the happiness, excitement, and general contentedness thread

[magiclawnchair]

from my understanding this is the happiness thread.

why dont yall start a pirating music to douche or not to douche thread?

BTW...

I AM HAPPY BECAUSE IT'S FRIDAY!!!

[hbombgraphics]

4 min left in the day!!!

[foomanfat]

Everybody's looking forward to the weekend weekend.

[dubkitty]

the last time i was in one of the multiple CD stores in Santa Cruz, there were at least fifteen people there, ranging in age from teenagers to people older than me, all shopping for and in many cases purchasing CDs and/or vinyl. you may also have heard of a little website called iTunes; they've been doing some business lately. people do, in fact, buy music; it's only people with an unjustified sense of entitlement who steal the fruits of other peoples' labor and then use elaborate pseudo-intellectualizations to justify their self-indulgence. but that's OK, right? "hobby musicians" can afford all the resources it takes to make great music, can't they? anyone can hire a full orchestra, and put them in the living room! there's nothing you can get from a 40-piece choir you can't get from a sample! everybody knows a six-piece horn section as part of their cohort, and can just call them up and ask them for a favor...or get volunteers from the fans on their website. Jesus H. Christ. why should anyone other than preening teenaged jerkoffs in their bedrooms even bother to MAKE music for anyone other than themselves, if the people consuming it only care that much, and have so little respect for the people creating the work?

[magiclawnchair]

hey dubz, you ever been to the jazz record mart? THE JAZZ RECORD MART MAKES ME HAPPY!!!

oh and just ordering the 2nd pressing of BONGRIPPER hate ashbury lp on clear vinyl makes me happy too!

[dubkitty]

i used to go to the JRM. it were lovely. i miss big stores full of vinyl. there used to be a big store full of cut-out records on Washington across from the Civic Center in which i killed many a lunch hour.

[D.o.S.]

the last time i was in one of the multiple CD stores in Santa Cruz, there were at least fifteen people there, ranging in age from teenagers to people older than me, all shopping for and in many cases purchasing CDs and/or vinyl. you may also have heard of a little website called iTunes; they've been doing some business lately. people do, in fact, buy music; it's only people with an unjustified sense of entitlement who steal the fruits of other peoples' labor and then use elaborate pseudo-intellectualizations to justify their self-indulgence. but that's OK, right? "hobby musicians" can afford all the resources it takes to make great music, can't they? anyone can hire a full orchestra, and put them in the living room! there's nothing you can get from a 40-piece choir you can't get from a sample! everybody knows a six-piece horn section as part of their cohort, and can just call them up and ask them for a favor...or get volunteers from the fans on their website. Jesus H. Christ. why should anyone other than preening teenaged jerkoffs in their bedrooms even bother to MAKE music for anyone other than themselves, if the people consuming it only care that much, and have so little respect for the people creating the work?

Pretty much.

On the other hand, this thread has now featured Swans and Bongripper. That makes me happy.

[dubkitty]

i also believe that in the future it will be possible to educate consumers to the facts, and for them to understand that art isn't created in a vacuum and that it isn't practical for all artists, particularly those whose work is elaborate, demanding, or lacking in popular appeal to rely on non-revenue support, nor to expect that artists bear all the costs of production.

[magiclawnchair]

the jazz record mart is great! i went there the day i got my first credit card and bought the brotzmann chicago tentet, the vandermark double trio utility hitter and a bunch of other incredible cds!

[unownunown]

uh.. from my understanding, bands don't really make much money from cd sales unless they're selling em out on the merch table. buying a cd from a store pretty much just keeps labels afloat. licensing tunes to commercials, whatever, and coming to see bands locally is where they get their cashola.

places like bandcamp and bigcartel give the artist most of the profit for cd/download sales, but buying from a sam goody or an fye pretty much just pays the label... am i wrong? i don't really know, but that was the impression i was under. i never expected to make much money selling cds.

no, you're totally right, which is makes this entire argument is even more ridiculous.

the last time i was in one of the multiple CD stores in Santa Cruz, there were at least fifteen people there, ranging in age from teenagers to people older than me, all shopping for and in many cases purchasing CDs and/or vinyl. you may also have heard of a little website called iTunes; they've been doing some business lately. people do, in fact, buy music; it's only people with an unjustified sense of entitlement who steal the fruits of other peoples' labor and then use elaborate pseudo-intellectualizations to justify their self-indulgence. but that's OK, right? "hobby musicians" can afford all the resources it takes to make great music, can't they? anyone can hire a full orchestra, and put them in the living room! there's nothing you can get from a 40-piece choir you can't get from a sample! everybody knows a six-piece horn section as part of their cohort, and can just call them up and ask them for a favor...or get volunteers from the fans on their website. Jesus H. Christ. why should anyone other than preening teenaged jerkoffs in their bedrooms even bother to MAKE music for anyone other than themselves, if the people consuming it only care that much, and have so little respect for the people creating the work?

(feel like that was the perfect entitled preening teenaged jerkoff emote for ya)

this will be my last post on this topic, it will be complete with fancy infographics for y'all.


this is the most important one.


source
however, this one doesn't shed a lot of light on profits for independent artists.

here's a really huge one most relevant to the thread. it shows how much albums, songs, etc a musician must sell to make monthly minimum wage.

combine that with the knowledge from the first link

only 2.1 percent of the albums released in 2009 sold even 5,000 copies -- that's just 2,050 records out of nearly 100,000

in short: you can talk about how things 'should' be until you're blue in the face, but this is how things actually are now. i really don't care about your overly nostalgic opinions on downloading music. the fact remains that people are doing it more and more. physical media sales continue to fall. musicians need to alter their model to compliment these changes if they aim to make money.

[D.o.S.]

in short: you can talk about how things 'should' be until you're blue in the face, but this is how things actually are now. i really don't care about your overly nostalgic opinions on downloading music. the fact remains that people are doing it more and more. physical media sales continue to fall. musicians need to alter their model to compliment these changes if they aim to make money.

Agreed. The real problem comes with the notion that somehow it's ok to enjoy someone's artistic endeavors without compensating them for the creation of it. That's a horrific point of view that continues to infiltrate our culture.

Also, I'd say is the perfect preening teenage jerkoff emoticon.

[D.o.S.]

In other news, I've landed a gainful employment gig that's not seasonal!

Fuckin' A Yeah Guy!

[ashdown]

what do you people think of spotify? i've been using it heavily for the last 2 or so weeks

[D.o.S.]

I don't know enough about it.

[ashdown]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify

"a swedish drm-based music streaming service"

i just needed an email address to sign up and got access to a ton of free music. the only 'downside' is every hour or so you have to listen to a 45 second advertisement and you can only stream music, no downloading it to your machine