so i'm actually not sure what to do
This entry isn't about one thing that one person said, but probably about five different things I've been told, by many different people, in the last little while.
The other day I was at Target, and as I sometimes do, I went over to the music section to see what they put on sale, because sometimes you can get amazing deals since indie rock tends to go unsold at a place like Target. And I found the new CDs by The National and Erykah Badu both on sale for $10, so I bought them.
And that $20 I just spent on CDs that I wanted? Was probably a complete and utter waste on my part.
See, the thing is, if you want your music money to "support the artist" then you have to either preorder the CD, or buy it during the first week of release. But I'm not great at moving that quickly, and I don't always have ready funds, so I'm buying these CDs several weeks after they were released-which means their labels aren't really paying attention to their sales at this point. Never mind the small amount of money that the artists receive for the $10 I spent on the CD.
(And never mind all the teasing I keep getting from people saying, "You still buy CDs? Why?")
Last year with my holiday money I bought several CDs that were also weeks or even months past their release dates, plus a hit movie and a hit TV show on DVD, also well past their original release dates. Could I be said to have supported any of these artists? Not so much. My $150 mostly went to keeping the RIAA/MPAA et al. off my back for illegally downloading shit. Good for my conscience, but not really anything that can be said to have supported either the creators in question or the cultural industries they're a part of.
I have a lot of friends in the culture industry in one way or another and between them and the just general geeky buybuybuy I find myself constantly exhorted to purchase things at a specific time, in a specific manner, from specific people, without really a question of whether or not I want to consume the product in question. The hoops I will have to jump through in order to make sure that the most money possible reaches the pockets of my friends-and the deep anger when things weren't purchased, and my own subsequent guilt over it-is sort of a lot, and I'm having trouble at this point keeping track of all of it.
I mean, my friend Julie, a romance novelist, is doing okay, and I'd love to be able to buy her book at an independent bookstore, but most independent bookstores don't carry romance novels. I went to the independent bookstore nearest me fully intending to purchase the latest books from Julie as well as Holly Black and Sarah Rees Brennan, and they didn't carry any of those books-didn't even have a YA or romance section.
Most comics and manga don't have storylines that I really dig-I'm not big on adventure or fighting evil or sports rivalries or any of that sort of thing-but I did find one, Phonogram, that I really really enjoyed. I was thinking of buying it, after having borrowed it from a friend, again in that "support the artist" kind of way, only to find out that the publisher in question was only looking at single issue sales in deciding whether to go forward with a third volume-and because the second volume hadn't sold well in single issues, the outlook wasn't good. I may still buy them because hey, I'll own them and the creators of the comic might get enough money for a slice of pizza out of it, but I'm not really in a hurry to do so after hearing that news.
Never mind that I decided oh, I shouldn't read the scans for Fruits Basket because I like it and I should buy it! And $250 later, I have 23 volumes of manga sitting on my shelf and I'm not entirely sure that I got, say, 20 CDs or 25 movies worth of value out of them. I can't help but think that's my own failing as a person and a consumer of media and stories, that I just don't understand the art enough or something, but jeez, $11 for a book I can't even bring on the subway because it takes about 20 minutes to read?
And now it's like, well, if I don't see the big movie that a studio puts out-even if I actually don't really care for most summertime popcorn movies-then I won't be able to see the little indie movies that I do love, that I do go out of my way to see.
I don't know, you guys. When did actually buying a cultural product-a CD, a DVD, a game, a book, a movie ticket-stop being about just buying something because you like it? (And when I say like, I include support ethically-I actually do not like racist/sexist/homophobic/ableist bullshit in my movies, and do not enjoy watching them, so when I don't see them, it's because the viewing experience is not good.) When did it become about buying stuff you don't like because if you don't the industry might die, or spending $200 to go to a convention so you can buy a book directly from the artist, or choosing between supporting independent bookstores and actually buying the books you want?
I just-I'm tired of feeling guilty for not being able to support the entire movie/music/manga/book publishing/gaming/television/culture industry. I do not have that much money. I've been out of work for a year-and I work in the culture industry! I can't always remember the most perfect way to buy everything, the when/where/how of it. I've been trying to focus on just not stealing shit (hence buying the CDs) and I actually steal very little. But what's the point of not stealing shit when if you don't buy it in the right 37 steps it doesn't matter anyway?
I can't help thinking that if it's this difficult, and if I have this many people telling me to do this many things in this many ways, that the entire system is just broken, and we have to wait it out and see what happens. Which sucks-it means I'll probably have to find a third career-but I don't actually personally know what the solution should be.
