RIAA ‘demonization’: more
p2pnet.net News:- The RIAA is being “demonized,” ranted Cary Sherman, recently, in a transparent attempt to demonize the newly launched Digital Freedom campaign.
For Big Four Organized Music cartel members Warner Music, EMI, Sony BMG and Vivendi Universal to have sicced Sherman onto the campaign means it has them seriously worried.
Meanwhile, “If ever an industry deserved demonizing, it is the RIAA,” says a p2pnet Reader’s Write, continuing:
Their campaign to lock up music, to demonize the public, to sue the very customers that they depend on for the financial livelyhood, to advance try the cases they bring to court in media prior to even bringing the case to court, and in attempting to do away with the fair use laws are doing nothing to win the very ones they need to bring over to their side to maintain their status.
The fans are the ones that keep them in business and without their spending they do, there is no business.
The public is saying as loud as they can, the only way they can, that they do not agree with how the cartels are wanting to do that business. No one but the holders want DRM. No one but the holders want the prices so high for what amounts to vaporware in the form of 1’s and 0’s.
Even more importantly, no one is buying it in the marketplace in substancial amounts; that’s why everyone but Apple is having problems with online music sales. Apples’ case is different. They’re selling music to advertise their mainline, the iPod. They have developed the niche "coolness" market that keeps them afloat. Others trying to do the same thing are missing the boat. Those such as the Zune will never make it in the marketplace for the same reason the online sites aren’t making it. No one that buys wants the extras of DRM or rental plans that assure what you buy isn’t yours.
The RIAA is facing the same thing they dished out.
They were the ones to demonize their marketplace and customers and somehow it doesn’t sit well with them? Well tough titty, the damage is already done and it started as one of their own making. I have no sympathy for them and their dying off as a business could not happen soon enough for me.
If the RIAA’s owners are venal enough to stick it to their customers, one half of the equation, they’re doing the same to the other half, the artists, as an email (Thanks, K) emphasises.
“Here are excerpts from an article written by Steve Albini (veteran musician and recording ‘engineer’) <--he hates that term," it says. "These figures are representative of amounts that appear in record contracts daily. Thereââ¬â¢s no need to skew the figures to make the scenario look bad, since real-life examples more than abound.
“Now please tell me how the artist needed/needs to be “protected” from us, when they have THIS to contend with.”
Nor is this a fairly recent develpment. The article K is talking about, The Problem With Music, was written back in 1993 and it kicks off
” Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context. I imagine a trench, about four feet wide and five feet deep, maybe sixty yards long, filled with runny, decaying shit. I imagine these people, some of them good friends, some of them barely acquaintances, at one end of this trench. I also imagine a faceless industry lackey at the other end, holding a fountain pen and a contract waiting to be signed.
“Nobody can see whatââ¬â¢s printed on the contract. Itââ¬â¢s too far away, and besides, the shit stench is making everybodyââ¬â¢s eyes water. The lackey shouts to everybody that the first one to swim the trench gets to sign the contract. Everybody dives in the trench and they struggle furiously to get to the other end. Two people arrive simultaneously and begin wrestling furiously, clawing each other and dunking each other under the shit. Eventually, one of them capitulates, and thereââ¬â¢s only one contestant left. He reaches for the pen, but the Lackey says, ‘Actually, I think you need a little more development. Swim it again, please. Backstroke’.
“And he does, of course.”
