​Art, music were unwanted children of tech till Swift happened

In a constantly evolving tech world, art is often a child that sometimes has to cry to be noticed. This is because, art --- any form of it, unless it has a direct bearing on the revenues generated from the tech world, is somewhat a decorative adjective. Not until late, did the tech world realise art could well be its sleeping partner who could be woken up to smell some serious revenues.

The relationship between art and technology is also a tempestuous one. On one hand, art constantly uses technology to reinvent itself. That is to serve its own purpose of reaching bigger audience. But, technology, on the other, has realised self-sustainability without having to acknowledge art cannot go too far. Yet, both look the other way from each other.

Then, there are issues of authenticity, copyright, sharing and being partners in the model of success. Artists were at the mercy of technology till not too long ago. The strides taken by the advent of smartphones seem to have changed the equation for both entities which thought they had independent survival. And that is when things began to actually change, because, the modern gadgets promise a world within them and art is the inseparable part of a human psyche. It should better be acknowledged without much ado, at least today.

For instance, when Taylor Swift wrote a note on why she would be pulling out her album 1989 from the new streaming service of Apple, with a three month trial window which would go unpaid and unacknowledged for the artist, she wasn’t too happy with the arrangement.

In a letter that was laced with honey, yet constant questions on why only her music would go unpaid, while tech innovators whether or not successful would still be making money at her cost, Taylor explained why since long art or music was considered somewhat less important than technology. It wasn’t a risk that was free from its own pitfalls, had Apple decided dig its heels deeper into the ground. No way! After all, not too long ago, did ‘Umbrella’ song writer Terius Nash had said, well within the industry, artists and songwriters were treated like ‘slaves’. Tech world, that way, is still an outsider who is trying to take a peep further into what art can do to its usefulness, or the cause for that matter.

The integration of technology into art or vice versa has always raised pertinent questions on ethics and union contracts, since any advent of technology with undertones of art can actually take work away from an artist or a musician.

So, coming back to Taylor Swift’s decision to question Apple’s mission of working towards a goal of paid streaming, by way of starting with a freebie at the outset for the consumer; she raised another important ethical issue. If there is nothing called free-lunch, what was Apple doing with its customers when it used an artist’s work for free for a long window of three months?

Apple has money to pay its innovators, who create amazing experience through their work for the consumers. “Three months is a long time to go unpaid, and it is unfair to ask anyone to work for nothing,” she said in her note. What was art after all? That something technological world could own up and feel patronising about?

Indie artists have been talking about their work going unnoticed, or being used as an appendage when technology furthers its own agenda—the fact was admitted rather candidly by Senior VP, Internet Software and Services at Apple Inc.
If Taylor was making claims to be an equal partner in Apple’s journey of taking the tech experience to the next level, through their innovation and her creativity; the Cupertino-based tech firm could well have claimed a bigger pie.

Even now, one isn’t sure of the breakup of a revenue model and how this would change the way contracts are negotiated between technology and art world.

With Taylor’s risky step of almost chiding Apple’s decision to go free, to the change in stance of the tech giant – a lot of things have changed for numerous artists across the globe. An example has been set. Was it Jesus who said: Seek, and thou shalt receive?

Receive, Taylor just did. Apple’s massive customer base of iTunes music buyers should probably be a good market to begin with, and change the perception about art in the coming days. After all, changing a habit is all about perception. Pay up for the creativity you just used. Even a greedy customer gets it rather loud and clear, when it is said in a manner that means business in today’s changing world.
(Image: Indiatimes)