Feed the Hungry – Heal the Thought
I read an article yesterday written by ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams, a man of many talents. Speaking out against the world’s seeming new idiotic ideas regarding free music, I believe he spoke for all of us who are involved on the creative side of music today.
Here are excerpts from the editorial entitled “The Creative Constant” that appeared in the September 12 issue of Billboard Magazine.
“I’ve been writing songs for most of my life. I know firsthand the many challenging steps it takes for a song to reach a wide audience of people. In the early years of my forty-plus years of writing I benefited from the care and expertise of a world class publisher, a record company that fostered the dreams and creative choices of their artists, and a publicity/promotion machine that made the consumers aware of what I had to offer. For many talented young writers beginning their careers today the landscape has changed dramatically.
Almost everything in the process is different. The recording of music, its delivery and promotion, the multitude of ways it can be enjoyed on a variety of wonderful devices make music available to a larger, more fractionalized audience.
It’s important to remember that at the headwaters of this grand revenue stream is the writer, perhaps working with headphones because there’s a baby sleeping in the next room or a partner that has to get up for work in the morning. Let’s continue to honor his or her gift by protecting the right of the music creator to make a viable living with their music.
What remains constant in this whirlwind of change is the art and craft of the creative process. Composers and songwriters have a unique gift – the ability to combine sparks of inspiration, imagination and life experience with talent, hard work, and often a little bit of magic, to create music that touches other people’s lives. The music creators’ gift is the engine that drives our industry. Its value should never be underestimated.
I am concerned that if music is not fairly valued or compensated, then a successful career in music will be increasingly out of reach. The viability of our industry, and in turn our greater economy, depends upon making sure that young creators have the opportunity to pursue music as a profession, not just a hobby or a vocation.
Today, like yesterday and one-hundred years before that, music creators need the space and support to free their imagination; to be open and available to that flash of inspiration when it comes out of the blue; to have stretches of time to push through the frustration when inspiration is elusive; to walk away from something, and then return again with a fresh set of ears. But they also must know that their creative work has great worth. Not just to themselves as artists, or to the people whose lives their music will enrich, but to the network of businesses whose bottom lines thrive on their creativity.
We must all work together to nurture and support a new generation of songwriters and composers and give them a realistic incentive to pursue a career. This starts with everyone in the distribution chain recognizing that the value of music should be measured at its source–in the act of its creation–when a spark can change the world.”
The above plea for respect comes at a crucial time when we stand on the threshold of making a tragic blunder. This idea of making music free will turn composers, lyricists, record producers, musicians – artists all, into hobbyists. Things are tough enough.
Here we are in the middle of one of the toughest recessions of our lives, with the entire music industry crashing down around us and the best they can come up with is to make the music free? It’s a sad state of affairs that one of our most cherished means of expression in life is now being de-valued by it’s own industry.
Led by the greed of youth, (“It’s not stealing, it’s free!”) it’s a bizarre time where the confusions of the world are seeming to be in control.
Stop the presses! Rethink this impending action! Save the artists!
Let us pray for a better way.
For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.
Once again, Lynne’s comments are painfully honest and they raise questions. What should we tell little Johnny who wants to be a clarinet player when he grows up. Should we say, nobody grows up to be a musician for a living anymore, Johnny. Better pick another profession where you can get a real job Seriously, what do we tell our youngsters who really show an aptitude for music and specifically a certain instrument? How will our profosessional, conservatory trained instrumentalists of tomoorow make a living?
Just to clarify my original point in my first comment…I myself do know what sampling is. But again, I am looking forward to the day when CD covers, downloads, etc. actually make it clear what is sampled (a carefully woven-together “performance” of files of real people) OR what is truly a completely live in-studio or on-stage performance, with actual people playing together in a cooperative effort, while a conductor “pulls expression” from the group. There is a lot to be said for a flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants performance. And yes, sometimes ya might even hear a few mistakes…an annoying little human thing… Again, I plead with the industry for a sense of real honesty and clarity about that. Just inform the public. People ultimately may not care, but it is not quite honest, in an absolute sense. We don’t want to ever get into the habit of not being clear. Principle is Principle. It’d be great if consumers could look at something and say, “Cool, that’s live.” OR, “Cool, it’s all sampled”. Give ’em a choice. But, the fact that so-in-so played those single notes separately or a scale or a lick for part of a sampling file—does not in most people’s minds constitute a live “performance”. Let’s not split hairs on this one…
The other point I want to make is in regards to the assertion that the growth in the use of sampling is partly a result of “musicians’ greed”. Perhaps people have gotten to that point on both coasts, where they double-charge union scale, and basically expect to be handed life on a silver platter. Tell that to the folks in the middle of the country and they’ll just start laughing Greed??. And yes, there are fine players out here, touring artists, etc. Maybe the concertmaster gets double, etc. but most people are NOT greedy out here, in fact are just trying to make an honest living. Underline the word—honest. Many have always taken at least some jobs UNDER scale, etc. to get by, gone on unemployment at times, etc. Some unions actually arrange that certain jobs are under scale, to bring in work… strange but true. So, the folks I know are mostly waiting for a few crumbs to drop…And that is the end of the story from our world out here…I knew a fine clarinet player who took a part time job in a steel mill to feed the family…sad but true. :( No greed out here.
