With the huge firestorm going on right now regarding SOPA, PIPA, and MegaUpload being taken down, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts with you regarding how I think about digital content.
How many of you actually know what music is? Its the movement of air molecules interpreted by your brain as rhythm and harmonics. So tell me, how do you copyright and monetize the physics behind this? Within the context or our modern day society and the internet, the short answer is that you really can’t, the only money you’ll ever see will be voluntary. There is no more ‘pay-per-play’ system where every time a record gets played the artist gets paid. It simply isn’t possible any more. And for most of the time that human civilization has existed on this planet its been this way because the record industry has existed in its present form for only 60 years! Music has been around for as long as Neanderthals have been banging sticks together (techno is simply the modern day version of this), therefore any attempt to constrain/limit music (or any other form of transmittable content for that matter) within the context of our financial system (which is completely fucked and will probably collapse sometime within the next decade) is a total lost cause. This fact becomes abundantly clear when you see how futile it is to engage in this ridiculous game of online ‘whack-a-mole’ that is currently going on (and would happen on a larger scale had SOPA/PIPA been passed).
Wow, megaupload got taken down, another site will simply step in to fill the void (rapidshare, etc). So if you really think about it, the internet is just returning our society to this state of free and open content. The physics of the universe don’t care about royalty rates, non-recoupable advances, inflation, or any of the other artificial, man-made inventions that define our economic system and the way our society thinks about the music business.
So if you wanna be any type of artist in this day and age, get these facts through your head and don’t expect much. Be positive, do your best, do all that you can, and if you’re lucky you’ll be able to survive. But don’t sit around all day complaining about piracy, its not going anywhere, and it only matters as much as you let it. I’m not telling you this to justify piracy, I’m telling you this because its the truth, and if you want to be successful you have to be real with your self and the factors that create your environment.
Is it unfair? Yep. Does it suck? Yeah, at times it really does. But guess what? This is the world we live in people, and no law or government action is ever going to change that. Be smart, be ahead of the curve, and give people what they want before they know they want it. Thats the best way to survive, and its Darwin at its finest. I’m fully expecting to be flamed/mocked/ridiculed/ostrasized for these views but if you take this attitude to heart, you will always be prepared for the worst and hopeful of the best. Like Ghandi said, “First they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win.”‘
And one last final quote from one of my favorite MCs:
“And people think they make music still
But music is there with out you or me we just manipulate
For better or worse so let it situate
I get to make records and dough
Paid out the ass hole
And still seen as another face on the totem pole” – Deltron 3030
