Another argument for Digital-Only Distribution - Apple Macbook Air

[Dave Muscato]

There is a thread about the Macbook Air in OT, but I want to take this in a different direction and didn't want to hijack that thread.

My band is considering releasing our next "album" as digital releases only. Just tonight, we were discussing the pros and cons of this approach, and then I stumbled upon this Macbook Air, which as it turns out, has no optical (CD/DVD) drive whatsoever. You can hook up an external drive or use the "Remote Drive" feature via another computer, but the point is, here we have another strong indication that the optical disc is in its death throes.

Let's talk about the pros and cons of a digital-only release.

I know that the majors are still selling millions upon millions of physical CDs, and that companies like Discmakers are definitely not hurting for business.

On the other hand, although I bought approximately 40 physical CDs in 2007, I realized that I haven't touched the hard copies since I ripped them into my computer. I should point out that I don't even own a portable MP3 player; I just take my notebook everywhere I go, and I also regularly burn mix CDs for my car.

In today's market, where music fans are less and less willing to pay $15, 12, or even $10 for a CD in light of all the "free" music on Limewire, etc, does it make sense for a band or indie label to invest money into this format anymore?

I think a lot of music fans are wising up to the 128kbps-sounds-like-crap issue, but with faster internet connections, bigger hard drives, iTunes Plus, and now 160gb iPods, I think investing in quality *recording* still makes sense. But the product we're talking about isn't the CD, is it? It's the recordings themselves - the intangible, but still very valuable, recordings.

Obviously, this opens a can-o-worms, since buying something intangible that can be enjoyed by 1 person or 1m people with no incremental cost is one of the hardest things for a company to convince people to do. Photographers have been hurting from this for awhile - why would someone want to buy a print from you, when they can enjoy the photo via Google Images for free? Or if they're really determined, and have a photo printer, can even make their own print? As the internet has gotten faster, the ability to "share" creative work has moved beyond still photos and up to music files. In 5 years, I doubt if very many people will be buying DVDs anymore, for the same reasons they're not buying CDs now... you can enjoy it via the internet for much less (or nothing), and the experience is indistinguishable to the end user.

Okay, so we all know this. My question is, at what point will we say, CDs are dead? Since CDs truly are digital files, I don't think they will "hang on" the way vinyl records have. At some point or another, we as a society are going to decide that CDs were the preferred format from ~1982 to 20?? (or even 200?).

This new notebook from Apple is obviously designed for people who REALLY value mobility. It only has 1 USB port, and you are paying a huge premium for the fact that it only weighs 3 pounds - it's $1800 and the base model only has an 80 gb hard drive!! But what I'm seeing is, if Apple thinks that the public is ready for an ultra-mobile-but-still-not-niche-market notebook with no optical drive, will the next generation of their regular Macbooks be without the optical drives, too?

How will that affect us as musicians selling CDs?

There are other problems with CDs, too:

- You have to buy the whole album, versus picking & choosing the songs you like and paying for only those
- CDs are breakable, just like vinyl only not so bad, so they are still subject to a percentage of unsellable units, however slight
- CDs take up considerable physical space when they are in their cases: I myself have boxes of them just stacked in my closet, but I don't want to sell them or give them away because that's against the law (if I retain the digital files), and destroying them would just be stupid
- CDs cost money to ship, if you use them for promotion, or when you sell them, when you get them from the pressing company in the first place, etc
- CD stores can only stock a limited number of artists/units, and they must be shelved and alphabetized by hand and sold by humans, which means that the end price to the consumer increases (due to the labor involved), on top of the built-in costs of pressing, trucking, real estate for the store, utilities for the store, and of course their profit

Digital files offer a number of advantages, such as

- Consumers can buy only the tracks they want (although this is good and bad)
- Digital copies are unbreakable, take up no space (except intangible hard-drive space), are free to "ship," and digital music marketplaces can host a virtually unlimited roster of artists' releases

The one big downside that I see is

- It's really easy for people to steal music when it's digital, and there seems to be less of a psychological/ethical barrier to the idea of stealing it when there's nothing tangible to steal, and the thief isn't depriving anyone else of the music by doing so... They even go so far as to call it "sharing," as though it were some kind of kindergartener ideal! Combine this with the fact that many up-and-coming and even established artists are releasing material with an open distribution license (i.e. not charging for it and encouraging people to "share" it) and what you have is the mindset that "MUSIC SHOULD BE FREE."

Those are potentially career-ending words people who sell music for a living. I say potentially because "music" can be defined as both "recorded music" (e.g. CDs, vinyl, digital files) and "live music."

