In all the years I've heard music there has always been complaints from artist towards the whole record making business. And by complaints I mean frustration and resent. Just saying that understanding how artist feel about the big wigs gives us an even clearer picture of music industry.
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Universal Music Group's View of the Digital World
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Not at all about the artists
The "best" record contracts give the artist roughly $40,000 for every 250,000 records sold. A "normal" record contract gives the artist around $4,000. This is after the record company picks up the tab for the recording, producing, etc. but still. There's roughly 4 million in gross profits NOT going to the artist when the records are purchased.
Every time they say it takes money away from the artist I wince... they're lying and every bit as bad as politicians. The artists are suffering with the record companies in control.
The "best" record contracts give the artist roughly $40,000 for every 250,000 records sold. A "normal" record contract gives the artist around $4,000. This is after the record company picks up the tab for the recording, producing, etc. but still. There's roughly 4 million in gross profits NOT going to the artist when the records are purchased.
Every time they say it takes money away from the artist I wince... they're lying and every bit as bad as politicians. The artists are suffering with the record companies in control.
CD Baby, baby! http://cdbaby.com/ I have no person experience, but a friend plays in a band (http://cdbaby.com/cd/tarnished) that used them, and only had good things to say. It's mostly about distribution, not promotion. Promotion is something the major record companies do very, very well. I'm not sure if there's a proper replacement of them for that aspect of the business...
Yes, free is a hard price to fight. So don't fight, use it.
I'm looking at some of the free content models in other industries such as book publishing and web comics. There are dozens of examples where releasing NEW material for free actually made the sales of their paid products go UP. (In one case, almost entirely wiping out their debt).
I dont understand why lessons from THOSE current examples can't be used in the music industry.
This is why I say, most artists are better off without a recording contract with a major label. If they can get their fans to pay them even $2 for an album downloaded directly from the artist, they are ahead in the game. The promotional abilities of the industry are highly overrated IMO. They may be able to squeeze more sales out of the big acts, but more often than not, they promise far more than they deliver to the smaller and newer ones. The good news is that the recording industry is no longer in control, they just haven't read the memo yet. The artists can reach their audiences directly now.
Well said. I think I know a mortgage broker or two who should read this post...
Fewer than 85% of major label artists alone sell enough albums to break even on their recording advance (Source: Krasilovsky, M. William and Sidney Shemel. This Business of Music. 2nd. Ed. Billboard Publishing: 1990.)
Given that, my advice is to not sign up with a label. If you sell one album by yourself on the internet at $10, you've just made more mone than the vast majority of major label artists... since you keep not 7-16% but 100% of gross margin.
Record Labels are SCARED!
This article is also over on iLounge and it gets worse.
It totally amazes me about the attitude of these people! Mr. Morris & Mr. Dupri...you DID NOT make iTunes...The Fans and Artists did, as they also made you and universal. We, the fans make or break you and iTunes...without us you are nothin!
I am sick and tired of the TRASH that is put on CD's and paying $15.00 for it. With iTunes I don't get ripped off with a song I like and want to purchase in "support of the artist..not you"! I only buy "Greatest Hits" CD's now because of the trash that record labels throw together on CD's...you hurt the fans and the artists with this model. I also will NOT go to 15 different web sites to find a song. I go to iTunes to do "one stop" shopping and purchase the "song" and format that I want to listen to.
My advice to "YOU" Mr. Morris & Mr. Dupri is quit your whinin and cryin...start producing what the fans want or "YOU" will soon be holding a sign on the street corner..."Will sing/dance for Food" because "WE" the fans will make or break you...not iTunes!
This article is also over on iLounge and it gets worse.
It totally amazes me about the attitude of these people! Mr. Morris & Mr. Dupri...you DID NOT make iTunes...The Fans and Artists did, as they also made you and universal. We, the fans make or break you and iTunes...without us you are nothin!
