They said the death of the record industry would be a bad thing. We were asked who would possibly want to release music without record sales propped up by major label distribution. And yet, the world hasn't fallen silent. I know because I listened to Cloudkicker's "We're goin' in. We're going down." all day today. I'm not sure, but I don't think the world has ended yet.
Cloudkicker is made of Ben Sharp and his computer. Mr. Sharp has a day job, and he self-produces and distributes his instrumental metal releases from Columbus, Ohio. Sharp offers CDs and vinyl, but also gives away downloads of his albums for free. So, you can't tell him what to do. You can buy a shirt from him, but he won't play your town. He's not playing concerts at all, and seems fine with that. Cloudkicker looks like just another thing that Ben Sharp is working on, which is becoming a part of the business model these days (Buck 65 called it in November 2009, and here we are). You'd better have more than one job, and you might as well give your shit away for free, because people will just steal it if they want to. Make it good enough that people want to buy it, and then make it worth the money in some tangible way.
But I rant. I'm happy that we have an artistic climate and an information infrastructure that lets people make art for themselves, and put it out there, just in case want it. I'm happy to live at a time when I can find new favorite artists out of practically infinite options, instead of choosing from the small selection provided by people I've never met, who presume to know what I like. That system created an illusion of artistic scarcity, and taught us falsely that only special people can make meaningful things. That terrible outlook is being challenged by a growing army of folks making headlines and becoming part of people's lives, and doing it without much besides a laptop and a Tumblr account. I'm happy about that.
Cloudkicker is over this way.
No comments:
Post a Comment