Neil Young sez "Piracy is the new radio, That's how music gets around."

[NeverTheMachine]

 

Chess - Schnipp Schnapp Schubert - Bob Dylan Haydn - Electric Light orchestra Mozart - The Beatles Mahler - beach Boys

 

 

gotcha

[g.bird84]

With so much piracy I'm surprised any artists make a dime.

[A. Einstein]

i don't think that the people who participate in consumerism without paying for the goods would have the cash to buy it. So we can simply forget those scalawags, they are irrelevant for the IP owners.

 

Important is to take care of the people who buy the goods, but also here most record companies fail.

[g.bird84]

 

i don't think that the people who participate in consumerism without paying for the goods would have the cash to buy it. So we can simply forget those scalawags, they are irrelevant for the IP owners. Important is to take care of the people who buy the goods, but also here most record companies fail.

 

 

Agreed

[Carlos.S]

There is no excuse for piracy. Your music may "Get Around" but who exactly is controlling it and making sure the artist gets his/her dues?

[philbo]

Since you mention classical music:

 

The was a fellow who was obsessed with Beethoven.

 

He collected recordings of every performance.

He bought copies of every score.

He quit his job, left his wife, moved to Germany and bought the house Beethoven lived in.

 

One night, he finally went insane, and went to Beethoven's grave and dug him up.

When he opened the casket, there was a light inside, and the rotted corpse of Beethoven was working on a huge pile of paper, erasing everything on each sheet.

 

Beethoven's corpse looked at the guy and said:

"Could you please close the lid? I'm trying to decompose!"

[daddymack]

[uitar9]

We keep calling it a record industry-the "record " companies are multi national corporations who control most commercial entertainment, all of it. There is no "guy" who wants to help an artist, they are using a business model to make a profit.

 

Another poster said it, it s not a record industry, its an entertainment industry.

 

I'm 59, I don't like what I hear on commercial radio, I am not interested in Gaga or urban fare, it doesn t interest me. But it sells, its entertainment.

 

If you are a songwriter, singer who is pissed because the world is not beating down your door, go find what works today, not the model I grew up with. There is a huge jam band, folk circuit out there, figure out how to get on those circuits, tour your ass off, sell merch. Be content with making $35-50M a year with all the {censored} you can handle. Do that for ten years, learn the business, meet your industry connections. Find your niche. You have to pay dues, what ever decade your in. We are a geezer cover band either retired or with good day jobs and we gross $5-10M a year doing private and small bar gigs. We create a CD a year , costs us $400 and use it for advertising. We don t want to travel so we know we limit our earning potential. At our age thats good enough for us.

 

To me, this forum allows folks to find an excuse for not doing what ever they need to do to have a music career. Just want to pen some lyrics, use garage band to create some music , upload it to I tunes or equivalent and expect the world to make you rich? Without leaving the comfort of your bedroom. Making it big, whatever that is, is like making a 5 year 35 million dollar contract in the NHL.

 

Only the few "make" it. Whatever generation you are talking about. Earning a decent living is a bonus in this industry

[A. Einstein]

You have no clue what we do, how we promote, distribute and market music & artists and their music nationally and internationally, manage their concerts,pay production fees, and surround artists with every service and comfort necessary.

 

Do you at least know how your milk gets to your grocery store?

 

 

 

We keep calling it a record industry-the "record " companies are multi national corporations who control most commercial entertainment, all of it. There is no "guy" who wants to help an artist, they are using a business model to make a profit. Another poster said it, it s not a record industry, its an entertainment industry. I'm 59, I don't like what I hear on commercial radio, I am not interested in Gaga or urban fare, it doesn t interest me. But it sells, its entertainment. If you are a songwriter, singer who is pissed because the world is not beating down your door, go find what works today, not the model I grew up with. There is a huge jam band, folk circuit out there, figure out how to get on those circuits, tour your ass off, sell merch. Be content with making $35-50M a year with all the {censored} you can handle. Do that for ten years, learn the business, meet your industry connections. Find your niche. You have to pay dues, what ever decade your in. We are a geezer cover band either retired or with good day jobs and we gross $5-10M a year doing private and small bar gigs. We create a CD a year , costs us $400 and use it for advertising. We don t want to travel so we know we limit our earning potential. At our age thats good enough for us. To me, this forum allows folks to find an excuse for not doing what ever they need to do to have a music career. Just want to pen some lyrics, use garage band to create some music , upload it to I tunes or equivalent and expect the world to make you rich? Without leaving the comfort of your bedroom. Making it big, whatever that is, is like making a 5 year 35 million dollar contract in the NHL. Only the few "make" it. Whatever generation you are talking about. Earning a decent living is a bonus in this industry

 

[uitar9]

Got any average numbers to share-ie besides the room and board while touring, what is the average gross that has to be produced by an artist in your company before the artist actually makes a dollar?

 

BTW-Milk is made by machine in the back room of my supermarket.

[uitar9]

BTW-I'm not burning your ability to make money-that's what you are in it for-I was really trying to highlight to the stay at home "singer-songwriter" that this is a business, no one is out there to make him rich over night, say like Neil Young. Folks have to work in their chosen profession and move up the ladder, no different than any other business.

Got any average numbers to share-ie besides the room and board while touring, what is the average gross that has to be produced by an artist in your company before the artist actually makes a dollar? BTW-Milk is made by machine in the back room of my supermarket.

