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Originally Posted by Louis Louie Their product is being marketed and sold. Does it matter to the consumer if this is done by the artists themselves or a company representing them? Either way, it doesn't sound much like Hogarth's belief in free music for all is being put into practice.
Surely the issue is that artists should have the opportunity to reach a mass audience and have the resources to produce their best possible material. In an ideal world, sure, musicians would be able to distribute their wares on exchange for donations and goodwill, but it's not an ideal world. Free downloads mean less royalty payments for artists and less revenue for record companies. Artists that only have a small fanbase will struggle financially, and may eventually have to find another career path. Record companies will be forced further into the mainstream, and will be less willing to take risks on unknown artists.
The Marillion solution works fine for them, but they have 20 years of publicity and record company funding behind them. What hope for the thousands of new acts hoping for a slice of the action?
Kudos on your background knowledge of the band. They really aren't my cup of tea (as you probably guessed), but I do appreciate a bit of fannish geekism  |
I totally agree with what you're saying for the most part, its easy for a band in Marillion's position to be idealistic. That being said Marillion only had 10 years of record company backing, but thats 10 successfull years with EMI, more than most bands could dream of. I agree completely in that i think its the way to go for established artists but not for up and coming bands. The naievity of Hogarth in this is actually very surprising to me. I see the same thing here every day with bands who state they will neve sign to a major because they're evil; you're only as evil as the contract you choose to sign and the fact that they may take half your money for 10 years but they will then allow you to have a career for another 10 or 15 that you wouldn't have had if you were a small pub band.
I am a big fan of the way Marillion's marketed themselves and i know a lot about them, Jo supported them, and then when she did the European tour with Hogarth's solo band I got to tag along. Tehir markeeting manager Lucy is a good friend of mine, and in general they do a superb job, just occasionally imho get a bit too greedy. Undoubtedly a good model tho on a mid sized band running your music as a business and self management.
Cheers
Stuart