Will Music Be Free in the Future?

Greg Kot

隨著互聯(lián)網(wǎng)技術(shù)的飛速發(fā)展，傳統(tǒng)唱片業(yè)遭受到了始料未及的致命沖擊，當(dāng)前唱片業(yè)的沒落和蕭條毋庸置疑。很多悲觀者不禁哀嘆，唱片終將被取代，退出音樂的歷史舞臺。面對這種嚴(yán)峻的形勢，國外一些音樂人開始躍躍欲試，掀起了一股革新浪潮。鄉(xiāng)村音樂創(chuàng)作型歌手Taylor Swift將自己的全部音樂從全球最大的流媒體音樂服務(wù)商Spotify上自行下架。她認(rèn)為好的音樂值得付費(fèi)購買，而為此付出心血的歌手應(yīng)該得到等值的回報(bào)，唱片的價(jià)值將一直存在。如果一個(gè)作品能夠真正打動靈魂、讓人產(chǎn)生強(qiáng)烈共鳴，那么人們就會愿意為此買單。如果藝術(shù)家的潛力和力量是無限的，那么未來的音樂就會充滿希望。

As corporations and musicians look for new ways to get our attention—and our money—what does this mean for the fans?

From Taylor Swift and U2 to Garth Brooks and Iggy Pop, there has been a lot of noise recently from artists and bands testing new business mode, slapping others to the kerb, and generally acting like they’re navigating the new music-business economy without a compass—which many of them are.1. 從泰勒·斯威夫特，U2樂隊(duì)，到加斯·布魯克斯，再到伊基·波普，近來歌手們和樂隊(duì)團(tuán)體開始躁動起來，嘗試新的商業(yè)模式并置他人于不顧，就好像他們在不明方向地引領(lǐng)新的商業(yè)音樂經(jīng)濟(jì)，而事實(shí)的確如此。Taylor Swift： 泰勒·斯威夫特，美國鄉(xiāng)村音樂、流行音樂創(chuàng)作女歌手；U2： 愛爾蘭都柏林搖滾樂隊(duì)；Garth Brooks：加斯·布魯克斯，20世紀(jì)90年代以來最重要的鄉(xiāng)村歌手，美國最暢銷的藝人之一，僅次于披頭士和貓王；Iggy Pop： 伊基·波普，被認(rèn)為是朋克音樂的教父；slap： 拍擊，打；kerb： 路緣。Nobody has the answer to how artists should be compensated in a digital wilderness that has been blowing out of control since Napster took hold in 1999.2. 自從1999年在線音樂軟件納普斯特風(fēng)行以來，沒有人知道在這種失控混亂的數(shù)字領(lǐng)域中，歌手該如何獲得（他們應(yīng)得的）報(bào)酬。compensate：支付報(bào)酬；Napster： 納普斯特，一種在線音樂軟件，它同時(shí)能夠讓自己的機(jī)器也成為一臺服務(wù)器，為其他用戶提供下載。

Amid the chaos3. chaos： 混亂。, fans and music lovers look like the only winners in this new world. If things turn one way, they could transform the artists they love into winners too. And if they go the other way—in some sense we’re back where we started, with a new set of corporations in charge.

泰勒·斯威夫特

伊基·波普

From an artist perspective, the free-for-all aspect of the digital economy has a downside,4. perspective： 視角；downside： 負(fù)面。summarised during a recent lecture given by the (noted scholar) Iggy Pop. He said that if he depended on recorded-music sales for income, “I’d be tending bars between sets.”5. 他說如果他指著唱片銷售收入生活的話，“我就得兼職做酒保了。”tend： 照看； between sets： 在……之間，此處指在做音樂的同時(shí)，抽時(shí)間兼職做酒保。

In a recent lecture, Iggy Pop described file-sharers as ‘bootleggers’6. file-sharer： 文件共享者；bootlegger： 走私者。(BBC)“Now, everybody’s a bootlegger,” he said, presumably7. presumably： 大概，可能。including many of his own fans in that characterisation. Pop doesn’t advocate prosecuting filesharers, the way the industry did a few years ago to much ridicule, but he says to make ends meet he needs to license his music to commercial advertisers.8. advocate： 提倡，主張；prosecute： 起訴；make ends meet： 收支平衡；license：v. 準(zhǔn)許。Many of his fellow middle and lower-tier artists have turned to licensing as one of many small revenue streams to keep their little businesses a float.9. 在他的同行中，有許多二線和三線藝人已經(jīng)準(zhǔn)許音樂作為商業(yè)廣告用途，以此作為眾多小收入的來源之一來保住自己的飯碗。a float： （經(jīng)濟(jì)上）應(yīng)付自如的，免于經(jīng)濟(jì)困難的。

Taylor made

They aren’t in the position of someone like Swift, who removed all of her music, including her latest album,1989, from the streaming service Spotify.10. album： 專輯；Spotify： 全球最大的流媒體音樂服務(wù)之一。She didn’t want to cannibalise11. cannibalise： 抽取……中的成分以創(chuàng)造另一事業(yè)。her sales, she says. “I’m not willing to contribute my life’s work to an experiment that I don’t feel fairly compensates the writers,producers, artists, and creators of this music,” she told Yahoo, amplifying12. amplify： 詳述。a position she took in aWall Street Journalcommentary a few weeks earlier.“Valuable things should be paid for,” she declared. As financial windfalls13. windfall： 意外之財(cái)。go,her strategy and logic made total sense: the 1.3 million sales for1989(without a single Spotify play!) were the most in one week since 2002.