What digital distribution is doing, in essence, is changing the job description of an indie musician from

"someone who writes, records, and sells recordings of music for a living, and performs live music to promote sales of the recordings"

to "someone who writes, records, and gives away recordings of music to promote live performances, from which he makes a living."

The important distinction here is between passive and active income. Active income requires constant work, because once the work stops, so does the money. If musicians' income is directly tied to live performance, what does that mean about musicians' ability to settle down eventually and start a family, or retire one day?

Obviously, this Apple computer is not the cause of this change, but I think this is really an important time in history. Subnotebook computers without optical drives have been around for several years now, but this is the first real mainstream computer I'm aware of not to offer one.

What are your thoughts on digital-only-distribution? I'm curious especially about how it has changed your income, or the source of your income, if you view it as a good thing or a bad thing... your experiences with it, and I'm also interested in knowing how YOU listen to music. Do you still buy CDs? Do you use a CD player to listen to music you own, or something else?

Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated,

[MazeMouse]

My current band has released our first demo as full free download.
Purely to get our music out there (getting great reviews too) to get gigs. We're thinking of doing a strictly limited edition CD but nothing major.

Seems like we're going the digital road for now.

[El-Bob]

i prefer utorrent and my ipod because limewire just doesn't have alot of what i listen to.

[Dave Muscato]

Something I've noticed is that there seems to be a backlash against the idea of paying for music now, at least in certain circles... Look at Metallica, for instance. They are aggressively defending their intellectual property, and people think they are jerks for it. I don't understand what's happening to this industry! lol

It seems that it's not good enough to make great music anymore; now you have to be willing to work for free for people to respect and like you as a musician. What's up with that? I can think of no other career where you are expected to give away your work or you're considered a greedy bastige.

It's one thing if you are seeing increased attendance at your shows, or you're able to charge higher fees for performing, as a result of increased buzz through file-sharing. But shouldn't that be up to you, the copyright owner, whether you want to give away your music or not? The courts have agreed with this so far, but the fact is, due to the nature of the internet, they're pretty powerless when it comes to enforcing that.

IMHO, that's like saying, "Well, we can't stop all the shoplifting out there. It just happens way too often for us to really do anything about it. So let's just legalize it." Equally absurd!

El-Bob, not to pick on you, but since you posted about it, let me ask you, why do you download music illegally? Is it just convenience - I mean to say, you want the music but you don't want to pay for it? Obviously you like the artists in question or you wouldn't be downloading and listening to their stuff, so it's not out of spite or anything.

[El-Bob]

Originally Posted by Dave Muscato

El-Bob, not to pick on you, but since you posted about it, let me ask you, why do you download music illegally? Is it just convenience - I mean to say, you want the music but you don't want to pay for it? Obviously you like the artists in question or you wouldn't be downloading and listening to their stuff, so it's not out of spite or anything.

that's a fair question. i really can't afford to buy all of the music that i like, especially when no local music stores carry my favorite bands. that's not to say that i NEVER buy music, because i still do on occasion, like when a favorite band of mine puts out a new album, or when it's too hard to find a good download, I'll go on amazon and buy it. if you have any more questions, feel free to ask. i don't mind.

[MazeMouse]

Originally Posted by Dave Muscato

Something I've noticed is that there seems to be a backlash against the idea of paying for music now, at least in certain circles... Look at Metallica, for instance. They are aggressively defending their intellectual property, and people think they are jerks for it. I don't understand what's happening to this industry! lol

It seems that it's not good enough to make great music anymore; now you have to be willing to work for free for people to respect and like you as a musician. What's up with that? I can think of no other career where you are expected to give away your work or you're considered a greedy bastige.

It's one thing if you are seeing increased attendance at your shows, or you're able to charge higher fees for performing, as a result of increased buzz through file-sharing. But shouldn't that be up to you, the copyright owner, whether you want to give away your music or not? The courts have agreed with this so far, but the fact is, due to the nature of the internet, they're pretty powerless when it comes to enforcing that.

IMHO, that's like saying, "Well, we can't stop all the shoplifting out there. It just happens way too often for us to really do anything about it. So let's just legalize it." Equally absurd!

El-Bob, not to pick on you, but since you posted about it, let me ask you, why do you download music illegally? Is it just convenience - I mean to say, you want the music but you don't want to pay for it? Obviously you like the artists in question or you wouldn't be downloading and listening to their stuff, so it's not out of spite or anything.

