How Do You Buy Music???

Hello All

You know the music biz has changed dramatically over the last couple of years. Music stores are disappearing and the new age retailer, which used to be the mainstay for selling music like mine have all but disappeared.

So it is a real curiosity to me how and if people are still buying music. So I will pose the questions to you all here.

Do you still buy CDs?
Do you get to a local record store or a chain or a specialty shop or do you just buy them at concerts?
Do you download music and pay for it?
Do you just borrow from friends?
Do you go to concerts and do you consider that an importatn part of your life?

I know, its a lot of questions but it is very interesting to me since the path to making a living as a musician is a very rocky one. And the distribution channels are now so fragmented and diverse that it is bewildering for the guy who didn't get a degree in marketing and only wants to play the frickin' piano.

I am not one to lament the past once it is gone. Change is the only constant and nothing remains the same. But perhaps it will serve you all as well as me, to ponder how different our lives are now and how fragile the institutions and rituals and things once regarded as fixed really are.

As an artist I can only hope that I will remain relevant to the lives that I want to touch with beauty.

G

Re: How Do You Buy Music???

Well, you can now add researcher to your resume!

Here are my answers, G, and I hope they help you:

Do you still buy CDs?   Yes.
Do you get to a local record store or a chain or a specialty shop or do you just buy them at concerts?    Stores in India, for Indian music
Do you download music and pay for it?   yes. e-music.com
Do you just borrow from friends?   No.
Do you go to concerts and do you consider that an importatn part of your life?   Not for a few years now, sadly.

Re: How Do You Buy Music???

Thanks for putting these survey questions here:

Do you still buy CDs?  I buy them as gifts for others.
Do you get to a local record store or a chain or a specialty shop or do you just buy them at concerts?  http://www.virginrecords.com/
Do you download music and pay for it? yes, i-Tunes I see things on mySpace and cdBaby but find it to download on iTunes.
Do you just borrow from friends? No
Do you go to concerts and do you consider that an importatn part of your life?  Not as much as I'd like to.


I do recommend having a myspace and facebook to start a fan club for starters as you have a beautiful website.  Also on everyone's website its good to set up a way to buy there from a paypal or some secured set up account and keep promoting to get distributors that handled CD's still from around the world.  Keep a blog fresh as that keeps your music on top at google.  Also let all of the filmmakers know that you exist, and register for whorepresents.com as these are the two that pay well for composing for film & tv.  Here is a digital music report for 2009 and start a search for more info on the RIAA site.
You can choose:
BMI
ASCAP
to license out your songs but both have a lot of info on today's scene and copyright for intellectual properties such as yours.
Keep safepointing.  Also check out the music divisions of ICM and William Morris Talent Agencies to discover what is needed or wanted as once you get a music agent or an entertainment lawyer, it is well worth the investment for expansion.

Re: How Do You Buy Music???

Your so right, Meenakshi.  There are just too many new ways of buying a good album or a cd these days….. downloading for one, has been the new way of receiving.

I remember when making a weekend plan with my friend the night before, to travel many hours in a car to one of the biggest music stores around, and make a  wonderful day of looking at the classic's or the newest releases, then go and have a bite to eat at some outlandish place we never heard of before, and hope we don't get food poisoning from:)

Now here we are, in a store that has like 4 levels of different styles of music, and the clerks are all beating to a jive that are “pretty good look'n,” I might add…ah-ummm…..lets not get carried away here…….but he sure looks mighty fine to me…nudge, nudge….hee-hee.
Any way's, all I'm saying is that, if you want to make the time, it's there…if not, don't go blaming the new way of kindling by down-loading and such knew ways of conveniencing yourself, and maybe think about making a day of it…an R&R day, sorta speak.

I know that drive-in movie theaters started to go under when the big cinemas came about….guess maybe those super cool music stores might very well go under to, now that down loading is such a big theme to be doing…..”god, I hope not!”
Hey, maybe it's got something to do with the economy, and the price of fuel it takes to travel in a vehicle to such a store, huh…..d'no.   Maybe to much has now worked it's way into a more accommodating way of a life style that is just to hard to resist!
Guess it's how far the line of a fishing rod will travel to hook a fish, huh!

“V”

Re: How Do You Buy Music???

Hey G, I appreciate your interest.

I still religiously buy CD's. I'm not all that tech savvy to begin with, and I've always held that if you really like the radio play of an artist enough, you will buy the rest of the album as well. Unfortunately recently, this has often left me dissatisfied with my purchases, as you can now see artists recording with the digital marketplace in mind rather than the old “album as a cohesive unit” approach. Of course I'm not the first to say it, but most musicians write now for the three minute single, not the hour-long album. This is unfortunate, but I still buy full albums.

Luckliy, I live very close to a huge independent record storein my neighborhood, so I can find most things I'm looking for very easily. And although I don't go nearly as often as I'd like, I do go to concerts when the right artists are in town, and it is a very integral part of my life, probably my favorite thing to do.

Best,
Tim.

Re: How Do You Buy Music???

Hi G,

I am atypical, I am sure. I once sang and performed but went to only a very few concerts, operas, and shows in my entire life, and as the years have gone by, I rarely buy music anymore.

A friend of mine, Bernie Katz, who died a few years back was a world class pianist, arranger, and composer. He managed to provide a living for himself playing the piano in Detroit of all places for most of his life. He was very classically oriented … perhaps pathologically so. Before he died, he said to me, “Classical music is dying. Soon it shall be off the face of the earth. I say, 'Good!' - They don't deserve it!” Regarding audiences in general, he once said, “I hate them!” I am laughing telling you this because any musician and composer such as yourself knows what is being conveyed here …

It is becoming harder and harder to present and make a living doing music of depth, artistry, integrity, complexity, sensitivity, originality, and authenticity. But don't give up. There is nothing wrong with a last act of defiance.

ST 

Re: How Do You Buy Music???

Hi ST. “Last act of defiance” lol that's me. It is a strange and hard time for artists. There is a huge audience that is now world wide. Despite that there are innumerable artist out there vying for their attention (and discretionary dollars, euros, yen etc) All one can do it continue to serve their inner voice and be true to the music.

I wonder if I could get more attention if I turn my ball cap sideways and play the piano with my pants halfway down my butt with my checkered boxers showing. Yo, yo that's adagio, mo fo

G