Ok, this is a discussion I’ve had a couple of times recently with various friends and colleagues, and I’m now throwing it open to Blogland partly to see if I can explain my argument better than I have managed so far, and partly to invite other opinions.
The (possibly apocryphal) McAloon story is one I heard a year or so ago: he is in a London taxi chatting to the driver inevitably about music and the conversation turns to downloading. The driver admits that he does download some tunes illegally, but assures the former Prefab Sprout frontman that he probably buys 75% of the music he owns. At the end of the journey McAloon presents the driver with 75% of the fare. Quite funny. And yes, we see what he’s done there – unfortunately we don’t know what the driver said or did next…!
Prefab Sprout
Anyway it got me thinking that Paddy really didn’t pick the right scenario to make his point. To be honest, it’s making me feel very uncomfortable trying to equate his (or any pop musician’s) ‘job’ with that of a cab driver.
No disrespect to either of course. Yes, in a way they both have to ‘train’ and learn their job; they both probably have to make a considerable financial investment (although I imagine in Prefab Sprout’s case there were record labels to do that). They both work hard. Sort of.
There is also a ‘going rate’ for the price of an album, or a download, or a cab journey that is established by the market. The same one that means a pint of lager costs whatever depending on where you go.
But that’s where it gets tricky for me – you see, the world at some point decided it needed lager, and taxis. It also decided it needed music – but no one actually asked Prefab Sprout to be Prefab Sprout; or Arcade Fire to be Arcade Fire; or Elvis to start rock ‘n’ roll; or me to form a group with my mates at school. There was no demand for us as such. We just did it because we had it in us and we thought the world (or at least our neighbours) should hear – you might say we needed to express ourselves if you were being kind – we all really should admit that we, all artists, are basically showing off.
We’ve made this stuff. We really hope you like it. If you like it enough to buy it then it might feel like selling pints of lager, whether it’s a million cans of Fosters or a plastic jug of home brew. But essentially it’s all showing off.
A London taxi
Cab drivers aren’t showing off – you don’t get any “aren’t I brilliant at driving and I deserve your fare” attitude. There are no charts, PR companies or taxi pluggers. You don’t wait until your favourite one comes along before you get in. But when you do get in, you and the driver both know exactly what you’re getting – from A to B please, that’ll be how much? You’re locked in until you pay.
Music isn’t like that – there has never been a comfortable way to put a value on someone’s ‘art’. There never were any guarantees people would like it or buy it. There’s even less now. You might come up with a product that millions want to own, but the gamble is that you pour out your soul and/or your savings and no one cares beyond a quick listen on Spotify.
Translate this into Mr McA’s analogy and you’d have a lot of hopeful but empty cabs out there. Or people just asking drivers to describe the journey, then walking.
There certainly are examples where music comes closer to providing a direct service: perhaps if you play sessions, or work in media/ad music (you are asked to write something to a specific brief, for a specific fee). Inevitably that would feel much more like working wouldn’t it? But ironically your cab driver wouldn’t have to pay anything to hear your tune on a Lexus ad. And it wouldn’t feel like proper showing off.
Perhaps to make Paddy’s analogy work better, we could imagine an army of rogue drivers giving free lifts around London, or that a crowded bus journey is a kind of low quality mp3 version of the cab ride. We’d also need some slightly more complex maths relating to the percentage of the average cab driver’s collection that is actually by Prefab Sprout.
Posted by Ian
