The Value of Music

In a wold that focuses so much on the electronic side of music, the question on whether or not music has an inherent value is a tricky one. Because electronic music or music that takes a lot of work in a studio requires often much more time and money than a song produced by a singer-songwriter, many believe that those songs should be worth more. However, as a musician myself, I do not think a song's value should be based upon that. A value, in my eyes, means much more than money. A song's value is based upon the amount of work that went into it, and that can either be through studio and technical work or the amount of heart that goes into it. Producing an electronic song can be in many cases easier than the task of the singer-songwriter, who sits down and really thinks about what they are writing about. In both cases, I believe the songs have the same value and took the same amount of effort, though the types of effort are different.

When money is involved, this process becomes very difficult. It is hard for a person to put a price on music, if they did not create it and therefore do not know how much work went into it. Because of this, I believe that all music deserves the same value. At that point, it is then up to the buyer to decide whether or not the piece of music is worth their money.

Once the music is priced, the question then becomes whether or not to download the music for free. This could be from YouTube converters, burned CD's, or shared mp3 files. I think a line must be drawn when it comes to this. Because so much work goes into making a song, whether that be technical or mental work, I think a person must pay for what they are downloading. Burning CD's is the tricky question, for the person receiving the disk is not technically paying for the music. But I believe this is a great way to share and expose music, if the original downloader payed for the music.

This question leads into another - who deserves the money once the song is paid for?

This topic is one I have had much experience with. It is a tricky question, who really owns the music. In our modern day world, when it comes to popular music, there is never one person behind a song. A person, sometimes multiple people, are responsible for writing it, but the process does not stop there. There is at times an alternate artists that records the vocals for the song, which comes with a huge slew of backing musicians who record all of the instruments. Even further, there are then those who produce, mix, and master the song, artists who add special effects, and so on and so forth. Dozens of people could have worked on a song before the final product is released to the public. Because of this, it is clearly difficult to distinguish who has the rights to the song, who was really responsible for creating it.


Years ago, I might have given a different answer. Singer-songwriters and independent musicians often times record the music by themselves, which makes it a bit easier to distinguish where the credit is due. However, when so many people contribute to the creation of the song, I do not believe it is right to give someone the short end of the stick. The artist who writes the song often comes up with the inspiration, but it is hard to tell if they have really had the largest impact of the song. Many know how to write beautiful lyrics, but have trouble bringing them to life. In that sense, the credit is obviously due in more then one place, but this is where the place to draw the line becomes unclear. As a singer-songwriter myself, I may have an unfair bias. Because I write all of my own music, I do believe that I have the rights to it. But I do not deal with producers, or studio musicians, so when including these other parts I think it is important to give credit where credit is due. In my own experience, the writer of the music has the creative vision, the inspiration, and the brain behind the music. But this is only when working with myself and a few others. When dozens of others are involved, they are not there for nothing; each person has a unique piece that they bring to the table, though only the fronting artist usually receives credit. Putting myself in another person's shoes instead of my own has made me look at this question differently. I believe that whoever contributes to the music has a part of the rights to it.