Radiohead are coming in for some criticism from music fans in Ireland because of the cost of tickets for their upcoming concert. Priced at seventy euro with a ‘small’ booking fee, fans feel that they are being ripped off.
Honestly I’m left scratching my head at why people are annoyed. When Radiohead decided to make their last album available for free, didn’t anyone think that there would be ramifications? Yes the music business is changing and if the future of music distribution is to give it away for free online, then you’d better believe that performers will be looking to make up for it elsewhere.
Sure enough, bands are now also going after ticket touts on sites like eBay, demanding that they get slice of the action. Michael McGuire points out a number of ways that the music industry is looking to give away ‘free’ music on the Gartner media blog.
Nothing in life is free, and be damn suspicious of anything that claims to be.
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2 Responses to “The cost of free music”
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hi Piaras… great post, if depressing….
it makes me very sad to find out that most people, even rabid fans, didn’t contribute much to download the entire new RadioHead CD from the comfort of their own home. and are now whinging at having to pay any money to the band through attendance at a live show. we seem to now devalue musicians these days – and resent them looking to make a living from their art.
i’ve been a lifelong music fan, and in fact worked in the biz for many years. I find it shocking what has happened to the music industry over the last 5-7 years… somehow, perhaps through the internet culture, we’ve got generations of people who now completely devalue artistic work – and feel that everything from an artist should be free.
we’ve gone from the “record companies are evil and rip off the artists” … to now, we’ve got a scenario where the artists themselves are “ripping us off” …. so, now it’s musicians are ripping off the punters. there seems to be no sense of the value of what artists create or respect for copyrights,etc ..
believe me very few musicians make much money. so many do it because it’s what they love and live and breathe music, and can’t fathom doing anything else..
now that the actual copies of a song are of no value – because of the ability to share and rip and burn – it seems to me people should support artists through other ways. many successful bands, often not in the Top 10 of any charts, are being supported by fans through direct purchase of merchandise, special CDs, and concert attendance.
SUPPORT THE ARTS!
denise
Denise you raise a very interesting point from a brand perspective about the real cost of giving music away.
I think what makes it really difficult for striving musicians is the likes of Madonna, Radiohead, etc who can afford to give their music away for free, but find alternative revenue streams like Madonna who signed that lucrative contract with Livenation recently.