I'm also of the "illegal" music downloading kind. (I put illegal between quotes because I don't upload stuff and in the Netherlands you're allowed to have 1 single copy of music without owning the original for "studying purposes")
Frankly because I can't be arsed to stand 60-70 minutes in a store trying to decide if I like the album and 30 second previews on most online stores just don't give a full view of a song. (Not to mention all the DRM crap we had to put up with)

I download it and if I like it I more than likely will buy it as soon as it's available in the netherlands (most things I download are very hard to get here if not impossible) If I don't like it there is no reason to keep it so I delete it
As a result of downloading music I've come in contact with bands I wouldn't have known to exist if I didn't download AND I've bought more CD's of those band AND went to more live shows from bands I "discovered" this way.
So from my viewpoint I download to check it out in a "try before you buy" kind of way

[Lebowsky]

I tend to see the CD as a full product rather than just a music media. There is artwork, etc... it's an object, and I like to own it. So I buy a lot of CD's

However, for practical reasons, I listen to music either on my computer (when I'm home) or on an mp3 player (when I'm out). Simply because I am constantly listening to music and changing the CD every 45-75 minutes is a hassle. But I will still buy the CD myself if I like it.

I don't think you will get more stolen if you release only on the internet.. it's not that big of a deal for other people to rip your CD and share it...

I also download some music "illegally", usually simply because I can't afford spending a whole day in a music shop listening to new stuff... so if I like what I've downloaded, I'll go buy it. But downloading is legal here as long as you don't share/upload anything

And I was absolutely not interested for example in the new Radiohead download-only thing... to me it didn't feel like a fully finished product. Like I said in my first sentences, the physical CD is the final priduct in my mindset...

Oh and btw mac sux

[Dave Muscato]

Thanks very much for the international responses, guys. I didn't know this type of downloading was legal in those countries.... interesting, to say the least!

Originally Posted by El-Bob

that's a fair question. i really can't afford to buy all of the music that i like, especially when no local music stores carry my favorite bands. that's not to say that i NEVER buy music, because i still do on occasion, like when a favorite band of mine puts out a new album, or when it's too hard to find a good download, I'll go on amazon and buy it. if you have any more questions, feel free to ask. i don't mind.

I'd like a new Porsche, but I can't afford it... However, that doesn't mean that if there were a way for me to steal one without being punished, that I would, you know? And it's not like anybody gets hurt when you steal a new car... the insurance company reimburses the dealer, the Porsche sends the dealer a new one... it's not like some poor individual is without his car. Sure, the insurance company raises their rates to the dealer, so the dealer's prices go up across the board for all the legal car-buyers, but who cares? I got my Porsche for free Now say that this becomes widespread, and people are stealing Porsches left and right... the dealers turn in their insurance claims for the stolen cars, the insurance companies reimburse the dealers and raise their rates again and again, until finally the dealers have to charge so much for cars that nobody is buying them. Now say that Porsche's sales drop so much from all these high prices that they have to make some cuts - R&D goes out the window, the more "experimental" and interesting models that are really cutting edge (but higher risk) go away, until all your have left are hip-hop and pop... Eventually, people stop respecting anything Porsche is making at all, the dealers are going out of business, and eventually Porsche just stops making cars altogether and focuses on designing hard-drives for LaCie You didn't think stealing one car and getting away with it was such a big deal, huh? But when everyone does it, it crumbles an industry.

Now sure, eBay is thriving with build-your-own-car kits, now that Porsche is gone... but the quality and consistency is seriously lacking, and the service leaves a lot to be desired lol

I appreciate you responding to my post above - I am truly interested in understanding the mindset of people who download music in your situations, because frankly, you guys are a HUGE chunk of the music-listening population and I want to understand where you're coming from, so I can better reach you as an audience, lol.

How much music do you download in a year?... I'm totally pulling this number out of my butt, but say you downloaded 650 albums worth of material last year. Now, say that your income for 2008 magically increased by $10,000. You can now afford to buy 650 albums this year that you would otherwise not have been able to afford. My question to you is, since you can now "afford" to pay for this music, is that cut & dry the end of illegal downloading for you?

My guess is that if your income increased, your money would go to gear, or savings, or a bigger house, etc, and you would probably still say that you can't afford to buy all the music you want, and you'd go right back to downloading for free. Again, I'm not trying to pick on you; it's just my interpretation of human behavior - People naturally want to get the most return for the least amount of effort. It's this "laziness" that makes humans such good inventors - we always try to figure out an easier way to accomplish something. This is generally a good thing - it's what got us the automobile, the telephone, etc. But when the desire to get the most for the least amount of effort interferes with someone else's ability to make a living, it creates an interesting twist. Legality aside, more and more people just don't see a problem with "sharing" digital music against the wishes of the copyright holders. As much as my left-brain is saying "Fight this to the death!" my right-brain is saying, "Don't get mad at your audience." Maybe we (musicians) should stop trying to sell recorded music. After all, you don't keep fans by making them feel bad for liking your music enough to download it (as Metallica has found out).

