'Before the Music Dies,' a documentary

Narrated by Forest Whitaker, Before the Music Dies, is a cautionary documentary focusing on the sad state of the music business. Or as someone so eloquently put it, "mixing music and art is a bad mix." The film is loaded with interviews and performances by Erykah Badu, Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, and Branford Marsalis.

Since its release in November 2006, the film has screened more than 200 times in more than 130 North American markets. Before the Music Dies is available as a download and DVD. Check the Web site for more info.

[Nodack]

Yep, the music business is dead. Free music has it's consequences. Will the future guitar heroes all be pushing colored buttons on fake instruments?

[bpapa9013]

Hahaha, no the only thing we will see a decrease in is crappy label created ****-pop bands that no one would listen to in the first place if the labels didn't spend billions marketing them. Any artist that is worth listening to will be fine, so long as they don't mind touring...

and btw, you my friend are an a$$-clown!

[nicmart]

The sky is falling, No. 565.

Technology is changing things, new paradigms are being born as old ones die. Creative destruction. Unless government wrecks it (e.g., excessive royalty fees), the Internet offers almost unlimited opportunities for music distribution. It hasn't jelled yet, but it will. Maybe Marsalis and other Jazz musicians (or is he pop?) will create a web site to promote new musicians. (Whatcha waiting for, Branford?) The irony is that the people who will do it probably won't be complaining musicians but entrepreneurs who are interested in -- oh, no! -- commerce. The dinosaurs who run the record companies are not even motivated to open their massive reserves of albums never released on CD to sell them as digital downloads. They are remarkably stupid. (They could probably contract with small labels to do the entire job, and still make a nice profit.) Realistically, the future will probably not come until the existing record industry giants utterly collapse. Like the fall of other empires, this will be cause for celebration.

In the meantime it is no accident that the collapse of musical sales corresponds to the downturn in musical creativity. I'm thrilled that people have stopped buying the vulgar, mindless swill that has prevailed for the past 20 years.

[Worf101]

What people fail to realize that being "paid for music" is a relatively new phenomenon. Until the advent of sheet music, player pianos and wax and vinyl, musicians and composers made their money from performance not publishing rights or recordings. As soon as folks found you could get the performance WITHOUT paying the performer artists began getting ripped off left right and sideways by pukes that couldn't string a guitar in a matchbox.

Now the "jig is up". Had the record industry been a little less greedy and gotten together and devised a fair, sliding and universal scale for paid music downloads at the start, they'd at least have a share of the pie. 20% of millions is better than 100% of nothing. But no, the selfish bums tried to keep it all and in doing have lost it all. Now the middle manager whose only talent had been selling drivel to preteen suburban girls has to find a REAL job. The king is dead, long live the king.

David Macks