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On Paying For Music

My uncle is a working musician. So when he asked me my philosophy on paying for music, I was a bit nervous, because people who make music for a living sometimes (fairly) judge those who sometimes steal it. But I think I have a pretty fair philosophy on what music I will and will not pay for. Here it is:

1. Always when it’s an under-represented artist whose work I respect
2. Sometimes when it’s a living artist who’s popular and doing well
3. Never when it’s a dead artist, unless I can’t easily find the work elsewhere

I think we have a responsibility to contribute to artists whose work we enjoy but who’ve yet to find much success. Conversely, I don’t think I owe Frank Sinatra, Jr. shit. Being Frank Sinatra’s son must have been so damn cool that I don’t think I need to make it any cooler.

There’s a grey area with non-profit organizations (I just blogged about paying for an album of Leonard Bernstein conducting the NY Philharmonic, partly because the Phil is a non-profit, and partly because of the convenience clause in rule #3). But overall, that’s what I try and stick to. So if you’re an arcane folk-pop trio in Brooklyn, don’t worry. I paid. But if you changed your name to capitalize on a legacy, then I’m sorry, I didn’t. It’s not your music. It’s your dad’s. And where he is, they don’t use money.