As I know there's a lot of musicians, players, instrument owners, songwriters etc. hanging out on this site so I decided to post this one here also. The following blog writing is a fantastic eye-opener on the ways how the tech business exploits the music industry on the internet. The author is David Lowery (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lowery. Sorry, he's not a melodic rock artist but it's still a great read). And here's the foreword to to the blog: "What follows is based on my notes and slides from my talk at SF Music Tech Summit. I realize that Im about to alienate some of my friends that work on the tech side of the music business. These are good well intentioned people who genuinely want to help musicians succeed in the new digital paradigm. But if we are gonna come up with a system to compensate artists fairly in the new digital age we need an honest discussion of what is going on. The tech side of the music business really needs to look at how their actions and policies negatively impact artists, just as they have pointed out the negative effect record company actions have had on artists. Too often the debate has been pirates vs the RIAA. This is ridiculous because the artists, the 99 percent of the music business are left out of the debate. Im not advocating going back to the old record label model, to an industry dominated by the big three multi-national labels. This is a bit of hyperbole intended to make us all think about this question: Is the new digital model better for the artist?"http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887609#msg-887609Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:20:06 +1000 Phorum 5.2.16 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887917#msg-887917 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887917#msg-887917 Almir NoticeboardTue, 17 Apr 2012 20:42:40 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887798#msg-887798 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887798#msg-887798
Here's a fantastic service for independent bands and musicians to get their music to digital market and actually get a fair percentage of the sales:

http://www.tunecore.com/

I have several friends who use this service and they all like it.]]> Erkka Korhonen NoticeboardMon, 16 Apr 2012 21:54:20 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887795#msg-887795 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887795#msg-887795And iTunes sales weren't much better. 6 months worth of sales for several artists was in the vacuity if $500. Pathetic.]]> Andrew NoticeboardMon, 16 Apr 2012 20:40:37 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887793#msg-887793 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887793#msg-887793
Artists who are signed to major labels especially in smaller countries rarely see any big royalties from iTunes sales. I was fascinated after a discussion with a rep from Finland's PlayGround Music. He told me that artists only get pennies from international iTunes sales. The royalties per se are not big, and then their record company takes 50% of the incoming royalties since they licenced the album to another country. And the label department in that country gets most of the iTunes royalties.

The best way for an artist to get most money out of the digital sales (or any sales whatsoever) is to finance the album themselves and licence it separately to different areas. They even may score a 15% royalty rate. If they're able to exclude digital sales (extremely rare) it's gonna be even better. Of course if the artist has his/her own label it's another thing...]]> Erkka Korhonen NoticeboardMon, 16 Apr 2012 20:21:21 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887750#msg-887750 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887750#msg-887750 Troy NoticeboardMon, 16 Apr 2012 03:48:06 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887746#msg-887746 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887746#msg-887746 Chazz NoticeboardMon, 16 Apr 2012 02:27:13 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887727#msg-887727 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887727#msg-887727 Snake65 NoticeboardSun, 15 Apr 2012 22:37:33 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887707#msg-887707 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887707#msg-887707
I am 100% with Erkka on this. Musicians have been getting raped by digital theft for far too long and consumers continue to consume without any thought as to how it might affect those who produce it. They just see "corporate" and think it's OK. I'm not arguing the music business was perfect before the good ol' internet, nor that getting a mate to copy an album on a cassette tape didn't happen before either, but the sheer scale of illegal file sharing means that more bands are getting NOTHING for their hard work compared with, probably not much - but it was SOMETHING.

Would you work for nothing? How would you pay the bills then?

The articles Erkka has posted are very thought provoking; I am looking forward though to the solutions. 'Cause that's what we need.]]> Steve_Roamer NoticeboardSun, 15 Apr 2012 09:12:58 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887703#msg-887703 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887703#msg-887703
Mixing an album can cost about €8.000 including the studio. This leaves €14.600 on the table. On a budget like this I'd ask €6.000 as a producer fee. So we're down to €8.600 which can buy us anywhere between 17 to 26 recording days (depending on the need for an engineer), which in the end is not too much but if the band is well-rehearsed it can happen. Of course in this situation the audio editing has to be done on mobile workstations/laptops. Last year I spent a 10-hour day of a family vacation doing vocal edits for an album. Not too cool...

