(Continued) ...
The amount of enjoyment and pleasure that the audience derives from a created work remains measurable. From the standpoint of a philosopher, we can apply the principles of Pleasure and Pain that the Marquis de Sade elucidated in his novel Justine. Alternately, those of a certain age can wax nostalgic about the pleasure that we received from watching Elvis Presley, the Beatles, or the Doors for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s and 1960s. In contrast, our parents often exhibited exceptional levels of pain from these performances. For some of us, this contrast only escalated our pleasure.
Straightforwardly, our pedestrian approach to the subject may turn us toward survey methods, such as those of Music Research Consultants (MRC) Inc., based at 8344 Kirkwood Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90046-1926. Since 1974, MRC has conducted unique, consumer-based Record Test surveys in the cultural “melting pot” of Southern California. Their data-collection system started through multimedia, auditorium-based experiences. Conducted in weekend sessions at the Preview House in Los Angeles, these Record Tests survey 300 “wired” respondents at a time.
MRC’s test subjects wear galvanic skin-sensors and hold electronic rating-dials. Through techniques that have advanced throughout the decades, Music Research Consultants have continued to ask the same basic questions of their respondents in each survey. As a result, each new session updates the database and the statistical measurements of the study, thus producing reliable statistical “norms” for responses to each essential test-measure.
However, in deference to the Marquis, we will rely on the cutting edge of research on how music affects the human mind to create pleasure. In his book “This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession” (Plume/Penguin, 2007), Music Researcher Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D. (www.yourbrainonmusic.com) explains the neuroscience of music in terms that a layperson can understand easily. A former producer/engineer in recording studios in LA turned research scientist at McGill University in Toronto, Levitin explains how the interaction of musical form, timbre, melody, rhythm, and other elements engage our cerebellums, orbitofrontal cortexes, and other parts of the brain. These stimuli result in the pleasure and enlightenment that we gain from playing or listening to music.
Price Is Pain (or “Let Me Introduce You to My Friend, Pain”) – Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in “The Doors,” Directed by Oliver Stone (Bill Graham Films, 1991)
Music consumers remain willing and able to pay for created works. These strengths form the second piece of our puzzle, which compares the performance admission to the purchase price of a recorded copy of the work. Budgetary constraints create the first side of this two-headed coin. The second side represents the desire-condition related to the pleasure-revelation, a la de Sade and Levitin. Therefore, let us consider this second side in order to determine the measure of optimal—though not maximum—pleasure sought by music lovers.
Music aficionados generally prefer more music to less of it. Their consumption of any amount of music that they consider good leads to increasing pleasurable benefits as they consume more. As one increases his/her consumption of music, pleasure does not grow unabated.
However, this pleasure increases as one listens to more music, though it increases at a decreasing rate.
Ceteris Paribus (all else held constant): The first few selections that we hear may feel the most enjoyable, as in how a morsel of food delighted Pavlov’s dog. As we continue to listen, our overall enjoyment increases. Nevertheless, the additional pieces to which we listen add smaller and smaller increments to our overall pleasure. (To inflect this outcome, musicians tend to reserve their masterpieces or hit songs for the end of their performances to push the listener’s pleasure upward a few notches.)
Finally, we reach the point where our ears and brains grow weary after hours of listening to music, no matter how great it may be. In the words of singer/songwriter Paul Simon, we begin to relish “the Sounds of Silence.” This experience marks the length of exposure at which our listening/feeling levels attain maximum pleasure. At this apex, we anticipate that hearing more music would bring negative feelings upon us.
“You Can’t Lose with the Stuff I Use” – Reverend Ike, American Television Evangelist
An unabated consumption of music appears obtainable only at the moments in our lives when we have the time and money to indulge our tastes in the element that bridges the space between Earth and Paradise. As producers and engineers repeatedly utter in recording studios worldwide, “Money is time and time is money.” Like the energy and matter that transmutes through Einstein’s equation E=MC^2, we may constrain ourselves by having a limited amount of both. Therefore, the finite barrier of time/money may preclude attempts to maximize our sense of pleasure through the enjoyment of music. No longer are we the masters of our fates. In our material world of time and space, we remain subject to the limitations that time and money place upon us.
Therefore, we must ask ourselves: Given the current prices of a recording or a live performance, how much time and money do the members of an audience need to spend? The price that a music lover is willing and able to pay remains relative to the amount of time and money that s/he possesses concerning the price commanded for other recordings or performances that a person may enjoy. As a result, price exists as a quicksilver substance.
The monetary amount emerges from whatever the current bidding determines as the price for what the market of consumers will bear. Little intrinsic value can exist if music remains a quick ride upon the air currents. The value of music performed rests with what is created within the listener--momentary pleasure and subsequent memories. Therefore, we can define the importance of music only upon its existence as Intellectual Property and the inherent legal rights attached to it.
For an illustrative example, consider the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, which was held in August 1969. Billed as “An Aquarian Exposition: Three Days of Peace & Music,” the festival finally settled in Bethel, New York, on the dairy farm of Max Yasgur. This third site resulted from earlier negotiated sites barring Woodstock promoters. The three-day ticket price was $18. This price, adjusted for inflation, translates to more than $148 in 2023 dollars. For perspective, the promoters of a pre-COVID concert by David Byrne (Talking Heads) at the Fisher Theater in Detroit charged $350 per seat for an upfront location. In contrast to paying that amount for a single performer, Woodstock offered a huge variety of entertainers, such Janis Joplin; the Who; Sly and the Family Stone; Joan Baez; Jimi Hendrix; and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.