On the other hand, if you charge nothing for a product, people tend not to think it's worth anything, either. Say, for example, you were walking into a music store and they said, "SURPRISE! You're our 100th customer today and you've just won 2 tickets to tonight's Smorgasbordablartfast show. The tickets are normally $65." Now, say you've never heard of Smorgasbordablartfast and you have no idea who they are or what kind of music they play or if you would like them at all, but the store said, "We need to know right now if you want the tickets, because otherwise we will give them to the next person." My guess is that you'd probably say yes, because a band that can charge $65 for tickets probably doesn't suck, right? Now, pretend that instead of the winning-$65-tickets thing, say you were just walking downtown and saw a poster for Smorgasbordablartfast but it said "Free Show Tonight." My guess is that you probably wouldn't think twice about it and keep walking.

I have a question for you all. How do you find out about new artists/material? Do you listen to the radio, listen to internet streams or podcasts, just browse people's shared folders and download indiscriminately, watch MTV, find out about bands from friends in person...? Personally, I listen to my friend Alexis' (internet) radio show. I hardly ever listen to the actual radio anymore. And actually, I've found out about a fair amount of bands by hearing their licensed songs on TV ads.

[agreatheight]

For purchasing music - I buy CDs and listen to them on an iPod, etc after ripping them. I like to have the actual CD in case my digital takes a dump & I like to make sure the artist gets paid.

For making music - I find digital download to be an unrewarding product. I prefer a physical piece, it makes me feel like I have created something real. Plus, I love the artwork and such - I'm a tactile guy. Besides, anyone can push something out over the web nowadays. If I think the music is worth it, I am always gonna press some physical format, as long as it is available. With that said, I will likely press 1000 units of my CD (in progress) - I had originially budgeted for 2000. And it's a strong possibility that with digital sales that I make have trouble getting rid of all of them. I am looking into doing something special to move them.

[rakirksey]

I buy CDs and rip them to listen to at home, in the car, or while walking around. I was a die-hard CD purchaser before and still am, but I jumped on the digital bandwagon. For me it is strictly an issue of convenience.

I have tried to do the "download" once or twice, but it seems that I don't want to put that much effort into it. I'd rather go to amazon and buy something new or even used now that they have the amazon sellers. Also, I still like to think that the artists that I enjoy are getting paid. As a musician I sort of feel bound to support other musicians. Basically if you can't depend on your "family" then you're pretty much without support because the general public doesn't really give a poop about whether you're eating ramen or top sirloin. They can go the comfort of there homes and listen to your music files while discussing how they are sticking it to the man.

The digital revolution is really an interesting change for music that can go a number of ways. The cynic in me thinks it'll end up with crappy music for free because real musicians can't afford to live without compensation or a small amount if any. I'd like to think that people realize that if you value something you should show it in a tangible way. It may not be cash in the future, it may go back to barter or something ... but if you take without giving enough times somebody is going to lose.

[SteveC]

I tend to buy via iTunes now. I do have a ton of CD's I ripped and then stuck under my bed. I do not have any illegal music on my computer or iPod. I have purchased it all.

[IanStephenson]

Originally Posted by Dave Muscato

In today's market, where music fans are less and less willing to pay $15, 12, or even $10 for a CD in light of all the "free" music on Limewire, etc, does it make sense for a band or indie label to invest money into this format anymore?

- Digital copies are unbreakable, take up no space (except intangible hard-drive space), are free to "ship,"

I've picked up on just a couple of your points which i think are misguided/optimistic...

First off - digital copies are VERY breakable. Ask anyone who's had an HD crash. (they're also not free to ship - how much do you think it would cost to set up and maintin the software/hardware to maintain the iTunes store? I also get a bill every month for my broadband - who says downloading is free? But I will concede that as a minor point). You could also ask the people who bought DRM'd music from some of the suppliers who've closed shop - taking their authorisation servers with them...

More importantly, if users can download music for free from illegal sites, why would they pay for a legal download which is identical to the legal one (apart from the illegal one not being crippled by DRM)? They might however buy a clearly differentiated one - like a CD which is tangible, higher quality, DRM free, probably cheaper, and hopefully comes with some nice artwork. My Dave LaRue CD arrived in the post today, complete with a 'thank you' note signed by the guy himself - thats worth something (to me) over a download.

