The digital revolution has undoubtedly made it easier for musicians to make music than ever before. It could even be argued as Harold Macmillan once famously declared, 'you've never had it so good'. Recording costs have plummeted, and these days a song or album can be distributed around the world with the simple click of a button. Furthermore, gone are the days when musicians had to go down on bended knee to gain the approval of a record company. According to John Lennon, this was one of the main reasons why the Beatles launched Apple records back in the sixties; somewhat ironic I know.
If you were ever actually fortunate enough to sign a record deal; which was some achievement back then, the wheels of the music industry moved relatively slowly. Records were generally packed into copious boxes on their release date, before been driven around the country and distributed to retailers by hand. I was somewhat familiar with this arduous process, as I used to pack and distribute records for both Virgin and Rough Trade Records back in the day. I remember whenever the Smiths released a new album, we had to work the whole weekend to get it out on time such was the unprecedented demand. Clearly a lot more physical work was involved in those days, and that's without even considering international distribution.
Nonetheless, this new found freedom has undoubtedly come at a considerable price. Yes, artists can record, release and distribute their music at minimal expense and incredible speed, but they no longer have the weight of a publishing company to protect their intellectual property. Consequently, they are now more vulnerable than ever to exploitation, because any guard rails that previously existed have been unceremoniously blown off.
Bearing this in mind, I recently came across the disturbing case of children's musician Ronnie Boy, who discovered that his song "Burger" had been used by a restaurant chain on an Instagram video, without recognising him as the originator of the music. To add fuel to the fire, over one thousand reels were created from the original upload which has now received a staggering eighteen million views. Regrettably, the view tally has been credited to the uploader of the video and not Ronnie Boy himself.
I'm not sure if this issue has been resolved at the point of writing, but I would imagine it is somewhat unlikely, given the state of the new music industry, where piracy is ubiquitous. Without the backing of a publishing company to represent you, anyone, seemingly anywhere in the world, can exploit your music for their own illicit purposes, and it seems there's not much you can do about it.The music industry is now more competitive than ever, and situations like this certainly don't help new artists. I imagine that eighteen million views on social media would be a considerable game changer for any aspiring musician. I'm sure many like-minded artists would be furious if they had experienced something similar. This is particularly significant today, where just a small fraction of major artists dominate the airwaves like never before.
If you are looking for justice, you won't find it in the music industry. Promotional opportunities are often restricted for lesser known artists, where creative output is often overlooked in favour of numerology and over-hyped social media accounts. Or as Depeche Mode so eloquently put it, 'everything counts in large amounts'. Haven't these digital monoliths ever heard of career development or artistic growth? It surely begs the question, how many years did the Beatles or David Bowie have to slog away at their craft before they finally broke through? Clearly increasingly inequality, and the inherent injustice of the one percent, is not restricted to the boardrooms of Wall Street or Goldman Sachs.
In my experience, musicians are somewhat naive when it comes to business matters, and have long been exploited by nefarious operators who are clearly not in the game for the love of music. Nonetheless, can you imagine shamelessly advertising someone else's song to serve your own interests without prior permission, before the arrival of social media? Such audacious operators would have been sued into oblivion, and deservedly so. In light of all this, it is crucial that artists are recognised and fully compensated for their work, because in terms of making an impact, it has never been harder, such is the intense competition of the new music industry.
To digress slightly, I have just finished reading Naomi Klein's latest book "Doppleganger", where she explains in considerable detail how her name became confused with the conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolfe. As a result, she was targeted on social media by both the left and the right for her so-called extreme views, many of which have nothing to do with her. This confusion has been further exacerbated by complex and aggressive algorithms, which have conflated the two writers, and created more confusion and pain than you or I could ever imagine.Whether it is Ronnie Boy, Naomi Klein, or whoever may be experiencing the Orwellian impact of the online world, we are clearly living in an increasingly vulnerable age. Where the considerable benefits of this new found artistic freedom for an emerging musician, or an acclaimed author, are consumed by sharks ready to pounce in either direction.
In the meantime, I would like to give a quick shout-out to Ronnie Boy the aforementioned artist, and his innovative song "Burger", a track which succeeds through combining haunting harmonies with an infectious rap. On first listen, you can see why it has gained traction, such is the raw simplicity of the lyric and its relentless hypnotic groove. Surely the way forward in such cases, is for the uninformed retailer to take responsibility, and commission a song from Ronnie Boy directly, rather than plundering his creativity to serve their own purposes.
I hope that at some point this issue will be resolved and the artist will be fully compensated, or at least recognised for his innovative work. For now, we'll have to wait and see.
Credit where credit is due.