Two days before the music at Woodstock, the fences and ticket booths still were not in place. Consequently, 50,000 ticketless fans camped in front of the stage. By the time that the festival for 500,000 guests was over, the Woodstock producers were $1.4 million in debt ($11.8 million in 2023 dollars) and faced 80 lawsuits by local landowners and others. Fortunately, “Woodstock,” the hit movie of live concert footage directed by Michael Wadleigh (Warner Brothers, 1970), reduced the initial obligation to $100 thousand ($840 thousand in 2023 dollars).
Additional recoupment of losses came through the sales of the live recordings. For further background reading, see “The Road to Woodstock” by chief promoter Michael Lang (Ecco, 2010).
Music-mongers may attempt to set their prices by the amount of pleasure and pain that the market will bear at any given time. Market Bearance remains subject to the disposable income possessed by music-buyers. This Bearance represents the amount that they can afford to relinquish for any selection of available close substitutes. Often, their decision arises subconsciously in respect and deference to all of the necessities and comforts of life for which they must allocate a portion of their available budget.
The market will bear a price subject to the amount and intensity of desire that the musician(s) arouse in the listener. Within this two-way process, music must draw the purchaser to give up a portion of the expendable budgets that they allocate to their consumption of aural art. Furthermore, the product may seduce the music-lover into a reallocation away from purchasing other goods and services that they need or want.
Therefore, the creators and purveyors of the music product assume the task of eliciting a great desire within the listeners by narrowing the purchase focus to the music, which may grant the most incredible pleasure available to those buyers for their money. The music creator/purveyor interacts with the listener to determine a sense of knowing that a specific recording or performance will bring forth the desired pleasure.
On the other side of our proverbial two-headed coin, this pleasure must exist as obtainable, given the ability and willingness of the buyer to relinquish a portion of his/her wealth or income in order to satisfy an internal desire. Due to the transitory form of pleasure derived from music, the “knowing” within the listener accumulates concerning repeat exposure to specific artists or pieces of music. The listener might accept other artists or material as substitutes for which s/he offers time/money. Therefore, the transaction between the music purveyor and purchaser must be done honestly and respectfully and avoid deception or manipulation. If malfeasance continues to occur, the positive relationship between the purveyor and the purchaser will not endure over time in a highly competitive market.
As a point of fact, how many of us who are not “music geeks” even remember the names of “one-hit wonders”? Instead, we tend to remember and to continue listening to those artists with whom we have developed a cumulative relationship across succeeding decades.
This growing relationship motivates us to attend concerts regularly or semi-regularly and to replace worn-out twelve-inch vinyl, either with technologically advanced copies in the form of CDs, downloads, and Hi-Def Vinyl or with gently used vinyl copies of the work. The value of music increases through the repeated interaction between creator and listener through a relation “sympathique” that develops and augments between the minds of the two parties over time.
Of course, the transitory sale of music continues along alternate avenues as the music industry parades lines of manufactured one-hit wonders like cattle at an auction. Due to the relative enormity of the underlying fixed costs in creating and communicating music to the public, these fleeting relationships produce meager long-run net value in either financial or pleasure terms.
“Dark forces” intermittently dominate the music industry. The executives behind them fail to understand that, for many listeners, this connivance develops and sustains an air of distrust that eventually drives those listeners elsewhere in search of satisfaction. At its core, the enduring conveyance of music from creator to listener remains a matter of Relationship Marketing rather than Product Marketing. In a product space where nurtured relationships reside, listeners trust specific creators, looking to them for the sound capable of heightening and sustaining the level of musical pleasure. Hence, Relationship Marketing inherently involves repeat business.
Takeaway
The temptations of our Consumer Culture continue to challenge most of us. However, we can learn lessons from the world of music. These lessons can lead us to grow in wisdom and knowledge, proving invaluable for our development in other fields. What I (Dr. Sase) have learned from the Practice of Music has translated into my Practice of Economics. We hope that these same lessons help fellow musicians who have pursued alternate careers by building practices in the field of Law.
Cost Control remains vital to achieving our goals. Continued textbook study of Law, Accounting, Finance, Economics, and related courses may help us to refine our skills. Our core abilities remain intuitive because we base them upon our fundamental beliefs, traditions, and philosophies of life. In this time of economic and political uncertainty and instability, lessons learned early in life may help us to survive and to persevere. Never give up! Never surrender! Rock on!!!
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Dr. John F. Sase teaches Economics at Wayne State University and has practiced Forensic and Investigative Economics for twenty-five years. Following his graduation from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School. John attained a “polymath” undergrad in Humanities at Justin Morrill Residential College at Michigan State University. Later he earned a combined MA in Economics and an MBA at the University of Detroit. He followed this path by completing a Ph.D. in Urban Economics and Industrial Organization Economics at Wayne State University in 1992.
Gerard J. Senick is a freelance writer, editor, and musician. He earned his degree in English at the University of Detroit and was a supervisory editor at Gale Research Company. Currently, he edits books and articles for publication.
Julie G. Sase is a copyeditor, parent coach, and empath. She earned her degree in English at Marygrove College and her graduate
certificate in Parent Coaching from Seattle Pacific University.
