The Game Has Changed…

The Game has changed…. Welcome to the One click world!

Something has been happening out there….we’ve got a bunch of new gadgets in our hands…. and the game has changed again….

If you’ve been following Carbon/Silicon over these past years you’ll know that the first song we wrote was called M.P.Free inspired by the revolution Mick and I found ourselves in… actually, a revolution we found ourselves drawn to be a part of … that we could make music and give it to you, or any one who would listen… for free ….direct. It was as if the music was finally free and in the hands of the creators and we could at last deliver it direct to you the listener without needing a record company or relying on a radio dj to plug us or TV show to have us on… we could make music and just put it out there….

So many people were out there doing it…. and it started to change the music industry…

And then the war intensified….

Napster vs the Record Industry, Kazaa, Limewire, Pirate Bay…….. were just the start and record companies ran scared as their comfy nests began to fall apart… well you all know the story……

But lets think back…. What was it we actually wanted to achieve?

Great music to our ears, uncontrolled by market forces or middlemen fatcats… good quality music, music free to store where we liked on whatever device we owned (the DRM Wars). A close relationship with the artists who made that music and that art. Music we controlled to do what we wanted with. A feeling that we could get that music from Artist sites, fansites, Youtube, anywhere you found great music…. sometimes it was a hassle, but we got used to Free……. and yes IF we paid for it it was with a confidence that the people who did the work, had the ideas… that THEY got paid or supported for that work.

And the industry called us Pirates because they did not like us taking control…

But you see really, we’re not pirates, robbers, stealers… all of us here are in general good people, honest people… we want music, and to get that music to our ears……

There’s a piece in “Wired” magazine this month ( a magazine I’ve been reading for 10 years…. I even buy it direct to my iPad today, after all these years swearing I would never give up the feel of an actually magazine in my hands!)….. here’s the headline:

“The Age of music Piracy is officially over…”

It says this….”Mark down the date: The age of stealing music via the Internet is officially over. It’s time for everybody to go legit. The reason: We won. And all you audiophiles and copyfighters, you know who fixed our problems? The record labels and online stores we loved to hate”

The reason…iTunes and the rest of them finally got it right. They made it really easy to get the music to my ears……

Its a One Click world now… I hear a song anywhere, on Myspace, on Youtube, I read about them on NME.com, I read on a bands website and listened to the free tracks they put up on Soundcloud… and I think yea, I’d like this music.. and in One Click I’m on iTunes and minutes later its already directly loaded into my iPhone playlist and I’m listening to it in the car or on my way to work. One Click…. And I was happy to pay for it because because of the ease… and I felt I was supporting the band.. and what did it cost me for that album? the cost of a couple of cups of Coffee… I can afford that for the ease.

For sure if I wanted to invest the time I could chase the tracks down on a torrent site or the bands free tracks and assemble the album into my iTunes playlist… for a cup of coffee? And know I didn’t push some support to a savvy band?

See it’s like this in my modern world. I hear about something – I want it now. NOW. Bang, its in my hand and I’m listening and enjoying it. Look, I still stream new movie releases not because I don’t wanna pay but because I want it now. If movie houses released their movies to iTunes or whatever simultaneously with theaters then I’d happily pay. I want it now. I read about the new hip extraordinary movie while I’m eating my breakfast then i want to watch it that night on my widescreen TV..THAT night. I don’t wanna wait till its released on DVD. I want Now, on demand. And I’d like to pay for it and support those who made it happen.

And there’s also another reason… we’re moving away from from the web to the iPhone, Android and iPad world (what they call “semi closed platforms” in geektown) Apps are taking over from browsers… who of us saw that coming? You spent all day on the internet but not on the web. These new toys just make life easier and faster… and time is something I’m definitely prepared to buy. So as much as I loved freedom of choice I like better things that just work, reliably and seamlessly…..

Now I’m happy to still put out the music of Carbon/Silicon for free as well, to put up videos and reports on Youtube and to let you guys out there swap tunes on P2P just like I did once on cassettes….. .nothing changing there. But.

The music did break free……. because WE own it now..

Here’s another quote from that Wired magazine article ….

“ That leaves one last war cry: Music should be free! It’s art! Friends, a song costs a dollar. Walmart has pushed some of its MP3s down to 64 cents. At Grooveshark, you can sample any song you want before you buy. Rdio charges $5 a month for all the music you can eat, served up via the cloud. So there’s really no reason not to buy—and surely you understand by now that there are reasons why you should. When you buy instead of bootlegging, you’re paying the band. Most download retailers send about 70 percent of each sale to the record companies that own the music. Artists with 15 percent royalty deals get 15 percent of that 70 percent, or about 10.5 cents per dollar of sales. Those who write their own music and own their own music publishing companies—an increasingly common arrangement—get another 9.1 cents in “mechanical royalties.” Every download sends almost 20 cents straight to the band.”

We favour convenience and reliability which which I am prepared to pay for so I’ll buy that album, all of it, from iTunes even though its out there somewhere for free.

Interesting to see Wired now espousing the pay model! It was Wired magazine that turned me on to Napster et all back in the day, steered to the sites of many a pioneer like John Perry Barlow….

I don’t have the time to mess around. Fine if you have. You choose.

So the wheels are changing again and I’m gonna make all that Carbon/Silicon music One Click available…… Being a Pirate?…. well, what a great time we had in the noughties, waved our sabers, relieved a few record companies of their expense accounts and changed the music business for ever…. and more importantly we still made a load of great music because we felt part of something, a revolution that invigorated us…. I was the biggest exponent of Free music, but remember we didn’t start the revolution, we were carried along with it, gladly. And like all revolutions it suddenly takes an unexpected turn, dictated by the changing world we exist in… and I’m happy to be carried along with that change too because its for the better.

You know I’m a big Steve Jobs fan anyway, but Apples iTunes, the Global content distributor and the like have made the delivery of music from the Artist to your Ears so easy and accessible. I think having our music out there on iTunes and the like will help us connect to many more people, and that is always the aim. I believe in this music and it needs to be out there easily available. There are plenty of people out there now who ONLY know how to download music via iTunes. I want them to hear us too.

Music is thriving just like I always knew it would.. there are more bands than ever, more songs and Rock and Roll out there…. there’s a new spirit ahead…

The revolution continues, but, I think we’re winning…… So bring on the Next one….

Watch this space.

[ Off-site Link: Wired Magazine – The Age of Music Piracy is Officially Over ]