I hate music

It´s prolly not politically correct for me to write this..

But the music industry has made my life a living hell for way too long now and I need to vent a little.

I make movies. I usually need music to edit awesome movies and other clips. I´ve been fortunate enough to work with big music budgets (for my line of work) and have spend mucho dineros on songs I´ve used. I can´t say how much, but is depressingly much.

So what´s so horrible?

Well I´ll tell you.

The music industry isn´t what it was 10 years ago when teenagers and others too for that matter were buying
CD´s.

Illegal downloads is a huge problem. The fact that people don´t "feel" like paying for music is absurd.

How are musicians going to make a living if you don´t feel like paying for it when you can steal it on DC++ or www.thepiratebay.com ..?

I have to admit. About 1% of the music and video I have in my possesion are illegal downloads. I suck.

Sure some artists are making a killing. Like Ashlee Simpson or Kelly Clarkson, or Markolioo and Amy Diamond here in Sweden.

But it´s the smaller guys who used to sell moderate amounts of cd´s that can´t make ends meet now.

Here in Sweden there is a band called The Bear Quartet who always gets really good reviews in the magazines but I´m pretty sure they aren´t selling a lot of cd´s. And therefor I´m assuming it´s hard for these very talented musicians to pay rent.
It wouldn´t surprise me if they played for 5.000 fans at the Hultsfred festival, but only a fraction of the crowd had bought their latest album.

I mean why pay €20 for something you can steal online and not get caught for?

This in an about way becomes a problem for me.
Record labels and publishers need to make up for the loss in record sales. So when I approach them (via a contracted music supervisor) about using a song for a snowboard movie or in my latest case a rally car web clip they either deny the request or they want too much money.
This is the same story when I make dvd´s that go on sale in stores.

Since this artists music is probably on 20.000 youtube clips already and maybe as many bootleg cd´s in south east Asia why won´t they embrace the idea of me paying a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand dollars to use a song they made maybe 10 years ago for a clip that will be online for a few months on a website? (ridiculously long sentence)

I´d hope they´d be stoked that we´re going to pay a good amount of money (for my industry) for a song that´s not their current cash cow.

Many band members are into being in snow/skate/surf/moto related videos (my field). But most of the time their publishers aren´t. So what usually happens is that the band gets no exposure and the record label and publishers gets no money. And I get an ulcer and a headache.

All I want to do is pay a reasonable amount of money for music and in return hundreds of thousands of people gets exposed to their music and hopefully that will make the band and everyone else involved happy.

This fall was a living hell because of music rights. Just hell. For weeks.

The last week has been the same. So many denials while under the pressure of meeting the deadline (which passed 24 hours ago).

The worst is when a band rejects your request. Cause usually it´s a band I have albums with, been to their concerts and have great memories too etc. It´s kind of like if you´re a kid and you meet your idol and he´s spits in your face and then makes out with your sister. Kind of like that...

Like why would a band I used a few months ago deny me on this project? I don´t get it...

Or why wouldn´t Operation Ivy (old punk band) grant my request?

The band Operation Ivy (and many with them) are now dead to me.

So now it´s 2.40 am. I´ve been working 16 hour days for 5 something days and missed the only good powder day of the year. The weekend sucked, like so many other weekend have in the past due to record labels and music publishers.

I hate you.

To the band that have played ball with me; I LOVE YOU.

I love music so much I hate almost everything about it.

Now back to work. Have 4 hours to re-edit for the 6th time.
It would be refreshing to go for a walk. I´ve averaged about 200 steps a day since Thursday so we´ll see if the legs remember how to move. With any luck a pack of wolves will attack me.

Soon it will be over. Until next time.

I pitty myself.