RZA Breaks Down the Cost of Making Music

The J The opinion is there was something so dope that we could just break it down to one And the fucking like what was the thought process but well for my point of view right it was just like For my point of view Music was being devalued Right boss streaming services by society right? How so now do streaming of course right illegal download illegal downloads right if you want to let's talk a little bit of business I won't go to okay. I'll give me two minutes of business All right, so let's just take Napster right who's the founder for this type of technology right? And he takes millions of songs and gives them away And then now people are getting all these songs for free now the music industry Like any other industry has a certain quota of business It does every year like every other industry right whether it's four billion dollars a year or five billion hours a year It's the industry of a group of people and that's their yearly quota So if Napster comes right and and and he takes all these songs where all these people who are waiting for their publishing checks Waiting for their economics to be created from music Now there's no publishing check all the numbers are now decreased because there's no physical cell of your music for us to accumulate a value To send you a check, but then at the end of the day after he does that He gets a billion dollars, so now you're talking what belongs to let's say say there's a thousand artists That's worth value and far as you know that sell records that you could say accumulate money right so We took a we took the power of a thousand and put it in one man's hand okay So that's one of the first mistakes as an industry And then a second mistake we make is that now there's services going and there's illegal downloads and people won't pay a dollar For the record right right and for album you won't pay ten to twelve hours for album even the same with $20 You won't pay that but you'll pay three hundred four hundred dollars for your headphones Two three hours for your iPod or your phone and you're using it for music. Let me ask you this What's that's way out your headphones without music your headphones is useless right? So why would you not pay the ten twenty hours for the music because they don't have to right right cuz they don't get it Some other way, but let me ask you this. What is the best way to support artists? What's the best way to buy it well the best way to buy it now music? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah? Oh, no no no now your music. Well now tank land anybody's music What's the best way to get the most out of it? Well the best way in the past was physical But now the industry has figured out how to monetize the digital streamers so now things are starting to rebalance But during this period of time though maybe within the last three four years it's starting to rebalance But you look at from 2000 to 2015 There's a total unbalance right and a lot of artists have to stop making music because there's no economics Now a group like the Wu tank land right so let's just say this is say the average verse for a woo rapper You know let's say you're a map. Let me get it. Let me get 16. He might be yo yeah I'm telling you don't know what 16 is tell him yeah This a mess let's say mess. Yo don't be 20 cent for that right okay? 20,000 Joe okay, so now let's just say He got ten verses on this album You know I may let's say every other woo member do the same So to get to get an album made it may cost a million hours a studio session a studio session is up to Let's say at the cheapest level 100 bucks an hour you do it to do a 12-hour block out That's another gram of days. That's to get into the studio Then you got to engineer then you got so it costs money to create music right? But now you get all this done, and you want to sell it and somebody's just the world just takes it for free So now you can't recreate again now even though the tools have gotten easier now And you could do a lot with your laptop and all that even a laptop is 2g's bro even the download just Logic right which everybody use $200 man, and so you need a so so so so so it's merchandise and brand now It's merchandise and brand is merchandise and being able to take the idea of that brand But if you're a fan, but if you're a fan, what's the best way to support? When there are you what's the best way to say clan? What's the best way to support is it Apple music like what is what is the best way iTunes? No, you know now everything is found this way other words if you could stream in good You can stream it Spotify's good Spotify is good. You could download it directly to your phone if you are If you can give directions to fans like what's the best way to support Wu-Tang Clan? What's the best way to accumulate music require music? I mean if I just put in well good now like streaming Yeah, I think it's balance. I miss a tunes. I was a see Amazon look music is the second thing the catch 22 here Joe is this okay? Now music is also made to be heard Yes, so while one point I try to prove a point by saying look I'm gonna put a value on it. So you know, there's a value to it because there's a value to me But then on the other point right we put I put another album out call it better tomorrow Which is like yo do what you want with that? You know I come because I don't make music for me to listen to I make it for the world and listen to it At the same time so the best way to support your artist is just by listening to the music Alright, hmm. I'm with you. It's beautiful. But so this is good though This is cuz I've always wanted to know this cuz I've always I've always been like what do I do? Do I do iTunes do I do Amazon? Like where do you get the most money back from? Yeah, I think look I think they did the system has found the way to balance itself. So it's okay now Yeah, so Spotify is good Streaming, you know streaming look, you know, I think I think even tell us with is thinking about coming over to the stream I think that dirty girl Everybody's gonna come to the stream and share because because because that's the way to listen now It's only she gets a good deal right only like you said just the whole thing at the end of the day is play fair Yes, like you know what you can say I don't want this streaming service But somebody has to have a platform for people to even come check for you. Yes Need to know fans need to know what what like if I'm a fan and You know $14 is not too much money for me to spend I need to know where to spend it I would if I could if there's one place you could tell me that's the best way to support Wu-Tang Clan This is a fan, right? Fan and I had the money to spend you know, I would definitely you know, I would buy the vinyl right? Why because it's tangible, right? Why because it's tangible spending money right? Okay, you get a physical object Yeah, physical for physical especially a record like you buy the vinyl He does a kill that's so funny that you said it cuz I know people of certain blah blah blah It's like this oh shit they want audio rights to something so they can put it on vinyl and then the value is the history of the story like a Muffucka want a vinyl Wu-Tang because it's art just like with the one joint It's art and like you said we talk about it earlier. It's coming back. Yeah, it's coming back Not now I'm not saying it's gonna go to clubs or anything like that and a DJ is like that But the act of collecting something and take it take home with you some tendency member CDs CDs is like This technology is about to die. Why would I buy this CD? Because it has a booklet member What albums where was our yeah, it was an artwork and see you could pick the wood you could put your weed on it Yeah, no series you bring your weed up Oh, they gave you a giant piece of rolling paper Yeah, and that was the last thing and I don't see what you did, but I don't see people doing that But I think it's gonna go back Nobody's everybody's not gonna have 1200s in the house whatever but some people especially if it's a genre or Something that you connect with they're gonna be like I want to buy that You