Here Carol shows the real confusion that the public has about the whole art of sampling and also the confusion that many people have over the difference between sampling and synthesis. The fact of the matter is that there is no difference between a real violin section and a sampled one. They are the same. They are made the same. A real violin section is recorded note by note and those recordings are simply re-used as samples. When you hear a sampled orchestra played, you are hearing a real orchestra. That’s the point and the wonder of the technology. This is why much of the public cannot tell the difference — because the sampling technology is so good today and the recordings are so well done and pristine. Also I have a choice in my work of thousands of different bowings and vibratos and bowing techniques which bring out the passion or mood of the music I choose to orchestrate.
I also disagree that there is not a bright future for acoustic orchestras. They will always exist. I don’t believe that in the future people will go to concert halls to watch and hear Bach, Beethoven and Stravinsky played on a midi rig. Like everything else, the music business will simply evolve and change with the times. Remember, the audience creates the demand. They have a powerful word in this as well.
But thanks for the controversy, thanks for the opportunity for clarification. Thanks for writing in.
Lynne Denne’s points are sad but true. Most people cannot tell the difference between a real violin section and a sampled one. The sadder truth is that it is just not a matter of importance to people. I think that goes back to music education in the early grades where students first should become familiar with the sounds of orchestral instruments in order to appreciate them and distinguish them. Pieces like “Peter and the Wolf” espceially the old Leonard Bernstein recording that I was raised on and the “Carnival of the Animals” were key in my exposure to the sound of real instruments. Concert goers insist on hearing their beloved symphonic repetoire played by live orchestras with the knowldege that there is no way under heaven these sounds could be fully duplicated to any accuracy in phasing and phrasing in an ensemble or solo context. Unless reality in music making becomes an issue I don’t forsee a bright future of acoustic orchestras on a large scale for recording and performances.
Lynn,
Lots of very powerful stuff here. Thank you. I am both a live musician producer and a dedicated user of sample technology. I understand and agree with most of Lynn’s points here. It’s a very difficult world out there for the working musician. Sadly, it’s a changing world and the factors go far beyond the sins of sampling. I could write 20 blog postings on the above paragraphs and probably will in the not so distant future. Here, in this reply, I will only go for two points of consideration.
1. I’ve always said thet if I could have a great band or live orchestra to record with, I’d go that route 10 times out of 10. Unfortunately, budgets don’t always enable the hiring of the best of the best. Also the best of the best do overcharge. Given then the choice to go with lesser talented musicians because of budget restraints, I’ll choose sampling 8 out of 10 times, because I find that I can end up with a better product.
2. The sampling technology, which used to be pretty plebian, has improved tremendously over the last 3 years and in many cases the samples are beautifully recorded performances of real live musicians. The technology is pretty amazing and hard to ignore. The world is changing. We may not like it, but do we choose to stay in it? It’s gotta be a tough choice now for some.
Your comments are very well taken. Thanks for writing in.
As a longtime professional violinist, having sat through many recording sessions, and having watched that side of my profession slowly disappear, I can tell you that it has hit the players big time. One way it has is this. Sampling.
Granted, it is cheaper and easier for composer/creators to use files of single notes or groups of them, played long or short, on this instrument or that—which was originally recorded in “one of THOSE studios” a few years back—but, the live recording, with a conductor and producer present in the booth, creating on the spot, with live players responding to the inspiration of the moment, has been rapidly laid aside for the cheaper method. Yes, I know SO many who are living hand to mouth now.
One of the sneaky, undetected things about it—the public gets used to this sort of homogenized sound. You will never be able to duplicate the sound of 14 violins, all with different instruments responding in different ways, with different players with different vibratos, etc. It all washes right over the public now. No one has the ability to hear the real vs. the unreal—and that is scary. Very scary.
On a metaphysical level. If something is listed as orchestral on the cover of a CD, then, it should be just that. A live recording. If it is sampling, it should clearly say so, on the cover. Many a time, I have listened to a snippet of a CD, casually pulled out the liner, looking for who was on the sessions, only to find no personnel listed??? The more I listen, and the more I look, I realize I’ve been had. And soon I hear it, and soon I see, hidden in some small place in small writing, that the whole thing is sampled.
