Recording Music Without the Recording Industry

hephaist0s writes "The 2008 RPM Challenge — to write and record an original album in February, just because you can — is about to begin. Hundreds of musicians from around the world have already signed up. Last year, more than 850 albums were recorded as part of the challenge, a testament to what can be done by independent musicians without a label, without the RIAA, and often without a professional studio. The efforts ranged from an album made entirely on a Nintendo Game Boy to a Speed Racer rock opera, produced by both experienced bands and novice musicians, often in continent-spanning online collaborations. Last year's challenge generated one of the largest free jukeboxes of original music available online, built to stream on-demand all 8500-plus original, artist-owned songs. Imagine if grassroots, independent systems like this foretold the future of recorded music and its distribution."

Re:Massive Copyright Infringement? Speed Racer Ste

[xZ6JJq9J]

Using characters is not stealing or copyrightable! Trademark! A rock opera based on Speed Racer is not infringing on IP.

What the RIAA does

[Dan East]

The RIAA and producers aren't about making music - they make celebrities. They broker fame to those who are bound to them by contract, allowing the producers and industry to profit from the success of musicians. They control what songs radio stations can play, determine what music makes it into movies and onto television, and even what gets heard while you're riding the elevator. They wield the ability to present the masses with specific songs of their choosing.

TV shows like American Idol reveal the fact that a substantial number of people can sing really, really well. They can find hundreds of talented people easily, so you can imagine how many more are out there that either don't try out, are not within the age range they are seeking, or are simply not shown on TV. If you figure one out of every 3000 people can sing really well, then that's 100,000 really good singers in the USA alone. The job of the recording industry is to pick out a handful that fits whatever mold they are currently using, and will agree to whatever contract they put in front of them.

Of course it is possible to record music without the industry. However no-one will know about your music (unless you happen to rise about the noise of the internet, like Esmee Denters did on YouTube with her home-made webcam videos).

Dan East

All Joking Aside...

[tungstencoil]

So, the problem with this idea of going head-to-head with the recording industry is that the biggest challenge(nowadays) facing an artist is not recording, not production, and not distribution, it's advertising. Let's face it - most of us "find" new music by hearing it on the radio or in some other media (e.g. a movie), at a bar, or from a friend. All of those *except* the friend are pretty much the product of marketing (directly in the form of advertising or indirectly in the form of contacts and influence).

I remember hearing (no idea how accurate, but it makes sense) that something like 10 CDs are released every day in the US (never mind how much is released only digitally). The obstacle facing the indie artist is not how to make the music and not how to get it to a fan (paying or otherwise) but how to get people to pay attention. This is the biggest thing that MySpace (personally, I hate it and it's probably not necessary to link to) and outfits like CDBaby http://www.cdbaby.com/ [cdbaby.com] have done for musicians: given fans an easy way to peruse music and find new artists in an enjoyable fashion.

Hopefully, this will have a similar effect. However, any meaningful discussion about kicking the recording industry in it's posterior side ought to focus on how this makes it easy for new fans to connect with an artist (mostly), and not just how easy or free it makes getting said music to said fan.

Some unfortunate realities also need to change

[erroneus]

Part of what sells albums is the promotion of the material through radio play. What is the current frequency of independent works played on the mainstream media? Pretty low if at all depending on where you live. (That's what all that "payola" scandal is about... the labels are paying the radio stations to play their tunes to promote their sales.)

And what will it take to make a shift away from the already controlled "top-40" format? Convincing the independent radio stations to play something other than top-40 for their genre. Are there any independent radio stations left? Aren't they all owned by Clear Channel now? Possibly not ALL but clearly, Clear Channel is now such a major power that they will be hard to resist when they put up a fight.

So the reality is we have a kind of locked-in system such that "big media" has locked out the little and independent guys.

It will be a difficult road to travel trying to over-throw the current locked-in system, but it's win-able. Using current media will not do the trick though. It has to be fought where the playing field is still rather level. The public Internet.

