Guest Blog – Chris Zabriskie – 24/03/2009
// October 25th, 2009 // Uncategorized
In 2001, my friend Dave Joslyn and I formed a band called Struggleburger. We recorded 11 albums in 12 months and put everything up for free online. At one point, our ridiculous and very sarcastic spoken-word cover of Linkin Park’s “Crawling” was more popular on Audiogalaxy than the real thing. Ah, Audiogalaxy. Still miss it.
In 2002, we formally created Celestial Bison Records, one of the first netlabels, where all the music was available as free mp3 downloads. Struggleburger’s music was there along with my early solo work, Dave’s, and lots of other bands over the next few years, including Bucket of Nails, Josh Brookoff, Marc with a C, Steve Garron, and more. We had a lot of success with it until we shut it down in 2005 (for a lot of reasons, none of them financial). And in 2006, I released the first record under my own name, The Black Hole, online for free.
So, in 2008, I put out O Great Queen Electric, What Do You Have Waiting for Me?. The music world had changed a lot in two years, so I decided to experiment. It was my first experience with iTunes and digital distribution. I’d always been against iTunes and paying for mp3s (obviously, given my history). I was, and still am, a big supporter of BitTorrent and file sharing. But I was getting more and more requests for my music to be available on iTunes. I didn’t understand why at the time, but I figured it was worth a try. Who am I to tell people they can’t have my music the way they want to have it (save vinyl, which is still hella expensive to press)?
The experiement was a success. The album did really well online (”Joss Whedon” being passed around all the Whedon fan sites probably didn’t hurt, something I somewhat naovely did not expect). But what really pushed its success was the song “We Start the Cure in Paris” ending up on Criznittle’s February 2008 Indie/Rock Playlist torrent. If you don’t know what that is (and I didn’t until I started getting a bunch of e-mails about it and the song), it was a monthly torrent full of new indie music put together by some guy from somewhere (who, as I understand it, is actually now in jail for unrelated reasons, poor guy). It’s really cool, just one person’s mixtape, but a great way for people all around the world to see what’s going on in music that month. So, very suddenly, tens of thousands of people from around Portland to Poland had that song on their computer (and their, uh, interesting YouTube videos… sorta NSFW, that one). How did Criznittle find it? I don’t know, exactly. But he did, and he liked it, and he shared it, and I found a lot of fans because of it.
Sure, not everyone who downloaded it ended up buying it. That’s ridiculous to wish for, and even more ridiculous for the RIAA to expect it. But I guarantee that no one bought that album, or any of my other albums, without hearing them first. Or without seeing me live. Or without “pirating” it first. And why would you expect otherwise in this day and age? I’ll never forget downloading Kid A when I was in college, months before it came out. The idea that you could do that now (to speak nothing of the actual album) totally blew my mind. But I still bought the CD the day it was released. Mp3s weren’t a replacement for owning something. That’s where I think the RIAA went wrong.
iTunes is pushed as a legal way to download music. I don’t think that’s the point, though. That might be the way it is for the major label artists, who are still paying off their advances. To me, it’s all about convenience and about supporting the artist. I actually purchased Alan Sparhawk’s Solo Guitar last week from iTunes (something I rarely do, I’m a vinyl LP guy). I’ve heard the record many times before, but I was talking about it with a friend who’d never heard it and wanted to give him a taste. I could have easily gone to What.CD or Waffles.fm and found it, I’m sure. But instead, I just went to iTunes on my iPhone (I know, I know), purchased it, downloaded it directly, and we were listening to it moments later. Both super convenient for me and I know the bulk of that money is going straight to Alan. It’s a win-win. (The artist making the bulk of iTunes cash depends on the label they are or aren’t on, to be sure, but in this situation, I knew who was getting the cash.)
Was I paying for the right to listen to that record? The temporary license, as it were? The industry says yes, I say no. I can find that record anytime I want to online and listen and no one is going to come after me (not even Alan, I’ll bet). But I was paying for the convenience, and I was supporting the artist. And that’s the best way to look at something like iTunes. Some people just really like the convenience. Who needs a bunch of plastic discs cluttering up the house, when they’re just going to my iPod? And even though BitTorrent is second nature to me now, the majority of the world doesn’t use it, doesn’t understand it, and doesn’t want to bother with it, especially since iTunes downloads fast, immediately, and directly to your iTunes library and iPod. Simple.
