Just How Will You Get Paid For Your Music?

Pay attention.  Today’s LA Times reports that Apple is considering selling music by subscription to help drive the sales of its various music devices. Here’s a quote on the movement to sell music by subscription you better pay attention to:

“It’s getting harder and harder to monetize the music. What Apple can do is monetize the experience,” Ted Cohen, former record industry executive and managing partner with Tag Strategic added. “I hope it’s more curated. Then you have something there, with playlist recommendations and artist recommendations.
This could be an exciting moment or a me-too moment.”

 So what does that mean for you, this “monetize the experience”?  Well think about it like this.  It would be like paying Monet $1 for his “Water Lilies” and then charging everybody $10 a ticket to get into the museum to see it.  Monet, poor bastard, he never sees another dime.  The “monetizers,” that own the museum, they get rich.

If Monet balks at the deal the “monetizers” just go to Degas, or Gaugan or Van Gogh and cut the deal with them.  In other words, you take it or leave it. Notice nobody’s quoting your band in this piece or representing your financial interests.  Or anybody else’s band for that matter.

Eventually it looks like the music itself will be free or close to it and the “monetizer” will be making the money.  As an artist concerned with creating music, where does this leave you?