Metal Reviews

Not realising there is a non-mainstream, probably.

The people who review albums like St Anger commercially probably think they are covering the 'alternative' world.

I blame the underground. People are so used to having to go online to search out details for tiny little bands not stocked by the likes of HMV, that more well-known bands get caught up in it.

Any band worth a shit will tell you they really don't make money off of album sales. The record label gets about 80% of the album sales. Bands make money primarily from touring and merchandise. So if you still go to the shows you are still supporting you favorite bands.

Vince Neil said it best:"Download my music all you want. As long as you still show up when the Crue comes to town, you're not hurting the band one bit.

Plus, this issue with Metal is irrelevant. The labels are mainly crying because their Pop acts with one hit song and ten fillers aren't being bought anymore because everyone is just downloading the one good song. Maybe the labels should focus on putting out quality product, and then people will buy it.

In the early 80's people tape traded like crazy, and it didn't hurt anyone. In fact, metallica got popular through tape trading, so they should be for downloading. DL'ing is just the natural progression of tape trading. Real music fans still buy music. Plain and simple. The casual fans never bought music actively anyways. It's all just recrod company spin folks.

I can't see downloading as the natural evolution of tape-trading. Tapes helped you get into bands, then you went and bought it. Downloading is for lazy, tight fucks who won't pay out for something they can get free. Of course, some music fans buy, but take a look at this forum: I'd say everyone here is a music fan, yet the majority download.

eh? I don't get what you mean.

The internet has made small, poor bands able to market themselves pretty easily, meaning the only true underground bands are the ones who choose to be. Since people have to go online to look them up, it's a natural progression to download music there as well, and then to download more well-known bands.
People have lost their appreciation of music by having it available so easily.

Filesharing is not so much the natural evolution of tapetrading as, say, exchanging CDR copies.

Before I got my filthy downloading habit a friend and I used to blind-buy one or two Metal albums a week, and then exchange them for copying (so, 2-4 new albums a week).

oh, yeah, I think I see.

ah well, I'm on Kathaarian's side on this one; fuck the music business. I download lots and share as much as people ask for, either on dc++ or just with people who ask. I do this under the faith that if I was a recording musician then I'd want as many people as possible to have heard my music, and when the time comes I'll be sharing my stuff too.

So you say now, all ideological, like. Wait until you start selling, and the difference between 400 and 401 (or whatever) sales means whether or not you get the rent paid... You have to work with the music business if you're going to be a part of it.

I'm never selling out dude

:roll:
Why is that "selling out"? Making a living isn't selling out. If you started rapping in the middle of your prog-doom (or whatever the fuck it is you play) then that would be, but not making money from it. Bloody Black Metal's got a lot to answer for...

Although I do have much respect for people that are willing to record purely to share with others, these people are pretty rare within the music world as a whole. Musicians deserve to be paid. It is a craft, much like writing or painting or architecture or whateverthefuck- and subsequently there are people that spend literally decades learning about it. And then to say to those people: "What do you mean, we can't have it for free?" seems a bit much. Hence why I sometimes feel guilty for downloading...

it most definetly is selling out. black metal hasn't put this idea in my head, I came to this conclusion watching live musicians play at jam sessions for the sheer joy of performing, getting paid nothing and looking like fucking superheroes. charging money for a diluted version of what you can do, that sounds the same every time it's played is selling out.

So they definately deserve money for doing that! Music isn't some pure sixteen-year old virgin, that's never seen a cock in its life. Music is the rancid neighbourhood grandmother whore, fucked every way imaginable. There's nothing more good or special about people that play for free, nothing to admire more than people who make money from it.

slut.

Not at all! You've just got this misplaced idea from somewhere that music is somehow special, akin to religion. Man, music is music. Entertainment. That's all. It just happens to be my main hobby, and yours too.

I've seen the same thing, but I also know that many of those same performers are also sick of being fucked over by promoters/venue owners. It takes dedication to be able to survive in a jam session environment, and I think the vast, vast majority of musicians capable of doing it would say they felt they deserved more money for what they do.

Agreed. On the most basical level musicians are just like actors, or tv presenters, or sports people, in that they are here for entertainment, and little more. Musicians deserve financial compensation in the exact same way.

ugh, really? that sucks. I fantasize music a little because it's basically all I enjoy so I guess the phrase, "it's just music" turns me right off whatever argument you're making. life already sucks huge balls without people putting you back in your place with glib reality checks. reality checks are not an aide to enjoyment or contentment.

anyway.

I tend to make an exception for people selling their work independent of a label.. and also it's kinda rude to refuse to buy something at someone's gig, I find, so I have a lot of material by local artists. but people who already have a deal don't see my money I'm afraid.

Chew on this. The boys from Collective Soul were on Howard Stern about a month ago. Collective Soul, a band who has sold Millions of albums worldwide. You know how much they made off of those albums? $150,000. That's it. To split between the band. The label took ALL of their money. Pat Monahan from Train, another multi-platinum act, said the same thing. The musicians aren't seeing the money from album sales. Period. The only person you fuck by downloading music is the LABEL, not the band. There is a whole trail of great musicians who sold millions of albums and never saw a dime. Robert Johnson comes to mind. Even in the 50's, before they had computers, labels were fucking artists up the ass.

Like I said, touring and merchandise is where the bands make profit. That's even what they guy from Collective Soul said. We make money from concerts, not album sales.

People who download albums and don't buy, weren't going to buy it anyway. They never did. Before downloading they made a CDR or Recorded Cassetttes of albums. And if you buy Used CD's, guess what? The band isn't getting paid for that eithier. So next you're going to say Used CD's are killing the music business? :roll:

AS LONG AS YOU GO TO CONCERTS THE BANDS WILL BE FINE.