The Future of Music
 

For all of you MP3 fanatics, just thought this article might be of interest. Here's what your piracy will bring in the future.

Piracy in China is so bad that only 20 albums are produced there each year. Record labels like Warners don't hardly bother with recording anymore, just talent management.

And the few songs that are produced are mostly those paid for by commercial sponsors like Microsoft.

http://www.iht.com/articles/87521.html

Welcome to the future of music.

Yes, so everyone stop downloading, go buy your records (except for me, I'm just 1 man)!

Everyone has this additude..

Even here... major music stores in our area are closing left and right. Three huge chain stores on one major street in my area have closed down in the last 3 months.

Obviously people won't stop downloading.

But eventually, over the long term, that will mean no more quality product to download.

It's only the beginning.

It'll come full circle in a short time I think...

In the end, people will covet hard copies of their favourite music again.

hah!! ever watch mtv cribs? Small time artists are still making bank, driving 4-5 cars, living in million dollar mansions. In addition to that, music execs are said to make even more than the artists themselves. They music industry is just whining because they're not making as much as they used to but they're still making tons of money.


http://www.mtv.com/onair/cribs/

agreed...

And videos are making tons of money for them as well...

wow..welcome to 20 years ago...hahaha..Artists will never make more than record execs unless they branch out into buisness men (which many artists do not) the average record exec makes 60k yearly and the average artist makes much less than this..

Did you not read my post? I said music execs make more. Also, according to your numbers, when did less than 60k a year buy all this? http://www.mtv.com/onair/cribs/flipb...ex.jhtml?c=127

Not true. If you're talking about music videos, the artists usually don't make any money off of that.

In fact, they usually have to split half of the production costs with the record company --- which comes out of their royalties.

Music videos usually cost artists, not the other way around.

the average big name video costs at least 100k ..this price includes props,grips,assistants,the whole nine...this fee comes from the artists allocated marketing fund..basically the artist doesnt make a single dime until he sells enough records to make alllll of it back..considering the average artists makes only 3-6 points on an album (less than $1 per cd) you do the math..

using this logic how many artists are on cribs?? and more importantly aren't all the artists on cribs multiplatinum artists? Most artists have what we call a sellers clause..when they reach a certain number of sales they collect a bonus..

fyi: Lots of cribs on cribs are rented...most of those homes arent paid for..

My point exactly. I thought most contracts call for a 50/50 split, but you're probably right that all of it has to be recouped before they see any "profit".

if I would show you some of the contracts of these rappers and musicians you would literally cry laughing...its so laughable what these artists get themselves into

Or ... they're into a ton of debt. One way or the other, not necessarily a sign of great wealth ... LOL

They should lower their prices!
It's crazy that a cd still costs 20 to 25 bucks.... atleast that's what they charge for it here.
$10 is enough for a cd.
Same for DvDs.
New movies are like $40 here.
Idiots.

Does it matter how many are on cribs or not? The decision to be on a show is up to the artists and the T.V. show. The simple fact that there are some no name artists with MASS assets shows that the music industry isn't as stressed as the media makes it out to be.

ths music industry isnt hurting..what is hurting is their old school approach to marketing music and spending money on worthless promotions. True enough mp3's are hurting the biz but it isnt hurting it anymore than these big shot CEO's pinching money and ordering things for their wife and charging it to the artists funds..

You don't call a 20 percent drop in music sales stressed?

How about a 20 percent drop in porn sales. I bet you would be stressed over that ... LOL

I wish I was as poor as Eminem ... :(

True. The whole thing is fucked up all around.

But I do get tired of the, "Record execs screw artists so it's ok for me to screw artists too" MP3 argument.

