Piracy and Music as a Product

Just recently, there was a story on CNN about the “tecnobrega” scene in Brazil and how the musicians there use unrestricted music distribution as a marketing tool. In essence, Brazilians typically can’t afford to buy CDs at full price and so musicians can’t make a living on shelling out albums. How, then, are they making $850 per month (a good wage in Brazil)? Live shows.

Products

Lately, Julie has been taking some philosophy of music classes and I’ve gleaned some information from her readings. One of the topics that interested me was our perception of what music is. In the West, music started just as it did everywhere else - live performances, usually sponsored and enjoyed by the rich, or amateur acts enjoyed in public spaces. In those days, music was not performed so much as a “work”. Not even Handel (late 1600s) had well-defined compositions - he would frequently make modifications to his pieces, like the Messiah, and recycle a lot of material for the court events he conducted for.

As the middle class developed, composers realized they could tap the market and put on well-defined works as a show. Write the music once, and perform it multiple times and charge admission. Composers like Mozart and Beethoven capitalized on this. You could expect to hear the same performance of Mozart’s operas anywhere and any time they were performed. Standardized musical transcription was partly responsible for this as well. Now music was classified as distinct “works” by a composer. It provided a more concrete way to classify, analyze, and ultimately judge music. It also introduced the idea of intellectual property in music. Although the format of music was changing, the context did not. It was still performed live in public venues.

Once music could be recorded, it completely changed they way music was understood by the public. Now, it could become fully “productized.” With a live event, there are many variables that affect the outcome of the performance: weather, sick musicians, venue quality, and audience participation. With recorded music, the only variable is the quality of the reproduction of sound. Before recorded music, music as an art was very transitory - it was of the moment. It was difficult to quantify. Once a note is finished playing, it is gone forever. Today, with recorded music, we can move the play position marker back to an exact time in the recording and replay the same clip of music over and over.

Our attitudes about what music is have drastically changed. The majority of music “consumers” play music in the car, while dancing, or while doing homework. It’s background noise. Very rarely is the music contemplated - because we’re just used to it. It’s not being listened to in the context of experiencing art. If you go to a pop concert, you’re there to see the cool lights, get blown away by the high volume, see the performers dance, and gaze at the beauty of the singer(s). In most cases, the music is either pre-recorded and lip-synced to, or it is so heavily processed that the “live” aspect is greatly diminished. Ironically, even I have a low tolerance for “jam bands” who don’t stick to an established work.

So what?

I think the reason tecnobrega works in Brazil is the cultural attitude toward music in lesser-developed/less-western (is that like Best Western?) countries. Music in Latino/Brazilian culture is still more commonly experienced in a social, live context in festivals or in clubs. People aren’t exactly seen strutting around with white earbuds stuck in their ears. This is why free music distribution works in Brazil. People actually will go see the artists perform in clubs or dance halls. People there go to experience music together more.  Dance music has thrived in the rest of the world because people are more likely to experience music in a social context.  Performers make money by playing for these venues, not by selling albums.

In the US, we’re too used to the “music as product” model. You either listen to Muzak or go to a concert. There’s not a lot of in-between. Even in a concert setting, depending on the concert and audience, there is an expectation that the performers will reproduce their works according to what they’re used to hearing on the album. The closest analogue in the US to tecnobrega I can think of is the electronic music/DJ scene - but even that is more of a fringe style.  In the US, you can’t even get by just playing live shows.  A band doesn’t become self-sustaining until they sign with a label and sell recorded music.

Maybe this explains why AOR (album-oriented rock) arose as a reaction to Disco.  Sort of a battle between “consumer” rock and roll and the social dance music culture.

So will free music distribution change the way we view music?  Will we come to experience music more in a transitory, live context?  Only time will tell.