As the music industry reluctantly drifts further and further away from selling tangible products, and with more and more online options for listening, we thought we’d find out how musicians feel about Spotify, which lets listeners share and listen to complete albums for free, or the coming iCloud, which will allow users to store all of their mp3s with a third party, however illegally the files may have been obtained?
Sameer Gadhia, Young the Giant
“Every artist would love to make millions, but it keeps the power with the people … It’s a lot harder, but it produces better music. It’s harder for the musicians…”
David Wax, David Wax Museum
“We don’t hold dear to (our songs) at all, but they are important for a band that tours as much as we do. …We sell a lot of records on the road and that’s a big part of our income.”
Conor Oberst, Bright Eyes
“Everything is changing. Right now I feel like we’re living in this Wild West period and hopefully it’ll get sorted out and we’ll come to some place where the listeners and the fans can get the music quickly and conveniently and enjoy it and the people who make the music can get paid.”
Janelle Monae
“We as consumers need to ask ourselves what things we want to preserve. Do we want everything at our disposal? Or are there some things we want to go out and get, like albums. … There has to be balance involved from the hands who are making them and the consumers who are buying into it.”
