TW Walsh: The Music Industry Model Needs To Change
T.W. Walsh continues to release free music under The Soft Drugs moniker. On November 30 he released a new single on his website called Family of Four where he tracked every instrument, a song about mixing coffee and Excedrin. Licensed under Creative Commons, the song is available for free on his website, complete with album art and liner notes. TW Walsh was the other half of Pedro the Lion.
TW Walsh shared with Puddlegum that when he released his In Moderation album on his website as a free download, "my listenership has probably increased tenfold in a very short period of time." Walsh said to expect an RSS feed (as a podcast) for future singles, as other exciting developments are underway concerning streamlining distribution.
His blog shows a personal dialogue with himself and with his fans over whether or not to release new songs individually or to wait until he has ten songs to release as an album, a process that would take 12 to 18 months. Though TW is passionate about the concept of the album, he explains that he'll release songs individually unless his music is picked up by "a label of any real size."
TW Walsh shared his view with Puddlegum of how the music industry model needs to change:
"I really think that we're approaching a time when recorded music is simply free. Why not embrace it? The recording industry sprouted up out of a need for a distribution system. Today, anybody with a computer can distribute their music on their own for nothing. And records by artists that are not giving them away can be found for free on torrent sites and underground blogs if you know how to use Google.
People will still pay to see bands play live. I think 'record labels' will have to merge with PR firms and start taking a cut of the show revenues. Bands will only enter into arrangements with these 'labels' if they want to spend a lot of money on their recordings, and essentially need someone to subsidize it… or if they want a level of publicity that they can't afford.
File sharing cannot be stopped with technology. That's why we see so many RIAA suits. It's a last resort. This whole model will go away. My two cents."
The Soft Drugs – Family of Four
The Soft Drugs on:
iTunes // Emusic // Amazon // Undertow // Hype Machine // Elbo.ws