Metal-Eric

About me:

A text by Michael Kiske about music-piracy
"If someone pays money for a CD today, especially among the young-ones he or she will get looked at as being almost insane. „I can burn it for you“! they say, or if they like a song, they ask: „Where can I download it?“ etc. The social-ignorance here is truly remarkable! Hundred thousands of people which used to work for record labels, publishers etc. have lost they jobs and everyday more are following. Everywhere musicians are not able anymore to keep on working as professionals. The illegal copying and downloading of music has become so insane, it gets almost impossible to produce good records, and especially the more idealistic artists, which don't want to become plain ''industry-whores'', are facing hard times right now. Many turn into ''weekend-warriors'', they have no choice, and since our energies are always limited, the quality of their music will usually show that sooner or later too. But our newer generations don't seem to care at all! They always find cheap excuses like: Musicians are all rich anyway! Etc. Even if that is true for some bands and musicians, it doesn't make any difference here, because if an act like U2 is not selling enough CDs anymore, they will lose their deals too. And we should not expect every band to make their own labels just because they have the money for it. And why should they do that anyway if noone thinks their CDs are worth buying? So even if some artists are rich, they are maybe not in danger for their private life's, but they will stop making CDs if they don't sell: so for us to get music from them is in danger. But whatever I may say here, the newer generations don't seem to care. There seems to be no social-sense left. If they can save a few bucks, they steal the music they want to listen to, no matter what. Those generations obviously don't appreciate good record-productions anymore, so fast-food-music is the solution our music-industry came up with. Since (almost) noone buys CDs anymore, the bigger labels started to completely ''design'' their so called ''artists'' for their markets now to maximize sales a bit more. BUT LABELS AND MARKETS SHALL NEVER ''DESIGN'' MUSICIANS! FREE MUSICIANS AND TRUE MUSIC MUST BUILD THE MARKETS! This is the only way for a healthy music-culture to exist! But since the opposite of what is artistically right has become the rule, most of the successful music today is nothing else but technically well done untrue heartless fake; plain products with just a money-soul behind various masks (and that goes through all music-styles and scenes). Maybe musicians who have not enough support by friends of their music anymore shall now completely stop producing records and only play live until album-productions are appreciated again. It's too often really not worth the pain anymore. If our newer generations are not able (or willing) to keep a fruitful music-culture alive and rather slowly starve it to death, they simply don't deserve music. -
As a record-producer I generally don't like MP3. So I am not a friend of download-music at all (including legally downloaded music). That's because MP3 simply sounds horrible! The overtones are gone, high-ends are distorted and all openness disappears. We should have moved on to the SACD (5.1) instead of going backwards in quality to MP3. With the internet-download-ages we have also lost other good elements of our modern music-culture. I'm thinking about CD-Cover-Artwork, lyrics, song running orders, concept albums etc. I remember when I was younger and bought a record, that there sometimes was a song on there that I didn't understand (didn't like) right away. But after a while it turned out to be a real pearl. And if people today only download what they like (understand) right away, the cultivating element of learning something new in music is completely disappearing. That's how Mammon slowly corrupts all truth and values of our culture. -"

Michael Kiske




..

.. ..




..