The Greed for Freebies
After sending out an e-mail regarding another local artist's album release, the replies I'm getting are pretty much the same. I sent information on the release of the ex-Independent Square vocalist aka Anil's new album (Pieces of April) somewhere down the line last week. And presto, all i'm getting in return to the message that I wanted to emphasise (which was GO & BUY THE ALBUM, SUPPORT THE ARTIST) was some mere, ridiculous, and shameful (i repeat shameful) queries on where to download the album for free or whether I can upload it somewhere. Some rotten idiots even gave me the URLs to the upload sites. When I offered them some free sample tracks only they were not satisfied. The greed for freebies was immense.
Isn't it a ridiculous experience to be a musician in Sri Lanka ? Especially, an artist who is in to English language stream ? I mean from the whole population of over 19 million in Sri Lanka i'm pretty sure only around 2% are listening to English music which is perfectly fine by me. That means, effectively artists who are working with original english music are left with only a 2% fan base to work with to market their products. And out of those 2% nearly half won't like the kind of music he/she is producing and that leaves the artist just a handful to work-on to promote his music and recover his/her expenses. BUT...
But even out of the mere percentage who are interested in the music that has been released, most of them seek it for for FREE. Damn, now that is what you call a pighead. The artist spends several hundreds of his hours, effort and money in putting out an album with the intentions of capturing a fan base whish is a bare minimal and when the album is out, instead of going to the store and buying it, brothers and sisters want it for free. Imagine, I uploaded the whole album and spread the link around to the people who wanted it uploaded. They will surely send it around and the songs will be heard and enjoyed by thousands of people around Sri Lanka, but the artist will not feel a thing. Is this the "pat on the back" he deserves for the effort he put in ?
The artist won't recover the money he/she spent and that will definetely discourage him from putting out more releases. Afterall, an album is just 500 bucks.
I am all OK for Sri Lankans downloading albums off the net of international artists. International artists have huge fan bases and just a handful of people from Sri Lanka getting hands on their music through "the backdoor" will not make a big difference. (although I agree that it is too, IS unethical) But we should start from helping our artists. Come on people, we should encourage them. Buy their albums, show them what you feel about the album, most of the albums do have an email address to contact the artist. So drop in a line on how bad/how good the album was. Even one word from a fan will do a world of good for an upcoming artist in a country like Sri Lanka. Appreciate what you hear. And if you don't like it, be constructive and let the artist hear your opinion. Afterall we are Sri Lankans !! Respect y'all...Peace !
Isn't it a ridiculous experience to be a musician in Sri Lanka ? Especially, an artist who is in to English language stream ? I mean from the whole population of over 19 million in Sri Lanka i'm pretty sure only around 2% are listening to English music which is perfectly fine by me. That means, effectively artists who are working with original english music are left with only a 2% fan base to work with to market their products. And out of those 2% nearly half won't like the kind of music he/she is producing and that leaves the artist just a handful to work-on to promote his music and recover his/her expenses. BUT...
But even out of the mere percentage who are interested in the music that has been released, most of them seek it for for FREE. Damn, now that is what you call a pighead. The artist spends several hundreds of his hours, effort and money in putting out an album with the intentions of capturing a fan base whish is a bare minimal and when the album is out, instead of going to the store and buying it, brothers and sisters want it for free. Imagine, I uploaded the whole album and spread the link around to the people who wanted it uploaded. They will surely send it around and the songs will be heard and enjoyed by thousands of people around Sri Lanka, but the artist will not feel a thing. Is this the "pat on the back" he deserves for the effort he put in ?
The artist won't recover the money he/she spent and that will definetely discourage him from putting out more releases. Afterall, an album is just 500 bucks.
I am all OK for Sri Lankans downloading albums off the net of international artists. International artists have huge fan bases and just a handful of people from Sri Lanka getting hands on their music through "the backdoor" will not make a big difference. (although I agree that it is too, IS unethical) But we should start from helping our artists. Come on people, we should encourage them. Buy their albums, show them what you feel about the album, most of the albums do have an email address to contact the artist. So drop in a line on how bad/how good the album was. Even one word from a fan will do a world of good for an upcoming artist in a country like Sri Lanka. Appreciate what you hear. And if you don't like it, be constructive and let the artist hear your opinion. Afterall we are Sri Lankans !! Respect y'all...Peace !
posted by Radikal Zee at 12:28 PM
4 Comments:
Hey Radz...hope u r better now. I agree with u in this matter.Sri Lankanz r really into freebies.Bcoz it saves their money and time. Not only they download it from the web, they copy it from someone who has already bought the CD. So as u said itz unfair to the Artist.
Hey your articles r fun to read. I really enjoyed them:p
Keep it up!!!!
sup radz..
neat article...well i do agree to that it's unfair on the artisit,yet most lankans dnt feel the depth of it..well u lettin em knw is a strep forwrd..keep up d gud wk...sm intresting stf
cheers
nat
Aloha RADZ!:)Interesting stand on da whole thing n yeah i do agree on wut u sed especialy supporting sri lankan musicians n appreciating their music...cuz whateva sed & done they took da risk of putting their identity n creativity in to their wrk & put it out to da wrld regardless of what ppl r gonna think n i think th@ calls for alotta support n luv frm us in return....slice of reality given jst da right twist like it alot radz..keep em coming :)- imzee
I know for a fact that our dear friend Anil downloads from Limewire...we all do...Some of us can't reach SL music...those who can should buy the album. Because honestly the downloaded music quality sucks:D
Am I confusing u yet?
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