We cannot help the public to respect our profession, if they do not understand. Or even hear the difference. There is less and less ability of the casual listener to be able to separate the old chaff from the wheat. I know composers save money and get the job done faster, cheaper, and without those pesky recording sessions with fidgety artists, but…HOW can we fix this mess, for all concerned? We need to be honest. We get nowhere, and ultimately lose another layer of human creative involvement, when we succumb to this. It is a state of being “not quite honest”. There are a lot of really depressed looks on faces these days, let me tell you, as this has been hungrily chewing away at our profession for years now. People just roll their eyes. We are powerless, it would seem, and the Union has not stepped up to the plate, as it should. I plead for honesty and clarity…
Thank you once again, Ms Burton for your in-depth and most passionate offering. As usual, you hit the nail right on the head with your comments. This comes, dear readers, from a woman with a lifetime of experience as a recording artist under her belt. Check out her music on WatchfireMusic.com. You’ll get a real sense of her commitment to the industry.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve spoken with several of my friends in the music business as well as come across articles reporting the surge of people who want to get music for free. The lack of industry objection to this and the very scary ramifications of this situation, if the powers that be don’t start paying a different kind of attention, are unlimited.
Where are we going as a country and a people that we don’t preserse those things and those people which are our stalwarts? Are our egos as to what we think we’re due that much out of control?
I am primarily a singer who doesn’t write. Sometimes I have the concept for a song and once in the studio and involved with the creative process my instincts spill over into hearing a background vocal and/or certain approaches as to how I’d like the vocals to go, but to write a whole song is not my talent. So I depend greatly on the songwriter/composer. Over the years, I have been blessed to work with an amazing song craftsman whom I’ve entrusted my song concepts and song titles to, but whether he’s written and composed from an idea that I’ve given him or from his own, the finished project is always amazing. Songwriters and composers are my salvation.
As a singer, hearing a song for the first time is my launch pad into a wonderful creative collaboration with the composer/writer of that song. The song writers and composers I’ve worked with have given me, the singer, music and lyrics to express my inner-most fears, victories, joys, sorrows, sensuality, hopes and beliefs. Basically, I’ve been given an arena to be the women I am, singer, actress, performer and vessel for my own God-given gifts.
I remember the lyrics of this famous song sung by the wonderful “Roberta Flack, “Killing Me Softly”. Didn’t we marvel at the unique way in which the writer wrote that lyric? The lyric was so close to most of our realities. That is why we rushed out and brought the album.
Strumming my pain with his fingers,
Singing my life with his words,
Telling my whole life with his words.
Well people, that’s what songwriters and composers do!
They often sit alone for hours toiling to find just the right turn of a lyric, sometimes running into dry spells when they’re scared to death they’ve lost it, but then the time comes when they become a conduit for the Universe, bringing us what we have the great benefit to experience. What a roller coaster of a ride that they take and probably wouldn’t exchange for anything. In those times, believe me, they’re sitting there in awe, used up and gleeful once the spirit has finished it’s work through them, so glad to be who they are and also having been chosen to be used in such a manner. To not be properly compensated for this is a Sin!
With that in mind, how is it that those of you who want your music for free completely disregard or disrespect the people who have brought music to you in the first place? How can you forget that this is their livelihood and not their hobby? Most of these people live and breathe by writing. Writing and composing expresses their inner-most thought and soul process. It gives them life, so how it is that you would prevent them their livelihood by asking them to do what they do for all of us for free!
Are we really prepared for these craftsmen to be lost to us because they have to find other means of support? They are the inspired and they keep us inspired. Those of you who work get paid for what you do. How then are you so misinformed of the value of these? Have you not looked down the road to consider the great ramifications of this; that perhaps in this instance you will not pull yourselves back from the brink where everyone seems to want to play it these days? Would you destroy music and the business that supports the makers of it? How far are you really willing to let the guage fall?
Where are you, Guardians of the Music Business? Have you grown so out of shape spiritually and morally that you can’t stop this! Why have the lines of demarcation become so blurred? Why have you not said, “This far and No further” and given us a better solution to this problem. Why do you not protect those of us that keep you in a job? Without the composers and lyricists, there is NO MUSIC free or otherwise! This is not rocket science!
In closing, I stomp my foot in the face of this wave of whatever you want to call it with the words of the song below, written by composer/lyricist Peter Link. I am in support of the song writer and composer getting their just due, so that they might pay their bills, put food on their tables and have those moments when music and lyrics flow through them helping us say what has gone beyond words, helping us describe the indescribable, helping us to cope, helping us to love, find love, make love, helping us to find strength, and finally, uniting us with the courage and to rise up and Stand!
“I Stand For You!”
I walk the roads you walk with very breath I take
I try to follow you with every (vocal) I make
I see your shining light and like a magnet
I’m am drawn to you
Let you light shine through
I’ll bear the torch and share the fire
And carry on the meanings of your lives
As I go through life
I Stand For You!
You give me songs I can’t wait to sing, light my soul and help me to be me!
“I Will Stand For You”
Singer,
Jenny Burton
Amen!