Maria Schneider on why streaming services aren't the answer
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.ค. 2018
- In an interview taped backstage at the Newport Jazz Festival, bandleader Maria Schneider talks about how Spotify and TH-cam are not helping musicians or their music.
This interview was taped backstage at the 2017 Newport Jazz Festival, where Schneider appeared with her orchestra. For more information about Schneider, visit www.mariaschneider.com
Interview by Irene Lee. Produced for JazzTimes by Lee Mergner. You can find more videos, plus news, features, reviews and lots more at www.jazztimes.com - เพลง
I love Jazz music. I mostly go to the evening lives on the clubs or to the concerts of young artists. This problem mainly involves them and singers and musicians who play this music.
I’ve committed myself to buy theirs CDs and to spread these informations about this issue.
Special thanks to Maria for her personal commitment.
I love Spotify and other streaming apps as I can listen to all my favourite music and discover new music. Would be great if the artists were getting good money through these apps.
I agre with you. I have discovered many artists using for example Tidal
Will NEVER HAPPEN. Business model is the master/slave economy. Unsustainable. Maria is the free slave. Others will follow. Enjoy the benefit of cheap labor while you can.
You know, Prince at one time only allowed streaming and downloading on his website, and you had to be a member of the NPG Fan Club to do it. It didn't cost much, far less than you'd pay for CD"s back in the pre-streaming days.
She is just a genius and her company and all contributors should reap the rewards as such because I just want to own every album she has put out because it’s a gem.
Maria Schneider; I hope you're right. I would love to see Spotify and the other streaming sites fail. I love music and thus feel supporting the artists that make great music is important. It's obvious that any artists other than the uber-famous pop or hip-hop stars are only going to make pennies from these services. I really don't feel like giving money to the shareholders of streaming services that simply view musical compositions as "widgets" that are leased to subscribers for maximum profit for the shareholders (musicians, composers, producers, engineers, be damned). I listen to a lot of different sorts of music (jazz, blues, fado, bluegrass, African pop music, Hindustani & Carnatic, classical, Brazilian, etc. , etc.) but most is well outside of the so-called "mainstream". If the producers and artists cannot at least break even, or hopefully make money, it's a death knell for the recordings I love.
By the way, the first time I actually heard the Maria Schneider Orchestra when I saw them in concert as part of the Portland Jazz Festival about 2 or 3 years ago. I was amazed!. Later that week I ordered several CDs from the Artist Share website. Much love for Maria Schneider and her music.
Take heed from a "4 GRAMMY-nominations, 7 GRAMMY Awards, numerous Jazz Journalists Association awards, DOWNBEAT and JAZZTIMES Critics and Readers Polls awards, an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, the University of Minnesota, ASCAP’s esteemed Concert Music Award (2014), the nation's highest honor in jazz, “NEA Jazz Master” (2019), election into the 2020 American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 2023 induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters."
I am just recording my first album as an independent artist and these are exactly the thoughts that have been going through my head. No other worker in any other industry is expected to give away all of their work for negligible financial return for 'promotional' reasons. The streaming industry isn't helping musicians!
It's her point of view still in 2022. She even refuses to provide 30 second demos on her bandcamp. $25 asked for that 2015 "Thompson Fields" (16/44 CD) release still. Very well, so be it.
Money and art never walked together. It is sad that musicians or any artist, specially not very known by the public, have a hard time financially, but this was always the case (for the majority of artists). Musicians now see spotify and streaming platforms as a way of getting their music out there and see the reaction, not as a way to make their projects sustainable.
Wow man. So much money is and has been made by "not very known by the public" musicians. Difference is they are smart. Let me know if you need examples. To a person they always 1) got an education (street AND school) 2) humble enough to learn from others mistakes 3) associate with other smart musicians 4) refuse to compromise a harder more sustainable long road than a unsustainable short road 5)only put there brick brack curiosity inducing stuff on streaming. they get its a commercial for the real thing. 6)understand only rich musicians that don't care or got out smarted by the streaming services have their stuff out there. I talk to musicians after the show. They WORKING and ALL DOING WELL. that is before the pandemic.
Kinda agree. Yes, it's unfair, but it's the best and fastest way to share music. If it wasn't for Spotify I would not have listened to 99% of music I love today. I love reviewing music and I wrote +600 album reviews and I don't think it would be possible if it wasn't because Spotify.
I would love to buy all Maria's records, but they are only in CD and download. I don't have a CD player, I have a vinyl player........ And I don't like downloaded stuff.
Download? Did I miss that? On her bandcamp it's "CD only". As I mentioned in my own answer: So - it - be! Can't help those remaining in denial and ignorance of past 1983 developments.
