Steve Albini likes the state of the 'music industry'

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/17/steve-albinis-keynote-address-at-face-the-music-in-full

I'm always torn when it comes to the differing opinions on the music industry these days. I agree with most of Albini's points in this talk as a fan of music, but I take to heart what some of my relatively successful and unsuccessful friends' have to say about the negative effects the internet has caused to their careers or possible careers.

I'm personally very happy with how things are working out as a music listener and producer, but I'm not pushing for a career as a producer compared to others. It seems that in this proliferation of contacts and ease of distribution, it would be a lot easier to reach an audience to the point of being successful compared to the very limited avenues of the old music industry. Even the DYI punk approach, though wonderful, was still limited compared to what we can do today. And the loudest complaints usually come from that old guard since most of them have become unneeded middle men/women.

Anyone care to give any personal insight on how you maneuver through this terrain?

I think about shit like this a lot and made another thread about it recently. I have come to see copyright law as something that is inherently dodgy on moral grounds. And, perhaps counterintuitively, sometimes it's a damper on innovation. A total absence of intellectual property law from the realm of music would kill off big labels almost overnight, but how would it affect musicians? It would take some getting used to, but ultimately I don't think it would be the crushing blow that some think it would be. For smaller scale acts I think it would be quite positive, since it would remove a crutch from underneath more established acts, effectively weakening the opposition perhaps?

Steve Albini is finally off his period.

Wow he knows a lot about retail, I'm betting he's worked in a record store at some point. Did he run Touch & Go?

Bandcamp is the new selling tapes out of the trunk of your car.

Enjoyable read!

Very.

Good ole Steve.

great read.

Agree 100%

Man, what a good read. Thank you for sharing this!

I love the clarity of his diction.

i have a few caveats; what he describes seems to work better for the 2xguitar, bass, drums model of band - the sort of band he records on a regular basis. and, while a better and more direct line of communication between band and fan is undoubtedly a better thing, it means the band will have to do a LOT more work. i could see this evolving into a war of who can hire the best online SEO/marketers.