I have been in the music business for over 20 years both as a musician and as an engineer. Downloads have their place as a promotional tool. I really believe that. The fucked up sales on CDs has as much to do with Record Companies charging more than what a product is worth as does the download world. That will kill any business. I can record a band in half the time it used to take. Thanks to computers (and auto tune! lol) Manufacturing and artwork costs less than it did 10 years ago too. We can get a project recorded/finished and in the jewel case where it can be sold for 10 bucks and still have a good margin........... Why can't Sony? It can't be videos and promotions because that ends up coming out of the bands pockets like toodamnfli mentioned. There are several small record companies I know of that are doing quite well right now. Fuck I wrote a whole book here. Sorry.

I dunno about that. Maybe it's true. But I don't see how MP3s help small labels either, if people can get their music for free.

I read these articles from Janis Ian where she talks about increased merchandise sales, etc. from MP3s.

But, by her own account, it's only increased her sales a couple grand a year.

I find it difficult to get excited about that.

mp3 quality sucks, thats why people who are able to download them still go and buy CD's

Perhaps you missed the news where one of the biggest music retailers has declared bankruptcy, and the others are on the verge of declaring the same?

Like ... CD sales are down ... WAY down ...

Hello? LOL

Christ ... that survey is so ridiculous it's pathetic. It has no credibility whatsoever.

It wasn't based upon actual music sales data at all.

The small companies I know of are doing well because they can get the music out on the web. Before the web it costs too damn much to be an indipendant artist. There was little hope without touring your ass off. MP3s sound like crap like mentioned. I don't care what you do to them. They work well on computers and to an untrained ear. I can't speak for all small record companies but the 3 I do have connections with are doing fine. Don't get me wrong. I think the huge assed napster type trading has hurt some. But it isn't the whole problem. Song writers should LOVE the mp3 thing. They make money on airplay and that is directly related to popularity on the web. There are pros and cons to all of it.

I don't know what I just said but I said something..............

I don't know how airplay is directly related to web popularity.

At least for now, airplay is usually directly related to record sales ... not the web.

The article I posted pointed out that it's very difficult to determine a "hit" song in China because there are no record sales to determine that ... just as an example.

Actually me saying airplay is realated to web popularity isn' exactly true. It helps. Where I am I know lots of radio people. Owners and talent. Their playlist is not even up to them. Radio today is pretty much "told" what the next hit will be. It is as much fun as the porn business. Just as many hookers, drugs and booze makes the radio world go around. Even at the local level here. This is a good discussion nevermind. Got me thinking again. Are you involved in the music business?

Sort of. Let's just say that I have studied it a lot ... LOL

That is cool. I have lived it more than studied it. It has been good to me. The best part of any day is still plugging in and cranking it up.

Piracy is bad for music business but very good for music. Let me explain:

Musicians are forced to actually have to perform live to make good money, this leads (via practice makes perfect) to much more talented musicians and a good filtering of all wannabees, poser, studio rock stars with a drum machine and a cd burner that land their 'masterpiece' in a music store for you and me to waste some $20 of our hard earned money on.

i don't notice any difference

Artists have the balls to charge $100 for a concert ticket, $50 for a shirt and they bitch about the public screwing them?

The fact is the music industry hasnt put out a decent product for years. Why should anyone pay $20 for a cd that has one or two decent songs?

Artists aren't losing anything. Maybe MTV superficial label created stars like britney spears are losing, but the people who are truly making their own music and not in it for the money are doing great.

As far as record executives, they have nothing to do for music. Good music doesn't need commercials. Plenty of independant bands have made it to the top recently for a simple fact: their music is good. There's no money to create a new britney spears, so they're signing people who actually deserve to sell records. Of course they totally fuck them, giving them a much smaller % than they would get on an independant label, but they're still getting them the exposure.

So basically as far as I'm concerned, britney spears and her record executives can end up living in a cardboard box. I don't care. The industry is being overthrown by the true artists. Viva la revolution!

get a better sound system

do you produce a product of some kind we can all steal from you?

hella of an attitude huh?

So if someone in the porn business is making "too much money" - it's ok to steal from them too?