Jimmy "Flim" Johnson

[keith_h]

I understand your perspective being it is how you make a living. I'm finding it harder to tell what is sanctioned or who sanctions content on posting sites. Some artists are very particular about not having unauthorized content where others have a more laissez faire attitude. I also think our copyright laws and system compound the problem by making enforcement the responsibility of the copyright holder. That was manageable when most pirated items were physical objects but with the proliferation of digital files no longer works. I'm not sure what can be done about it at this point. I don't think there is a real political will to update copyright law and even if there was the will it would have to be a worldwide effort since jurisdiction is where the data is hosted not where it is seen.   

[JimmyJ]

Well, much of my living used to be recording work but that has shifted to touring in recent years.  I'm sure there are still some folks doing well with studio work but I was never really a mainstream guy there and I've kind of aged out.  But I'm happy to have lived in a time when sessions were a going thing. Albums now seem to be promo for concerts as opposed to back in the day when touring was done to support the record.  It is what it is and there's nothing to do but roll with it.    

I wrote to Patreon to alert them to the guy charging for his illegally recorded content - a clear violation of their own user rules.  But as you say, the burden of policing this behavior is now the responsibility of the "owner" of the music.  (Apparently there is "ownership" of one's likeness or performance).  So if I had written any of the songs that person had posted I would be able to have it pulled.  Some major Artists have a staff of people monitoring social media and doing just that.  But it's a serious whack-a-mole situation and a losing battle.

I think what has happened to music in this way is also what's driving the Movie Industry to be scrambling and experiencing labor issues.  I know there are many moving parts to that including AI created content and deep-faked actors (some long dead).  But they are desperately trying to control the distribution of their expensively produced content.

Sorry everybody, I didn't mean to go off on this tangent.  Back to the joy of music and the playing of low notes.   

Jimmy J

[lbpesq]

Wow, people getting paid for listening to music on line!  Whoda thunk it?  Then again our son, the sports fanatic, recently got hired by Apple to watch games on TV and write posts on what is happening during the game.   I may be the "get off my lawn" guy, but sometimes I question whether the whole computer/internet thing has actually improved our lives in the greater scheme of things.

Bill, tgo

[eddievig]

I was in the musical instrument retail biz in the late 80's through the late 90's, and remember when CD writers got popular. The technology and media was expensive at first, so pirating didn't make sense...until CD blanks and recorders got cheap. Then there was the whole .mp3/Napster thing, which I ranted about to anyone who would listen. What really confounded and disappointed me was that the musicians that were my friends, clients, and employers were doing it also.
It really hit home with some of them once they couldn't sell their CD's at their gigs anymore because their "fans" got it for free. Now the YouTube dilemma...

I'm glad to see the film and TV actors fighting for a better deal from the streaming services, and I hope that more creatives get to do the same with Spotify and their ilk. I still buy CD's whenever I can, and I still like the idea of not needing a computer or Internet connection to listen to music. After all, my DAT machine, cassette players and turntables need the company anyway...

[lbpesq]

I may be among the last of the holdouts, but I just don't want to hear music in mp3 format.  I still buy CDs (though I admittedly don't buy much new music these days) and I still regularly use my Pono Player loaded with both CD quality and high-definition music.  BIG difference from mp3s.

Bill, tgo

[StephenR]

I still find myself buying a lot of new music in various mediums. These days I try to avoid CD only releases because of all the plastic and having no more room to store additional CDs. Along with all the CDs I have at least 1000 LPs remaining in my collection, live shows from trade-friendly artists like the Dead, and lots of music that I bought as an authorized digital download. I really like Bandcamp because I can preview music before I buy and if I buy an expensive modern LP pressing I also get access to unlimited high resolution digital downloads of the material. All artists on Bandcamp have to upload high resolution audio if they want to sell there but users can download in a variety of formats including mp3. I took advantage of the access to the mp3 downloads from my Bandcamp collection to put them on my iPad before going on vacation this summer but always download in FLAC or AIFF format for home listening. Unlike streaming services Bandcamp has what I think is a fair business model where the artists get 80-85% of the selling price of the product. During the pandemic they started having Bandcamp Friday where the artists get 100% of whatever they sell. IMO a service like this has real value to artists that don't have major label or equivalent distribution of their product. These days it is common to have to tour and sell merchandise/CDs to make any kind of living.There are more and more established artists selling on Bandcamp, too, Peter Gabriel and Richard Thompson come to mind. Below is a link to a page which explains the business model and monetary aspects of how the service works.

