(UPDATE 2) David Lowery, the lead singer of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker comes close to yearning for the good old days when his platinum album netted the band some real revenue.
"I'm not suggesting that we go back there," Lowry told Andrew Keen of TechCrunch. But “it looks like the artist is getting shafted. We were waiting for the extra revenue, but it never came.”
Subscription music services like Spotify and Pandora are "bad business models" according to Lowry, who suggests that an artist would have to get more than a million plays per week to make minimum wage ($7.25/hour).
COMMENTARY:
David Lowry is not just some aging rocker unable or unwilling to shift to the new paradigm. Rather, he's always been an agent provocateur, encouraging anyone who will listen to question to join him in asking the tough questions.
I don't always agree with David Lowry. In this interview, as new college professor and budding "rock economist", he could have used data more judicially. But he's right to encourage us to view the promises of the music tech and the new music industry with the same wary eye that the old one deserved.
Our future is what we make it.