 

[A. Einstein]

 

Got any average numbers to share-ie besides the room and board while touring, what is the average gross that has to be produced by an artist in your company before the artist actually makes a dollar? BTW-Milk is made by machine in the back room of my supermarket.

 

 

 

our agreements today are that the artists get 50% of the net, the most famous artists get up to 85% of the net

 

anything else an artist should not sign today, or he gets screwed over.

[uitar9]

So when does "net " start, after the artist has repaid every dime you have spent on them? That's the rub. Not many artists will ever get to "net", just room and board and all the {censored} they can handle.

 

 

our agreements today are that the artists get 50% of the net, the most famous artists get up to 85% of the net anything else an artist should not sign today, or he gets screwed over.

 

[A. Einstein]

 

So when does "net " start, after the artist has repaid every dime you have spent on them? That's the rub. Not many artists will ever get to "net", just room and board and all the {censored} they can handle.

 

 

 

Net:

 

§ 4. ROYALTY PAYMENTS

 

4.1 Licensee shall pay to Licencor a royalty of 75% (seventy-five-per-cent) of Licensee´s Net Income (defined as Licensee´s gross income less VAT less Technical Costs) arising out of the exploitation of Contents.

[uitar9]

Thanks for providing that explanation. Again, not wanting to burn your business, just trying to say that it is a business and no one artist is owed anything, just because they happen to want to be an artist. Even in Neil's heyday, thousands failed, while a dozen succeeded. Making it big is a lottery win. Making a living at it is a little easier, if you know the business and pay your dues.

[A. Einstein]

 

Thanks for providing that explanation. Again, not wanting to burn your business, just trying to say that it is a business and no one artist is owed anything, just because they happen to want to be an artist. Even in Neil's heyday, thousands failed, while a dozen succeeded. Making it big is a lottery win. Making a living at it is a little easier, if you know the business and pay your dues.

 

 

Ever thought that only the best can earn a living off their profession, no matter what the profession is.

 

Marketing is planning and executing. Also the artist is planning his careeer. It's the job of the artist and the artist manager to plan the career. In pop, a record company is an international distributor of the artist's product, and the promotion the record company makes is based on the product.

 

Many record companies invest millions in music genres which do not generate a profit. Pop however is a commercial product.

[uitar9]

Interesting-gota ask-if only a select few artists actually make a dollar (their per centage starts after there is a net profit, often after tens of thousands spent on the promotional process) from the commercial entertainment business, why are the majority of us bedroom warriors concerned about it. If you have no money to buy, then what is the difference between a pirated unit vs a non-bought unit.

[A. Einstein]

When an artist sells song for lets say for $100'000 , then he get about $75'000 payed out. As more an artists sells as more he gets, up to about 85% maximum.

[A. Einstein]

An artist who sells 100 songs in the sales statement period of six months, get about $20

[A. Einstein]

For promotion, marketing and distibution nothing gets deducted from the IP owners royalties..

 

This is the job of the record company, as well the job of sales shops, and other companies we sub-licence the music to, for example international digital distributors, hotel chains, railway and subway companies which broadcast publicly, coffee shop chain which order their set of CDs every three month, or use our music channels in their locations, for example Pacific Coffee Shop with 2700 shops in Asia, there the client can also buy the CDs of the music which runs in the restaurants.

 

When we pay the production fee, then this will be a different contract then when we do not pay any production fee. The contract under which we get a finished product, this is a larger percentage of the net for the licencor.

[uitar9]

Damn, ten thousand units and I get 5 cents a unit, $500. We crank out a CD for about $750. We only make them as promotional items and sell 100 a year at $10. Just a bunch of geezers having some fun. Being a suit, it seems to me the only way to do this commercially is to keep it all in house, vertical integration, and keep the bucks for yourselves, less units, more net......but you gotta know how to create that business model niche that suits your lifestyle, not just play in a bar and chase the ladies.

An artist who sells 100 songs in the sales statement period of six months, get about $20

 

[A. Einstein]

I understand that millions of young artists are eager to make the best out of their situation, but the artist must also have a realistic view how earning a living works in music.

 

The little city I live at has more then 300 pop/rock bands, by a population of 480.000 people, they are all very good, but I would not sign one of them for international distribution.

[schmatass]

OK back to the original post....

 

First of all, Steve Jobs WOULD NOT have preserved vinyl. That's just a bunch of bullocks!!! Steve Jobs was all about delivering technological convenience to the masses, which has nothing to do with sound quality.

 

And another thing, Jobs was not an audio engineer, nor was he qualified in audio circuitry to make that a reality. Leave that to audio companies like McIntosh, Audio Research, Luxman, Arcam, Musical Fidelity and old school Marantz, Pioneer & Sansui etc. Just saying....

 

The digital format is not the problem with sound quality today. It is the way records are being mixed, mastered and compressed to death. There's very little dynamic range in recordings today. Everything is overly-compressed, utilizing very loud mastering levels and thus, leaving little room for dynamic range.

 

I don't feel sorry for the record companies at all. The irony of course is, the music business is fueled by technological advances - something the suits managed to ignore for quite a while, long before it became a problem for them. No, the real loser here are the artists themselves. NOW, they really are stuck in the middle. 360 deals? No thanks!

[A. Einstein]

Well... what should one say after months of reading the opinions about music industry of people who have no clue how the music business works. I came to the conclusion I only waste my time here.

[nstar32]

Great article