free downloads, et. al.

[Gregory Taylor <gtaylor@xxxxxxxx>]

> From: philippe petit <philippe-petit@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: microsound <microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> > who will buy a cd when they can download the audio and the art for free? very
> > few.

It seems to me that it wouldn't take much of a shift to
imagine a world in which artists have subscribers rather
than a larger number of buyers with whom they are
connected only by means of some commerial transaction,
and to imagine a world in which people value an original
physical instantiation of somethng [made and/or packaged
interestingly or accompanied by some other collection of
objects in the way that a fine art book will include a signed
numbered print] while everyone else has copies. I subscribe
to some things, and go to the library or online to read the
rest. I buy books regularly, but stand in line to meet an
author and collect signed editions of those authors whose
work I particularly value. I still borrow and take out books.

And cost? The market value of such things isn't particularly
interesting to me; I won't sell my #150  edition of the first
edition of the Oblique Strategies even if the price goes up to
a squillion clams on eBay.

And, on some level, I'm not even sure I'd be very upset
to find myself in a world where very few people make a
full living from doing art, provided that such a change
would mean that *more* people would be engated part-time
in making art and making a living in other ways [which
can, in the best of times, feed one's art wonderfully. I
expect that this will be more the case once I can get the
new Max/MSP docs out the door, and I'm willing to forego
lots of output till then.... :-)], and that labels or other points
of access served to link those prosumers together.

Similarly, I think it'd be really interesting to explore the
distinctions and divides between live performance and
recorded/released media in a universe where nearly all
our live stuff was available, and we could choose to
treate recorded media differently, or privilege things in
the other direction.

I think that the folks at Fällt [for example] have the idea. I
think that they realize that this shift will occur with or
without them, and they're bravely looking at ways to
position themselves in the midst of the emerging world.
Running a label/poing of information as a curatorial
activity is only one way to do it, of course.

I also realize that the Romantic notion that we need to have
people who do nothing but express their genius all day long,
and that society should support them all is a treasured
cultural trope. I'm just not entirely sure I'll be really sad to
see it go. It's also been as much a license for self-indulgence
and ridiculous economies of scale from time to time as anything
else.

Your mileage may vary. Mine may too, tomorrow.

gregory


--
_
knowledge is not enough/science is not enough/
love is dreaming/this equation/Gregory Taylor/
WORT-FM 89.9/Madison, WI/ http://www.rtqe.net/