Slashdot Mirror
Piracy Offers Heavy Metal a New Business Model
hessian writes "Despite being extensively pirated worldwide, Iron Maiden have managed to put themselves in the £10-20m for 2012. This means that despite the growing popularity of the band on social media, and the extensive and pervasive torrent downloading of the band's music, books and movies, the band is turning a profit. This is in defiance of the past business model, and the idea that piracy is killing music. In fact, piracy seems to be saving music in Iron Maiden's case. One reason for this may be metal itself. It has a fiercely loyal fanbase and a clear brand and identity. The audience identifies with the genre, which stands in contrast to genericized genres. It doggedly maintains its own identity and shuns outsiders. As a result, fans tend to identify more with their music, and place a higher value on purchasing it."
So had Metallica...and we all know how that turned out for them.
I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off...
of the record labels. Before records, musicians made money by playing in live concerts. That's what musicians should do today, and "piracy" would cease to exist, along with the vampiristic record companies: live gigs would turn a profit, and free recordings (Youtube, MP3 and others) would be like film trailers, something to draw you to the live concerts.
Famously, the Grateful Dead encouraged people to record their concerts and saw nothing wrong with that, because 1/ every gig was different, and 2/ they considered their concerts to be where the interest, and the money, was.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
The audience identifies with the genre, which stands in contrast to genericized genres.
I'm pretty sure that fans of any genre of music think that their genre is special and that all the other genres are homogenous and generic. This is not something special about heavy metal. To paraphrase Tyler Durden, heavy metal is not a beautiful or unique snowflake.
Metallica drove away a lot of their early fans with the black (and subsequent) album, migrating to a more, dare I say, "fleeting" audience. And I say this as someone who liked the black album.
Iron Maiden always stayed true to their original music. To their detractors, it means "it's always the same thing". Which it is (I hate myself for saying that ;) ). To their fans, it means even you started listening to it in the 80s you can pick up a new album or go to a concert and you know you'll enjoy it.
Another point is Iron Maiden always put on a massive effort in their live shows. You get an awful load of bang for your buck.
The upshot is a very loyal fanbase. Including myself since 1990.
Last thing, Iron Maiden owns their music and always have. Makes a big difference...
Metallica is perfect example of what 'selling out' gets you. However I think it goes deeper than that. They simply aren't the same people anymore, except for maybe Lars, he has always been a moron. Kirk no longer gives a fuck. James is all born again 'sober'. ...and Newstead finally had enough of their shit and left.
They really died after Justice for all.
Iron Maiden always stayed true to their original music. To their detractors, it means "it's always the same thing". Which it is (I hate myself for saying that ;) ).
I challenge anyone to listen to the first three Maiden albums, then to Somewhere in Time, then to Brave New World, then to Final Frontier and come back with a straight face telling that it's the same. Maiden had always followed a slow but changing path. Ditching the punkish sounds in NOTB to introducing synths in SIT and SSOASS to more orchestration in BNW to a more prog approach in AMOLAD and FF.
We've all seen the pie chart showing just what a tiny fraction of the pie the artist receives for a sold recording owned by a record company. Iron Maiden is losing so little it's unnoticeable. Far better for them to have their fans pirate the recordings they don't own, leaving more available disposable income for spending on things of which the band gets a much better cut, like their merchandise and concert tickets. Basic economics.
And yes, despite the herpaderp sarcasm of the anonymous coward at the bottom of the comments, it really is acting as free advertising, exposing an entirely new generation of potential customers to their music. Cory Doctorow was right: “Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy.” Eric Flint echoed the sentiment when the Baen Free Library was established. Then he proved it with sales numbers.
Holding a gun to people's heads and demanding money does not make you liked. It makes you hated. People prefer to spend money on what they like. Finding what they like is tough, and getting tougher every year as the amount of entertainment material in the world explodes even faster than world population. So yeah, free downloads work. This is only a surprise to the MAFIAA and their persistent shills on Slashdot.
Metallica's first album couldn't get into stores. No one wanted to carry metal, no-one ever has. The only reason they got big was because their fans made bootlegs and traded them across the country. This got them gigs, and eventually there was so much buzz about them that stores had to carry them. This is continuing today, but rather than simply be destitute the first few years of your carer you can now start touring, making money from that and merchandize sales. Touring metal bands do VERY well. They are one of the few touring acts that still attracts medium sized audiences. The arena acts today pretty much only hit the major cities, so there's no one left for the "larger than a bar but not an arena" size places. But if they bring in metal bands they can be sure they'll get a crowd. Bluegrass is kind of exploding in the same way, they've taken some notes from the metal guys. You can tour, be on the lower end of the "Famous" scale and make enough money to live on. That's not so bad, and I think if you look at how much money musicians are making now as an entire group compared with before the internet it's probably a lot bigger number... it's just spread out over a lot more musicians. We're returning to how music has always been, and how it should be. Decent musicians making a decent living and fewer and fewer PR created megastars sucking up all the entertainment dollars.