How major labels cook the books w/ digital downloads...

http://gizmodo.com/5417318/my-6247-royalty-statement-how-major-labels-cook-the-books-with-digital-downloads

That was an interesting read.

It's funny. I hear so many local bands so upset that "we are not signed yet", when "getting signed" is not all it's cracked up to be. You're better off on a smaller label that actually pays your royalties and doesn't stuff the books with crap.

$400,000 on a punk record? Hardly!

ultmetal wrote:

That was an interesting read.

It's funny. I hear so many local bands so upset that "we are not signed yet", when "getting signed" is not all it's cracked up to be. You're better off on a smaller label that actually pays your royalties and doesn't stuff the books with crap.

$400,000 on a punk record? Hardly!

These young bands see the less than 1% of the bands in the world on major labels with expensive videos and Grammy awards and think that's how it is supposed to be. It's sad. Even when bands sign to tiny indie labels, its still a shock when they find out what these labels will and won't pay for.

Getting signed does NOT = instant $$$

The mindset needs to change, for bands who want to stick around, IMO, from "what do we have to do to be famous?" to "what do we have to do to carve out a living for ourselves?" You don't need 4million sales and arena tours to make a living.

Crazy!!!! Did anyone read the article in the link by Steve Albini:

http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

Shows how the music industry makes tons of $$$ off these bands, yet the bands are still in the hole and they get almost nothing at the end

I wish I could say I was surprised by the article, sadly I am not. Just about every major band has had to sue their record labels for unpaid royalities, and I can imagine what it must be like for bands that do not have the money to fight the bigwigs.

I am sure we will be seeing even more lawsuits then we did in the past due to digital downloads and now it is no mystery why The Beatles held back in allowing their discography to be downloaded from itunes etc.

The record industry continues to cut its own throat by not supporting thier artists.

What a great article, thanks Shawn. It was really sad to read as well.

Yea, good article. Interesting read.

Halford said that getting a label deal is basically just taking out a loan.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Halford said that getting a label deal is basically just taking out a loan.

Yeah, that's been the basic gist of it for years now. It's a high interest loan...

Yet even more proof that it's soooo much better for a band to either do most of it all themselves or sign with an indie label with a much fairer (and more transparent) revenue sharing system.

I'll never forget some years back going to see a talk given by Ian Mcaye at a local university. Ian was friends with a couple of the recording industry professors there and he gave some really good insight into the industry from an interesting perspective. He is of course most known for the influental bands he's been in but he's also been just as important in his role as the guy behind Dischord Records. He originally concentrated mainly on DC area punk bands and is highly regarded in those circles. They had (and as far as I know still have) a very fair revenue system. Simply put it was a 50/50 split. That was not only extremely unusual for its time it's still pretty much unheard of today. This is of course a label run by people who are generally music scene people first and business people second but the label managed to survive ok.
It was also quite interesting to note that Ian said that when Nirvana hit it big all the major labels came knocking at his door wanting to buy Dischord so they could replicate that "punk" success that was happening at the time. He was offered millions by several labels but he turned them down because he knew what they would turn the company into. I've always respected him for that because I can imagine how tempting that was.

I have typed several responses to this and decided to delete them. TMI and bitterness. Give me a day or so to settle. But the Author is correct. I have not seen a statement in 20 years, yet the old stuff is still being sold.

Greta article. Thanks for sharing, Shawn.