I am sick and tired of the TRASH that is put on CD's and paying $15.00 for it. With iTunes I don't get ripped off with a song I like and want to purchase in "support of the artist..not you"! I only buy "Greatest Hits" CD's now because of the trash that record labels throw together on CD's...you hurt the fans and the artists with this model. I also will NOT go to 15 different web sites to find a song. I go to iTunes to do "one stop" shopping and purchase the "song" and format that I want to listen to.
My advice to "YOU" Mr. Morris & Mr. Dupri is quit your whinin and cryin...start producing what the fans want or "YOU" will soon be holding a sign on the street corner..."Will sing/dance for Food" because "WE" the fans will make or break you...not iTunes!
They are required to maximize shareholder value. This may or may not be achieved by maximizing short term profits. Most of the recent increase in Apple shareholder value, for example, came on the announcement of the iPhone, which is based on years of investment in RD and other expenditures oriented around building hype around Apple products.
It seems clear to me that continuing to balk at a reasonable long term distribution strategy is undermining shareholder value in music companies. People should clearly be getting out of these stocks.
£5 is how much "the classics" are on Amazon, and new releases are £7 to £8. So they can certainly make money at that price.
In terms of production an album should be cheaper than a TV Show as you need far less people to make it. But in terms of sale price an album is more expensive, on iTunes its 5x more.
Especially given the lower distribution cost of electronic vs making a CD, £5 should be attainable, or at least you should be able to get close.
"...control they inadvertently gave to Apple with the creation of the iTunes Music Store"
It seems the music industry did a lot of things they'd like to say was inadvertent. Courtney Love, crazy as she is sometimes, was right to lash out at the record labels a few years ago. I hope many more artists follow Radiohead's lead by going independent (i.e., label-free) and put an end to grossly excessive major label greed. Music will never go away, but its current system is starting to. As much as I love the experience of buying a CD with a nice package design, long live iTunes, you ungrateful finger-pointing record labels.
It seems the music industry did a lot of things they'd like to say was inadvertent. Courtney Love, crazy as she is sometimes, was right to lash out at the record labels a few years ago. I hope many more artists follow Radiohead's lead by going independent (i.e., label-free) and put an end to grossly excessive major label greed. Music will never go away, but its current system is starting to. As much as I love the experience of buying a CD with a nice package design, long live iTunes, you ungrateful finger-pointing record labels.
There as a lawsuit several years ago regarding record company price fixing, which they lost-and were ordered to compensate the consumer, and lower their prices.
They sent anyone who signed up as a plaintiff in the class-action suit punch-out copies of 'Roy Rogers and Trigger sing best of country western'
or 'Rosemary Clooney sings love songs'
But the price of CDs never came down.
New titles still cost $16-18.
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The studios and record companies had better get over themselves, quickly. They are being left behind and are too stupid to see it. iTunes/iPod are firmly entrenched in the kids minds as THE one-stop shopping site for entertainment media-all the fragmented music services are a last gasp by all the movie/music companies and will fall by the wayside one by one.
Same goes with MS and their "Zoon"
They sent anyone who signed up as a plaintiff in the class-action suit punch-out copies of 'Roy Rogers and Trigger sing best of country western'
or 'Rosemary Clooney sings love songs'
But the price of CDs never came down.
New titles still cost $16-18.
-----------------------------
The studios and record companies had better get over themselves, quickly. They are being left behind and are too stupid to see it. iTunes/iPod are firmly entrenched in the kids minds as THE one-stop shopping site for entertainment media-all the fragmented music services are a last gasp by all the movie/music companies and will fall by the wayside one by one.
Same goes with MS and their "Zoon"
There are a number of bands and artists that make a living playing music outside of the limelight just like their are a bunch of people in the video/film world making a living outside the Hollywood system. There is a "middle class" if you will.
So does that mean if you love doing something you shouldn't expect to get paid a reasonable wage for dong it? I guess all those famous Renaissance painters were just greedy hacks because their works were commissioned by the rich and powerful...