Then if we are talking about a solo artist it's a totally different ballgame since you are paying the musicians as well. Here you can easily end up paying €1.000 for drummer and bassist each, €1.500 for guitarist and keyboard player each, then if you need additional musicians it's even more. So that's at least €5.000 gone right there. Of course the producer sometimes plays/programs stuff by himself.

So, in the end €22.600 isn't that much, is it? And this is Finland, one of the cheapest countries in the western world to produce music in. Ok, the price examples are based on quality studios but we are also talking major labels here.

I'd also love to see the cd prices drop. In here they cost around €22 in retail stores and €18 in internet stores. That's over $28 and $23! The net income (after VAT, distribution, mechanicals etc.) of a physical cd is about €10. If the band/artist is lucky enough to score a 10% royalty rate, it's gonna be €1/sold album AFTER BREAK-EVEN which is usually 100% of recording costs and 50% of any music videos. This is pretty easy math. It's also good to remember that 10.000 units shipped is gold and 20.000 units is platinum here. So, you'll get your break-even and platinum albums at the same time. Hooray! If the price of a physical cd drops it will also raise the break-even points and therefore reduce artist royalties since the labels will not change the deals for better, With a lot of artists signed through TV talent shows, it's actually getting worse...]]> Erkka Korhonen NoticeboardSun, 15 Apr 2012 07:23:24 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887698#msg-887698 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887698#msg-887698
Like the new Tyketto for instance. There are a few clips that grabbed me, but not enough to buy the album. I'm just going to pick up a few on itunes and put them in my tyketto/vaughn itunes folder.

I found that I'm not the completest that I once was, having to have every single song I can find from a band I like.]]> Troy NoticeboardSun, 15 Apr 2012 05:41:15 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887691#msg-887691 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887691#msg-887691-------------------------------------------------------
> and Coco it's not only lack of more disposable
> income it's a saturated market too.
>
Yeah, I've said that on this board many times before. And for someone like myself, whose taste spans the entire spectrum of rock music and beyond, it's just impossible to keep up with all releases. I quite often listen to 20+ new bands every week.]]> Coco NoticeboardSun, 15 Apr 2012 04:40:05 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887681#msg-887681 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887681#msg-887681
I remember back in the late 80's-90's you'd have maybe 5-10 major artists a month with new albums sometimes even less than that. I remember going to tower records on the release wall and seeing 3-5 new albums a week. Now there's anywhere from 5-10 a week easy. Then those get re-released into special editions, tour editions, etc.

I think it's impossible for me to have all the music I want....but then again, I don't have the time to listen to it like I did in years past, so I'm passing on buying stuff unless the clips really blow me away now.]]> Troy NoticeboardSun, 15 Apr 2012 02:53:23 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887680#msg-887680 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887680#msg-887680
I remember back in the late 80's-90's you'd have maybe 5-10 major artists a month with new albums sometimes even less than that. I remember going to tower records on the release wall and seeing 3-5 new albums a week. Now there's anywhere from 5-10 a week easy. Then those get re-released into special editions, tour editions, etc. I think it's impossible for me to have all the music I want.]]> Troy NoticeboardSun, 15 Apr 2012 02:41:10 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887662#msg-887662 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887662#msg-887662 Snake65 NoticeboardSun, 15 Apr 2012 00:10:21 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887659#msg-887659 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887659#msg-887659 tkrupa NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 23:30:27 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887655#msg-887655 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887655#msg-887655 Snake65 NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 21:50:27 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887653#msg-887653 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887653#msg-887653 Snake65 NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 21:38:59 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887643#msg-887643 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887643#msg-887643"One reason music doesn't have the value (emotional or whatever) these days is that the kids learn really early that you are able to get the stuff for free with no effort whatsoever. This leads to a situation of the value of music being on the level of groceries"

