Robin and I were talking yesterday morning about the general downward trend in the value of music. It’s a shame that there is no organization for composers that would enable us to stand up against the media companies that help drive this trend. Of course trying to start such an organization would be like trying to herd cats! Those kinds of organizations have been tried before but really do not work. The truth is there is far to much content for the amount of demand and fighting the media companies can be like fighting city hall.
Thinking a bit outside the box there is a way to benefit from this. The media companies have all the clout and they are all about creating value for their shareholders. So (not intended as investment advice) years ago I stared investing in T Rowe price Media & Telecom fund (PRMTX). Since it’s inception in 1993 the fund has averaged over 14% per year. It took a big hit in 2009 but like all things it’s about patience and persistence. Just a thought for those who want to walk and play on the dark side:-)
Hey Art,
I am killing time waiting on an email and because of that email, was going through your site checking different bits of information.
Film Music has an online publication titled, Getting Your Music Into Film & TV In Today’s Economy. The basic premise is that supply greatly out weighs demand. So basic economics – price goes down.
I agree that getting all musicians, songwriters and composers to organize and become a bargaining collective would be an insane task. It’s a sad state and it would take a person of massive will power to undertake such a task. BUT – it would work!
Due to my music education, audio engineering was also a requirement. Eventually, I fell into audio engineering for video production as I could make more cash in one day than three night’s of gigging.
The phone kept ringing for audio gigs, and eventually ended up working for shows on CBS like 60 Minutes, 48 Hours and Street Stories. I also worked for similar shows on other networks. Point is that at that time, late 80’s early 90’s, all crew members (audio, camera, etc.) were under one union or another. Those unions made sure that we weren’t abused by insanely long days (16 to 22 hours) with short time turn around (less than 8 hours off) without the production companies having to pay for that abuse in double time and triple time pay.
You know how the story goes: the corporations broke or crippled the unions until they were ineffectual. Now, the insane hours and abuse still exist, but the pay has decreased greatly, even to the point of flat rates, meaning you are paid the same rate whether you worked 10 hours or 22 hours. I walked away from it all in 2009.
Your idea of finding another way to profit is smart, but I guess I am just lamenting about how we always seem to end up letting corporations grow by giving us less. And NO – I’m not signing up for the unionizer gig.
But, I would get behind a writer black out: we all quit writing and submitting for a period of time. Well, keep up the writing, but stop submitting – give up on the idea of a company helping us out. I know……that would never happen either.
So…..back to – blah, blah de blah…merrily down the stream.
Bruce (BS)
Hi Bruce, it sure is a different business then it was not so many years ago. And yes, merrily down the stream:-)