Price Per Play

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What is the value of the music experience to the consumer?

In the past, the value of the music experience might have been more connected to the community as music was likely one of very few entertainments the people could enjoy together. Moreover, the value of music and the music experience itself was more allied with live performance rather than selling volume units of CD's, records, or mP3 downloads.

The question here today is not whether or not music was better in the past compared to now, but whether or not the price of music is correct relative to other artforms?

When measured by each unit, by far, photographs, paintings, sketches, sculptures, DVD's, and any other kind of art you can think of is worth far more per unit than music. The only rivals to music in terms of art or entertainment are T.V. and film. Even though more people spend more of their time listening to music or attending a live music performance, music still receives far less monetary appreciation than do other art forms. 

Let's look at this issue another way. If a photograph or painting by a famous artist is valued at $5,000 or $15,000,000 and thousands of people flock to see either one of them at a museum, their values don't change or they might actually go up. But what happens when you buy a digital download or a musician releases a new album?

First of all, the price of a digital download is automatically priced at $.99 no matter what demand is like. Also, the label prices the entire album where it thinks demand will help them to recoup their cost from the production, promotion, and marketing costs related to the project.

But here are some essential differences between other art forms and music. In general, no part of the public ever gets to touch or own the original copies of an artist work unless they buy it. In other words, the general public never gets to own a Picasso painting, unless they can outbid another buyer. However, the general public can buy a poster size print or an art book full of samples of Picasso paintings along with biographical information concerning his development as a person and artist over time.

But with music, the general population almost always gets to have the thing itself. The music is the thing. The master copies of songs produced by a musician or composer are the equivalent items to original paintings by master artists. The master copies are what the labels and producers want to own, but the general public just wants the experience.

But if music is art then it should be prices accordingly in similar terms as art other art forms. A copy of an original photograph by a highly-acclaimed photographer will cost the consumer less than the original. Same thing goes when it comes to copies or prints of original paintings.

With music, though, many people mistakenly believe that composers and musicians are selling a performance when really they're selling ideas or a shared emotional experience. Music is a means of communicating ideas and emotions with sound waves made by instruments and/or voices.

In basic economics, we learn that the price of something goes up when demand increases, and that the price of something goes down when demand goes down. So in theory, as demand goes up, price goes up and when demand goes down, price also goes down.

So then why is the price of a song or piece of music stuck at about $.99 per track? Even if the music is in demand, the price never changes unless the artist wants it to, but under no other circumstances. 

Even though we live in a period of time where master paintings are selling for millions of dollars, the price of music is stable at $.99 per download. Looking around for digital music on Amazon you'll occasionally notice downloads selling for $1.50 or $2, but not often. 

The point here is: more plays = lower cost per play.

100 plays of a $.99 download = .01 per play

10 plays = $.09 per play

In my estimation, there's just no way that $.99 is the value or true price of the music experience that the audience receives when they listen to music they really connect with and enjoy often. Instead, the value of that experience is what the artist or consumer says it is. Therefore, price, when it comes to music, is an agreement made between the artist and consumer about the value of the experience they both think they are giving and receiving through the music.

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____________________________________________________________________________

Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

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Music is Art

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In the modern era, musicians and composers have an opportunity to claim their status as artists equal and in many cases superior to other art forms and disciplines. 

Before recording, there really wasn't a way for composers and musicians to package and sell their compositions other than through performance or notation. 

In terms of performance, apprentices would learn from master musicians and the tradition would pass along from master to apprentice through the centuries. Throughout this process performance after painstaking study and practice was at the heart of the discipline.

Eventually, a notation system evolved which allowed composers to write down their ideas in order to preserve them, work them out on paper, and to communicate these ideas from person to person. Notation actually made music portable although a music score was not the end product, but rather a means of communicating the end product which was the music itself translated by musicians and performed live. 

Unfortunately, the weakness in the notation system lay in the interpretation which may or may not have been an accurate portrayal of the composer's thought and direction. The system wasn't perfect but it was a step in the right direction to where we are today.

As you can see, performance and portability were two essential steps that needed to be taken before we could arrive anywhere close to the final step of communicating the artist's ideas exactly as they intended. It's in this final step where music crosses over from a communal activity and into a medium similar to painting, sculpture, photography, and other crafts. 

Notice how almost every other art form and craft produces a physical product that can be bought, owned, sold, and circulated as an asset or personal possession. Whereas in the past, music lacked the ability to produce a physical product and therefore could not be bought, owned, sold, and circulated as an asset or personal possession. But this has all changed today.

