ReThink Music Boston: Fair Music and My Thoughts on Digital Goods

Screen Shot 2015-12-31 at 7.59.59 PM
This year I spoke at Berklee College of Music’s ReThink Music Conference. It was to solicit input on how to solve transparency and payment issues in the digital music industry. In my panel, I sat alongside artists and thinkers who were interested in creating a “fair trade” concept for music – the notion that just like we can buy fair trade coffee, we should be able to know which music we are buying fairly compensates the artist. Among these panelists was Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, who has written extensively on how he believe music should and can be consumed. On the panel, he took a stance against Spotify’s freemium model. I was the contrarian on the panel as I didn’t see value in putting effort to increase the price of recorded music to the consumer. I believe that the Internet was created to facilitate communication, and so the largest most successful tech companies that we see today: Facebook, Google etc are largely companies that have facilitated communication. Building on this, I believe that many digital goods are also forms of communication, whether or not their non-digital predecessors were, and for this reason, they are expected to be free, not pay-gated. Instagram photos, Twitter Posts, SoundCloud songs – all of these digital pieces of content had financially valuable predecessors – a photo that one had to buy, a book, an album. But today, because everyone can create the goods, because they are created so quickly, and because we consume them more like forms of communication rather than lasting pieces of art, they have no financial value. Thinking of art this way depresses most, myself included as I work towards my album this fall and in 2016. But it also excites me because with everything that is left behind, new art emerges, new ways for an artist to support herself financially. Out of great difficulties come the most creative solutions that make us all the better for it. I say, bring on the challenge. Video and interview from the conference below.

Rethink Music Fair Music Workshop from Rethink Music on Vimeo.

Rethink Interview with Kiran Gandhi:

1. As a musician and a performer, what is your take on the dichotomy between trying to appeal to the masses vs. focusing on real fans?

“ I think the absolute core of the music industry today is focusing on real fans. There’s a lot of math and data out there that shows that when you have a small group of people who you’ve given love to, who really feel good when they listen to your music or get involved in your project in whatever way, they do the evangelizing for you. They will tell their 5 or 10 friends to listen to you, so you’ve already turned a group of 100 to 500 or 1000. The more people you can manage at this higher level by giving them attention or personalized love back, that’s really when you do a good job. I think technology far enables that now more than any other time in the music industry because you can actually target the fans that have shown you appreciation and give them that love back.”

 

2. What effects does this have on how consumers view artists and the argument over payment flows in the music industry?

“Well, if you build on my first answer, obviously consumers would love this because the ones who are getting love back feel really good. The idea that artists may spread themselves too thin or play music that specifically appeals to a larger group of people may not resonate well with consumers. I am of the belief that when you make normal sounding music or radio ready sounding music, I don’t think your career will be that long. I think you will have a longer lasting career if you’re doing something innovative; you have your initial tribe following you from the beginning and then more and more people latch on to the mission and to the music that you play.”

3. How important is it for consumers to understand how artists get paid?

“This may sound controversial but I don’t think consumers care at all. I really don’t. On my panel I remember there was a lot of debate at the Fair Music Workshop about creating a seal of approval that marks certain songs fair trade aka – if I’m listening to something and it has a fair trade stamp, I know the artists was compensated fairly for it. Troy Carter said “Music sells everything but music”. The sooner you come to recognize that, the better you’ll do in the industry.”

4. In terms of artist to artist relations, talk about some issues you see regarding transparency on the creative side.

“I think one of the biggest difficulties for artists is negotiating internally what their financial relationship is. Today, people are collaborating more so than ever. I recently sent some percussion over to a Soundcloud artist in Hungary. There’s no finance there, I just want him to use my music because I love what he’s doing. In other situations, you have to pay for recording studio time but the actual cost of recorded music is very little. Sometimes between 2 friends, there’s no money. You guys are just recording together, one person is singing and one person is recording on Ableton. Then money starts to come in and you didn’t even think about money and now you don’t know what the split is. That’s a very awkward and difficult conversation especially for those artists who don’t have business experience. Honestly, even for someone like myself with a Harvard MBA, I definitely find it difficult to navigate each of these interpersonal relations. The best advice I have and the best advice I’ve been trying to practice is make sure that the financial conversation is being had as early on as possible.. Or at least mentioned and acknowledged so that both parties feel respected.”