Music Fan Manifesto

What�s wrong with the music industry?
There are countless books, websites and magazines that adore musicians and bands, and even label themselves, but nowhere is the voice of the fans represented in a collective shout. This is where we make our opinions heard - and prove we�re the most important part of the equation.

Cassette Tape Pasta with Sliced CD, Concert Stub Garnish and Microchip Tea.
TOPIC OF THE WEEK

MUSIC RETAIL:
What would make shopping for music better? You can find a wider variety of what you�re looking for online. You can go to hundreds of chat rooms and converse with people knowledgeable on the genre of music you like.
How about store employees who lose the attitude?
What if you combined music stores/dance clubs?
Make the place you go to hear new music also the place you go to buy the music.
Tear down the era of the overpromoted superstar. Seek music directly from the artists willing to interact with you.
Are you buying the music or packaging? Because, really, we've bought the music a long time ago. Are we leasing the music with each new format? The technology only makes the ability to listen to the music more convenient. Music might be remastered for better sound quality, but the music is only as good as our emotions in the moment will allow.

ARTIST
ACCESSIBILITY
RATINGS
Do your favorite artists interact with fans or hide behind a label�s PR?
Fortress of Solitude:
Artist hides solidly behind the label,
offers fans no extra material
Behind the Post, Section Z:
Gives a show but you can�t see it too well
Front Row Center:
Artist is accessible
Backstage Pass:
Artist has regular interaction with fans,
keeps fans updated of activities and new material;
has web diary etc

Artists who seek to sell their music commercially should sell shares. For decades, fans have invested in artists, with most of the money going to the label.
Labels are protecting the market at the peril of the culture that creates the market. For works that endure through the lives of the artist and their families, they should enjoy the benefit. But works that drop from the market are lost. They linger in the aftermarkets, become collectible perhaps, or are completely forgotten. In an analog world, that was too bad. In a digital world, we can protect against this by archiving our culture. Fans 50 years from now can pull up obscure works from today. But current law makes this illegal.
Listen to the freeflow of music. It is on the street, in the stores, in films, on other people�s radios. Sometimes it is live, played before you.
Marketing gimmicks fans hate:

Releasing a box set with no extras - fans already have the music "remastered?" In some only the most serious audiophile can tell the difference, but thanks for the new liner notes.
Release a big box set of hits with one rare extra track, then doing separate, complete remasters the following year with extra tracks.

Artists are under no obligation to endear themselves to fans; sometimes artists create their music solely for themselves.

Is the irony of the situation totally lost on the music executives? That they�ve spent decades honing their rebel-image artists and feeding the public a mythos of bad-to-the-bone rock-n-roll where artists sample each other�s music, cover other�s songs, and where the actual authors of the songs themselves get paid an average of less than minimum wage for even songs that sell millions -- and they expect the fans who buy into this mythos to be upright, respectable citizens whose ethics are perfectly in line with their corporate policy?

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