Behind the music: How would you like your music served? October 16 2008
"Do you want to download it on your phone? Would you pay? Do you hate ads? I really want to know. Recently, I was sent an analysis of Radiohead's In Rainbows pay-what-you-like venture and Nine Inch Nails' digital giveaway of their album The Slip – including an account of how they fared against Torrent websites such as Pirate Bay. It was written by Will Page, chief economist for MCPS-PRS, with the help of Eric Garland who runs BigChampagne – a company that measures legal and illegal downloading – so it was quite heavy reading.
The odd thing about In Rainbows was that, even though people could have got the album legally for "almost" free, between October 10 (the date it was released on the band's website) and November 3 2007, it was still downloaded from Torrent websites to the tune of 2.3m downloads. Even though Radiohead have hesitated to give specific figures relating to the success of their venture, outsiders would say that those Torrent downloads far exceed the downloads from the band's official site. In fact, on October 10 alone, almost 400,000 people took the album from Torrents."[Guardian]
Behind the music, In the City October 10 2008
"Feargal Sharkey once said, and I'm paraphrasing: "When God handed out bullshitters, he gave an extra serving to the music business." I tend to agree with him, and at the In the City music conference this past weekend, there were a few of them lurking around.
In the City is a three-day event in Manchester, set up some years ago by Tony Wilson, where people from the music business have panel discussions during the day and spend the evenings checking out showcases by unsigned bands. This year the discussions focused on music's future in a digital world, and as is so often the case in this business, there were few artists present. But one panel centred on the rights of the people without whom the business wouldn't exist, as they discussed the launch of the Featured Artists' Coalition." [Guardian]
The Big Royalties Debate October 8th, 2008
"Congratulations! You have recorded a kick-ass song and a major label wants to sign it and distribute it to a worldwide audience. The trouble is, just how much will you be rewarded for your years of hard work?
The fact is that people don’t buy singles on CD or Vinyl for £3.99 anymore – they pay £0.99 (if you are lucky) for a download, so the record companies have a lot less coming to them (read: a lot less to share with you). Sales have gone crazy with the advent of the digital revolution, but that is just the tip of the iceberg; there has been no set royalty rate agreed with music publishers and the RIAA. No wonder everything is such a mess!" [UKMusicJobs]
Digital music royalties for songwriters left unchanged October 2, 2008
"A sigh of relief could be heard in digital music land today as the federal Copyright Royalty Board left unchanged the rate for royalties paid to songwriters and publishers for CDs and digital downloads.
Today's ruling is the first time that the board formally set the digital download rate. Previously, because there was no formal rate for downloads, companies such as Apple had used the CD rate -- a 9.1-cent payment to the songwriter and/or publisher for every track sold through iTunes and other download stores. The board today also set a new rate of 24 cents for each ring tone, which had been independently negotiated." [LATimes]
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