The Big Squeeze
p2p news / p2pnet:- Virtual blood is flowing as the people behind the corporate music industry hack and slash at each other, trying to carve the maximum amount of cash out of performers.
Bands and solo artists are being “unfairly squeezed” in the digital era, says the Times Online. Or put another way, they’re being ripped off, and doing much of the ripping is Apple Computers whose boss, Steve Jobs, recently accused the Big Four record label cartel of being “greedy”.
“The Music Managers Forum is unhappy that artists typically receive a royalty of 4.5p on every 79p (about $1.40) track sold on Apple’s iTunes, a proportion of less than 6 per cent,” says the story. “On a £2.99 single (about $5.26), the performer’s royalty is 35p, or 12 per cent.”
MMF chairman Jazz Summers of Snow Patrol says, “Sale prices and royalties have gradually been eroded to the point where an artist needs to sell in excess of 1.5 million units before they can show a profit, after paying for recording time and tour support,” the Times goes on, pointing out that the forum was yesterday hosting a special conference in Manchester, “in an attempt to raise awareness of falling royalty rates, called the Know More! Campaign”.
The meeting was to have included the managers behind acts such as Oasis, Radiohead and Jamelia.
The squeeze on artists is a by- product of a record industry, “caught with its pants down” by the emergence of digital, the Times has Summers saying, going on, “His group’s complaint is that the major labels have handed pricing power to the download retailers because they have not come up with an online distribution model of their own.
The record companies “often force artists to accept a ‘new technology’ discount on their royalty rate of about 25 per cent – replacing a now outmoded discount that was intended to reflect the cost of packaging a CD,” says the story.
Another related royalty dispute has Apple, other internet music retailers and the cartel-owned BPI (British Phonographic Industry) up against groups representing songwriters, the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS) and the Performing Rights Society (PRS), says the Times, stating:
“On every piece of music sold, two royalties fall due – one to the songwriter, and the second to the artist performing the song. The MCPS/PRS alliance handle the royalties due to writers, while managers handle the royalties due to performers. The MCPS/PRS wants to receive 12 per cent per song – discounted to 8 per cent for two years – rather than the existing 8.5 per cent, but the scheme has been challenged by Apple, the BPI and other online retailers before the Copyright Tribunal."
The MMF backs the MCPS/PRS alliance while, “The BPI is jumping into bed with a group of digital music retailers, which are in the process of eating our lunch,” says Summers, adds the Times.
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See:-
Times Online – Music managers tackle Apple over royalty payments, October 3, 3005
greedy – Arms supplier in device wars, September 26, 2005
October 4th, 2005 at 11:25 pm
Actually, MMF stands for “Mootching Mother Fuckers.”
October 4th, 2005 at 11:27 pm
Sorry, that’s what RIAA stands for. The managers are fighting for the artists.
October 5th, 2005 at 2:51 am
The cartels have seen the internet as the saviour and next big leap for their business and they have been busy carving out a niche all for their own. Worldwide, the assault on fair use, such as backup copying, rights to what you can do with your purchase, what equipment you must use (and buy) and what to do to lock it up in the manner they are accustom to having.
I won’t buy these items, you all do what you like. I don’t own a HDTV and not planning on it. I don’t buy satellite or cable programming and I no longer either purchase nor rent movies. I don’t support their methods of doing business, I don’t approve of economic terrorism, and I will not fund it to continue. If 3/4 of the world agrees we will see a change. If not, I’ve other things to do besides watch TV or listen to new music I don’t like.
October 5th, 2005 at 7:31 am
“The Music Managers Forum is unhappy that artists typically receive a royalty of 4.5p on every 79p (about $1.40) track sold on Apple’s iTunes, a proportion of less than 6 per cent,” says the story. “On a £2.99 single (about $5.26), the performer’s royalty is 35p, or 12 per cent.”
So why blame apple? Don’t the cartels decide how little the artists get out of what itunes consumers pay for music? Considering apple is rumoured to get 4p from each track, where the hell is the rest of the money going? Straight to the cartel of course.