An interview with the Black Tigers

  Over the week I had the chance to talk back and forth with the artists from the rising trio    Black Tiger Sex Machine. The members like to hide their identities under their distinctive trademark helmets keeping most knowledge about themselves on the down low. Talking with these artists over the week really showed that they care about their fans, and try their hardest to help them whenever they can, they were delighted to be interviewed and here's what they had to say.

Do you earn your living entirely through music, or do you have other sources of income?

One of the members of our trio has a full-time job. The other two work exclusively on music and label management.

As a musician, what are your most lucrative sources of income? (CD/mp3 sales, ticket sales for shows, lessons, etc)

Revenue from shows accounts for the vast majority of our income, probably over 85%. The rest is a mix of mp3 sales, merchandise sales (t-shirts) and licensing.

Do you use the internet to promote your music? If so, how?

We use the internet almost exclusively for promotion. We are very active on social media, and we try to engage our fans as much as possible through facebook posts, twitter messages and instragram pictures. We also do advertisements and sponsored posts on Facebook to widen our reach. We like doing Facebook ads because we can target our existing and potential fans.

We have relationships with many blogs and youtube channels. We send them promotional material through email blasts, and they regularly post our content.

Physical promotional efforts consist of posters that promote our local events in Montreal. We only do this at the venue we perform at, Le Belmont.

Do you sell your music over the internet? 

We sell our music through all major online music outlets, such as Itunes and Beatport. Our music is also available through streaming services like spotify.

To your knowledge, do fans obtain your music without paying for it - by burning CDs, file sharing, or other means? How do you feel about this? 

Our fans definitely obtain our music without paying for it. Our songs can be easily found on torrents, music forums and file hosting services like mediafire. This doesn't anger us, because this is the reality in which we operate. People download songs for free, and we can't control it. Also, these people may be pirating our songs, but the fact remains that they are listening and becoming fans, so piracy is like a form of promotion that widens our listener base. The more people know us and hear our music, the more will come to our shows, which is where we want to make money.

That said, we do appreciate people who actually buy our songs, because it does provide some revenue to help support our work.

Presumably you want to expose your music to as many potential fans as possible. You probably also want to earn money for the work that you do. Where do you draw the line?

We definitely want to be known as much as possible, but it's true that there are certain things we would not do for exposure. We wouldn't do a Britney Spears remix, for example. because it wouldn't match with our vision for our sound. We also wouldn't appear on TV doing a fake DJ set. I think for us, the line is more something we establish on a case-by-case basis. If one of us isn't comfortable with a potential appearance, promotional activity or partnership, we discuss it and determine if it's something we can be proud of, or if it's something that could be embarassing, against our artistic ideals or something that would upset our existing fanbase.

Source of image here

During my quest to find many artists who have their own opinion on piracy for music, movies etc. many of their views were similar but the way they personally presented their own opinion was interesting. For my live (In Person!) interview I happened to interview the guitarist Jesse Vuona who currently is with the band Thunderbloods but he was most popular for his work with Read Yellow. He was a student at University of Massachusetts Amherst when he co-formed Read Yellow, my interview with Jesse was live and recorded so I have the video file located within.

            Whilst searching for opinions of artists whose work I happen to enjoy I came across a few articles regarding 50 cent's opinion on music piracy today. 50 cent (Curtis James Jackson III) is an American born rapper from the queens is very famous among the rap industry. In my first article that I found, 50 simply implored that the piracy of music should be accepted as a fad of the generation and is not going away anytime soon. He said, "I don't think the music business is dying. I think we're just experiencing technology and we just have to pass new laws, eventually, to change how music is being distributed,” which basically states that it should be regulated but needs to also be accepted.

50 cent brought up a good point by bringing the movie business into the picture because piracy is said to affect them more than the music industry. He said that “when you got your blockbuster film doing $120 million in a weekend and then that blockbuster film that they spent $120 million comes out and nobody goes to see but everybody watched it because they could pull it off their computer and see it on HD at home on a theatre. They'll change those laws". He has a very valid point here indeed.

Another artist that I found had a much stronger opinion against piracy and was very, very frustrated with what it has/will do to music. Gene Simmons was subjected to a DDoS attack from angry Anonymous members last week.

“How are you going to get paid for it if people can just get it for free? The record industry doesn't have a f*****g clue how to make money,” said an angry Simmons back in 2007.

“It’s only their fault for letting foxes get into the hen house and then wondering why there’s no eggs or chickens. Every little college kid, every freshly scrubbed little kid’s face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning.”