But Swift represents the privileged 1% among recording artists. Along with acts like Beyoncé and Coldplay, she can afford to do without the exposure afforded by streaming services to raise awareness of her existence.14. 和碧昂絲與酷玩樂隊(duì)一樣，她有能力這么去做，不需要流媒體的曝光來提高自己的認(rèn)知度。Beyoncé： 碧昂絲，美國歌手，17座格萊美獎(jiǎng)得主；Coldplay： 酷玩樂隊(duì)，英國著名搖滾樂隊(duì)。With the notable exception of Spotify,1989seemed to be everywhere in the weeks leading up to its release.15. 除了明顯未在Spotify上線外，專輯《1989》在發(fā)布的前幾周似乎無所不在。notable： 顯著的；lead up to： 在……之前；release： 發(fā)布。

Big hitters

A similar kind of logic guided U2’s latest distribution gambit.16. distribution gambit： 分銷策略。They pocketed a reported $100 million from Apple to make their latest album,Songs of Innocence, available for free to hundreds of millions of iTunes users, many of whom objected to the invasion of their music library.17. pocket： v. 賺取，獲得（錢財(cái)）；object to： 反對；invasion： 入侵。But U2 got what they wanted: most of the world—even the part that doesn’t care about the Irish quartet18. quartet： 四重奏?！猭now their latest album exists.

But most artists aren’t in a position to strike multimillion-dollar deals as U2 have, or to brush off one of the most prominent streaming services as Swift did.19. be in a position to： 能夠；strike： 突然走運(yùn)，發(fā)橫財(cái)；brush off： 丟棄，撇開；prominent： 重要的，知名的。In dealing with Swift-level superstars, fans are still being treated like consumers, to which the celebrities market their latest product. It’s just another variation of 20th Century business as usual, when corporations and middle men controlled the pipeline20. pipeline： 管道，此處指連接、聯(lián)系。between artists and fans.

Net worth21. net worth： 資產(chǎn)凈值。

The free and open internet made this future tangible, so it’s little wonder that a handful of multinational companies that dominated the business under the old narrow-pipeline system would rather see it go away, or greatly modi fied to tilt the balance once again in their favour.22. 互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的自由公開使得這一未來切實(shí)可見。因此很多仍然操守舊體制、（與樂迷）連接方式狹隘的跨國唱片公司寧愿看到互聯(lián)網(wǎng)免費(fèi)音樂的消失或者巨大變革，使得利益的天平再次偏向他們，這也就不足為奇了。tangible： 可以看得見的，可觸知的；tilt： 使傾斜。Net neutrality—the notion that the internet is a level playing field accessible to everyone, no matter how deep their pockets—is being threatened by a few power players who are pushing for a hierarchy of access.23. level playing field： 公平競爭的環(huán)境；accessible： 可獲得的；hierarchy： 等級。

The merger between two of these giants, Time Warner Co and Comcast, is viewed by many net neutrality advocates as the most immediate threat, but it’s hardly the only one.24. 其中時(shí)代華納和康卡斯特兩個(gè)巨頭公司的合并，被網(wǎng)絡(luò)中立的擁護(hù)者認(rèn)為是最直接的威脅，但這并不是唯一的。merger： 合并；Time Warner Co： 時(shí)代華納公司，互聯(lián)網(wǎng)時(shí)代世界最大的媒體與娛樂公司；Comcast： 康卡斯特，是美國最大的有線電視公司，亦是美國第二大互聯(lián)網(wǎng)服務(wù)供應(yīng)商。Speaking in general terms at the recent Future of Music Summit in Washington, DC,about the issue, Federal Communications Commissioner25. Federal Communications Commissioner： 聯(lián)邦通信委員會委員。Mignon Clyburn called the internet a marketplace of diversity, “not just of race and gender, but ideas and content.”

That’s a succinct26. succinct： 簡潔的，簡明的。explanation of why the net neutrality fight is so critical. It holds the future of the artist-fan relationship, and may determine whether artists without U2-like clout can finally free themselves of pay-to-play corporate control.27. clout： 影響力；free of： 擺脫；pay-to-play： 付費(fèi)播放。