Pirates vs. copyright holders: insider view

I often meet the opinion that the problem of piracy is only a problem of big business players who want to tear off an even bigger piece. As for the “indie-” component of the business, they supposedly don't care.
Let's get acquainted. I am the owner of a musical indie label , an insider, so to speak, who knows the problem from the inside. And I do care.
I will try to formulate a few misconceptions on this subject, and then refute them.

Disclaimer:
Yes, this post was written under the impression from the discussion of the "anti-piracy" law in the Russian Federation. But I do not stand on any side, I do not even live in this country. I just want you to have a comprehensive look at the problem.
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1. Music pirates work for the idea.

Some - maybe. But the majority work massively, for them it is a business. Pirates enter into partnership agreements with sets of file hosting sites, and they in turn pay either for clicks or for a percentage of the shown advertising. And if you could organize decent traffic from your pirate site to such hosting, then with a good deal you can live off of it.

I would also like to emphasize that many pirates do not buy digital releases for their money. This means that they work in conjunction with carders - people who take away other people's card accounts. Those. The profit is almost clear: you just spend time buying / processing releases, as well as money for the promotion of your pirated site.

2. Pirates do a service to a musician, spinning his name online.

In fact, pirates begin to distribute songs only already known (in a particular circle) performers. An android-oriented pirate working for his profit will not post links to music that is potentially not interesting to anyone. What is more profitable to spend the same time on the release, which will bring 10 clicks or 1000 clicks? The answer is obvious.

When my label just appeared, the first year in the public domain there was not a single song. And only with the time when he began to gain weight, then here and there “leaks” began to appear in the network. And I can declare with full responsibility that there is no correlation. The fictitious law “they first pump for free, then begin to pay” in real life does not work.
However, it is worth adding that many pirates have a great musical taste, which allows them to sometimes believe in completely unknown names and waste time on their kind of “promotion”.

By the way, about promotion. Have you ever heard the phrase “We can’t pay you, but your work for us will be a good portfolio for you, you can work for the future”. What would a professional developer do? That's the same thing. Why, then, should a professional label / musician (and for an individual, it is often the same thing) have to wait for this dubious perspective, and not start earning right now?

3. Piracy is scary only to major labels or major.

Let me tell you how many people should be on the staff of a music label:
- director (directors of departments);
- A & R managers (A & R stands for Artist & Repertoire, i.e. repertoire selection manager);
- distribution managers;
- PR managers (decoding, I think, is not needed);
- accountants;
- lawyers (where do without them);
- well, continue to taste ...
A big label, of course, is obliged to pay all these people a salary, deduct legitimate interest to artists, pay taxes and (surprisingly for many!) Also earn. Of course, we should not forget that the budgets of large labels are far from small, and the risks are taken into account in advance.

What about the little label that also has the right to live? In my case, almost all of these positions are occupied by one person, which of course significantly reduces costs. But the budgets are several orders of magnitude different. The number of releases for a small label is much less than for a large label, and each of them is an event. And if, God forbid, the release will spread among the pirates a few weeks earlier than usual, then for me in terms of revenue, this is a complete failure.

4. Money still does not reach the artists.

Many people somehow oppose the artist and label. Allegedly, the label takes everything for itself, and the artists don’t get anything. This statement becomes absurd when the artist begins to release himself (as in my case, I started with this). And at this very moment the harsh reality appears in all its glory, and it turns out that the labels today really earn a little.

It is also believed that the alleged departure from a major label for an artist is the beginning of his independence and prosperity. However, in fact, the musician is faced with the fact that he knows nothing about where, how and when to promote his music. As a result, this results in very modest sales, so modest that they do not even cover the costs of recording material and minimal PR.

So the next time you download a new album from your favorite musician from the tracker, do not prevaricate, justifying that the money will not reach him anyway. Feel free to admit to yourself that you just do not care.

5. Musicians do not need millions, they just have to play their favorite guitar.

Millions may not be needed. What about earning at least enough to fully devote yourself to your favorite work? Many great indie musicians I know, musicians who already have a small reputation in the world, released on vinyl on European labels, are forced to do this only in their free time. This is because their earnings from sales are not enough to fully engage in music, and tours are still rare, and fees are not so high as to feed themselves or their families.

Those who are in the subject, think about why domestic indie musicians still can not break into the international arena. Many of them simply cannot devote 100% of their time to music due to the difficulties described above. And this is one of the factors that distinguishes the amateur from the professional.

6. Labels lie that piracy hurts them. Anyone who wants to buy, and so will buy.

Ask your friends when they last bought music. Ask the passers-by. Yes, just think about brains. The logic of ordinary people is not difficult to understand: "Why pay if you can download for free."
And really, why? And do not pay.

At a time when music was tied to a material medium (vinyl, tapes, CD), in pursuit of quality and original music lovers much less often allowed themselves to acquire pirated versions. Today, the official MP3 file with a bitrate of 320 kBps is no different from the unofficial one. And pirates use it.

By the way, now the trend is back to release vinyl only releases. However, the vinyl industry has long been turned into an industry for geeks, and a lot of money from the sale of vinyl today will not make (unless of course you are not Pink Floyd or The Beatles).

Let's return to losses. Here is a table with the costs of one regular release ( EP ) for a small indie label (values ​​are taken from the ceiling and rounded, but approximate proportions are preserved).

Article	Amount
Record	-2000
Mastering *	-100
Promotion	-500
Musicians fees	-1000
Remixer fees	-1000
Distribution*	-50
Print run **	-500
...
Total sales, I quarter. 2013	3500
...
Total income, I quarter. 2013	-1650

* - Required items.
** - if there is a material release (vinyl)

If the purchase of one track in the figure will bring us 0.5 units of money, then the extra 3,300 purchases are already pulling us out of the minus. And here you need to understand: 3300 purchases for a major and indie label are two huge differences. What is for them is the noise on the charts, for us is the real income.

Real Case

Once I had a very interesting release. On one side of the record I wanted to record the collaboration of some musicians, on the other - the other. This was supposed to be an unusual release, as it should have been of interest to fans of all four musicians. I have been looking for options for a long time, then persuaded applicants. Months passed before I could select the appropriate material from what they had recorded. After this, a long preparation for the release of the release begins: the printing of preliminary plates (called test-press), then the approval, printing of the main circulation, promotion of the digital version of the release, reviewing and much more.

And just a few days before the official release, a digital copy in its original quality eludes the network. I, cursing the whole world, start frantically writing angry letters to file hosting so that they remove illegal content. By evening, only half of them do this. Spread is inevitable. Four months of fruitful work, discussions and conversations, of my mental work, in the end, all this goes under the tail for a few hours of pirate activity.
The release is pretty good sold on vinyl. In number, the release failed.

Total

Personally, I do not earn anything on my label. Over the years, I learned to go into a small plus and earn just enough to produce the following records. This gives me the opportunity to release completely unknown musicians and hope that they will be noticed. And I get great pleasure when it does happen.
But I still want to talk heart to heart with that rat, which crossed out 4 months of my life with a few mouse clicks.