“…Because the digital distribution of music is not fairly compensating the people who create it, and touring cannot make up the difference”…Miranda Mulholland.
Recently Canadian musician Miranda Mulholland gave a speech “Redefining Success in a Digital Age” at the Economic Club of Canada about the impact of the digital age on artists and musicians including their rights and their ability to make a living from their creative work. Miranda has worked with a huge range of musicians including Alan Doyle And The Beautiful Gypsies and on the television show Republic of Doyle.
Miranda’s speech was enlightening and her actions of speaking up for artists and musicians inspiring. Despite Miranda’s extensive resume she states that like many other artists and musicians in Canada (and around the world) they are unable to make an adequate living in the digital age even after monetizing everything they can.
Miranda offers some really constructive advice to artists and musicians, fans, industry representatives, and the government that will help creators make more viable livings now and in the future.
The speech was recapped in an article by an arts critic from the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail title “What happens when we starve our artists". I have provided a link to the article here for those music fans interested.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/what-happens-when-we-starve-our-artists/article35126623/
Miranda’s speech in full is available from her official webpage. I have provided a link to the site here for those fans interested.
mirandamulholland.ca/advocacy
I have copied a few paragraphs that relate to fans for example, how music services we use like YouTube and touring impacts on artists and musicians and how our actions can improve their creative work in the future. The photograph is from the official Twitter account of Miranda Mulholland. No copyright infringement intended.
As a consumer we can assist artists and musicians by...
“There are a number of best practices that every streaming service gives to artists and labels. These are ways that they want artists to reach out to their fanbase that they have built and to plug into the system. Fair enough. Make it easier for your favourite artists.
Here are some FREE ways to help.
- Be a tastemaker. Create playlists for events, road trips, friend’s birthday’s. Add your favourite artists.
- Write reviews and rate. Getting reviews and ratings helps shift algorithms in favour of artists, helps their work come up as “things you might like” and can give your favourite artists an edge in the very competitive granting and funding races.
Here are some PRETTY CHEAP ways to help.
- If you think you’re going to buy a record or you’ve been tempted by a great track in advance of its release, buy the record on release day. This can accelerate an album onto the front page of whatever service you use to buy music, which is an excellent advertisement.
- Buy merchandise. Show off your band love with a sweet t-shirt, poster, tickets. Go to live shows!
- If you love an album or a book, buy it and buy one to give to a friend.
- Subscribe to a music service. For the price of 1 album a month, you not only get millions of songs at your fingertips with no ads, but you also are making a difference. The revenue gap between ad based services and their subscriber versions is significant.(4)…"
We as fans can also be aware of the music services we use such as YouTube and Google and how touring impacts on artists and musicians…
"Let’s look at the biggest music service in the world – YouTube. Did you know that 82% of YouTube users use it for music? (3) It is supported by advertising and it is based on user uploaded content. But wait. Running a commercial site based on unauthorized uploading of copyrighted music is illegal, right?
YouTube says, it isn’t our fault – we are just the shop window. We didn’t put the items in the window, so we are not accountable for them. We are a passive intermediary. We are not liable for this massive copyright infringement.
But – once again – wait. A top brass at Google just bragged that “80% of all watch time is recommended by YouTube.” He explained that “Everybody thinks that all the music that’s being listened to and watched is by search.” But it isn’t, and in his words, “that’s a really important and powerful thing.”.
This means that YouTube actively directs consumers. This doesn’t seem all that passive to me. Zero accountability.
And when asked about the problem of low payments to artists, a Google executive said:
“It's important to note that on the concerns that have been flagged, there's no consensus even amongst the artistic community about the impacts of streaming and what they actually think about it or what they don't think about it. Every single time I hear a newspaper article about the reduction in royalty rates they're getting from streaming, I'll see another artist who basically says, “well, actually my royalty rates are pretty good”.
Well here’s a consensus. Your rates are the lowest in the world! Your revenue is built on the backs of other people’s talent and work and you refuse to acknowledge it.
Accountability means acknowledging value and compensating for it.
Here’s another solution musicians are presented with - Touring. So is Touring the Answer?
There are a lot of positives about touring, and you learn to find the bits you enjoy and make the most of them, but still – it’s work. Since the devaluation of music that has occurred in this new era of free, fans are more unwilling to pay for live music and the market is saturated with bands trying to eke out a living on the road.
Touring is also difficult for many artists. The framework doesn’t exist to support some genres - like hip-hop; it is unkind to people with families, to women. Loreena McKennitt - an artist/entrepreneur hero of mine, said that for artists like herself, touring was always a loss leader in order to promote her recordings. That has become entirely unsustainable.
She also points out that we should not be misled by equating fame with business viability as there are many famous people through the new technologies who are still unable to make a living….”
