I thought our many songwriters and musicians would be interested in this article. Wouldn't it be nice if the people that created the products actually made a fair percentage of the money.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/busine...yalty-plan.html

I've always been amazed at how hard it is for musicians and songwriters, who produce one of the most consumed products daily on the planet, have such a struggle making money off of their consumed products.

IMO, semantics aside, Pandora is still "radio" and should be treated as such based on audience size and pay accordingly like every other station - broadcasting chain does.

Interesting article Joe. Thanks for posting.


Josie

Hi, Joe !:))


It was a very interesting article indeed !:))
I have to say that I have an understanding
for both sides in this neverending story !:))
There will always be a consuming as well as
a producing part, and it is likely that there
will be more opinions on this issue than there
are composers out there ?


Cheers
Dani

There is more than just two differing groups here, the composers and consumers representing the two with the least clout.

3) Corporate Recording Company Weasels


Which extends right from the top on down to include the retail and discount record merchants.


Keep making and webpublishing INDY music...


--Mac

A previous coworker once explained to me how much of the business world is about controlling and supplying the inventory - you buy up all the resources or rights to an item, and prevent others from owning or buying it without paying you.

When vinyl records were the only game in town, consumers had no choice but to buy from the record companies that produced them, and artists could not afford to cut their own vinyl so they could reach a wide distribution venue.

Now, if you think about health care, are the insurance companies playing a much different role than the record companies did ? They control the entire supply chain, and make money by forcing themselves as the go-between between producers (doctors) and consumers (patients).

In fact - thought of in this way - every industry is quite similar.

OK self, put down the keyboard and step away from this thread.

The only way to keep most of the money generated by the sale of whatever you create is to bypass as many of the middlemen as possible.

That's a rog, Larry, let's just stay up above in loose deuce...


--Mac

I'm trying to square this with the constant media images of these impoverished Performers dripping in Bling, driving expensive cars and buying multi million £ or $ houses.
Maybe I'm missing something obvious but that money has to have come from their music (if that's what its called) somehow.
Ian

Who you gonna believe, Ian, the assumptions of the people, or yer own lyin' eyes?






--Mac

Didn't the Eagles write something about that?
Reading it again, it seems that its the Writers who get short changed by the system.
Maybe to supliment their meagre incomes, they're the ones driving the Stars" limos.
Question is - why do they sell their soul? Divide $538.79 by 33,000,000. Would you work for that?
Ian

All of journalism exists for the purpose of agenda.

A text, taken out of context, is a pretext.


--Mac

I gotcha

a few folks in my state hit the lottery every year...and they appear on the news, sometimes dripping in bling, driving expensive cars, etc. I don't buy lottery tickets because of that.

The stats reveal that the greater majority of big lottery winners end up in worse shape than before their big win, many end up in jail, quite a few end up dead.

Which is kind of like the music star situation, actually...


--Mac

The big money in the music business isn't in the music. It's in the endorsements and merchandising.

Writers have traditionally gotten the dirty end of the stick from the beginning..... after all, most folks think that all you did was spend a few hours at most, writing a few words, and putting a melody to it.... how hard can that be, and should it justify hundreds of thousands of dollars or more in compensation?

What most folks think doesn't have a thing to do with how royalty payments work.

There are plenty of examples of millionaires and even multimillionaires who derive their entire fortunes from only their songwriting endeavors.


--Mac

My 2 favorites are Burt Bacharach, and that guy who wrote the songs for "The Partridge Family" - I stil listen to them.

There's a guy who has been writing useless songs which name-drop famous people in the titles and he publishes the CDs to CDBaby, which gets it into iTunes as well as Spotify. Because of the song titles mentioning the famous folks, he gets lots of plays on Spotify.

Supposedly last year he pulled in $23,000 in play royalties from Spotify. Just wondering when the hammer will drop on him from some of the p.o.'ed famous people from which he is gaining financial gain from simply using their name. http://bdcwire.com/danvers-dude-makes-23k-musically-spamming-on-spotify/

Some are absolutely unable to suffer embarrassment.

this is a really interesting story but only as an example of an odd, one-off, unsustainable event. like you said, his story, if even true, will get the attention of those in charge and game over! but maybe this guy has a bunch of other scams to take this one's place when it runs its course! in the old days you had to invest in a horse, a medicine show wagon, some bottled colored water and maybe pay a couple of shills in the crowd! but with the internet...

There were plenty of guys and gals in the old days who could run a good con sans the horse, buggy and medicine bottles...

Just this past summer there was a kid runnin' the old Three Card Monty up on the beachfront.

I couldn't believe how many were fallin' for that one in this so-called information age, but there ya go.


--Mac

Absolutely agree.... of course those folks are not a majority either. Most writers who score a major billboard hit can not repeat it to save their lives. They get one or two nice PRO checks then it tapers off rather quickly and abruptly. However, those rare individuals who can write hit after hit.... yes, they are living very nicely from the royalties.

Hence the reason many major artists now demand co-write status on any songs that go on their CD's from "outside writers".

Then, there are the "little guys and gals" who write cues for TV & film. No single big payday there generally, however, by writing and getting cuts on lots of little ones and building that into a sustainable business model, they can make a decent living from the royalties and licensing fees.

I'd encourage a comparison of the data, one-hit-wonders | long term successes.

While the one-hitters get more the their fair share of mention, perhaps, comparing the number of longer term successes to one timers might be of value.

Again because bidness.


The newly signed artist, whether songwriter, performer or both, does represent an investment and much has been done to insure success along those lines, sometimes the "whatever it takes" campaign is launched on the "project".

Might have to analyze the reasons for dropout after first hit as well. For some, it is not the life it is cracked up to be, so they do not pursue it further. One hit by choice vs one hit via lack of capabilities.


I think you'll find that the long term successes outnumber the one hit wonders.


--Mac