Also an interesting thing to keep in mind with regard to the licensing conversation… off the top of my head I know that places like Dominos and Urban Outfitters give a lot of money to awful awful things; surely a lot of these other corporations that indie bands are selling their songs to similarly deal in gifts to right-wing/relgious/worse organizations.

[idolator.com]

Blackmail – very good point. I just spent $45 filling up my Ford Focus; imagine what a touring band must be going through right now! Especially if that is the way they’re expected to make money.

This whole tip jar thing… it’s a straw man. I’d bet Coolfer, Maura, and the folks at InSound would all agree that this lame idea is merely symptomatic of the broken machine. I mean, InSound is a purveyor of a product that doesn’t sell… any additional cash they’re asking for is the equivalent of asking for a bucket on a sinking ship.

Maura, I don’t know that my analogy is flawed; because it all comes back to the consumer. It’s the consumer’s fault that the industry is dying. So long as people don’t pay for music, then musicians won’t get paid. That’s totally simplistic, but then again it’s a pretty simple problem. I’m not saying that labels need to exist any more, or any of that machinery (maybe they do, maybe they don’t); but people need to look at their iTunes library: if music is coming into your library and money is not going out of your wallet, then it’s your fault. Same goes if you’re a fatty and you keep sneaking Cheetos. Yer gonna stay fat and the music industry is going to continue dying.

1) How were these bands selected?
2) Is it somehow connected to the PR for their current release/tour?

Way to ensure that I won’t buy anything from you, Insound. I don’t care if it’s out of their take, I want to know how the “lucky bands” in question were selected before I go doling out quarters to support their tour.

Also, I could be really crappy and point out that they’re all gonna play NYC or Bklyn anyway, so … (Then again, I know EXACTLY how much bands pull down in a venue, say, the size of Union Pool or Union Hall. And yeah, it’s kind of not worth the trouble sometimes.)