I know I'm going to sound stupid but would it just be easier if everything was just on TH-cam and we either just tolerate the commercials or a person could get the TH-cam thing where they pay a little bit to not have commercials ?
I would love to listen to the Thompson fields right now. But I respect her.
The fact that she still doesn't provide download on her bandcamp i find a little odd. First message: "You're all potential copycats here on bandcamp". Second message: "I don't have a clue about digital data but in 1983 I was told copying CDs requires a medical grade cleanroom and costly machinery so I think it's save even in your hands."
@@pickyaudiophile9898 just buy the CD.
The problem as i see it is this: Maria is both right, and wrong. She's right that streaming services make a fortune for themselves on the backs of artists' work, and it's infuriating that artists get virtually nothing from it. The pie exists and it's worth countless billions. Without the artist, there is no pie at all. So the artist's share should be the LARGEST, not microscopic or non-existent. But that's predatory capitalism for you. Maria Schneider correctly identifies that outrageous problem. |
What she's wrong about is the idea that shunning streaming altogether is a beneficial solution. For most artists (including herself, frankly), doing that will mean a life of obscurity. Is that what she wants? To pour her life into music no one will ever hear, be moved by or even know of? If no one ever hears your stuff, who will ever buy it? In 2023 (when i'm typing this), the internet is really the ONLY way people hear new music. Personally, i never knew Maria Schneider existed until i heard "Walking by Flashlight" from the Thompson Fields, for free, over the internet, on a jazz radio station. And if you asked 100 people who Maria Schneider is, there's a high possibility that 100 out of 100 would have no clue. |
Maria, you need to recognize that TH-cam etc are really just a modern form of radio. People who care about music are going to buy it, and look for ways to support their favourite artists as directly as possible; people who don't care, will never buy anyway. So you're not losing record sales to a TH-cam video. If anything, you'll probably gain new fans who will then buy your records. Streaming raises your visibility in a sea of artists, just as radio does. As the old saying goes: you can't win it unless you're in it. |
More importantly, the internet is not just how most people *discover* new music ... it's how most people listen to music that they've PURCHASED now. For example, i bought the Beatles' Mono box set on CD in 2010, and i don't regret it. i love physical media. But when i want to hear a song quickly, i don't reach for the box set; i go to TH-cam. When i want to hear a song by Nogizaka46 (a group i continue to spend an absolute fortune on supporting), i usually don't reach for the 10 copies of any one CD that i've purchased brand-new; i look for the MV on TH-cam. See what i mean?? Streaming is convenience. A significant number of people nowadays don't have a CD player, or even have a PC anymore. Streaming is their only "player" as it were. So by denying them the means to BUY your music digitally, you're really only hurting yourself. |
Now don't get me wrong: i still despise Spotify because their predatory capitalism is TOO obscene. i've never used it, and i never will. Perhaps i'm unfairly easier on TH-cam, because i remember its beginnings as a people-driven place. Bottom line, Maria ... the extremes (no streaming at all, vs streaming everywhere) both suck. Stream everywhere, and you get exploited by predatory capitalism. Stream nowhere, and you will toil in obscurity. The few fans who find you and are willing to buy your stuff directly ... they aren't going to pay the bills. If they do, congratulations! But i think you'll find that such a circumstance is a rare exception, not a sustainable model for 99% of artists. |
In short, the medium isn't the problem; fair compensation is. And the real solution for that, is to end predatory capitalism. That requires socialist governments, societal changes and a ton of legislation. i'd love all of that, but that's easier said than done. Trying to override the unfair systems in place on your own is admirable ... but it doesn't really work. We have to make the best of things in the world we live in, so i get that you're doing your best. All i'm saying is, don't fear the medium. At the very least, let your fans buy from you directly, and support you directly, in multiple mediums. |
Last point: i was looking through the comments, and geez. Maria's understanding of "CDs are impossible for buyers to copy" based on what some baka told her 40 years ago is so ignorant, it doesn't seem possible. The first thing i do with a CD i've purchased is to rip it to my PC, in a lossless format, for personal listening. You absolutely don't need a "clean room" or expensive equipment, lol. Nor should you. When i purchase music, i want to listen to it in the way that is most convenient to me. DRM is really nothing more than a means of punishing those who PAY for their music, i.e. the people who least deserve that. If your approach when someone buys your stuff is "how can i restrict and handicap your experience" rather than "thank you, i hope you enjoy and recomend it" ... yabai.
I don't use Spotify or any of those other things just TH-cam ... I'd like to just keep it really simple and I thought it was easier for artists to just have a channel on TH-cam where they could make money from it ?
Even the Beatles now have an official channel ; I think it's through Vevo .
And you're right if this woman was to have a number of vids here on the tube she would start to see her sales go up and she would also be making money here from the tube channel .