Now, music can produce a physical product and like other art forms can be bought, sold and owned. But interestingly, the same technology that gave birth to the music recording industry is also destroying that industry and making more difficult for musicians and composers to maintain control over their work. 

Bootlegged music and other types of illegal duplication are pushing the price of the music experience so far down towards zero ($0) that each composer, musician, songwriter, and band have to consider themselves a brand in order to promote and market themselves according to a business model of their own choosing. 

This isn't necessarily a bad thing only because the artists can now decide how they want to package and sell their music. Selling digital downloads is just one type of package, other forms include music DVD's, box sets with the artist's autograph and photos, touring, creating T-shirts and other paraphernalia as well as composing for T.V., film, and video games. Each of these packages is made up of products, each with their own price model, mark ups, and profit potential.

Music is art and now has the potential to be sold by artists directly to buyers, but now it's up to the artist to determine whether or not they'll only sell music or if they'll also package their music with other products. Each artist has to determine what kind of music business they're going to run and try different approaches to find out what works, what doesn't work, and how much of a living they can make doing it.

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

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The Atmosphere of Music

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Sound disturbs the air molecules in a space and causes vibrations to agitate against every part of the body. When sound is organized into music, it fills a space with sonic vibrations of a particular pattern and that pattern is what  affects the mind, activating the emotions, restructures the atmosphere within an environment to create a mood.

Well-designed music causes mass hallucination during a music experience. When people gather in groups to listen to music, the patterns that emerge from the speakers perform their magic and the music experience takes hold of every person present on two levels.

Firstly, the music experience is interpreted by the individual according to their own emotional development and personal history, which allows them to relate to the music and mold it in a way where it seems it was made just for them.

Secondly, the music experience produces an atmosphere which blankets a group of people and collectively they share a common experience that shapes their perceptions in the moment. Whatever they see, feel, and hear during the music experience in this context is a mass hallucination, since it can only be seen, heard, and felt by them and no one else outside of the space being filled with the atmosphere of music.

When it is wisely used and carefully selected, music can reinforce or shape a mood by creating an atmosphere that surrounds, envelopes, and fills everyone within a space with a pattern of thought transmitted from the composer.

A vinyl record, cassette, CD, and mP3 file interpret information on a sound system, but they are not the music. Music is what is projected out into an area through the speakers. The music is what happens when all of the parts of a sound system operate properly to allow something be heard and felt.

Music is a powerful force and through the patterns that project out of the speakers, we are held in its sway and can experience things we would not be able to otherwise. The music experience consists of two levels of understanding and feeling, the individual and the collective, but all of it comes back to the way music works on the mind and our emotions. By hitting us on two sides, music touches us deeply and makes its impression on our psyche on a nonverbal, almost precognitive basis.

What is heard and felt is what’s called the music experience. The music experience is not an act or performance, but rather is what the composer wants you to hear and feel while their music is creating the atmosphere you’re sitting in.

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

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Emotion as Forms of Color and Texture

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There are two methods of creativity: combining or rearranging existing elements into new structures or inventing elements with which to create forms and structures. One method is related to discovery and extraction whereas the other method is pure creation - bringing into being something from nothing, or thought alone.

So in the first case, the artist is taking existing elements and shaping them into something interesting or unique relative to what others have done with the same set of ingredients or elements.

In the second case, the artist is forming new materials, out of thin air, and putting them together into a unique combination that is specific to their artistic vision. This is the method which was used to form our universe as is believed in the theory of Creationism.

Of the two methods of creativity only the first method or locating materials, extracting them, and arranging them into unique and pleasant forms is what artists on Earth are capable of using in music and sketch.

Color is a quality shared by the sketch and music.

With the sketch the issue of color is primarily with the harmony of color, blending of hues, and shading (relative brightness and darkness).

Similarly, music possesses the quality of color, except in music color can be expressed in timbre, dynamic elements, volume, composition and dramatic performance.

With timbre each instrument or sound in a piece of music possesses a certain quality that helps to identify and define one sound from another. In other words, each instrument has its own voice and can  be identified and not mistaken for another.

Closely related to timbre is texture, which is the harmonious (or disharmonious) blending of different types of timbre. Combining a variety of timbres within a composition is what develops a textural soundscape in each piece of music. When musicians layer several instruments or voices with different timbres, what they are in effect doing is constructing texture.

Texture in music comes across either as a visual or tactile sensation. Where we can describe a sound as sharp, piercing, smooth, jagged, rough, dirty, deep, or shiny, then in a crude way we were describing timbre in the form of texture or other tactile qualities.

