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Yet even as album sales have plummeted, revenue from live performances have grown at a healthy clip. A band like the Wu-Tang Clan likely makes around $100,000 per show, which is much more than the group would make by selling tickets to listen to the new album on headphones at the Tate.Īlbums may seem increasingly devalued, with people choosing to grab singles for free. But this already exists, and it’s how bands make the majority of their money: live shows.
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The Wu-Tang Clan wants to create a premium product that - unlike a digital copy of its songs - is valued (financially) as a work of contemporary art. We’d like to enter that debate by arguing that the Wu-Tang Clan’s plan to get people to recognize the value of music misdiagnoses the problem. Wu-Tang, however, very seriously intends the album’s release as the precedent for a new model: a “private music album.” Producer Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzougarh concedes that “it might totally flop,” but says that they want the album to “inspire creation and originality and debate.” The plans for the album are no joke. “The intrinsic value of music has been reduced to zero.” “Industrial production and digital reproduction have failed,” the album’s website reads.
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It’s easy to advise that music executives forget fighting piracy and find other models for funding music it’s harder to acknowledge that when we illegally download music, we enjoy the fruits of some very talented labor at no cost. “And yet it doesn’t receive the same treatment as art… it’s been devalued and diminished to almost the point that it has to be given away for free.” He later adds of the physical album, “This is like somebody having the scepter of an Egyptian king.”Īs performance art, Once Upon A Time in Shaolin does a great job making Wu-Tang’s point. “The idea that music is art has been something we advocated for years,” rapper and producer Robert Fitzgerald Diggs told Forbes. The Wu-Tang Clan has decided to do the opposite. Artists like Radiohead have reacted by letting their fans “pay what they want” for a new album - whether that’s $10 or nothing.
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It’s essentially the strongest reaction yet to the reality of customers downloading music for free in the piracy age. It’s unclear whether the group would welcome a buyer who releases digital copies for free, or a company that buys and distributes the album. After that, the album will be sold to a single customer.Īccording to members of the Wu-Tang Clan, they have received several multi-million dollar offers for the album. The album will not be available in stores or on iTunes, and the group has no intention of performing any songs from the album during live performances. The group has produced exactly one physical copy of the new album, which is stored in “a hand carved nickel-silver box designed by the British Moroccan artist Yahya.” The Wu-Tang Clan intends for the album to go on tour, like a famous artwork, so museum patrons can pay $30-$50 to listen to the album on headphones. It’s not the music that stands out - at least as far as anyone knows - but the business model. RZA starts off with a powerful line that sets the tone for the rest of the verse.The Wu-Tang Clan’s latest album, Once Upon A Time in Shaolin, is ambitious. “Fusion of the five elements, to search for the higher intelligence.” Filled with religious references and social issues it clearly points out that RZA isn't your average rapper and has a far deeper understanding of life than a lot of us do. His verse on the song Impossible is one of his most enlightening verses on the album. Every time you hear a RZA verse you learn something new or it leaves you questioning the true meaning of life. The Zig Zag Zigler is know for his production but his rhymes is what makes him a true MC.