The Way Forward?

Fozzy

Stuck Mojo, a band that I've been a big fan of for a long time, are releasing their new album for free online as a sort of protest against the fact that every record company they have ever worked with owes them money

Full story here

It might come across as a way of trying to get free publicity, but Rich has had to sell the guitar he's used on every recording he's made, and his amp, to try finance making this album. And those two went together perfectly

I haven't heard the full album yet, heard a demo during the summer, but they've gotten a new vocalist since then

But could this be the way forward for bands? I know Mojo aren't the only ones who are owed money, and if the fans have a loyal enough fan base it could pay off for everyone

Doctor J

There are very few Metal bands who made a net profit. Most, and we're talking at least 99% of signed bands here, are in debt. Seriously. They work regular jobs when not on tour. There are very few musicians in the music industry making a living from the music industry. It's about time they got savvy and saw there is a way to record, promote and distribute your own music without participating in the very one-sided business which is established. Music doesn't need the music industry, the music industry needs music however. Bands have the power to take their music directly into billions of homes worldwide but, depressingly, most people still have the dream of "getting signed" which is, more often than not, the beginning of the end. "Getting signed" is the same as getting a mortgage. Until you pay it all back, you don't own ****. The French band Symbyosis offered a subscription to fund their last (and may I say ****ing fantastic) album On The Wings Of Pheonix - ie, you pay €20 for the CD before it's even recorded and the subscription funds the recording and manufacture of the CD, then you get a CD when it's finished. I think Dodgy did a similar thing after they got dropped by A&M a while back. The music industry is there to make money, but not for the people who make the music, so it continually surprises me when seemingly every band you meet are hell-bent on getting caught up in the **** and taking on debt while giving up whatever semblance of control they had over their careers.

On a local level, it baffles me to see bands trying to take on the business on the business's terms - ie making a CD and getting it stocked on the shelves in HMV, etc - when the financial return from it, even if it goes well, is minimal. Local bands could make alot more money by spending money on promotion rather than physical CDs and invest their energy in getting people to hear their music rather than take up space on a shelf among thousands of better promted units. I started a topic on a similar theme on the gigsmart forum a while back but most of them seemed against the idea of gicing the music away for free and accruing money from live performace and merchandise.

http://www.gigsmartireland.com/forum2004/forum_posts.asp?TID=16353

Some further reading

http://negativland.com/albini.html

and some other tales of woe

http://cynicalsphere.proboards26.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1097307018&page=3
http://www.metalsludge.tv/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=367&Itemid=37


Edit -> Fair play to Stuck Mojo, I'm not a huge fan of the music but I'm tempted to buy the album on principle alone. Good luck to them.