Forget the music Long Tail: BitTorrent man highlights Peacock’s Tail
We’ll just print this quote unedited – it’s from an interview with BitTorrent co-founder Bram Cohen, on the oversupply of recorded music:
“Music has a bigger problem, it’s that people want to make it. It’s the peacocks tail. The reason guys make music is that they want to get laid. So men are usually willing to pay a lot of money in the hope of getting laid. Anything that helps you get laid with amazing regularity is something you would expect a tremendous oversupply of. So we have unbelievable amounts of music. People pay a lot to learn how to play music and it’s ridiculous to expect people to make money off it. Normally if you want to make money you do something no one wants to do.”
Does he have a point?
Tags: BitTorrent, long tail
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
The stereotypical ‘Tech Geek’ is usually a guy that can’t get laid so it’s probably not in Bram’s interests to be too condescending.
There are many reasons why folk decide to make music : “I wanna be a celebrity, get rich and get laid” and “I do it for me, it clears my head” are just 2 contrasting examples. Ours is not to judge the reason but to support the creator of the music we prefer, no?
Yes, loads of people make music. BUT fewer know how to attract an audience and even fewer make music that’s popular enough to grow that audience into something they can actually make a living from.
Spread the love a little, Bram
Kindest regards,
DIYMusicians.com
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I’ve always wanted to say that!
There really is too much music out there. And it seems all the people making it feel that they are owed a living by the business.
If you want to make music for your own benefit, then DON’T release it. Otherwise you’re also trying to get laid. Only thing that differs is what type of girl you want to get laid with. E.g. whether it’s by getting yourself a fit blonde groupie or a girl who’s written a book on music’s role in Ancient Greece.
Musicians need to be like web designers and realise that most of them are just working on something that really won’t add much to their industry. Though if they can charge a fee, make money & get laid, then more power to them. If not, get a grip and stop whining. Hell, Twitter don’t make any money and we don’t here them whingeing.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 pm
OK.
If you have never been fortunate enough to perform on stage in front of a 100-1000 people and feel the applause, then you shouldnt be commenting on why people make music.
if you have never been lost in the music you are performing on stage, and been transformed to a level of high that no drug could ever induce, then you shouldnt be commenting on why people make music.
if you listen to the radio as your source of music, you shouldn’t be commenting on why people make music.
True musicians make music for themselves, and dont give a fuck what the audience is going to think. Everyone else just wants to get laid, and are a bunch of schmucks.
There is an overabundance of music available not because there are alot of deuchebags trying to get laid, there is an overabundance because its cheap to make and easy to make available, Unfortunatel, there are alot of deuchebags trying to do it, oversaturating the mix. And yes you do get laid, but you still have to work for it.
The only way you make money in music is by touring, constantly. Licence deals also help, but that’s it, and you only get that if you know someone. Oh – and merch. Lots of merch. CDs are for suckers, and should only be considered advertising for the live show, and should be given away free like those beer bottle opener keychains.
-JK
ps. Twitter is a company that is strongly building an audience and eventually will be purchased for gaz-millions of dollars. They are laughing at you for helping them get rich, and for helping aston kutcher become more famous, which we really, really dont need.
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Surprise, surprise…another tech guy trying to justify not paying for music.
April 24th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Anyone can have a w**k
Only a few people are actually great artists who make great music that touches a lot of people
May 1st, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I think and *hope* Bram was joking. =) After questioning him about it, it seems like it was a joking comment about the majority of kruft out there. We do PAY for ALL our music in this house BTW. He not making an excuse for free music and we BOTH believe artists deserve to be compensated. If you value art or music support that artist and musician in any way you can! The system is a little broken right now.. and hopefully a solution that is more favorable to artists will arise but until then we all have to be creative. SUPPORT ARTISTS! On the other hand the majority of creative people will probably never be able to live like pop stars, it’s always been an insanely difficult field this business of Art. However, hopefully decentralization will open up the door for more artists to get enough compensation to keep doing the Art they LOVE, and create a disincentive for people out to make garbage just to become a superstar or get laid or whatever.
I wish Bram’s humor wasn’t so dry but I cope. =)