Roll forward into 2010 and it seems little has changed for the KISS front man.

“Make sure your brand is protected. Make sure there are no incursions. Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars. Don’t let anybody cross that line.”

Simmons had an angry look at this issue and he would not give up on his rants against those who hacked and distributed music.

Graham Cluley is a technology expert and gave his words about the negative opinions of artists like Mr. Simmons:

“We have seen a rise in the last year of 'hacktivism', hacking groups like Anonymous and Lulzsec who hack for political reasons or because they have an issue with somebody. Sometimes entertainment figures have suffered as a result because people find it entertaining.”

"In Gene Simmons' case he was quite outspoken regarding peer to peer file sharing and people who pirated music and that obviously angered a lot of people who are part of that community."

Piracy: What do the Artists Think?

     Ben Taliesin is a student at MHS and he makes money off of D.J.ing at parties in the area. Ben wasn't well educated in copyright laws which is surprising considering DJing teeters on the edge of legality. Ben gets most of his music legally off of iTunes and streams music using Pandora. However, he also illegally downloads music from youtube and recently a fellow DJ and friend gave him around 2,000 songs. He didn't know that his friend giving him copies of all of these songs broke copyright laws and was fairly surprised when he was informed of this. Ben mostly plays music at sweet 16's and has started playing music at the school dances. None of the venues he plays at pay licensing fees for the music Ben plays as they are supposed to. He takes requests at parties and when he doesn't have these songs in his library he quickly goes and illegally downloads them. Ben does mix and make some of his own original music that sometimes involves copyrighted music but he has not started to distributed it, so this is legal. Ben has mixed feelings about free downloading of music. He tries to legally buy most of his music but he feels that illegally downloading music has become accepted in society. He believes that everyone should have access to music and thinks that free streaming services like pandora are a good solution to the problem. When asked if his DJing has changed his feelings about this issue he didn't think that this was the case. As of right now Ben doesn't have a website but he is working on getting one up and running. He can be contacted at his email Ben@raven2.com.

      There are a lot of artists completely against music piracy. Some of these include Dixie Chicks, Stevie Wonder,Sean (P. Diddy) Combs, and Shakira. The Dixie Chicks have been quoted saying "It may seem innocent enough, but every time you illegally download music a songwriter doesn't get paid. And, every time you swap that music with your friends a new artist doesn't get a chance. Respect the artists you love by not stealing their music. You're in control. Support music, don't steal it." They bring up the point that people who download music are pushing new artists out of the industry. They don't seem too concerned about themselves but rather new artists who will get underpaid for their hard work. The Dixie Chicks think that in order to help  promote your favorite musicians you must buy their music and show it to friends but not give it to them.
 "Everyone who loves music should be able to enjoy the wonderful recordings that are created. But it's no secret that it takes hard work, expense and many people to make great recordings. Artists and composers -particularly the younger ones - will not stand a chance of creating music in the future if their recordings are simply stolen in this way." -Luciano Pavarotti Brings up the valid point that everyone should have access to music but it takes a lot of  time and money to create. He believes that it is essential that people pay for their music because it is unsustainable for people not to.

 Shakira has also been quoted supporting music download. On the Huffington Post website she says "I like what's going on because I feel closer to the fans and the people who appreciate the music, It's the democratization of music in a way. And music is a gift. That's what it should be, a gift." on the topic of music piracy. She is saying that the good part of piracy is the fact that everyone has the opportunity to listen to it but the bad part is that the musicians don't make any money.  

What do artists personally think?

This picture is from the creative commons section on the Flickr website. It was taken on August 7, 2012 and uploaded by Mennonite Church USA Archives.


Kat Quinn was a student here at MHS just as all of us are now. She graduated in 2006 and moved to New York City to pursue her dreams as a song writer. I contacted Kat through Facebook and was lucky enough to interview her even though she is on a very tight schedule.

Ellie(E): Do you use your music career entirely to make a living? If not, what else do you do to earn money? 

Kat(K): I don’t. I also have a part time job at a Private Equity firm.

E: What are your big sources of income based on your music career (CD's, ticket sales, iTunes/mp3 downloads, etc.)?
K: The biggest for me is getting payed for live shows probably.. whether it be from a tip jar, a pre-arranged price from the venue, or ticket sales. And I guess I usually factor in CD sales to the overall amount I made at the show.. so that’s definitely a part of it too. But I definitely make the most money from playing live.

