I will try to make this brief (a difficult task for a
pedantic, long-winded fart like me). Since returning to active music making 4
years ago, I have amassed well-over 100,000 ‘fans’ between my various
Cyberspace sites, critical acclaim in many, many reviews, international airplay
and countless messages/comments from ‘fans’ telling me how much they enjoy
listening to my music or watching my motion pictures. What they fail to mention
is “FOR FREE.”
This is the scourge of the Internet. Just as ‘video killed
the radio star’ in the 1980’s, Internet—with streaming, illegal downloads, and
countless hacks/posers giving away their mindless dribble for free on
soundcloud, etc.—has killed the recording artist. I get ‘streamed’ every day (should
spell it ‘reamed’). Each time I make $00.00039. Yes, kids. Less than 1/100th
of $1.00 (an American dollar). No—it does not ‘add up.’ Not for Indie artists.
I am not PSY or lady gugu.
Nutshell: I am $40,000 in debt ONLY from musical endeavors
in the last 4 years. I am lucky I have a ‘day job’ (university professor), but
I live from ‘paycheck’ to ‘paycheck’ and every extra bit I earn, after paying
for rent and food, goes into my musical endeavors. I am not singing the ‘white
man’s blues,’ I know I am lucky to have a good job (that and 5 university
degrees…so luck and effort go hand-in-hand), I am just pointing out (and here
we finally get to the marrow), every time people—you-- listen to my work for
free, be it on Youtube, Reverbnation, etc., they/you are ripping me off. No,
despite what morons like 'Will I Ain’t' spew, music is not created by artists to sell ‘product’ (as in, for example, crappy, over-priced headphones,
etc.). That idiot (Will I Isn’t)
even said Miles Davis made music to sell trumpets! No shit. He said that, in an
interview on the BBC that touted him as a techno-prophet genius (he heartily
agreed) (read “profit.” Two words: ‘My Humps.’ Enough said). Easy for him to
say—he’s already made millions from his insipid crap.
If each one of my thousands of ‘likes’ and ‘views’ paid for
just one download at $.99 apiece—less than one American dollar-- I wouldn’t be
in this financial mess and I could make even cooler videos. Not just me, but
many other actual ‘artists’ (pardon my pretension/arrogance here)…again, not
the plethora of bullshit ‘noise’ ‘ambient’ ‘experimental’ ‘drone’ ‘EDM’ ‘DJ”
‘soundscape’, ‘chip’etc. wankers (99% of the time euphemisms for clueless,
delusional saps that know nothing of music, or how to make it), geezers who put
together cool sounds readily available in free software, twiddle some knobs and
add lots of reverb, effects or loops, and call themselves ‘artists’ and have
their sycophantic pals fawn all over them—this even includes many ‘famous’ gits
(some wear masks); you figure out who. If the shoe pinches, go barefoot.
"One always has to remember these days where the
garbage pail is, because it's so easy to make sounds, and to put sounds
together into something that appears to be music, but it's just as hard as it
always was to make good music." - Robert Moog
Every day--literally, I am very pleased to get messages from
all over the universe, complimenting my audio and video work. I am truly
grateful for this, but, pardon my crassness—“money talks.” On youtube alone, in
4 years I have amassed about 65,000 views for my videos (again, I am not PSY,
thank Zeus). However, I am $40,000 in debt. Something is wrong here.
Finally: If you ‘like’ my material—any of my ‘songs’ or
videos—please download a track, or one of my albums (CDs, either digitally or
purchase the physical disc. I spend a lot of time and money making cool CD
covers and packages. You are missing out on the ‘album’experience’ …your loss;
a cool art form).
As they say in the church, “Show me the Love (equals money).” While I really do appreciate your
‘likes’ and kind words, they do not pay my bills.
Cheers,
LN
These sites await your love offerings:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/lee-negin/id357053891?ign-mpt=uo%3D4 (and Internationally)
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lee%20negin
(and Internationally)
Streaming (Spotify, etc.) is like urine. Better than a
catheter, i.e., free downloads, but not by much.
PS- If I’ve alienated anyone with this rant, that’s cool.
I’m an alien, too.
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