question

[maevele]

so, as I am gettuing back into music, I am trying to figure, in this new internet economy, the best way to compensate artists for their work. I know AFP would rather people did not buy from her label, but download the music and then kick in money at concerts or on merch, but I am not sure how that translates with acts that are not on hostile ground with their label, or who need the actual sale numbers to get the label to give them a chance to make the next album. Because yeah, fuck buying a 12 dollar cd that the artist sees 60 cents on, I would much rather download it and then paypal the artist something


also, a hair post is forthcming

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

Oooh, this is a good question & something I've been pondering as well. I don't have any answers but I'll be checking back!

[bifemmefatale]

If they're on good terms with their label, then they must appreciate the promoting and coordinating their label is doing, and labels won't be able to do that if they don't make money to pay all those promoters and coordinators. I'm totally for artists doing it on the community model like Ani and AFP, but if the artist is happy with their label I don't see why it would be bad to give the label your money. That said, bands do usually get a bigger cut of merch than cds, so you could download and then buy a tee shirt or something.

[eriktrips.livejournal.com]

I actually think that downloading the music and paypal-ing the artist might be about the best way available right now to compensate musicians who either have no label or are on one that is undoubtedly screwing them over. it might take more research than is practical to figure out the relationship between every artist you like and their label, so I would probably just look for myspace or facebook pages run by the artists themselves and/or websites that are not associated with a label. many artists run their own labels these days, which makes things relatively easy. generally, I would say to look for a way to correspond as directly with the artist as possible, and send money that way.