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By Mike and Barney Chunn

It’s a rare breed that doesn’t automatically, intrinsically, understand that music matters. It’s an unknown entity in many ways, but what is universally acknowledged is the power it has to enhance our days, enrich our lives and even help us discover and define ourselves.

By Mike and Barney Chunn

It’s a rare breed that doesn’t automatically, intrinsically, understand that music matters. It’s an unknown entity in many ways, but what is universally acknowledged is the power it has to enhance our days, enrich our lives and even help us discover and define ourselves.

The precious and powerful entity of music has always been reciprocated and represented in the way in which one obtained or consumed that music.

From the 17th century banning of Allegri’s Miserere by Pope Urban VIII to enhance to pleasure of those rare performances (until Mozart unbelievably managed to transpose the piece after one listen), to the desperate waiting for records to be shipped over on the navy boats from the 30s in New Zealand, the idea that music was a precious commodity was taken as a matter of fact. The ability to obtain and hear music matched the value ascribed to the music itself.

And suddenly, in the last decade or so, the way in which music is consumed, and the value ascribed to consumption of music, has changed. It’s common for people to have days and days, even weeks, of music stored on their computers. (We say ‘music’ but in the modern world we are talking about ‘songs’. However from here on we’ll stick with ‘music’). Music is easier than ever to attain and listen to, with downloading and file-sharing saturating the Internet, allowing people to hoard vast amounts of the stuff.

While this is all well and good in the sense that suddenly niche music and artists from all over the world have the ability to share music globally and simply, one of the untold repercussions of the new environment of consuming music is that music itself is being devalued, particularly in the commercial sense. As with anything, when supply is vastly increased, value is decreased. Especially when coupled with the fact that so much of the music we consume now is free. It leads to an altered response to music; it no longer is treated with a reverence or preciousness. The new means of music consumption is out of balance with the process behind the creation and production of that piece of music.

Hence the introduction of organizations such as Why Music Matters, which aims to highlight the process behind producing even a single song; the writing, the arranging, the producing, and the engineering, not to mention the money required to allow this lengthy and difficult process to occur. This evolution, when met with a saturated market and more and more bands releasing their music for free to meet the demand for free music, means the possibility of sustainable free music is decreasing, and fast, and puts pressure on young and emerging talent to be able to produce their music.

As Liz Diamond of RIANZ puts it: "The Why Music Matters campaign unites artists, audiences and all those who work in and around music. Allowing the music to speak for itself, Music Matters brings together a growing collection of short animated films about inspirational artists who have dedicated their lives to music – reminding us of the significance music has in all our lives.

"We really encourage music fans and anyone making music to get involved by visiting the site www.whymusicmatters.co.nz and 'like' the Why Music Matters campaign on Facebook to add your voice to this growing community of music lovers and supporters."

Play it Strange is currently rolling out the Who Loves Who competition, a competition that celebrates great music from New Zealand. Secondary school students are invited to re-record their own interpretation of their favourite New Zealand song. The competition celebrates the idea that a great song is a great song in many ways, and that with a new interpretation can take on new meaning. It also provides insight to the students who take part the process behind the production of a song.

This competition, and the process that those involved go through, is based on the same principles that Music Matters and RIANZ uphold: that music, in its recorded and consumable form, is important, and should be supported in a sustainable way that recognizes the role of music in the lives of people and duly supports its proliferation. It is the encouragement of consumers to understand what lies behind that 3 minutes of joy that brightens their day.

As a world of music consumers, we have forgotten what it is we are consuming so regularly. Programmes like Why Music Matters, in association with RIANZ, and the Play it Strange Who Loves Who competition, all believe in and encourage a consumer environment that recognizes what it takes to produce a song, let alone a whole album, and that provides sustainability to all artists who dedicate their lives the enriching ours with music. The gift of music has continuously brought the world to its knees; from Allegri in the 16th century, to The Beatles in the 60s. But with the current unsustainable market, the consumer is capable now of bringing musicians to theirs. This must cease.