https://bandcamp.com/fair_trade_music_policy

[edwardofhuncote]

This might be a crazy motivation, but I buy hard copies of CD's for the credits and liner notes. I like to read who played what, on what. Who wrote it. Stuff like that. There's that, then there's this hitch in my giddy-up leftover from a couple years ago when Google Play held all my downloads for ransom unless I opted-into some other product of theirs I didn't want and couldn't use. Finally, the deadline came, and they deleted my music, probably $100 worth... all my Linda Ronstadt, gone... all my Miranda Lambert, *poof*. (don't y'all judge me...) So I decided from then on not to download anything. Jus' mail me a hard copy.

[David Houck]

Like Stephen, I purchase and download from Bandcamp in FLAC format.  If the artist, album, or track I'm looking for isn't there, I can usually find it, in FLAC, at Qobuz.  But I check Bandcamp first, because the artist gets paid much more there than anywhere else.  Oh, and many of the artists at Bandcamp sell CD's there as well.

[JimmyJ]

Yes, Bandcamp is a great site and I also support Artists there.  I love that you can "name your price" and pay extra if you find something particularly amazing.  And I used to be a fan of Patreon because I have friends who use it in the way it was intended.  But after my exchange with them described above there's a cloud over it.  No effort to police their own "original content" rules.  Too bad.

Even though a lot of my earlier career was working in the audiophile world (early to CDs and digital recording) I am not one and tend to buy AAC or mp3 versions of albums.  Most of my listening is done while traveling using my IEMs on planes, etc.  So it's rarely a controlled hi-fi listening situation.  But it seems I can enjoy well-recorded music in any format.

You know the phrase "the plumber's pipes leak"?  Our home stereo is a funny collection of ancient gear which still sounds pretty good but it is no audiophile rig.  I don't know many musicians who have major stereos - other than those who have home studios.  The best stereo in our neighborhood belongs to a retired orthopedic surgeon.   

Jimmy J

[keith_h]

I still buy CD's and the occasional vinyl recording. I can hear a difference on my home system compared to MP3's. With my new truck lacking a CD player I have taken to loading them onto a USB stick for listening while driving. Fortunately the truck supports multiple lossless file formats so I've been ripping them to ALAC format since that's what my ripper handles the best.

Most of my vinyl I also own on CD. I also own a number of direct to disc and half speed masters that were never reissued on CD. I have been contemplating digitizing those so I can listen to those too when driving.

[jacko]

Like Bill I'm a luddite when it comes to recorded music. The only time I listen online is if I have to learn a song. Most of the time I buy on LP and just got round to installing new shelving for my collection - I have maybe 700 LPs and around the same in CD format. Also just spent £1500 (GBP) on a new needle!

Graeme

[rv_bass]

I still have a pile of vinyl records, cassette tapes, and CDs that I listen to on my decades old stereo set up at home, but I now only buy downloadable music for my iPhone which interfaces with the rest of the world. 

[jazzyvee]

I also prefer hard physical copies of music. In the past i always bought vinyl or CD and played those at home, copied them to cassette or the car. Then when i got a car with a CD Player i copied the CD's for the car instead thus keeping the originals at home. These days my car has both CD player an solid state hard drive that allows me to copy CD's into the car, so i have started doing that occasionally. At the moment it has some of my old favourites and any new CD's i get. No idea whether the copies are mp3 or lossless. For home listening i tend to listen to music a lot less these days but when I do it's usually CD's.

[slawie]

Jimmy. Are you coming to Australia with James Taylor?
I am in Melbourne.
Slawie

[JimmyJ]

Hey Slawie,

Yes, it looks like we'll be heading your way in April on a far-east / down-under tour.  I haven't seen the details yet but we're looking forward to it. 

Jimmy J