I found this podcast of an interview with Steve Albini via Dean Allen’s blog Textism. Dean’s write up has some good highlights, and the full thing is posted above. Steve has some really good comments on music today.
The Sound of Young America: Steve Albini
“I don’t know if there is really that much money to be made [in music]. I think of playing music as playing tennis or skiing, where you can get a lot out of it without it being your job. And very very few people can do those things professionally, but everybody who wants to do it can do it for its own sake.”
-Steve Albini in response to a question about where the money comes from in this shrinking music industry.
This just makes so much sense, its reality. Why can’t people just be happy making their art, how did money and fame get so wrapped up in the whole process? The fact is, there just isn’t enough room in the field for everyone to make money. On a side note, it always bugs me when you go to small venue in a city where there are 3 or 4 acts, pretty low key, just some musicians playing their stuff and one of the musicians finishes his/her act and then proceeds to totally beg for money/purchasing of CDs/visiting myspace/whatever new promo material is new that year, its degrades the relationship between fan and musician that they just spent the last 20 minuets building. I now feel like a consumer, a consumer of your goods, not a fellow patron of your art….anyway.