So how can it be done? Get with the wide variety of Asian hardware makers to create a flood of internet-ready media players free of any DRM. Set up a wide variety of "pod-cast" programming sites (Internet Independent Stations) sourcing from the wide variety of independent media contributed to those sites by the artists and/or owners of the material. Then daily, people can "tune" into their favorite station(s) of the day or of the week to download their new play lists and listen to fresh new quality stuff every day instead of listening to the radio.

Radio is convenient, but the quality is low and everyone knows it. This is why satellite radio is still growing in popularity -- better content control and much more variety... something you're not going to get from the current locked-in system that exists on terrestrial radio.

These internet-based pod-stations will get by any restrictions or resistance people might have about satellite radio as the devices they select will be their own and have use in ways other than internet pod-cast downloads.

This is a very workable strategy considering how eager these Asian manufacturers are to sell their stuff. We have a tremendous demand for such gear in the US as well if the iPod's popularity is any indicator. Further, as I witness the popularity of "internet radio" in offices across the U.S., a system that behaves similarly would be rather popular as far as I can tell.

There's a huge, untapped area of media just waiting for the consumer public if some enterprising folks were willing to put the risk out there to give it a try. There's a lot of willingness on the consumer end and a lot of willingness for independent operators and independent artists as well. We just need a little unified interest to make it happen.

Re:Thieves...

[arb phd slp]

.And by working for free, they are stealing money from the professional artists. The more money a professional artist makes usually, the more are they stealing from him by taking part in this competiton. Hobbyist work should be strictly prohibited since it is, by its very nature, simply theft. And we aren't condoning theft, especially on a large scale like this, are we? Making music kills music, and a new copyright extension (prohibiting non-profit publications) should prevent that. Act now!

I was at the CD release party of the first RPM two years ago and many of these "hobbyists" gave me a burned copy of their work. I'm a double thief!! I stole music from amateurs who were themselves stealing from RIAA-signed professionals! I feel so guilty.

Sarcasm aside, the music scene in Portsmouth, NH is one of the reasons I loved living there and look forward to moving back when I can. That RPM has grown so much beyond its humble roots is something I find completely awesome.

2007 torrent?

[caveat]

Anybody know if there's a torrent (or for that matter any centralized way to download) of the 2007 collection? I'm finding it pretty likeable, but that jukebox is really NOT doing it for me...I'd much rather have them stored locally and use iTunes (or WMP or xmms, point being I want them on my drive).

Loads of free content is cool but...

[localman]

As a wanna-be artist who's recorded an album [3honkees.com] or two [lisasleftovers.com] myself, there is an anxious excitement about the possibilities of self-recording, self-distribution, and self-promotion. When the internet was first taking off I thought it was going to crack the lid off of independent art, and soon listeners would have a wider variety of better quality stuff and more creative people would be able to find their audience.

To some degree, this is all true. There's a lot of stuff out there, and most artists can find some fans. But in the end it hasn't practially changed much: being in an internet band is about as important as being in a high-school band. The difference is that the 100 people that love you can now be spread across the world instead of just the town.

I think that most listeners really don't want better stuff (even by their own standards): they'd rather listen to stuff that their friends listen to. It's fun to be into popular music, and that's what most people do. They seek out popular music so that they can feel like they're part of something. I don't intend this as a put-down: they just want to enjoy life and I'll admit it's usually more fun to be into an okay-by-me-but-super-popular song than a more-to-your-liking-but-generally-unknown song. Because you can talk about it and play it at parties and people love it. Social interactions matter to music.

Even people like myself, who are drawn to listen to less popular music -- there's just so much stuff I don't feel I need any more. I get all the media I can handle already. So overall as an artist I'm sort of accepting that the way the world functions doesn't financially support all the musical artists who want to be. It doesn't even support all the musical artists who could qualify as great. There's a lot of great artists out there, and only enough opportunity for a tiny fraction of them.

It's kind of a let down, but I'm getting used to it. In the end, you can always make stuff you like, and probably find a few fans. You just won't be able to quit your day job.

Cheers.

