Mini Toad: "I can't figure out if you want to make music or make sales"
“I can’t figure out if you want to make music or make sales. In these times, people seem to confuse the two, as though commercial success is any marker of artistic worth. If people want to be artists of any kind they should be prepared to toil in obscurity. It’s one of those unpleasant truths…
And yet artists flock to major record labels to seek validation through commerce. No artist should ever feel entitled to make a living, much less a fortune, from their art.
They don’t flock to labels to validate themselves or music through the label. They need the cash, simple as. It’s difficult enough seeking validation in your own back garden. You’d be surprised how little validation an artist can survive on. Money, on the other hand, is a different matter.
Anyone who cares about experiencing new music should care about artists making sales as much as music. If they are toiling in obscurity, the listener loses out because they’ll never hear the music.
The situation is massively complex, but it’s not an ‘all or nothing’. Artists should be able to make some money from their art but making millions is unreasonable and unnecessary.
Artist development suffers when there’s no fnancial support. Would Radiohead be the band they are today if they had to do 8hrs a day of web development or whatever while touring and writing? I don’t think so. Is £10 too much to pay to have something beautiful in your life/ears/livingroom?
