I ♥ Canadians

A great essay by the 2010 Polaris Music Prize winners, Fucked Up, is posted on their blog, which goes deep into the music industry economic system, particularly that of the annual SxSW festival.

This is important for a lot of reasons, all of which have to do with you as an economic actor. Something that should be forefront in the minds of every band and every record label is how this is the most visual example of music money leaching away from the people most connected to music. You may have heard that the music industry is sort of falling apart. It isn’t really a matter of there being less money in the pool - just that the money people have to spend on entertainment (which will always be somewhat of a constant) is just being diverted away from where it historically has gone (record labels and managers). The music industry is by definition an operation invented to divert money spent on music away from actual musicians - the problems that the music industry is currently facing have specifically to do with the fact that the money that would usually flow directly to the bigger economic actors is now going somewhere else.

Lesson here kiddies: Even if you see it in a publication does not mean it’s real. Do your homework!

Back in November of 2007, Rolling Stone ran a mysterious editorial called “Indie Band Universe,” where they listed some independent bands from across North America. However, the piece was also littered with strategically placed mentions of Camel cigarettes because, well, it was alleged to be an ad paid for by the tobacco company.

Understandably, the bands involved were pissed off.