So I got home after a tiring day of school to find a blogger DMCA takedown notification in my inbox. I used to be a music blogger and I've heard a million times about these 'notifications' getting sent to my peers them but I never got one - I did not want my first time to get one of them to be when I stopped posting download links. It happened.
Apparently it was for the Andy Bull post I made before I left for summer camp - it had what I was told by the promotional team as a LEGAL download so I posted it. Who am I to doubt someone whose best interest is the artists'? It was the logical thing to do.
I wrote that post, I made an effort to listen and weigh the good and the bad of a song someone sent me and how does blogger repay me for that? THEY TAKE THE DAMN POST DOWN. I really feel like swearing right now - it's taking a lot of control for me not to start cursing all over this post and crying as I write this(I kinda cried in the bathroom a while ago but whatever..). I'm a teenager, my feelings are at an all-time high but more importantly, my principles and what I believe in was violated - I hate it when people do that.
It annoys me even more that one of my posts was deleted now that I'm a serious writer - not the owner of a blog that posts download links. Unlike the download blogs who oftentimes post the tracklisting, a picture and the link so if their post gets deleted it's easy to re-post, I write. I don't know exactly what I wrote and the reason why I don't re-write posts is because when I made the original post that was what I thought of the song of the album at the time - I'm able to see how my taste in music matures or changes over the years and more importantly I see how I grow as a writer. Because of blogger I'll never be able to see how I wrote that week anymore - it's like losing a part of my identity, really.
The internet is the main medium where artists get discovered - why do all these businesspeople think it's their biggest enemy? People who want to get noticed here will give away their albums for nothing, what's the big deal? Everything got complicated when these stupid businessmen who call themselves 'experts in the music industry' but actually know nothing about music think that you should put a price on every single song.
What really pisses me off is when we start talking about the industry is when all these people know is how to sue and take down everything that stops them from earning money - don't they have any musical principles? Doing that may be fine if you sell groceries or school supplies or something but NEVER WITH ART/ANYTHING CREATIVE - music, literature, paintings, clothes, the works. Who says how much music should cost? MUSIC IS MUSIC - it can function without the industry but the industry can't function without it. Let's take out the music from the music industry and lets see how desperate these guys are for money, they might start selling the people themselves(which they're kinda doing now). It's possible.
I was raised to always, ALWAYS value the music itself over everything else. I was exposed to every possible genre of music and was free to choose what I liked but I was never shown what the artist looked like, how many albums he/she sold, how much money the album earned for the company and all those things people nowadays care so much about. It's hard to believe that when I was a kid I absolutely adored Swing Out Sister - I had no idea who they were, what they looked like or how popular they were before but I loved them then and I still listen to them every now and then. I was not brainwashed to only like what the industry says I should (*ahem* Billboard top 10 *ahem*), I was given the freedom to say what I like and what I don't. Im a Filipino who loves British pop - there aren't that many of us here but I don't care because I listen to anything as long as it moves me, why would I go against principals I myself live by? I know I'm going a little too far from the takedown notification thingy but it's still about the stupid recording industry so forgive me if you're confused.
I hate the fact that a lot more than 70% of the MUSIC industry has become all about the money. Sure, if your job is being a musician you need to earn money to survive but since when did the WHOLE THING revolve around the money? Music is music - I know I always say it but it's true, it can exist without money or material wealth. Our ancestors did it, why can't we? People will starve just to sing or make outstanding music and what do these stupid executives do? They call it crap just because they can't sell it. I heard my dad saying once, can't a good businessman sell anything? Why do they choose the bad songs that are injustice to music over the songs that are actually worth taking time to listen to just because it'll sell quadruple the amount or some unimaginable amount of money?
This is why I'm considering trying to be a record executive - to teach these stupid people that music is more important than the industry because it can function without business. It did long before and it can now.
I can't pinpoint exactly why but I'm seriously very, very depressed right now. Writing this didn't help as much as it usually does when I get angry and whenever I listen to a song I can't help but think about the damn industry - I honestly don't know what to do. I cried already, if I cry any more my head might start pounding so hard I think I might die (blame my blasted allergic rhinitis..) and I'm waaay too full to dig into a big, fat bar of dark chocolate. I might go study or do something mindless if I don't have anything better to do.
I didn't schedule any post for tomorrow and I don't think I'll be able to write anything tonight so take a rest from the Kpop for now, you and I deserve and possibly need it. Sorry about the ranting, I just had to try and get this off my chest without crying in front of my parents. Hahah.
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