Music is not like water

[oliverh Linn Staff]

Hi folks,

Interesting music blog from our guest columnist, Jeremy of Fingertips Music:

http://blogs.linn.co.uk/music/jeremy-sch...-water.php

Have a read, let us know what you think.

Thanks,
Oliver

[LinnLizzy]

Here's someone else using water as an analogy for water...


I always tell people, music is a form of communication that predates language, straight up.
It's been around forever. And it wasn't until about the turn of the last century that they figured out a way to bottle the water, you know?
Before that, music was a river. It was a river and everyone could sup from that river.
But then someone came along with the idea that, "Hey, we can bottle this, and we can sell this water."
And people were like, "Well, that's kind of cool, that's convenient, because I can take it home with me, or I can put it in my pocket and take it on a walk and have something to drink," which is fine.
That's a reasonable industry, to go ahead and put some water in a bottle and sell it. That's fine. But the problem is when they start trying to discourage people from going to the river, or trying to close the river, or even worse, poison the river -- then it's not all right. Then it stinks.

And, for me, music is not an industry. Music is not even entertainment. Music is not just a soundtrack. Music is part of life.
It is a straight-up form of communication, and it resides in every person in the world.
And that's where I'm coming from in terms of music. That's exactly the world that I want to be… that's what I want to lean toward.
It's sort of like clothes -- you live in a cold climate in a country that has these kinds of laws that you have to wear pants all the time, but basically, they're fairly artificial, they're a bizarre thing when you think about it.
If you think about it, the whole deal is weird -- why does everyone have to wear clothes all the time? But that's the context in which I exist.
I can appreciate [it] and I can go on with that. At the same time, when it comes to music, there are certain elements of what we do with music that are just distasteful.
If people see music as just a living, they're just screwed. They're just gonna make something that's not music, in my opinion.
But there are plenty of other people out there who are making incredible music who are not even thinking about money, and that's really where you're gonna find all the new ideas. It's always in the free space.

[oliverh Linn Staff]

Ooh, good quote - trying to guess the speaker without googling...

Neil Young? H from Steps?

[LinnLizzy]

(2012-03-09 15:13)oliverh Wrote:  Ooh, good quote - trying to guess the speaker without googling...

Neil Young? H from Steps?

Closer to Neil Young's perception and perhaps 'H's.
Ian Mackaye, Dischord Records.

Personally, I feel that £10.00 a month for Spotify's streaming service is reasonable, but the royalties that the artist recieves are negligible, lots of weird and wonderful payment structures.

I feel that using that term 'water' for music as far as Spotify is concerned is dangerous, and the promise of free music is fine if all you wish to do is be nostalgic and mine the past, but again...

The populous is going to think "We want new music!", and if that's the case then stop thinking everything is for free all the time!
There's two things going on.
One is that people think they're patrons of the arts, and these are all billionaires who've just dropped off a $100,000 ranch or something. Another thing is advertising, and people assume that that's how you make your money.
People say nowadays that the only way you can make money through music is to "have your music in ads". I think that's a load of rubbish.
The fact that that phrase has been repeated so often makes me think that in fact the advertising people themselves have planted that notion. It's not true!
People become lazy. It's like "You can't get there unless you buy a car", and that's not true, you can walk! You know?
But if people just repeat something often enough it becomes true.
I think that this thing about 'the only way you can make money playing music is making music for ads', that's just not making a living. That's just a bummer.

---

By the way Ian Mackaye is one of the most interesting and intelligent people I've ever encountered in regards to the state of music in general.

[grimreaper46]

Water keeps us alive....Music makes us alive

[DiverDown]

Not many people know this but................

A 'Linn' is an indentation made in a stone by a waterfall.....

Wikipedia

linn [lɪn]
n Chiefly Scot
1. (Earth Sciences / Physical Geography) a waterfall or a pool at the foot of it
2. (Earth Sciences / Physical Geography) a ravine or precipice
[probably from a confusion of two words, Scottish Gaelic linne pool and Old English hlynn torrent]

The original Linn factory was sited in an old bagpipe factory in Linn park. A park so named because it had a waterfall and a 'Linn' beneith it.

So there is a true link with water :-)

[oliverh Linn Staff]

(2012-03-09 16:16)grimreaper46 Wrote:  Water keeps us alive....Music makes us alive

Unless we're underwater...or an inmate at Guantanamo Bay getting daily doses of Barney the Dinosaur's "I love you"

[Briain]

Not a bad tune; I haven't heard it for a while, but when it was released, I bought the CD single and NAS'd it!

[grimreaper46]

Come on guys, surely someone must have had this on their mind

[Briain]

(2012-03-09 20:43)grimreaper46 Wrote:  Come on guys, surely someone must have had this on their mind

Stop showing off; be considerate towards folks like me who don't actually have a mind!!