Dreaming of making it, and having the resolve, determination, and luck, to make are very different things. If all you want is an outlet for a hobby, the 'net is perfect. If you want to actually make a living doing it, the 'net is far from perfect right now. If I'm working on a TV show that's typically a 12hr day, 6 days a week commitment for 3-4 months. That doesn't leave much time for a 9-5er to pay the rent.
I don't think anyone is arguing that point, but the 'net is not the "If you build it, they will come" content creator paradise some people think it is.
Ummm... the downside is pretty obvious. Your music gets lost in a sea of millions of other people's music. You can very easily spend more time and money letting people know that your music exists than you did actually creating it and after you let them know it exists you still have to find a way for it to generate income. For a band like Radio Head (that's already rich and famous) doing directly to the internet is easy because they already have a huge fan base, but for "unknown" bands its a big, up hill fight.
I'm far from an expert, but I've spent the better part of the last year reading everything I can get my hands on about how "little guys" can leverage new media and the internet to their advantage and create a business model to sell their own creations and the answer is still pretty much lurking out in the mist somewhere. People are confident it exists, but no one has found it yet.
And that is a huge "if". That's like a "if I could just figure out to make a lot of money I'd be rich" sized "if."
Like I said, putting stuff on the internet is easy. Letting the masses know your stuff is on the internet is hard. Getting a portion of the masses to pay for your stuff is even harder.
The artists have been able to reach their audiences directly now for years and I've been hearing how bands are gonna start selling music directly from their websites and skip the labels for nearly a decade but so far most of what I've heard is crickets.
I'm not saying things are changing, 'cause they are. All I'm saying is that people w/money will always have a place at the table because they'll always be people w/ideas that don't have the funds to make them a reality.
Lethal
Pretty sure most people don't actually mix these up.
And? Considering the big players like UMG, Sony, control the recording, the selling, the distribution and the artists themselves...you are pidgeonholing Morris into a small niche that is an incomplete comment by far.
Only the top artists, or those who have never been under the thumb of the big studios. Even someone as popular and prolific as Prince had to legally change his name to get out from under the studio he was with. And still, the same company does this part, too. It's still Universal, from top to bottom.
Now it sounds like you're contradicting yourself. I'm not really sure what you are saying here. And Apple is only involved (so far) in the distribution/selling side.
Those £5 albums have made millions already over to cover all costs associated with their initial investment, and they'd never sell at full price to today's audience.
Not all new releases are that cheap at all... only popular stuff.
TV shows are sold on the basis of advertising if they're not created by public broadcasting... do you have any idea what a first-run series costs to buy for a broadcaster and how much they charge for 30 second spots to go around it? Music CDs to be interspersed with unskippable embedded audio advertising or albums bought to by Coca-Cola... there's your £5 CD. It's not a comparable model in the slightest.
£8-12 is perfectly reasonable for an album that you can get a lifetime's of listening pleasure out of if you buy wisely; the cost of a new paperback. Far cheaper than a new release computer game, it's the cost of going to see a movie in London, the price of a return tube ticket in Zone 1, the price of three McDonalds meals... I honestly can't see what you're quibbling about or where your priorities are.
there is one thing to be looked at- we are overwhelmed these days by flash-in-the-pan artists. You can now go out and buy your dog with kidney problems a synthasizer, and in a day, he can churn out a two cord song-which gets distributed by a major or an indie company. And some people will buy it. Fragmentation of the market-
The bar which determines true talent is now only one inch above the ground.
And peoples tastes and expectations in music are in the same position.
One more reason why music sales are falling-there is little of merit out there to buy-that really excites people. And also a lot of junk ie Brittany Spears.
Garage band music has its bad side also.
ANYONE with no talent can create music these days without even taking an instrument lesson or music theory class.
This also costs the music industry dearly.
The bar which determines true talent is now only one inch above the ground.
And peoples tastes and expectations in music are in the same position.
