Music, musicians, music fans, ownership, legitimacy…

(re-posted from previous links-roundup post)

There
is so much to say about all this, but it’s kind of all been said
already. Here’s a few of the things I’ve been reading in preparation for talking about it on MPR this morning. MPR’s other station, The Current, has some good, concrete coverage of some of the latest flap with local musicians Jeremy Messersmith (who will also be on the show on July 9) and Christian Erickson

Suffice it to say, it all started with the NPR intern post
by Emily White (except it didn’t, this stuff has been debated for a lot
longer than some folks seem to think), and David Lowery’s condescending response. The Other Emily White, a music producer, wrote a great defense of Intern Emily White. Dave Allen, himself also a musician, fanned flames while also making some sharp points.

Since lots of the discussion has centered around who gets payment, and how, for music purchases, I was very interested to note the founding last week of Any and All Records,
which promises to sign any artist who wants to be signed, and in return
promises “to do nothing for you. That said, we also won’t cost you
anything,
we won’t take anything from you or own anything of yours either.” They
seem to have signed well over 200 artists already. As a point of comparison, I also found Steve Albini’s early-90s discussion of the relationships between artists and traditional label structures pretty informative.

My
reading list on this topic has grown exponentially – especially since
some really sharp insights do surface in the general morass of comments
on a lot of these posts.

Erin McKeown – http://theclatterofkeys.tumblr.com/post/25432949131/white-vs-lowery-or-i-dont-have-time-for-this

Justin Spohn – http://thisisviolence.net/post/26039099299/why-must-i-be-the-thief

Steve Albini – http://www.electricalaudio.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=59318&start=20#p1482891

Jeff Price from Tunecore – http://blog.tunecore.com/2012/06/the-intern-the-artist-the-internet.html

Jonathon Coulton – http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2012/06/20/emily-and-david/

Ethan Kaplan, LiveNation – http://www.blackrimglasses.com/2012/06/22/are-we-really-still-discussing-this-or-my-response-to-david-lowery/

Mike Masnick/Techdirt
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120625/01011219455/some-facts-insights-into-whole-discussion-ethics-music-business-models.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120524/02293219056/amanda-palmer-steve-albini-piracy-it-only-helps-musicians.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120620/03552119398/business-model-failure-is-not-moral-issue.shtml