The price that comes with liberation: less time left for music-making

In 2010 Amanda Hocking, a young author, started publishing teenage-aimed novels on Amazon. 20 months later, she had sold over 900,000 copies and became a ‘Kindle millionaire’. All this happened after receiving countless rejections from traditional publishers. 

It’s easy to draw a parallel between the music industry and the world of book publishing. In both fields, a similar dematerialisation of the product correlated with a shrinking physical market can be observed (music retailers and bookshops), as digital formats are gaining ground. Record labels and book publishing houses are the traditional gatekeepers which can now be bypassed using technology and the internet. Both books and music are available to sell as digital copies at very small prices compared to their physical counterparts (£0.79 a single on iTunes, $0.99 the price of Hocking’s first book). Regardless of their cheap prices, self-published e-books and digital music are profitable because of the non-existent cost of reproduction.

However, after becoming a millionaire, Amanda Hocking decided to go down the traditional route and sign a deal with a publishing house. 

'I want to be a writer. I do not want to spend 40 hours a week handling e-mails, formatting covers, finding editors, etc. Right now, being me is a full-time corporation' (Morrison, 2012).

It is exactly how independent musicians have to function nowadays: like micro full-time corporations. Even Amanda Palmer, who allegedly loves interacting with fans and managing her career, admits to getting tired sometimes:

'Oh no, I do get exhausted […] Sometimes I think there’s this alternate reality where I don’t care as much about all the business and promotion and I actually spend my brain power on creating things.'

In his journal article on the risk and freedom of independent musicians in Toronto, Hracs (2012) finds that the need to balance creative tasks with the business side puts a great strain on independent musicians, requiring them to spread their energy and time across a range of workspaces. As one musicians that he interviews puts it:

'It is a full-time job but only about 10 percent actually involves music. The rest of it is the marketing and the looking for work' (Hracs 2012, p. 458)

In her study about musicians and the use of social media, Baym finds that the musicians interviewed mentioned nearly 40 different social media platforms through which they interacted with audiences, and observes that such a wide array of platforms is hard to master and maintain ‘even for those who devote their lives to studying social media, let alone those who would rather write and play music’. One musician she interviews voices his discontent:

'Am I going to read some […] small print about Facebook, you know, who can view this and that and try and figure it out in my brain or would I rather practice my guitar and become a better musician? I would rather practice my guitar and become a better musician (Baym, p. 309).'

Even 16 years ago, Todd Rundgren had difficulties juggling the music and the business side:

TallGuy246 asks: Has it been difficult for you to juggle your various jobs in Patronet such as CEO, marketing, sales representative, producer and musician?

Todd_Rundgren_99: What gives you that idea? Lol. Yes it is difficult juggling those jobs. One of the things we are working on this month is getting me some help.

Todd_Rundgren_99: That should free me up to concentrate on music, hopefully. (oocities.org, 2009)

It can be argued that dealing with the business side can distract from the main aim of a musician of making music; pushing this even further, it is worth noticing the danger that the current changes in the music industry could lead to a reversal of values, where musicians with less talent, but better entrepreneurial skills become more successful, and those who spend more time crafting their art and are not tech savvy will be left behind. 

References:

Baym, Nancy K. (2012) 'Fans Or Friends?: Seeing Social Media Audiences As Musicians Do'. Journal of Audience & Reception Studies 7.1 pp.216-315. Available at: http://www.participations.org/Volume%209/Issue%202/17%20Baym.pdf (Accessed: 18.11.2015)

Hracs, B. (2012) 'A Creative Industry In Transition: The Rise Of Digitally Driven Independent Music Production’ in Growth Change 43.3 (2012): pp.442-461. Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2257.2012.00593.x/pdf (Accessed 18.11.2015)

Hracs, B. (2011) Risk And Freedom For Independent Musicians In Toronto. University of Toronto, 2011. Available at: http://martinprosperity.org/papers/Hracs%20%282011%29%20Risk%20and%20Freedom.pdf (Accessed: 29.10.2015)

Morrison, E. (2012). Why social media isn't the magic bullet for self-epublished authors. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/30/tweet-about-cats-just-write (Accessed 29.11. 2015).

Oocities.org, (2009). Forgotten But Not Gone - ZDNet Chat. Available at: http://www.oocities.org/hodja451/archive/pages/zdchat.html (Accessed: 29.11.2015)

Vagabondagepress.com, (2016).Interview with Amanda Palmer by Fawn Neun. Available at: http://www.vagabondagepress.com/90601/V2I1IN1.html (Accessed 18.11.2015)