The world is changing faster than we can keep up with, and I can tell you assuredly that no one making music today has any idea what they are doing anymore. When you see Of Montreal releasing an album with decals, paper lanterns, and whatever the hell else along with it, you know something is sort of wrong with the process. Napster, BitTorrent, iTunes, and file sharing of all kinds have not just leveled the playing field, they have slashed and burned it.There is nothing left but the charred remains of what used to be the only way to find and listen to music. It’s a stupid analogy, maybe, but when a forest burns down, eventually new growth appears stronger than ever. That’s what’s starting to happen, little green buds coming out of the ground. It’s going to take a long time for those to be trees again.
There is simply is no right way to release music any longer. You can put it in any sort of shiny packaging you want, offer as many bonus tracks as you want, and put free copies in as many newspapers as you want. Nothing will change the fact that the people that want to hear the music will do it how they want to, not how they’re told to. Some people will buy the CD. Some people will buy only vinyl. Some people find iTunes best for them. And some people download everything they can get their hands on and eventually buy what they like. Who’s right? Everybody. The Internet has put the power in the hands of the consumer and the artist, and taken it away from the corporations. This is awesome. This is the way it’s supposed to be. What does that mean for the future? What’s the best way to release a record these days? No one knows. And, for those that make music, that problem may never be solved again.
So, it’s widely known that I leak all of my records in advance to torrent sites. I can tell you from numerous conversations and firsthand experience that there are few artists left, even in the big leagues, that do not. You wonder where the early leaks come from? Don’t be so surprised. “People are going to do it anyway, it might as well be me.” So it’s out there, for anyone to have. The vast majority of my physical sales come from people who’ve “pirated” it first. And why not? Why wouldn’t you want to hear in advance what it is you’re purchasing? No one should ever be upset that people are downloading their record for free. They’re listening to it. And chances are they will buy it someday if they like it. Someone who doesn’t buy it still wouldn’t have bought it if they didn’t download it, so what’s the worry?
But, in all that, and in all my support of BitTorrent, I’m still leaving out an important part of my fanbase: everyone else. Why reward those people who think they’re stealing something, when there are plenty of people in the world who don’t use BitTorrent and would probably enjoy it being in their iPod just as much as the IndieTorrents member?
In the end, there’s no use in hoarding my music and forcing people to pay for it, since it’s just going to end up on The Pirate Bay anyhow. And there’s no use in giving it only to people who use The Pirate Bay. The music world will continue to change perpetually in the future, and it will never stop. But it can’t change past “everything is free, buy it if you like it,” so I’m permanently making that step and staying ahead of the game.
I want you to listen to my records. That is why I made them, and that is why I released them. Sure, I’d like to make some money for it. If anyone says they don’t want to be paid for their music, they’re either lying to you or themselves. But it’s not the sole reason I make music. I make music because I want to. I need to. I am compelled to. It comes out of me whether I want it to or not, for better or for worse. So why not share it? And if someone wants to reward me monetarily for that, why not let them?
So the records are now, and will forever be, on this web site, chriszabriskie.com for free. My friend, lo-fi pop legend, imaginary label-mate, and co-conspirator in crime, Marc with a C, is taking this same step early next week. This is not a replacement for purchasing a CD or buying it off iTunes, it is a recognition of both what I believed in when I started making music and the way the world has changed. I think it’s all for the better. There’s so much amazing music out there, and you don’t have to go to Best Buy or even your local independent record store to hear it anymore.
Bottom line: if you like something you listen to, support the artist however you can. If that means buying something, great. If that means going to a live show, great. If that means sharing it with a friend, great. If that means blogging about it, great. If that menas requesting it on your local college radio station, great. If that means just scrobbling it to Last.fm so people can see that you’re enjoying it, great.
That’s the future of music. It’s completely in your hands, not mine, not anyone else’s who makes music. Yours. Don’t let anyone judge you for how you choose to find and experience music. The soundtrack to your life is up to you. All music is free, everywhere. Don’t take that for granted. Share it, disappear into it. It’s yours.
-Chris Zabriskie