Here’s K’s excerpt:
Advance: $250,000
Manager’s cut: $37,500Legal fees: $10,000
Recording Budget: $150,000
Producer’s advance: $50,000Studio fee: $52,500
Drum, Amp, Mic and Phase ‘Doctors’: $3,000Recording tape: $8,000
Equipment rental: $5,000
Cartage and Transportation: $5,000
Lodgings while in studio: $10,000
Catering: $3,000
Mastering: $10,000
Tape copies, reference CD’s, shipping tapes, misc expenses: $2,000
Video budget: $30,000
Cameras: $8,000
Crew: $5,000
Processing and transfers: $3,000
Offline: $2,000
Online editing: $3,000
Catering: $1,000
Stage and construction: $3,000
Copies, couriers, transportation: $2,000
Directorââ¬â¢s fee: $3,000
Album Artwork: $5,000
Promotional photo shoot and duplication: $2,000
Band fund: $15,000
New fancy professional drum kit: $5,000
New fancy professional guitars (2): $3,000
New fancy professional guitar amp rigs (2): $4,000
New fancy potato-shaped bass guitar: $1,000
New fancy rack of lights bass amp: $1,000
Rehearsal space rental: $500
Big blowout party for their friends: $500
Tour expense (5 weeks): $50,875
Bus: $25,000
Crew (3): $7,500
Food and per diems: $7,875
Fuel: $3,000
Consumable supplies: $3,500
Wardrobe: $1,000
Promotion: $3,000
Tour gross income: $50,000
Agent’s cut: $7,500
Manager’s cut: $7,500
Merchandising advance: $20,000
Manager’s cut: $3,000
Lawyer’s fee: $1,000
Publishing advance: $20,000
Manager’s cut: $3,000
Lawyer’s fee: $1,000
Record sales: 250,000 @ $12 = $3,000,000 gross retail revenue Royalty (13% of 90% of retail): $351,000
less advance: $250,000
Producer’s points: (3% less $50,000 advance) $40,000
Promotional budget: $25,000
Recoupable buyout from previous label: $50,000
Net royalty: (-$14,000)
Record company income:
Record wholesale price $6.50 x 250,000 = $1,625,000 gross income Artist Royalties: $351,000
Deficit from royalties: $14,000
Manufacturing, packaging and distribution @ $2.20 per record: $550,000
Gross profit: $710,000
THE BALANCE SHEET
This is how much each player got paid at the end of the game.
Record company: $710,000
Producer: $90,000
Manager: $51,000
Studio: $52,500
Previous label: $50,000
Agent: $7,500
Lawyer: $12,000
Band member net income each: $4,031.25
The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 million dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties. The band members have each earned about 1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month.
The next album will be about the same, except that the record company will insist they spend more time and money on it. Since the previous one never ‘recouped,’ the band will have no leverage, and will oblige.
The next tour will be about the same, except the merchandising advance will have already been paid, and the band, strangely enough, won’t have earned any royalties from their t-shirts yet. Maybe the t-shirt guys have figured out how to count money like record company guys.
Some of your friends are probably already this fucked.
And just to drive the point home, K includes a link to another comment post, this time to Sherman’s original CNET OpEd, as his fulsome, self-serving rant is called.
I have been involved with the music industry for a number of years in some aspect or another, most prominently I worked in a LARGE indie record store (only a couple of indies in the town) in a major us city…….
By the time I got myself fired (needed to move on and this was the only way that I was able to get myself to do it, and that was by just not going anymore)
We were getting bribed by the majors in such a sickening way that the store lost the original integrity and vision that the owners had when they opened it.
Example:
$5,000 – End Cap for 1 week of some ****** band no one cared, will care about, or will even remember in 2-3 years. This was approximately 10 end caps per month add it up………
$10,000 for a front window display for a week (same story as above).
A$$loads of promo materials that were deemed “important” enough to be shipped overnight at a cost of approx 15$ per box (usually 4×24x16). Usually with a 1 song promo CD, a poster, and a couple of flats. Imagine how many other stores recieved this same type of package.
All of this actually comes out of the pockets of the ARTIST and they are the ones that ultimately pay the price.
Another point that Mr. Sherman fails to address are the 2 lawsuits that the people that HE represents that indicated both:
1. Price Fixing
2. Monopolistic practices
The class action was that if you bought ANY releases from the named defendants within the period of 5-7 years you were automatically eligible for a cash reward due to their wrongdoings…….
I applied for a reward, and eventually received a 10$ settlement because of this and made DAMN sure that I spent that 10$ on a release that was produced on an indie label, directly from said label who would actually see a majority of my money.
So REALLY, truly, tell me with a straight face who the REAL thieves are…….
Stay tuned.
Also See:
Digital Freedom campaign – Digital Freedom Campaign, October 26, 2006
transparent attempt – Cary Sherman RIAA rant, November 13, 2006
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win ~ Mahatma Ghandi
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