Let's ask another musician
John99 said:
I dont know how you came to that conclusion.
There are two major factors to consider in that conclusion:
• A good number of pirates wouldn't otherwise buy the album, anyway. No money lost from those.
• Others will acquire the album or songs without paying, decide they like it, and either buy the album a ticket to a concert. And if people buy the album at the concert, it is generally a better deal for the bands.
I keep posting this article, yet there's always someone who wants to ask the question without considering artist experience:
The NARAS people were a bit more pushy. They told me downloads were "destroying sales", "ruining the music industry", and "costing you money". Costing me money? I don't pretend to be an expert on intellectual property law, but I do know one thing. If a music industry executive claims I should agree with their agenda because it will make me more money, I put my hand on my wallet…and check it after they leave, just to make sure nothing's missing ....
.... Let's take it from my personal experience. My site (www.janisian.com ) gets an average of 75,000 hits a year. Not bad for someone whose last hit record was in 1975. When Napster was running full-tilt, we received about 100 hits a month from people who'd downloaded Society's Child or At Seventeen for free, then decided they wanted more information. Of those 100 people (and these are only the ones who let us know how they'd found the site), 15 bought CDs. Not huge sales, right? No record company is interested in 180 extra sales a year. But… that translates into $2700, which is a lot of money in my book. And that doesn't include the ones who bought the CDs in stores, or who came to my shows.
Or take author Mercedes Lackey, who occupies entire shelves in stores and libraries. As she said herself: "For the past ten years, my three "Arrows" books, which were published by DAW about 15 years ago, have been generating a nice, steady royalty check per pay-period each. A reasonable amount, for fifteen-year-old books. However... I just got the first half of my DAW royalties...And suddenly, out of nowhere, each Arrows book has paid me three times the normal amount!...And because those books have never been out of print, and have always been promoted along with the rest of the backlist, the only significant change during that pay-period was something that happened over at Baen, one of my other publishers. That was when I had my co-author Eric Flint put the first of my Baen books on the Baen Free Library site. Because I have significantly more books with DAW than with Baen, the increases showed up at DAW first.There's an increase in all of the books on that statement, actually, and what it looks like is what I'd expect to happen if a steady line of people who'd never read my stuff encountered it on the Free Library - a certain percentage of them liked it, and started to work through my backlist, beginning with the earliest books published.
"The really interesting thing is, of course, that these aren't Baen books, they're DAW---another publisher---so it's 'name loyalty' rather than 'brand loyalty.' I'll tell you what, I'm sold. Free works."
I've found that to be true myself; every time we make a few songs available on my website, sales of all the CDs go up. A lot. And I don't know about you, but as an artist with an in-print record catalogue that dates back to 1965, I'd be thrilled to see sales on my old catalogue rise.
(Ian)
There are, of course, a couple of outlets for piracy I don't talk about. It's the industry's and artist's fault that these avenues are available, and there is far more at stake if those avenues are closed than whether or not people pirate albums.
The best an artist can hope for is conscientious fans with discriminating tastes. And some musical styles and trends will encounter higher or lower proportions of "good" fans. Those who cater to mass vapidity can expect the same in return. Those who play to people who genuinely appreciate good music can expect more thoughtful returns.
Think of it this way: Weeks before the first Audioslave album was released, six or seven tracks leaked to the market. Most of my friends hadn't heard that Chris Cornell was working with members of Rage Against the Machine. But then one friend got hold of the leaked tracks and gave copies to all his friends. That resulted in ... well, I know at least five people who were salivating for the album when it finally came out, and actually bought it. Plus the one Chris Cornell addict who found the tracks, who was the only guaranteed sale Audioslave had in this circle of people.
One other major point: in the hysteria of the moment, everyone is forgetting the main way an artist becomes successful - exposure. Without exposure, no one comes to shows, no one buys CDs, no one enables you to earn a living doing what you love. Again, from personal experience: in 37 years as a recording artist, I've created 25+ albums for major labels, and I've never once received a royalty check that didn't show I owed them money. So I make the bulk of my living from live touring, playing for 80-1500 people a night, doing my own show. I spend hours each week doing press, writing articles, making sure my website tour information is up to date. Why? Because all of that gives me exposure to an audience that might not come otherwise. So when someone writes and tells me they came to my show because they'd downloaded a song and gotten curious, I am thrilled!
(ibid)
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Notes:
Ian, Janis. "The Internet Debacle". Performing Songwriter. May, 2002. JanisIan.com. January 18, 2010. http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html