Too bad . . . but so true. :-(


Figge]]> Figge NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 20:11:41 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887642#msg-887642 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887642#msg-887642
As you say, piracy will never be beaten, and if eventually, online piracy is dealt a huge blow, it will just return to the underground, just like it was before.]]> Coco NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 20:11:04 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887641#msg-887641 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887641#msg-887641

Figge]]> Figge NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 20:08:46 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887635#msg-887635 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887635#msg-887635
And re the copying of albums to cassettes and cds, at least at that time you needed to make the effort of going to a store and purchasing the blank cassettes and cds. Blank tape payments anyone? (which I'm sorry to say usually went to the labels but still) It took a lot more effort at the time, and now it's just a click away at your home. Broadband download takes a fraction of the time it took to copy a physical cd on an ancient cd burner.

I totally agree with you on the fact that record companies should concentrate on better products but in the current situation nobody dares to take any risks anymore. One reason music doesn't have the value (emotional or whatever) these days is that the kids learn really early that you are able to get the stuff for free with no effort whatsoever. This leads to a situation of the value of music being on the level of groceries.]]> Erkka Korhonen NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 18:36:51 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887629#msg-887629 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887629#msg-887629
Difference now to me is the lack of good albums. It all started in the 90's. I remember being upset when there were 1 or 2 bad songs on a cd that I might skip. Now I'm sometimes lucky to find even a half album of good material.

I'm not saying it's ok to steal anything, but I am saying if you put out a quality product more people will buy it. Give us 10 good songs, some promition, and you will sell cd's PERIOD! But all the promotion money now a days is lost doing other things.]]> Troy NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 17:24:13 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887626#msg-887626 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887626#msg-887626 Purple NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 15:20:54 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887620#msg-887620 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887620#msg-887620
in the 70's and 80's everyone recorded their records and cassettes and gave them to friends.

90's everyone burned all their cd's and gave them to their friends

20's-2010's everyone is ripping their music and giving them to friends. Internet makes it easier, but it's been going on since music began and it will never stop. It would be nearly impossible. megaupload gets shut down, and 100 more smaller sharing sites popped out of the woodwork.

I'm not saying the record companies should throw their hands in the air and give up trying to shut these down, but if half the time was spent developing better artists or putting out quality stuff, I think a lot more money is there to be had for everyone involved.

What people don't realize is 10,000 downloads does not mean 10,000 lost sales. I downloaded a christina aguilera album once just to hear what she sounded like other than the regular radio tracks, but it's an album I never would have bought. There's also times I've downloaded something I pre-ordered just to hear it early. So they got credit for that sale.

Bottom line is, they have to focus on a better overall product that consumers will want.]]> Troy NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 10:50:15 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887619#msg-887619 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887619#msg-887619
I wonder how many will bother to read it? More importantly, how much difference it will make?]]> Steve_Roamer NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 10:43:27 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887612#msg-887612 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887612#msg-887612http://thetrichordist.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/meet-the-new-boss-worse-than-the-old-boss-part-1/]]> Erkka Korhonen NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 09:16:17 +1000 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887609#msg-887609 http://www.melodicrock.com/phorum52/read.php?1,887609,887609#msg-887609
"What follows is based on my notes and slides from my talk at SF Music Tech Summit. I realize that Im about to alienate some of my friends that work on the tech side of the music business. These are good well intentioned people who genuinely want to help musicians succeed in the new digital paradigm. But if we are gonna come up with a system to compensate artists fairly in the new digital age we need an honest discussion of what is going on. The tech side of the music business really needs to look at how their actions and policies negatively impact artists, just as they have pointed out the negative effect record company actions have had on artists.

Too often the debate has been pirates vs the RIAA. This is ridiculous because the artists, the 99 percent of the music business are left out of the debate. Im not advocating going back to the old record label model, to an industry dominated by the big three multi-national labels. This is a bit of hyperbole intended to make us all think about this question: Is the new digital model better for the artist?"]]> Erkka Korhonen NoticeboardSat, 14 Apr 2012 08:27:19 +1000