Originally posted by novicegeek
"Those bands lost the money that I was willing to give them. There's no way that I would buy entire albums by them. But I would buy a few songs. If they don't want my money, fine."
"creative concerns" = greed"
Way too simplistic. While the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica do not point a clear picture of what it is for most major label bands that haven't become zillionaires, the fact is that the conversion to a single based business makes it considerably more difficult for artists -- and bands in particular -- to make money.
Supposing you are a band whose heydey has past. You had acouple of big albums on the strength of one single on each of them. Your albums, if you're lucky, will sell 20,000-60,000 copies a year (between 250,000-600,000 bucks a year.) for several years. This is the fate of the ACDCs and Def Leppards and even Michael Jackson.
Sounds like a lot of money. More than many of us make. But not if you're a band and your business becomes a single based one over the internet.
What Apple is saying is that the business you're screwed without them and so you might as well sign up. They may be right.
But if you're a band, you might just be screwed with it too.
Suppose your band of 4 has three big hits that sell 20,000 copies each on the internet.This comes to $60,000. This btw, is almost unheard of, after a single drops off the charts. Figure that after the label takes their cut and apple takes theirs, you're left with 35 cents per copy. Now divide it by four people, and you've got about 9 cents a copy. Multiply it by 60,000. You've made a whopping $5,400 for the year.