E: Do you promote your music using the internet? If so, how? I do. I’m on most of the major music-related sites.. iTunes, Facebook, Bandcamp, Reverbnation, Youtube, etc.

K: I use it mostly for promoting shows at this point (by posting about events and news, or creating and inviting people to events), but will definitely be utilizing it more during my next EP release.

E: How do you sell your music? If you have more than one way please state all ways. (iTunes, the internet, just CD's, etc.)

K: I sell it on the internet- iTunes, CDBaby, Bandcamp, eMusic, and I think other sites (I’m not totally sure all the sites where it’s sold bc CDBaby distributes it to a lot of different music-selling sites). I also sell CDs at my shows.

E: To your knowledge, do you know if your fans get music by not paying for it? (burning CD's, file sharing, mp3 converters, etc.) How do you feel about this even if it's not happening to you?

K: I don’t know if it happens to me. I know people listen on Spotify or YouTube, but I think that’s all great. I also give out free downloads of songs, especially if someone signs up for my mailing list. For me, I’m definitely in the stage where I just want the music out there, and I have a part time job to keep me from needing to have money-making my priority with music right now. Right now the priority is having as many people listen as possible. There might come a day when that changes, but right now I don’t mind.

E: Most likely you want your music out there to as many fans possible. How far will you go to become more famous?

K: I won’t go that far. I really love writing songs, which is how I got into this. I have grown to love performing and would like to have a growing fanbase, but writing is my number one thing as opposed to singing and the lifestyle that goes with it. I want the songs to get out there, but for me, the less famous the better.

I found in my research that there is an ad campaign that is trying to get rid of the illegal download of music on the internet. Artists like Eminem, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Britney Spears, and a few others have signed to be on this campaign. Eminem writes "I'm sorry; when I worked 9-to-5, I expected to get a paycheck every week. It's the same with music; if I'm putting my heart and all my time into music, I expect to get rewarded for that. I work hard and anybody can just throw a computer up and download my music for free. It could kill the whole purpose of making music."I have also found that Madonna, who is also part of the campaign, isn't very happy about the fact that people pirate her music. On the MTV website there is an article about Madonna's thoughts about the file traders. She asks the file traders "What the f--- do you think you're doing?"

How do artists feel about music piracy?

     The Half Moon Jug Band is a folk/rock band originating from Maine. The three members of the band are Troy (guitar and banjo, and sings), Mike (drums), and Steve (bass, harmonica, and some singing). I spoke to Troy about his view on music piracy and how he sells his music.
Me: Do you sell your music over the internet?
Troy: "Yes, I sell music over the internet."
Me: Do you earn your living entirely through music, or do you have other sources of income?
Troy: "I make some of my living through music, but not all of it."
Me: As a musician what is your main source of income.
Troy: "Ticket sales and fees for playing concerts are the biggest money makers. CD sales, downloads and fees paid by streaming services like Spotify make up less than a quarter of my music earnings."
Me: Do you use the internet to promote your music? If so, how?
Troy: "I use the internet to promote my music via email newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify and blogging on websites like www.halfmoonjugband.com."
Me: To your knowledge, do fans obtain your music without paying for it - by burning CDs, file sharing, or other means? How do you feel about this?
Troy: "I'm sure that people have been copying my CDs since I started selling them twelve years ago and I'm sure they copied the cassettes I released back in the 1990s. I wish they didn't. I wish they bought my music directly from me or a retailer. That being said, I know there's nothing I can do to stop it. So, I don't worry too much about it. Most of the money I make is through performing, anyway, and that's something that cannot be copied. Sometimes a family of four will come to a show and buy one CD and four T-shirts. They'll rip the CD onto their phones and iPods and share the tunes. But they can't do that with one T-shirt. So, I end up making more money on T-shirts than music. The shirt is a souvenir of the show that they had a great time at, so it's kind of an extension of the show itself. That's what I get paid to do, put on a show."
Me: Presumably you want to expose your music to as many potential fans as possible. You probably also want to earn money for the work that you do. Where do you draw the line?
Troy: "Sure, I'd like to make more money, everyone wants that. But I'd drive myself crazy sitting around worrying about the money I'm not making when someone shares a file or rips and burns a CD. I'd be lying if I said I'd never shared a file or copied a CD. Recorded music has only been a commodity (something you can buy and sell) for about a hundred years. For a thousand years before that, musicians were paid to write and perform music. They got paid to entertain someone in the here and now, live. That's what we're going back to. Musicians are once again getting paid to put on a show instead of sell objects like records or CDs."
     Singer-songwriter Norah Jones supports piracy. She says that if people hear it, then she is happy. In an interview Norah stated, " I'm not going to say go and steal my album, but you know i think its great that young people who don't have a lot of money can listen to music and be exposed to new things." Norah Jones also stated that illegal downloading could hurt new artists, but she still
stands behind her opinion that music piracy is fine.
     There are also some artists who oppose music piracy. One of these musicians is Elton John. In a letter John stated, " I am of the view that the unchecked proliferation of illegal downloading (even on a "non commercial" basis) will have a seriously detrimental effect on musicians, and particularly young musicians and those composers who are not performing artists." The article states that John's opinion about music piracy has causes conflict between him and some of his other artist friends.
     Overall there is a common theme on how artists feel about music piracy. The famous, well established artists feel that music piracy is fine and that everyone should be able to obtain and listen to music. However, up and coming artists tend to feel that they want to make money on their music no matter what. In conclusion, there are many opinions about music piracy out there, but no matter what someone's opinion is the likely can not make a change, it is up to the cultural changes of society to make a difference in illegal downloading and piracy.

