Re: WANTED: Online music responses

[Matt Davignon <mdavig@sfsu.edu>]

Okay, I'm sorry I was paranoid. I guess part of the fear resided in the 
fact that
most of the questions were written in better english than what I'm used to 
seeing
in e-mail. The other part was the dotted line between your letter and the
questions, which had me thinking they were written by some one else. Sorry.
Looking at the quote of me down there, it doesn't look like I was very 
polite
either. Oops!

I'm not really against the idea of making money from your music either, 
nor do I
hold anything against professional musicians. If you're not selling stuff 
through
a record label and paying lots of middle men to distribute your product, 
it seems
pretty steep to charge a retail CD price for a music recording. I think 
$10 is a
good price, and I'm impressed by musicians who sell their music online for 
less.

As for the record store issue, I shop at Amoeba (in San Francisco or 
Berkeley CA)
all the time, I also really enjoy Aquarius Records (in SF). I usually walk 
out of
those record stores carrying a delightful surprise. The reason that I have 
a
grudge against the national chain stores is because a lot of people don't 
have a
really great record store nearby. I think there's more good record stores 
than
there ever was, but for most towns in America, the best selection at a 
record
store is Media Play (which is owned by musicland, I believe).

more on this later, I believe, I have to go to work.

matt

Kim Flint wrote:

> At 11:51 PM -0700 7/26/99, Andre LaFosse wrote:
> >Matt Davignon wrote:
> >
> >> Well, I'm responding to the group because your questions looked a 
>little
> >> "official" and I don't want to wind up on another unsolicited mailing 
>list.
> >
> >No spam here -- I'm an independent musician/cash register clerk (not
> >always in that order) trying to gather some ideas for how to go about
> >getting his music heard.
>
> Andre's been on the LD list pretty much since it started. He's cool man.
> Old timers will recall that Andre's ability to tell me I'm wrong exceeds
> Hawkeye's by about 1000 times, in quantity, quality, and intensity. If he
> can still post here, anybody can. ;-)
>
> >> Most of the musicians I enjoy do what they do to be creative and
> >> to spread musical ideas, not to make money.
> >
> >Hopefully these two things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
> >
> >> Right now, there's a wonderful thing that's happening in music right 
>now.
> >> With the internet, mp3 files, and affordable CD burners, the music 
>business
> >> is becoming less of a business. You can go to the Wherehouse or 
>Musicland
> >> and pay $17 for a mediocre CD, or you can find a website where 
>someone is
> >> offering their CD "free-for-trade" and find some music that actually 
>has
> >> some passion to it.
> >
> >I do hope that the change you're talking about doesn't result in people
> >writing off any mainstream retail outlet as a place to find interesting
> >music -- or for that matter, writing off the notion that an artist might
> >want to make some significant income from their work...
>
> I don't mind paying for music at all. I vastly prefer that good musicians
> be able to devote their life to bringing me more good music, without them
> having to spend large chunks of each day behind the register at Tower
> Records so they don't starve to death. I think the advantage of the
> internet and recording tech is I can now much more easily give the 
>musician
> my money directly in exchange for his/her music, rather than to a lot of
> middlemen. (in time, the Sendero Luminoso will fix all of this for us!;-)
>
> However, I do really enjoy browsing around in Amoeba records. I always 
>end
> up with great stuff I wasn't really thinking about when I went in. Much
> more pleasant and social than web surfing by myself. Getting out in the
> world, seeing people with green mohawks, etc.  I hope they don't go the 
>way
> of the dodo... I think you just need a real music store, Matt. Stay out 
>of
> those malls, nothing good happens there.
>
> kim
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Kim Flint                   | Looper's Delight
> kflint@annihilist.com       | http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html
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