Vote With Your Dollar!

Monday I went to a great show (Sarah Harmer, who is so cool) and, as is my custom, I bought some merchandise. It's not that I haven't seen her before (this was time #3) or that I really needed another t-shirt (though it has both a mountain and a kite) it's that I believe in voting with my dollar. Recording artists don't really make money on records (though you have to buy those too to help convince the label to let them make another), you have to have a "Thriller" sized hit to buy a mansion with those proceeds, it's on tours and merchandise where they make their nut and if my $15 ticket and $20 shirt can help finance another great song like "Lodestar" well, I'm happy to pony up.

This has been on my mind because I just finished reading Jen Tryin's Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be. Tryin was supposed to be the next big thing but then the first single didn't break as big as everyone thought and Alanis Morisette came along. The book was interesting, though Tryin's insistance on the "warts and all" aspect of her story makes her a less than sympathetic protaganist. I liked Jacob Schlicter's book on the same subject, So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star, better. But Tryin does have a detailed explanation of how royalties work (see page 139) which might be eye opening for music fans, especially those who never buy a CD.

I say support the artists you love, they make the sounds we fans love and provide life's soundtrack. Like my postcard from the Experience Music Project says "Without Music Life Would Be a Mistake".