I don't know, you guys. I have a headache.
crossposted from Dreamwidth |
comments | comment at Dreamwidth
The other day I was at Target, and as I sometimes do, I went over to the music section to see what they put on sale, because sometimes you can get amazing deals since indie rock tends to go unsold at a place like Target. And I found the new CDs by The National and Erykah Badu both on sale for $10, so I bought them.
And that $20 I just spent on CDs that I wanted? Was probably a complete and utter waste on my part.
See, the thing is, if you want your music money to "support the artist" then you have to either preorder the CD, or buy it during the first week of release. But I'm not great at moving that quickly, and I don't always have ready funds, so I'm buying these CDs several weeks after they were released-which means their labels aren't really paying attention to their sales at this point. Never mind the small amount of money that the artists receive for the $10 I spent on the CD.
(And never mind all the teasing I keep getting from people saying, "You still buy CDs? Why?")
Last year with my holiday money I bought several CDs that were also weeks or even months past their release dates, plus a hit movie and a hit TV show on DVD, also well past their original release dates. Could I be said to have supported any of these artists? Not so much. My $150 mostly went to keeping the RIAA/MPAA et al. off my back for illegally downloading shit. Good for my conscience, but not really anything that can be said to have supported either the creators in question or the cultural industries they're a part of.
I have a lot of friends in the culture industry in one way or another and between them and the just general geeky buybuybuy I find myself constantly exhorted to purchase things at a specific time, in a specific manner, from specific people, without really a question of whether or not I want to consume the product in question. The hoops I will have to jump through in order to make sure that the most money possible reaches the pockets of my friends-and the deep anger when things weren't purchased, and my own subsequent guilt over it-is sort of a lot, and I'm having trouble at this point keeping track of all of it.
I mean, my friend Julie, a romance novelist, is doing okay, and I'd love to be able to buy her book at an independent bookstore, but most independent bookstores don't carry romance novels. I went to the independent bookstore nearest me fully intending to purchase the latest books from Julie as well as Holly Black and Sarah Rees Brennan, and they didn't carry any of those books-didn't even have a YA or romance section.
Most comics and manga don't have storylines that I really dig-I'm not big on adventure or fighting evil or sports rivalries or any of that sort of thing-but I did find one, Phonogram, that I really really enjoyed. I was thinking of buying it, after having borrowed it from a friend, again in that "support the artist" kind of way, only to find out that the publisher in question was only looking at single issue sales in deciding whether to go forward with a third volume-and because the second volume hadn't sold well in single issues, the outlook wasn't good. I may still buy them because hey, I'll own them and the creators of the comic might get enough money for a slice of pizza out of it, but I'm not really in a hurry to do so after hearing that news.
Never mind that I decided oh, I shouldn't read the scans for Fruits Basket because I like it and I should buy it! And $250 later, I have 23 volumes of manga sitting on my shelf and I'm not entirely sure that I got, say, 20 CDs or 25 movies worth of value out of them. I can't help but think that's my own failing as a person and a consumer of media and stories, that I just don't understand the art enough or something, but jeez, $11 for a book I can't even bring on the subway because it takes about 20 minutes to read?
And now it's like, well, if I don't see the big movie that a studio puts out-even if I actually don't really care for most summertime popcorn movies-then I won't be able to see the little indie movies that I do love, that I do go out of my way to see.
I don't know, you guys. When did actually buying a cultural product-a CD, a DVD, a game, a book, a movie ticket-stop being about just buying something because you like it? (And when I say like, I include support ethically-I actually do not like racist/sexist/homophobic/ableist bullshit in my movies, and do not enjoy watching them, so when I don't see them, it's because the viewing experience is not good.) When did it become about buying stuff you don't like because if you don't the industry might die, or spending $200 to go to a convention so you can buy a book directly from the artist, or choosing between supporting independent bookstores and actually buying the books you want?
I just-I'm tired of feeling guilty for not being able to support the entire movie/music/manga/book publishing/gaming/television/culture industry. I do not have that much money. I've been out of work for a year-and I work in the culture industry! I can't always remember the most perfect way to buy everything, the when/where/how of it. I've been trying to focus on just not stealing shit (hence buying the CDs) and I actually steal very little. But what's the point of not stealing shit when if you don't buy it in the right 37 steps it doesn't matter anyway?
I can't help thinking that if it's this difficult, and if I have this many people telling me to do this many things in this many ways, that the entire system is just broken, and we have to wait it out and see what happens. Which sucks-it means I'll probably have to find a third career-but I don't actually personally know what the solution should be.
I don't know, you guys. I have a headache.
crossposted from Dreamwidth |
comments | comment at Dreamwidth