Again though, it's the implication that we too, are propping up these unfair business models that bothers me. Musicians get screwed on the back end. We get screwed by paying money to advertise on their sites up front.

My other reason for pointing this out is that the majority of people have a very unfounded negative view of advertising. And I want to dispel those myths whenever possible. We get blamed for all kinds of things, most of which we have nothing to do with. So when I hear the phrase "ad supported piracy,' yeah I shake my head, but "ad-supported legitimate businesses," is a different story and I'd rather it not be lumped in the same category.

I'm also wanting to remind any musician or organization who uses the "we're are musicians, but they don't work in the music industry," argument that you don't have to be "in the industry," to be in the industry. You don't even need to make music. You just need to make something. Anything.

Spotify/Pandora may indeed not give a rat's ass about music but that's because they treat it the same as books, blog posts and Charlie Bit My Finger videos: It's content. Silicon Valley's business practices don't just hurt musicians. They hurt all content creators. The authors, photographers, professional and amateur alike. They also hurt the regular guy putting whatever content up for free in exchange for using a free site. They hurt the whole process because now the prevailing fact is that content has no value anyway. Of course, if content had no value, then why does google and Spotify need it so much?

The next musician who talks smack would do well to remember that they aren't the only group getting fucked.

Advertising is very closely related to the music industry and have been feeling the same effect. We hire vendors all the time whose job it is to license music, or create it. Adam Weber, head of music production company Agent Jackson had a lot to say about the state of his business thanks to the consistent devaluation of content, i.e. music. And that's just one example.

Spotify and Pandora have the ears of politicians and a much better handle on PR. Musicians should think about getting as many people on their side as possible. And while we're great at exposing new music to audiences (legally) we're also kinda good at solving problems too, since it's our job.

I feel like I just recapped my article, but maybe if people read the shorter version they'll understand it better.