By now you’ve probably heard about that NPR intern who claims to have over 11,000 songs in her music library, but only paid for 15 CDs in her life.
Remember CRACKER? What a great opportunity for someone in the music industry to write an open letter to that intern, right?
That’s exactly what DAVID LOWERY did.
Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)
In his OPEN LETTER TO EMILY WHITE, here are some of the bullets that David had to say about the current state of music piracy:
- The number of professional musicians has dropped 25% since 2000
- Only 1,000 albums sold more than 10,000 copies in 2010. 1,000 copies is about the breakeven point for an independent artist’s album release
- Spotify is currently not a fair system in terms of how much it pays musicians in royalties
- For those 11,000 songs – Emily should have paid a fair royalty rate of 9.1 cents per song plus a 15% royalty rate for the artist — for a grand total of $2,139.50. Or, as David points out: $2,139.50 = 1 smart phone + 1 full size iPod + 1 Macbook. In other words, “how can you pay real money for that stuff but not for music?”
The biggest question David asks? How can your generation be responsible for recent cultural changes such as raising awareness of equality in support of same-sex marriages, but you refuse to pay an artist what they’re owed for providing your musical soundtrack to your life.
Without music, life would be miserable.
So pay up.