artists with the 10"er as the biz consolidates to streaming.

 

[TedEH]

I suppose the point I was hoping to make was that even if you take the "evil corporate fatcats" out of the equation, there still isn't enough to go around. I don't necessarily condone the whole pattern of a small handful of rich people at the top benefiting from people making a pittance at the bottom, but I also don't think that this is the core problem with the "music biz".

To me, music operates just fine without the big business part, and the big business part, by design, is not really about supporting the music. They're separate and almost unrelated to eachother.

 

[jsmalleus]

I agree, and although it probably seems like it, I'm not anti capitalism, I just don't like that profits are, by such a wide margin, the primary driving force in corporate decision making. It's pretty fantastic when capitalism manages to exist and still operate with some degree of conscience other than "how much $ can we make without being lynched or driven out of business in protest?". I particularly would like to strap on those rose colored glasses & feel good about things when it comes to something like music where there is more of a human/artistic connection involved.

I know it doesn't work that way though, it's all about the $ and I doubt that will change. Most people aren't going to change their buying habits no matter how hard it is on the artists, it's not something that matters that much to them so it's all about cost and convenience of the medium.