Comments on Yokudo Blog: Dear Musicians, You Deserve Better

@martin: I see your point; the vast majority of ar...

2010-12-02T15:15:45.950-08:00

@martin: I see your point; the vast majority of artists never made enough money with their art to earn a living, and that is not a fault of the Internet. There has always been a power law distribution. Only a few were able to get rich thanks to the record industry. Most weren't.

Actually, I agree with this observation and I don't think that this power law distribution is going to disappear in the future. The Internet fosters network effects and might even increase this trend.

However, there are two things that could have a big impact for many musicians:
1) increasing the pie
2) finding ways to give smaller acts a bigger piece

I am convinced that #1 is achievable with a new business model that gives fans a better reason to support their favorite artists with some money. Today, a huge percentage of disposable income is used for luxury goods like Prada handbags, Gucci scarfs and Puma shoes. What if, we could tap into that desire and make parts of that budget available for artists?

#2 is a challenge, but I am optimistic that we will find some ways to do that too if we achieve #1. We've got some initial ideas.

Regarding your second comment: Point taken. I've just opened the comments for anonymous users. Your comment wasn't published right away because you posted it more that 14 days after the blog post was published.

Oh, and it is hugely annoying to have to sign up t...

2010-12-01T23:20:11.689-08:00

Oh, and it is hugely annoying to have to sign up to a blog with login data from another platform AND to have to wait for approval of a comment first. Particularly on a blog that isn't necessarily overrun with comments ...

What I find confusing in the texts on this blog: t...

2010-12-01T23:17:47.301-08:00

What I find confusing in the texts on this blog: there is no mention of the fact that forever, the vast majority of artists did not make enough money with their art to earn a living. Now, one can absolutely deplore that as an unfortunate injustice that needs to be changed. But to present that problem as one that the Internet has created, does strike me as odd.

Yes, a few musicians, tiny percentages of them, could strike it rich and become mega-millionaires thanks to the record industry of old. But the every-musician never did. Making a living as a musician has always been tough. And no business model is going to change that.