Recently, Canadian folk musician and instructor Ian Tamblyn wrote a piece that was published on the Roots Music Canada website called “A brief history of why artists are no longer making a living making music”.
I felt I could not let this article go unanswered, or uncommented on.
As background, I am a musician, composer & entrepreneur. I was a professional musician for 15 long hard years, from age 17 to 32. Now, 20 years later (ok, 21 years later), I am still playing music live 5 or 6 times a month.
The closing paragraph of Tamblyn’s piece is worth highlighting:
I think in the future, we must return to valuing the art form. If we as artists attend to the work at a professional level, if we support the community in every way we can as artists, and you have invested in us, is it not incumbent on the community to support in kind? Or are you happy to download it, upload it, rip it, and dispense the art form for free? I think it is incumbent on the citizens of the community to understand its relationship to the musicians and creators if it is to be considered a community at all. If this conundrum cannot be addressed, I suspect music will be generated by computers programmed by robots in the future, and that will be a very shitty future. I think it is important to consider this so that the students in my classroom will be able to have a future in music
What time are we to ‘return’ to? Historically there has always been only a very very small number of musicians who could make money doing it. Actually, here we have to draw a line between musicians and composers. Musicians are bricklayers, composers are architects.
In the ‘golden time’ that Tamblyn talks of — principally the 50s to the 70s — musicians made money if records sold to the public. Even then, the vast majority of the money made went not to the artists but to the record companies.
I am not sure which ‘musicians’ Tamblyn is referring to. The session musicians who were paid by the hour (a wage determined in part by the musicians union)? The bands hired to tour behind fronting artists? Or the composing artists themselves? Because if it is the latter, again, they made their money from song royalties.
Community Responsibility
It is NOT “incumbent on the community to support”. The community can do what it wants. If it doesn’t value recorded music (which it doesn’t), then just because you choose to produce it is not their responsibility. It is ludicrous to suggest this.
Do I love to play music? Yes. Am I grateful I had the chance to learn music? Yes. Do I think that kids should get a chance to learn music? Yes.
Do I think musicians (or any artist) have a right to earn a living from it, without commercializing themselves? No. Find a patron — or patrons — who will pay you. That is the way it has always been, and the way it will always be.
