We are, most of us, creatures of the consumer culture. One hundred and
fifty years ago, near the dawn of the consumer culture, we would be waiting
on reviews of sheet music to come out, and arguing over whether anyone had
the right to publish anything so difficult to play as Schumann's piano
works for the general market. Many people would be arguing the merits of
Czerny's beethoven inspired pieces, while these would be all but drowned
out by the legions of Herz fans. A few people would be siding with the
works of Liszt, and be regarded as aspiring virtuosos for it. There would
be a brisk conversation about the best transcriptions of symphonies, and
whether the lyrics to various songs - drawn from avant-garde poets and
romanticists - was really appropriate for a girl of tend years to be
singing.
In short, we would have sounded a great deal like a list for Linux
programming does now - there would be admiration for concerts and the major
productions to be sure, but the bulk of the musical life would have been
making music at home.
- - -
In the US, in the middle of the last recession, a wave of discounting
began. While not as many people were unemployed, many more, including
many well up into the middle class, were extremely price sensitive. As
a result, the prices of everything either tumbled - or held steady.
There is, for those who have not noticed it, a recession coming in the
United States. Perhaps a small one, perhaps a severe one, but the
collision of the post war economy - where to cut inflation pressures
interest rates must be raised enough for people to be forced to cut back on
their life styles, or inflation must be allowed to eat up spare income
until there is much less excess demand - is happening. It will, of course,
effect everything - but I am interested primarily in the question of
culture here. Specifically the ridiculously low cost of being cultured.
Low cost? Scream our collectors, who have their paychecks direct deposited
to their Tower Records account? Low cost? cry the season subscribers who
have watched ticket prices climb skyward? Low cost? Cry the students
staring at the freshly pressed text book bill and have come back from
standing in line at the bursars office.
Yes. Low cost.
Consider the following scenairio, you pick up the latest programming
book - cost 50.00 - and on the same round procur a bargain CD from Naxos
for 6 dollars, a complete Shakespeare on clearance for 5.00, a clearance
biography of Anais Nin for 6.00, a book of 20th century piano pieces for
12.95 and a new Barnes and Noble atlas of world history for 19.95. One has
spent less on culture which will last than on a programming book which will
be basically obsolete in 3 to 5 years at best, and will need to be replaced
next year for the same cost.
Consider the cost of season tickets to the local football team - slightly
better than mediocre, in almost any seat, costs less than season tickets
to one of the big five orchestras.
For something under 250 dollars a year - down to 135 after one figures
in tax deductions - I am entitled to enter not only one museum of art -
but 25 spread all over the country - any time I choose during their normal
hours of operation. This is less than one game in a luxury box, and
approximately the price of front row tickets to see a naked guy play
guitar, badly.
- - -
The wave of media mergers is, in fact, coming to an end. With stock
prices depressed there is much less incentive to do them - since their
primary product is a huge payout to those involved, including lawyers,
investment bankers and large shareholders. Instead there is a gradual
turning backwards to a bunker mentality, both at the top, and in the
trenches of the bookstores, both chain and independant. Prices are going
up, not list prices, but actual prices as discounts evaporate. No longer
are many players trying to grab a chunk of the business - which is the era
of discounting - but instead to hold on to the business they have, which is
the era of gradual price increases in side items, ending of specials and an
attempt to convince people that they should pay extra for "service". Since
the service is the same today as it was yesterday, the real result will be
smaller sales of fewer units.
But it is the consumerist that frets as much about units moved, and
instead I would propose that the world of classical music should abandon
the consumer world's paradigm. The consumer paradigm is that it is very
important to count who sold how many units, and give them more money
accordingly - so as to create the incentive to make product that will sell
more units than other people.
Instead I would propose that instead of playing residual royalty
structures, that, in effect, the large orchestras form a consortium,
make every recording made available in CD on demand form, and funnel
the procedes of this consortium to every musician, with an emphasis on
those who are living but retired and their immediate family, as a way of
providing support for those who are no longer earning performing income.
Divide this equitably regardless of who purchases which recording - and
make the entire thing available by subsription for those who would
download.
The current model encourages scarcity of an artificial kind, recordings
are withheld from the public, in order that we might be induced not only
to buy them, but to buy them in a short space of time. Instead the world
of high art should be the world of abundance, where everything is available
to anyone willing to contribute to the upkeep of the whole. This model,
economically, is far more similar to radio, but is more wide spread than
that. Those performers who are in greater demand will, of course, be able
to charge more for their performances, and in this way gain greater status
and luxury, if that is their desire.
We must survive in a consumer society, but that does not mean we must
believe in it.
stirling s newberry
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http://www.mp3.com/ssn
[Please keep any responses on topic. If you wish to take issue with
Stirling's general economic predictions or observations, please do so
privately. -Dave]
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