The harmony or disharmony of the timbre into a pattern of texture is what forms the basis for emotion in a sketch or a piece of music.

With the sketch, texture only becomes apparent when you mix or layer media or when you use a media like acrylic paint or oil paints which are thick relative to other media such as pastels. Texture in the sketch has the effect of literally coming off the page because it can stand up or be thickly applied to paper or canvas. This style is mostly used in fine art painting where the brushstrokes are clearly visible. But in general it’s a physical thing where the artist is turning the two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional object.

Music makes an impression on the ear, while sketch does so in the eye. The thought and care that the artist has poured into their work will finally manifest its clarity and message from the end product across space and time by leaping into the mind of the audience by creating an impression.

If the impression has meaning for the seer or hearer of a sketch or a piece of music, then the impression will rise in status within the mind and evolve into an emotional experience that connects the artwork with a person's outlook on life, their aspirations for the future, and even their emotional history.

Art has the power to inspire others by adding fuel to the desires for the future. Art has the gift of shaping a person's sense of life by becoming an essential accessory to their way of living. Art also carries with it the emotional impact the artist imbues it with and how this interacts with the past of the audience member.

When a sketch or music impresses itself deeply into the mind of the audience member, the impression evolves into emotional impact, which is what the artist is seeking when they decide to share their work publicly.

As the work of the artist approaches completion, where the shape, texture, colors, and objects are balanced or imbalanced within a sketch or in music, the piece undergoes one final test to determine its value and function. If the artwork has the ability to the serve the purpose of the artist by making a deep psychological impression that becomes a meaningful emotional impact which fuses itself into the mind of the individual audience member, then the piece has value and serves its function.

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____________________________________________________________

Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

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Being in the Room

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GET “SONIC WEAPONS: The Official Stereo Thesis Music Sampler” FOR FREE. To get your FREE full-length album…click here. ___________________________________________________________

Connection is what defines the relationship between the artist and audience. The artist through their work literally reaches out with an idea impressed on matter or by a transference of energy and touches the audience by means of their senses. Therefore, the bond between an artist and a fan is extremely intimate and personal.

At the moment of connection, which occurs in the mind of the audience, the person upon whom the artist’s message falls or whose work touches deeply, the audience member is transported temporarily into the space of the artist. This event occurs magically and perhaps through some means of psychic transmission. However it does happen, it seems to transport the audience member to another place and time completely, when the experience is deeply felt. 

It’s as if a portal was opened through the work of the artist transporting another mind from whatever distance into proximity so as to have them share in the experience of making the artwork that brought them together. The work of art is a portal connecting the artist with specific people in the audience at varying intensities of connectedness.

One of the most common experiences and questions that occur to individuals in the audience when they become transported by a work of art is, “How did they do that?” What this means is that the individual is shocked by how thoroughly the artist has approximated one of the audience’s own thoughts, beliefs, ideas, personal convictions, experiences, sentiments, or emotions in a work of art. The individual perceiving the creative work imputes this part of the experience and this is what establishes the connection on their side of the interaction and permits the transportation to take place. The individual literally opens through acceptance of the work just as the artist previously opened themselves to pour out the work of art and this is what forms the portal of connectedness.

The audience wants the experience of being in the room where the artist spent countless hours originating, shaping, and developing their work in stages or in bursts of inspiration. They want to witness how failed attempts eventually lead to a breakthrough, how an artistic problem resolves with a flash of insight or an ingenious solution, and how accidents can give birth to new creative directions. To give them a direct look into such actions would require the artist to allow them into that space and therefore to have an influence on the outcome of the work. 

Being in the room with the artist, the audience would no longer be an audience and would magically be transformed into an influence or force partly shaping the direction of the work. Since the audience is in the room, they switch from being transported by the work of the artist to becoming part of the process. No portal of imagination will form from this type of influence, so it fails to create the kind of connectedness that generates the sensation of being transported or moved. 

When the artist sends out a message, someone is always listening. Who “hears” the message or calling from the artist is not always who they intended to reach, but someone hears nonetheless. A unique recipe, strange painting, unusual song, a building, a photograph, book, or chance meeting with a work of art are all vehicles for connectedness. Whether the audience member is touched through their sense of sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, or by a psychic channel of perception, the connection is forged when the mind of the audience relates the work of the artist to their personal history (memory) or aspirations for the future (dreams).

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Marc

http://stereothesis.com/

Remember to join our mailing list.

To support Stereo Thesis with a financial donation securely through PayPal, click here.