PS - this is not based on lack of acceptance of my own musical endeavors, which are admittedly (and intentionally) dumb shit, but rather based on observing other artists

Re:What? No way.

[zeroweb]

What else are you going to do?

Try to sell your music online? Good luck being found and cared about.
Get a record deal? Have fun with the paperwork.

Personally, I've done all the hard work, spent the money AND given my music away for the last 8 years. And I'm satisfied. Not rich, not famous, but hey, not frustrated. I wish the situation was better, but you got to stand up and make it better - not stand up and complain

That is why I even built a site to help other artists do the same as me: http://alonetone.com/ [alonetone.com]

You must think I'm a complete nut ball. Not only am I giving away my music, but paying out of pocket for others to do the same! (bandwidth)

I think it is the wise move. If radiohead is giving away their music, it is a sign. Unless you are famous, you better be giving it away, else sit there wondering why noone wants to drop $15 anymore. How CAN you make money? That is another discussion, and is currently being tackled by SO many artists, companies, and folks like you and me who are doing it on their own.

Re:Thieves...

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

I've never heard any opinion like this seriously expressed by any copyright holder, or organisation.

At first I was going to explain that it is parody through reductio ad absurdum.

But then I remembered that regular people are not supposed to be able to author their own BLU-RAY discs, [campaignhd.com] which sounds pretty damn close to the previous posters parody.

Re:Cool

[CheshireDragon]

I don't see why anyone would need this RPM thing. I am not bashing it, only questioning it, so put the flame throwers down, NOW! I ask because my brother is a professional musician. He owns his OWN label so getting recordings done, CDs pressed, etc. it easy for him. Back when it was just him he was able to do the same thing with basic stuff. He sells his music and he also gives it away for free on a burned disc, not a pressed one, BUT STILL. Even in his label contracts it tells the artists that their music WILL BE pirated, ripped and made to MP3s and they are NOT allowed to go after anyone infringing, because the contract says the consumer is not, especially when labeled on the inside cover of every CD from his label says, "Music is free, so feel free to rip, burn and distrubute this CD. Other formats like MP3 are welcome too." Simply said, he has made his fortunes by giving away his musics.

Not quite what the RPM challenge is about.....

[hoopshank]

Actually, the RPM challenge is to record an album in the month of February. There is nothing to say that the album should be written during that month.

There IS a web site that encourages writing an album in a month - and it FAWM.org (February Album Writing Month). The RPM challenge took this as inspiration and set up in the same month with slightly different criteria and has been better publicised. For it's first two years, RPMchallenge.com paid tribute to FAWM.org but now seems to be big enough and arrogant enough to have stopped paying tribute to the place it got its ideas from.

This is all fine in the world of capitalism but it still seems pretty uncool to me.

Re:on "Free" music...

[Plutonite]

Way to go with that website. Not only is the music good(some of the work is fantastic actually), but the philosophy behind the whole thing is very worthy of mod points, and page hits, and large-scale fame.

After looking through your "production" section though, I couldn't really find a specific place where you discussed equipment, recording, software and/or a basic setup that artists who wanted to produce for themselves could use. This would be very valuable info, especially as most of the artists on the "RPM" awards linked in today's article seem to be a little..lacking on recording skills, among other things.

Does anyone else here also have experience with recording/mixing decent quality music outside a studio environment using minimal software and cheap equipment? Any help would be appreciated.

Artistic pretension

[Dystopian Rebel]

Music has no value but what will people are willing to pay for it to have the experience... if anything. Radiohead understands this. The 14th century troubadours understood this. Most people throughout human history have understood this. As long as ears and ideas are free, music will be free.

The Musico-Idolatry Complex is a perversion.

It's the artist's prerogative to go to great personal sacrifice, debt, and even bankruptcy to make a work of art. It's the artist's prerogative to do so knowing that no one wants to pay for it. It's the artist's understanding of what moves people that saves him or her from pretension and pays his or her bills.

What is happening to the Musico-Idolatry Complex is right. You can say "Fuck you" to people, but the fucking going on is you fucking yourself.