In this day and age both news and music are goods that are easy to come by for free. You read the news online, and you don't buy new albums, you download them. I'm guilty of both.
I don't have a newspaper subscription and for the last couple of years, I've only bought about twenty cd's. The other 300+ cd's in our house were bought before roughly the year 2000. Or I got them for free, because I used to work as a music reviewer for an online music magazine.
All of this is remarkable, because not only am I a journalist, I'm also the singer in a band. With reading free news and listening to free music, I'm robbing myself.
Or aren't I? These may not be the easiest times to be either a journalist or a musician, these are interesting times to be a part of both industries. People are frantically looking for new ways of making a living out of spreading news, or out of making music. It's like the search for the Holy Grial.
All we know is that the old days are gone. Even the people who make the news and the music aren't willing to pay for either one anymore.
But what if the Holy Grail doesn't exist?
Hey magda,
ReplyDeleteIf you're interested in some cool insights in the music industry; take a look at http://lefsetz.com
Bob Lefsetz cuts the music business (yes, it's just business) to the core. I.e.:
http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2009/08/11/quote-of-the-day-2/
Cd's are to expensive, the overall quality of most albums is not worth €18,-, as a music-lover you don't want to miss anything, alas: you download. And buy the occasional 'worth paying for' album. Artists will have to find new ways to promote their stuff. Merchandise (ever tried to download a t-shirt?), concerts, original clips/artwork and eh... silly actions like falling asleep on stage and taking a bath in your own vomit.
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