I always miss these Reddit sessions because I am at work! But people who have a lot of time on their hands have all the fun, they can ask all the questions they want to artists, and some get lucky and even get some good answers.
Tame Impala’s frontman Kevin Parker was doing one of these Reddit Ask Me Anything yesterday, and he was asked about the hot burning question of today’s music business: how does he feel about people listening to his music for free by either downloading it or streaming it. This is what he answered:
‘Eh…. I feel like music will be free sooner or later, and I think I’m all for it. There’s all this talk of music needing a monetary value, this ownership of music, even that it needs a physical form. But intrinsically… it’s MUSIC, it should be better than that. Some of my most important musical experiences were from a burnt CD with songs my friend downloaded for me at a terrible digital quality… I didn’t care… it changed my life all the same. For me the value of music is the value you extract from it. You want to know a story? Up until recently, from all of Tame Impala’s record sales outside of Australia I had received…. zero dollars. Someone high up spent the money before it got to me. I may never get that money. Then Blackberry and some tequila brand or something put my song in an ad. Then I bought a house and set up a studio. I know what you’re thinking… “Wait so…when I bought an album I was helping some businessman pay for his mansion on an island somewhere, and when some dude bought a mobile phone he was helping to pay an artist? WHHHYY?” I’ll tell you why, IT’S MONEY. It doesn’t always go where you want it to go. It’s like a shopping trolley with a bung wheel. As far as I’m concerned the best thing you can do for an artist is LISTEN to the music…fall in love with it…….talk about it………get it however you can get it….Let the corporations pay for. This is just my brain rambling remember, I’m sure there are holes in my theories… for example I realize not everyone’s music is suited to a mobile phone ad, and it would be lame if artists tailored their music for that purpose.’
Kevin is young (29), and he thinks like the young generation. I love when he says that his most important musical experiences were from burnt CDs and songs with a terrible digital quality and that he basically didn’t care, because this is exactly what I observe around me. And that’s why all these Pono and Tidal enterprises, praising their high-quality sound, are a thing of the past, most young people don’t care,… Then there is the commercial aspect, ‘Up until recently, from all of Tame Impala’s record sales outside of Australia I had received…. zero dollars’ and he is fine with that! Not making any money from the sales of his music because he can buy a house with just an ad! Let’s the corporations pay for it, not the fans, is this the solution? But he even recognizes the flaws of his way of thinking in his last sentence,… I say this guy is smart.
Then a fan asked him if he could share new music, and he just answered: ‘OK well… since you asked…’ and posted right away this new song called ‘Disciples’ from Tame Impala’s upcoming record! Proof that Kevin Parker is not a joke and damn cool.