The Comics Reporter points to this article in the Penn State paper about how musicians should look to webcomics as a way to make a living in the file-sharing, peer-to-peer age.
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The Comics Reporter points to this article in the Penn State paper about how musicians should look to webcomics as a way to make a living in the file-sharing, peer-to-peer age.
Comments are closed.
Well DUH!
Odd that. At one of our monthly meetings of the NCWCCC we discussed the vast similarities between webcomics and local bands, especially with the rise of smaller collectives like Blank Label, Eye Scream, etc, etc. In smaller bands the drummer is not just the drummer, but also the webpage designer and the lead singer the publicist. But yeah, Musicians have been using the Internet for a couple of years now. After her ten year battle w/ her record label, Michelle Schocked
now offers her entire catalog for download on her site at a much cheaper price than one would pay in a store.
Ummm… what?
Musicians have their own working revenue model, even independent ones. You can sell CDs through services like CDBaby (which also makes your tracks available via iTunes and other download sites) and web sites like ArtistLaunch allow you to promote your music via podcasts and free downloads.
All of that is meaningless if you can’t get people to, you know, be willing to buy your songs, but that’s the way life goes. Web comics as a whole doesn’t really have an established revenue model… some comics do the advertising thing, some do the paid subscription thing, most all of the successful ones also sell secondary product (like bands do, incidentally, though bands did it first.)
But seriously… bands should make music by selling T-shirts?
They already sell T-shirts!
…..
Web comics don’t have an established revenue model because they’ve found that different styles/formats call for different models. It will happen for musicians too and the point of the article was that the ones that adapt now will prosper in the future. The recordings themselves no longer need to be the product. A band could make it’s money from merchandise, licensing or gigging, with recorded music merely being the promotional tool to drum up an audience. Once upon time web cartoonists couldn’t see past the syndication model but now plenty of them don’t really give it a second thought. Peer-to-peer networks will eventually mean the same thing happening to independant music.
Honestly, musicians seem to do a much better job than webcomics when it comes to using the web as part of their business model. They use it to leverage their popularity until they can get signed by a major label. In webcomics, even the major labels haven’t made any big waves with their profit margins, and there isn’t a ‘legit market’ awaiting those who leverage themselves up through the web.
Gosh, that’s kind of spooky for me.
I wonder how many other people are already doing the same thing.