Why are you giving away your tracks for free?
"Seemed like a good idea at the time..."
Is that it?
"If you really want to know I don't actually sell that many records anymore... but look, don’t tell anyone..."
Really?
"Well I guess at best I shift around 700 vinyl and a few hundred downloads. Which is all good of course. But it's a big old effort to get a release out... you have to be really quite organised and together."
Doesn't the record company deal with all that boring stuff?
"It would do.... if I had a record deal."
Oh.
"Anyways my point is, I thought why not bypass all the traditional record company crap and just make the tracks available for free .. bang... done. To me that's exciting. Whereas spending loads of time and effort persuading the world to buy my stuff when they can probably get it for free or are not sure if they actually like it that much... isn't."
***
Thus points out a remarkably frank hero of mine, Mr. Simon Begg, in a Q+A I'm pretty certain he dreamed up himself, and I loved the flip nature of it (and pinpoint accuracy), so decided to plagiarize it and add it into this farcical blog (above). Oh, but I asked him first, and he said OK, which I guess renders it authorized plagiarism. If that exists. You can read more of the Q+A here.
Why exactly am I reprinting this, however? Well, as of September 1st 2009, Si Begg is giving away his new 4 Track EP, '24-Bit Error Collection'.
"Yes, that's right, free," he says on his new download site right HERE.
"All tracks are yours to download and distribute as you see fit. You can copy them, burn them on a CD, blog them, host them yourself, give them to your mum, whatever you want. Music in the public domain. Or put another way: Make. Upload. Share. Inspire. Crisps."
There's more I love to read here; the guy just gets better with age, like a fine wine that's been cellared at the right temperature - without ever being a bland drop.
"Major labels and the bodies that represent them, such as the BPI in the UK and the RIAA in the USA would have us believe that sharing music is destroying music and the musicians that create it. We contend that the truth is, this cartel of major record companies, distributors and publishers have been systematically fucking musicians and the people that love and buy music for about 50 years. Creating, amongst other things, huge profits for shareholders, a rigorous, brutally industrialised method of music production, Hannah Montana and an inherently average, uninspiring, mainstream music scene. This traditional industry model is so close to death that we dare not entertain it here. Instead we leave it up to you to help determine how far this E.P. travels."
Amen, Si. You rock. September 1st, people. Download and enjoy.
