P.S.

The purpose of my “Mashumentary” project was to present copyright issues in media form. I used media from the Internet to create a “media mashup”, a new work legal under fair use. There is some information that I gained in my study that I didn’t put on the video due to awkwardness, so I will provide it here.

Survey

I found that within the people I surveyed, most people were in a group that might be defined by the term copy moderate. There is a good majority of people who just don’t know, don’t care, and who don’t really understand copyright law. Others still may buy CD’s, but don’t think file sharing is ethically wrong. Some feel as though the super capitalist ways of the companies controlling media have sucked the teat of greed far to long and need to embrace the coming revolution.

Interview with singer, songwriter, and recording artist Jim Bizer.
Responses by Jim are notated by ***.

Ian: How long have you been playing music?

***Jim: I started playing French Horn, and guitar shortly after, at age 8; so I’ve been playing music for 44 years.

Professionally?

***I played my first paid performance at age 14 and have continued since then – this is my 38th year as a professional musician.

Recording?

***First started experimenting with a sound-on-sound recorder in high school. Acquired a 4-track tape machine when I was 22 and made many “demo-quality” recordings, some of which I gave to friends, some of which I used for promotional purposes. From the mid 80s to the early 90s, I did quite a bit of work in pro studios, including production of my own songs (in hopes of a record contract), sessions as a sideman on guitar, bass and keyboards on other artists’ projects, as well as producing music for television and radio. It wasn’t until 2001 that I finally released an independent commercial recording of my own songs. Since then, I have released another solo CD, one as part of a band, contributed to numerous compilation recordings and recently released a duo CD with Jan Krist.

Do you belong to a record label?

***I never did land that elusive “record deal” and in retrospect, I’m just as happy I didn’t. The Yellow Room Gang, a songwriters’ collective that I’m part of, has an informal “label name” to help support each other’s independent recordings.

What was the first medium in which you recorded your songs?

***Recorded on reel-to-reel tape and distributed on cassette tapes.

What impact has the changing trend toward electronic media and the Internet. i.e. file sharing, had on your work?

***Definitely a double-edged sword – the Internet has made global distribution possible for independent artists and having songs (and video) available for streaming on the web has tremendously simplified the submission process for getting gigs. The flip side is that recorded music is now so easy to duplicate and share that a lot of music that once would have been purchased is being given away, which makes it much more difficult to make a living at writing and producing music. I haven’t been heavily impacted by this (yet): working in the “folk” genre, there’s still a strong emphasis on physical recordings. My music is available on iTunes, Rhapsody and numerous other download sources, but the large bulk of my sales are CDs (maybe because one person downloaded my tunes and is now giving them away…)

What are your general feelings toward file sharing?

***Ambivalent – this brings up the entire issue of combining art and commerce. Part of me is uncomfortable charging for and putting a price on my art. Another part of me wants (and feels I deserve) remuneration.
File sharing is great way to get lots of people hearing music they wouldn’t hear otherwise: good thing. File sharing means many people will never pay for the music they listen to, making it much harder, perhaps impossible, for the 98% of recording artists who are barely getting by: bad thing.

How does one protect their intellectual property? Should definitions be revised?

***It’s clear that the new technology has made the old system of compensation obsolete. Perhaps some improved method of copy protection could restore viability, but certainly at the cost of convenience and everybody would hate it. Should we abandon the concept of intellectual property altogether? But then how would we support artists and inventors? Sorry to say, I don’t have answers.

There are artists around who have their work available to the public to share, download, add, and revise. These individuals call themselves the copyleft. How do you think these sorts of sites and communities will change music? Do you think this is a bad thing?

***It could be a good thing creatively. It may mean that eventually people will not be able to sustain a career making music. Which may not be entirely bad – it might help solve the art vs commerce dilemma. Seriously.

The advances in electronic media have undoubtedly transformed the way we listen to music and how we view all media. The explosion in popularity of the mp3 format has created a monster: a living creature; a society of online personas sharing screens. A society created on a foundation springing from the idea of sharing. Napster, and the proceeding online revolution made it possible for individuals to obtain music and other media without going to the record store. This has affected the way artists produce and distribute their music. So this raises the question, how is this affecting our culture?

***Also interesting that most often, people consume music privately, listening to their personal music players that no one else hears. In the past, listening to music was a collective experience (even whether some wanted to listen or not!)