[LAU] OT - Digital Rights

[Folderol]

On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:06:39 -0400
Joe Hartley <jh at brainiac.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:37:54 -0400
> Paul Davis <paul at linuxaudiosystems.com> wrote:
> 
> > what an interesting claim. perhaps you explain to me how it is that
> > this is for sale at (typically) US$0.49 per track:
> > 
> >    http://www.emusic.com/listen/#/album/Global-Illage-Sushilove-Sessions-MP3-Download/12031810.html:
> > 
> > and yet I'm still several thousand dollars in debt from the process
> > that led to its creation?
> 
> It's interesting to me that while the process of music distribution
> is vastly different, the mechanics that screw over the musicians are
> still firmly entrenched.
> 
> Steve Albini wrote this classic piece on how a band that sells a 
> quarter-million albums can get boned:
>     http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
> 
> Nowadays you can sell much more directly, but that means you pay
> the costs directly, too.  All that computer gear and the instruments
> have to get paid for somehow!
> 
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 1:13 PM, alexander <axeldenstore at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Imo it's absurd that you can charge 0,89€ for a locked down mp3 and get away
> > with it.. I mean, the profit margins are 100%.. or well, they start out at ~
> > -99.999...% and rise, approaching 99.99999999999999...% the more people who
> > buy it.
> 
> I believe that the most user-friendly sites (I've heard Amazon & iTunes
> referenced) give the artist ~70% of the take, while eMusic only gives
> the artist ~30%.  So right off the bat, at *best* your direct profit is
> only around 70%, but what about the time it takes to make the music?  What
> about the space and gear needed to create the music?  Even if you're
> using 100% open source software that you haven't shelled out a nickel
> for and don't use any outboard gear at all, there's still an investment.
> 
> I don't know too many people making money at music, and the ones who
> do aren't making a lot, I can tell you.

The 'investment' that most D.I.Y. recording artists forget is time! I just do
it for fun myself, so I don't care, but if anyone is trying to be at all
serious they should figure in their time at something like £30/hour.


-- 
Will J Godfrey
http://www.musically.me.uk
Say you have a poem and I have a tune.
Exchange them and we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.