>>>>> "SH" == Steve Holden <sholden at holdenweb.com> writes:
SH> Of course, the music industry has found itself at the sharp
SH> end of this issue. In order to justify its existence it has to
SH> try to convince the courts its IP should be paramount. But if
SH> music industrialists think that musicians haven't clearly seen
SH> much of the industry is technically unnecessary, they are
SH> crazy. The bell is tolling, whether Napster's rather dodgy
SH> business model survives or not.
SH> The music companies only have IP rights because the musicians
SH> sign them away to get access to the distribution channels. The
SH> traditional channels are slowly becoming redundant. the
SH> consumer can deal directly with a band's web site, download
SH> and burn their own CDs. Maybe the real music industry will be
SH> web sites in twenty years.
No kidding. I personally know several local-ish bands that, almost
immediately upon signing with a label, went $500k to $1M in debt, lost
their copyrights, and had to pay off that debt with the meager
percentage of their sales that they got back in royalties, before they
ever saw a dime. Needless to say, most never recoup.
And for what? Mostly the prestige of "being signed" and the very slim
chance of becoming zillionaires. Oh, and limos, new guitars, loads of
wasted studio time, and other pampering, all of which you have to
recoup, of course.
Okay, this is way off topic for this list, but today you can spend
$15k of your own hard earned money producing 1000 CDs of equal quality
to anything the labels will get you. Afterwards, you own it 100%, can
sell them at shows, many stores, and via the Internet. Then you try
to get a distribution-only deal where you keep a much bigger chunk of
the wholesale price.
And you wonder why there's such mass marketed crap on the radio and
MTV? Personally, I say boycott the labels, go out and see a good
local band in your neighborhood bar, and support them by buying their
CD. Or buy stuff directly from the band by visiting their web-sites,
like, say www.cravindogs.com. :)
Oh yeah, and keep your own merchandising rights. The Dave Matthews
band made $80M selling T-shirts. If you don't think merch is the way
to go yet, remember the "dancing baby" that was all the rage a few
years ago? The company made way more money licensing that out than
they ever did selling the software the baby was a demo for. :)
anyone-for-python-beenie-babies?-ly y'rs,
-Barry
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