I buy ALL my music online - as CD's which turn up in the post. They immediatly get ripped to iTunes. Then transfered/backed up to a FreeBSD server that shares them to all the house computers, and also to the lounge hifi via a soundbridge.

I'm also not convinced by attempts to sell video, which is lower quality that DVD, and costs more.

Ian

[punkbassistfc]

cd's will not die. You see, Ipods are just a fad that people will get over lol

[Dogbertday]

Though I personally don't download music for free unless it's offered (it's more o less because of HD crashes and wanting a tangible product) but also because i enjoy listening to albums al the way through and i find the higher quality of CDs rather than ripped music I can't pay attention to a whole album off my computer (i keep it on shuffle)

Now I have also found that recorded music downloads for free haven't hurt too many local bands that are trying to make it. In fact if i can get music from a local band and find that I like it for free I'm much more likely to go to one (or more) of their shows.

For the record... because it's becoming easier and easier for bands to produce their own records and for small labels to get professional equiptment I don't think these major labels are going to last much longer and it'll be all little guys and bands who can produce their own stuff. Personally i'm looking forward to this... it'll be so much easier to get started. and if people have access to my new music and like it I can count on having people at a show.. or at least making it easier to convince people to go (therefore cutting down on promotion cost) and then also have a hard copy of the CD available there maybe with more tracks that aren't available online... just a thought

[Bass Thunder]

Last night I ripped 3 Herbie Hancock CD's I just bought from Amazon (and all 3, including the new double CD, were cheaper than on itunes) while I downloaded a new Matt Garrison, "Improvisation" from itunes because I wanted it NOW. After that I downloaded a couple free podcasts from itunes and one direct from another website. That's my music at work today.

I always prefer to rip a CD to at least 192k than download it at max 128k, but I prefer to pay $9-14 for a CD, not $20 each.

I haven't got around to ripping the audio off my concert DVD's yet but that's next on the list.

Keep all options open.

[Lebowsky]

Thanks very much for the international responses, guys. I didn't know this type of downloading was legal in those countries.... interesting, to say the least!

yes, here it falls under the private copy rights - same as if you were taping a movie on television for example. But as soon as you share something - like on emule or torrent for example - then it's illegal!

I have a question for you all. How do you find out about new artists/material? Do you listen to the radio, listen to internet streams or podcasts, just browse people's shared folders and download indiscriminately, watch MTV, find out about bands from friends in person...? Personally, I listen to my friend Alexis' (internet) radio show. I hardly ever listen to the actual radio anymore. And actually, I've found out about a fair amount of bands by hearing their licensed songs on TV ads.

I haven't listened to radio in ages, be it "real" or internet radio. I find out about artists through friends, on the net (theprp.com is a great ressource), or at my local shop where I try to hang out once a month to find out about new goodies..... it's actually there that I discover most of the new stuff. Obviously would be hard to find out about bands that don't release physical CD's!

[jollygiantchris]

You fail to include those of us that only listen to physical CDs in our cars but use digital formats for everything else on the checklist.

[Bass Thunder]

Originally Posted by jollygiantchris

You fail to include those of us that only listen to physical CDs in our cars but use digital formats for everything else on the checklist.

All you need is an auxiliary input in that car stereo to plug-in an ipod from the headphone output. There are many, many aftermarket options coming on basically to set up ipod docks anywhere in your car and utilized all the car stereo functions.

Who needs a 6-CD changer in their car when they can have a 200-1,000 CD changer?

[El-Bob]

Originally Posted by Dave Muscato

I have a question for you all. How do you find out about new artists/material? Do you listen to the radio, listen to internet streams or podcasts, just browse people's shared folders and download indiscriminately, watch MTV, find out about bands from friends in person...? Personally, I listen to my friend Alexis' (internet) radio show. I hardly ever listen to the actual radio anymore. And actually, I've found out about a fair amount of bands by hearing their licensed songs on TV ads.

I hate the radio, the bands i listen to NEVER come on the radio around here. i tend to find out about music alot of ways, but those ways don't include radio or mtv. anyway, i'm not going into depth on this topic tonight, maybe some other time.

[jollygiantchris]

Originally Posted by Bass Thunder

All you need is an auxiliary input in that car stereo to plug-in an ipod from the headphone output. There are many, many aftermarket options coming on basically to set up ipod docks anywhere in your car and utilized all the car stereo functions.

Who needs a 6-CD changer in their car when they can have a 200-1,000 CD changer?

Not everyone's car has an auxiliary input in their car nor after market stereos. Some of us still drive beaters.