First, let me explain why this is titled version 1. The logic is simple. There will undoubtedly be a lot of these posts because there are an almost insurmountable number of reasons why major labels suck. I’ll try my best not to simply state that they con artists out of money, although in many cases they do, and give a more rounded opinion. So, in volume 1 we’re going to briefly discuss how major labels con artists out of money when they offer digital downloads to consumers. Weird Al Yankovic pointed out that he makes considerably less (although, still considerably more than most I would imagine) money when his singles or albums sell as digital downloads. He points out that while it costs the labels and producers considerably less money to offer a song for download than to produce it on CD the artist sees less money. This despite, in the case of iTunes, an album only costing the consumer a couple of dollars less. Thedigitalmusicweblog rather conveniently did some math to save every one else the effort so thanks for that. I’ll cut a somewhat long mathematical story short here. Not only does the post point out that Weird Al (like so many other artists) only receives 4% of the sales from his digital music but also that he would be earning, on average, $45 for every thousand songs sold. That’s 4.5 cents per song; when you consider that albums from Weird Al sell on iTunes for around $12 each that’s ludicrous. In contrast, a $15 CD would line Weird Al’s pockets with about 31 cents per song. Obviously, the morale of this story to most of us is not that we should buy the CD to make artists more money but something else. Artists on the books of major record labels get shafted whether their music sells digitally or on CD. Keep your eyes peeled for volume 2, which is sure to be with you sooner than you think.
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on Saturday, June 17th, 2006 at 9:22 am and is filed under Label Bashing.
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February 9th, 2008 at 12:12 am
I have to agree with you about the fact that the labels ( the major ones anyway) suck big time. They suck talent out of artists, when they dangle these great contracts in front of them. In the first place the artists are generally concerned more with writing a new song, and leave the business aspect to their agents, and business managers. Little to they realize that the labels bottom line is to make money. SO you see a deal like you mention with Weird Al. Hard to believe he is getting shafted, but he is. If he is getting shafted, doesn’t it seem logical that he isn’t the only one?