INDIE INSIDER
How Music ’ s Middle Class Disappeared in the Tech Revolution
By Michael Raine
SCREENGRAB : YOUTUBE / MUSIC CANADA
IN NOVEMBER 2016 , Music Canada President Graham Henderson gave a speech to the Economic Club of Canada entitled The Broken Promise of a Golden Age . In it , he explained how at the dawn of the digital revolution , creators were told they would thrive in this new era ; instead , creators and other copyright holders ended up subsidizing the tech companies ’ growth at their own expense . The result has been a disappearing middle class of musicians and songwriters . Henderson also explained that as the federal government proceeds with its review of cultural policies in 2017 , there is a chance to correct this inequity .
Canadian Musician spoke with Henderson at length after his speech about how creators have been “ squeezed out ” and how this can change .
Read the full interview at www . canadianmusician . com / features , or hear it on the Dec . 8 , 2016 episode of Canadian Musician Radio at www . canadianmusicianradio . com .
CM : In your speech , you said the promise in the mid-1990s was that this revolution in digital music would upend the traditional recorded music industry , but that it would also provide greater opportunities for creators to make money . What was the reasoning behind that ?
10 • CANADIAN MUSICIAN
Music Canada Pres . Graham Henderson speaking to the Economic Club of Canada .
Graham Henderson : … So , the governments around the world played a role in enabling the new technologies and this is where this promise arose , I believe . Because what government was told , and policy makers were told , was in order for the new technologies to get off the ground , the nascent startups in a period of creative anarchy , they were going to need to be excused from making payments for the intellectual property that was going to flow through the pipeline . The old rules would ’ ve required them to make payments to the creators but the technology companies and those who supported them said , “ If we have to make those payments , we ’ re never going to get off the ground .”
So fine , obviously when you say to creators that , “ I don ’ t want to have to pay you money that I would otherwise have to pay you ,” you ’ re basically saying , “ I want you , Mr . and Mrs . Creator , to subsidize me with your money .” So obviously the creative community was interested in the quid pro quo – the “ Well what am I going to get for subsidizing you ?” And the answer really was , “ Well , I can ’ t be sure , but I can tell you this much …” as you put it , “ We ’ re going to upend the existing order ; we ’ re going to disrupt that and we ’ re going to get rid of middlemen and middlewomen – those annoying record labels and managers – and artists are going to go into a direct relationship and there is going to be all of these new ways to make money .
Trust us , you ’ ll be fine .” …
I say that promise is broken because in a single generation , the creative middle class has been wiped out . If you took a snapshot of what the music industry looked like , and not just music , but books and everything , in the 1990s there was a thriving and bustling marketplace with a middle class and getting signed to a record label or getting a book deal meant a legitimate , bona fide shot to enter the middle class and to be able to put a down payment on a home or to be able to buy a car or whatever . It was legitimate and there were careers . And it wasn ’ t just for bands ; it was for everything that went on around the bands . The lighting techs , the tour bus drivers , and right across , there was this ripple effect that created this thriving economy . When we look at it now , well we have increasing concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands and we have this middle class that has just disappeared …
Let ’ s just say in good faith decisions were made and very clearly they didn ’ t pan out for creators . They sure as heck panned out for Google and Facebook and they sure as hell panned out for Twitter and others , but did they pan out for the creators and others ? No .