The Professional Opinion

In my previous blog post, I talked about how to define music's inherent value and when it is okay to download music illegally. "In putting my music up on YouTube, I would feel very honored if people liked it enough to download my songs, even without paying for it." 

But what do I know about making a living off of music? I'm a 16-year-old girl who does a little bit of everything as a hobby and is fortunate enough to have parents with enough money that I don't have to worry about earning a significant amount to help them with the bills, as some teens my age do. So what's the opinion of musicians who actually need the money from their music to make a living?


Instead of trying to find interviews of artists that I listen to all the time, I specifically searched for an artist who supported music piracy, an artist who was strongly against it, and then I interviewed an artist who has mixed feelings on the subject.

Photo Gallery: Radiohead
Photo: Photo: WENN

Ed O'Brien from Radiohead (an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire) clearly states in a video message for the Midem music conferance: "I have a problem when people in the industry say '[piracy]'s killing the industry, it's the thing that's ripping us apart'...I don't actually believe it is... [Pirates] might not buy an album, but they're spending their money buying concert tickets, a T-shirt, whatever." O'Brien goes on to say that instead of pirated music, it is the that way music is shared itself that is the problem. He says, "It's an analogue business model in a digital era. The business model has to change. You've got to licence out more music –  have more Spotifys, more websites selling more music. You've got to make it slightly cheaper to get music in order to compete with the peer-to-peers." (Source)

Photo: JANE MINGAY

In contrast, Lily Allen avidly campaigns against music piracy. On her new website, she posts messages from prominent supporters of her cause. In September of 2009, she said peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing is a "disaster" for emerging artists "as it's making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge". Artists who back up Allen's opinion include James Blunt, Gary Barlow, Gary Kemp, Natasha Khan, etc. Allen's rallying cry was in response to comments made by members of the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), which includes musicians from bands such as Radiohead and Pink Floyd, who called for "more creative ways" to combat file-sharing than disconnecting music fans from the internet. (Source)

Photo Credit Unknown

To the left is Austin Willacy, "a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter who has toured extensively throughout the U.S and Europe as a member of The House Jacks" (quote from his website). During my interview with him, Willacy told me that he knows that his music is pirated but "much less than Katy Perry’s." He then said that he wants people to hear his music, and, "if they get it for free and it speaks to them, that’s O.K." The main challenge he faces concerning piracy is that "it is not free to make the recordings.  I want people who want to have my music to have it, but not being compensated for it at all would be an unsustainable system."


Willacy's music is available through iTunes and CDBaby. Other than his solo career, Willacy is also the director of ‘Til Dawn, Youth in Arts,’ which is an award-winning teen a cappella group and is a member of a groundbreaking all-vocal rock band called The House of Jacks.

As you can see, the opinions of professional musicians vary depending on their status from just-starting-out to making-it-big. Personally, I agree with Austin Willacy and Ed O'Brien. But again, I'm not a professional.

