On Digital Royalties

jimi_t

Pretty much a sick joke... and this is with a major label like Warner. The more of this kind of carry on I read, the less guilty I feel about pirating; the quicker the current model of the record industry collapses, the better for all of us.

http://www.toomuchjoy.com/?p=1397

madtheory

Brilliant link, thanks. Just make sure you're not pirating any indie music!

thebossanova

Very interesting read. The hypocrisy of giant corporations is sickening.

jimi_t

The economic and social curiosities of music labels are well documented. Reasonable article here from the Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/jan/20/popandrock.musicindustry

A contract with a major record company was always a 90 per cent guarantee of failure. In the boardroom the talk was never of music, only of units sold. Artists were never the product; the product was discs - 10 cents' worth of vinyl selling for $10 - 10,000 per cent profit - the highest mark-up in all of retail marketing. Artists were simply an ingredient, without even the basic rights of employees.

Imagine the outcry if people working in a factory were told that the cost of the products they were making would be deducted from their wages, which anyway would only be paid if the company managed to sell the products. Or that they would have to work for the company for a minimum of 10 years and, at the company's discretion, could be transferred to any other company at any time.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal investigated the industry and concluded that 'for all the 21st-century glitz that surrounds it, the popular music business is distinctly medieval in character: the last form of indentured servitude.'

Oh, and thats when you're lucky enough that the management isn't ripping you blind before the label gets to you. Remember 'The Turtles'? Those iconic pop stalwarts of the 60s?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5LtKwOD8GU

Probably one of the biggest pop tunes ever - well up there with the Beach Boys or Beatles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JHN5HaUg28

---

While we're on that theme, here's the well-known blogger and VST Company owner Chris Randall on the management of his former (quite well known industrial) band 'Sister Machine Gun')
http://www.analogindustries.com/blog/entry.jsp?msgid=1208473178091

fitz

Hardly surprising considering they're the same companies who had the cheek to deduct for "breakages" on digital sales until recently too.

PaulBrewer

I worked withthe Peter Jenner in the early 90s when I worked with Billy Bragg and Andy White, both of whom he managed - Top Gent !

PaulBrewer

Still I know in my heart and soul most bands would jump at any old deal a record company (especially a major) offered.

It is, unfortunately, a two way street - they scam because they're let scam ...