One more reason why music sales are falling-there is little of merit out there to buy-that really excites people. And also a lot of junk ie Brittany Spears.
Garage band music has its bad side also.
ANYONE with no talent can create music these days without even taking an instrument lesson or music theory class.
This also costs the music industry dearly.
Because it's on a shiny, plastic disc that you can buy blank for like 10 cents. Sometimes people have a hard time seeing beyond the delivery medium. I wonder what some people here think about paintings? I mean, $50 or $60 worth of canvas and paint goes for hundreds or thousands of dollars... what's up w/that?
Lethal
Because it's on a shiny, plastic disc that you can buy blank for like 10 cents. Sometimes people have a hard time seeing beyond the delivery medium. I wonder what some people here think about paintings? I mean, $50 or $60 worth of canvas and paint goes for hundreds or thousands of dollars... what's up w/that?
the difference is that those paintings aren't made by 10.000s per hour like CDs
and of course can TV series be comapred to music... music intersected by lenghty advertising ? that's called radio
Too true.
And, really....think of it this way...people with talent are ALWAYS gonna get run over by people with money, organization AND talent. If you go by yourself, you're, almost by definition, going up against people who know more than you do about marketing and distribution. Your chance is to team up with other people so you can hire somebody good in marketing or hope the big boys stay stupid.
I think big organizations will always play a role in music. I think the trick is to create and control one of your own, and not get controlled by one...
The problem with art has always been the same. It's never really been a "reasonable wage" occupation. As for Renaissance painters, you only hear about the ones who had patrons, not about the many more who did not.
But again, who promised that music (or any art) would make anyone a good living?
I never suggested that it was a paradise, but I do think it breaks the old model upon which the music industry was based, and I think that's a good thing overall.
So what? Seriously, not everyone is going to find a mass following, and why should they? As if a record company is going to be much help anyway? The record stores and the radio stations are littered with the detritus of acts abandoned by their labels when the audience they found wasn't large enough to justify a promotional budget. Sure, independent artists will have to be creative to find an audience, but I don't see how this is any worse than the old system, when the artist had virtually no control over their promotion (or lack thereof).
I'm far from an expert, but I've spent the better part of the last year reading everything I can get my hands on about how "little guys" can leverage new media and the internet to their advantage and create a business model to sell their own creations and the answer is still pretty much lurking out in the mist somewhere. People are confident it exists, but no one has found it yet.
And that is a huge "if". That's like a "if I could just figure out to make a lot of money I'd be rich" sized "if."
Like I said, putting stuff on the internet is easy. Letting the masses know your stuff is on the internet is hard. Getting a portion of the masses to pay for your stuff is even harder.
The artists have been able to reach their audiences directly now for years and I've been hearing how bands are gonna start selling music directly from their websites and skip the labels for nearly a decade but so far most of what I've heard is crickets.
I'm not saying things are changing, 'cause they are. All I'm saying is that people w/money will always have a place at the table because they'll always be people w/ideas that don't have the funds to make them a reality.
I don't know, I've managed to discover several bands I'd never heard about before, just by poking around, by following links -- you know, the way we all access information on the internet. Pandora turned me on to a few names I'd never heard before. Now I buy their stuff.
A perfect system? Hardly, but certainly no worse than having record company execs act as the artistic gatekeepers. I think we can easily see how that worked out.
Oh, but now we are talking volume and margins and other economic type things that people don't want to think about when they'd rather just blurt out random prices of what they think things should cost even though they don't know about the given industry to understand all the costs involved w/creating and getting that piece of work out to market.the difference is that those paintings aren't made by 10.000s per hour like CDs
Lethal
Yea. I know some examples of what you're talking about in the print industry. But that's a huge shift in thinking. Free = profit? Maybe that just sounds radical to me.
Tell me about it. Before I found out about Baen and the Foglios, I was pretty dubious. But...damn, real world experience has to trump ideology....If free stuff makes you more money, then you HAVE to look into it and not just cling to your old models.