"I have a problem when people in the industry say 'it's killing the industry, it's the thing that's ripping us apart'," O'Brien said in a video message for the Midem music conference. "I don't actually believe it is... [Pirates] might not buy an album, but they're spending their money buying concert tickets, a T-shirt, whatever."
R
ead more at http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/49390#WzLthtwzQtBC0mWG.99

"I have a problem when people in the industry say 'it's killing the industry, it's the thing that's ripping us apart'," O'Brien said in a video message for the Midem music conference. "I don't actually believe it is... [Pirates] might not buy an album, but they're spending their money buying concert tickets, a T-shirt, whatever."
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/49390#WzLthtwzQtBC0mWG.99

"I have a problem when people in the industry say 'it's killing the industry, it's the thing that's ripping us apart'," O'Brien said in a video message for the Midem music conference. "I don't actually believe it is... [Pirates] might not buy an album, but they're spending their money buying concert tickets, a T-shirt, whatever."
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/49390#WzLthtwzQtBC0mWG.99

The Artists Speak About The Modern Age

It is of no surprise that many people, especially in this modern age, obtain music by downloading MP3s, burning CDs, sharing files, or other free means. But what does this mean for the artist? Are they mad because they are not making profit, or do they only wish to get their music out there? The opinions, especially after the attempted passages of SOPA and PIPA (two outrageous copyright bills), varied, however, even before copyright issues were more prominent of a problem, musical artists did not seem to mind their music being distributed for free or recorded.
                In a 2001 “Nardwuar” interview with Julian Casablancas (vocals) and Nick Valensi (first guitar)of The Strokes, the question of someone recording videos of their shows was posed.

Nardwuar: “Are you worried he might steal some ideas at all?”
                 Julian Casablancas: “No, I think that’s the way that art should progress.”

Some may call Casablancas’ response naïve as the interview took place early on, before the band could know the life of a “true” musician. 2001 marked The Strokes’ debut album Is This It? , and for such young men of 20 – 23 years of age, they had great success, which included a sold-out UK tour simply from the EP released before the full album (documented by The Strokes’ second guitarist, Albert Hammond Jr, here). The Strokes remain a lesser known band, but even though they’ve progressed since Is This It? , one can still argue that they care more about the music than the money.

                A band that started out in 1996, Linkin Park, had similar apathy towards the copying of their first album. The opinion is voiced by Mike Shinoda (vocals, keys, guitar) in a 2011 interview with Fuse.

“At the time when Hybrid Theory came out, we were still doing real snail mail lists, email hadn’t caught on yet.  … but we sent out our album samplers with two songs on it…half of them were CD half were cassette, and the fans got them and passed them around and dubbed them and everybody made copies, whatever. “

As with The Strokes’ Is This It? , Hybrid Theory was the key to Linkin Park’s establishment in the music scene. Unlike The Strokes, Linkin Park did not continue their belief that free distribution of music is okay; rather they were furious when their 2012 album Living Things was leaked. From this, it can be inferred that most bands are alright with illegal means of getting music if the consequence is that their music spreads.

                I was lucky enough to have gotten in contact with New Hampshire band A Simple Complex via Facebook to get their opinion on the matter. They offered great insight both as consumers of music and as an unsigned band, stating "Digital music is both a blessing and a curse". Like many music fans, they are ecstatic to find songs by their favorite artists for a cheap price of about a dollar in comparison to buying CDs as well as imports “priced anywhere from $2 to $13, to get the extra songs that didn't make the album” and even more-so to find free songs to fulfill their inner psychotic music fan (a necessary quality to be a music maker).

            

They continue, “On the flipside (pun intended), as an unsigned band, we spend about $1200 in the studio to make 3 polished songs. We then spend another $500 getting 300 CDs made for those songs. We mail 1/3 of them to radio stations and music publications (for free - let's add another $100 in postage for that!) Though we've had a lot of radio play and critical praise from industry people and rock fans in general, we have yet to recoup those expenses on any of the 3 CDs we've released thus far. So the idea of people ripping our CDs and giving the songs to their friends can be hard to swallow. However, we have to consider that there are people who have become fans only because they got a copy of our music for free - if they hadn't gotten it for free, they would never have become a fan. So these days, recordings of songs are almost considered 'pamphlets' (expensive ones) that you're supposed to hand out to then generate a fan base from, in hopes this will make them want to spend money to come see you perform live and purchase other merch like shirts and such. Recording your music is necessary, yet not immediately recoupable, like handing out free stickers or flyers for your upcoming shows in hopes it pays off - except recording can be a lot pricier, especially if you want it done right (by a professional).”

Here they are in their awesomeness.

(Source)

Left to Right: Mark (guitar 1), Stu (guitar 2), Jess (vocals), Jim (bass), Chris (drums)

So, what's the verdict of this post? When someone's a new band, it's hard to get out there. Free music helps and hurts. As a consumer, one should be wary.