Walmart vs Record Labels

[number1sixerfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pez /img/forum/go_quote.gif they do get paid for every album they sell, but it's not much at all.

Agreed, and this is what sucks big time. The only way to truly make a *lot* of money on music alone is go platinum every time(very unlikely nowadays due to piracy) or own your own masters so that your royalties are much higher.

 

[c0mfortably_numb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HiGHFLYiN9 /img/forum/go_quote.gif My local Walmart has one of the worst selections of music I've ever seen, not sure why they're even bothering.

X3 The worst selection I've ever seen

Sucks because where I live right now, Wal-Mart is the only place that sells CD's, so to get music I have to drive 40 miles North to another city or buy online. Target is coming here by the end of the year, so hopefully I'll be able to find some tunes easier

 

[terrymx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by number1sixerfan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wrong....have you ever heard of royalties? Artist are paid a percent of what the recording sells for. This percentage is agreed upon in the contract and they may receive a signing bonus at signing or any other bonus for doing well as an artist. In any light, their is plenty of negotiation that goes on beyond this, but this is the general way things work.

When I made the comment I actaully note big names, who can afford lawyers. Many bands actaully never receiver a single penny, it may be because they can't negotiate to their favor or just are new in the music business world. But that's why there are independent bands, who concerntrate more on cross country touring and various playing jobs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by c0mfortably_numb /img/forum/go_quote.gif X3 The worst selection I've ever seen Sucks because where I live right now, Wal-Mart is the only place that sells CD's, so to get music I have to drive 40 miles North to another city or buy online. Target is coming here by the end of the year, so hopefully I'll be able to find some tunes easier

It shouldn't be that long of a drive my guess, last time I came to Florida everyone were racing on the highway like it was Daytona 500.

 

[Wodgy]

Even though they have a terrible selection, Wal-Mart is the #1 seller of margin in the US, by quite a margin. It's kind of sad, compared to how vibrant the market for music used to be. But I have no doubt the music industry will be forced to cave.

 

[pez]

Quote:

Originally Posted by number1sixerfan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Agreed, and this is what sucks big time. The only way to truly make a *lot* of money on music alone is go platinum every time(very unlikely nowadays due to piracy) or own your own masters so that your royalties are much higher.

Yeah, I agree, but not only downloading illegally is hurting them, but when people buy single tracks off of iTunes, it doesn't count as an album sold either. This is why I think people going in to music should have confidence, but shouldn't think that they'll make their life off of it.

 

[uzziah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaw007 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I buy most of my CD's used, saves a lot of money.

ironically it helps the artists about as much as bittorent

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by number1sixerfan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wrong....have you ever heard of royalties? Artist are paid a percent of what the recording sells for. This percentage is agreed upon in the contract and they may receive a signing bonus at signing or any other bonus for doing well as an artist. In any light, their is plenty of negotiation that goes on beyond this, but this is the general way things work.

Royalties, man you are talking of the Beatles era....maybe 20 year back, You will feel really lucky if you get paid your contract for recording certain amount of albums now....most of the times they do not even get the full contract amount as there are a lot of legal advice and personel involved that really sucks big time out of that business...

 

[uzziah]

i do think it's a shame what's happened to the music industry, but considering walmart's selection, i'm inclined to vote the same way as the other's saying "who cares?" i'm just not that concerned about megagroups getting by; who i really care about are the little independent musicians; they're the ones who need the money, and walmart isn't stocking them anyway; what i'd like to see is more ways for them to sell their music; downloadable certainly is where it's at, but there needs to be some brainstorming on how to "compete" with illegal downloading; when it comes to digital i'm ALL FOR artists recording their own stuff themselves, and releasing it themselves on their websites, cut out all the overhead of labels

one thing i've pondered on is if someone could come up with a new, extremely high-audio quality ANALOG medium again; something that would sound significantly better than digital for home use, and hopefully be smaller and more manageable than a record; i wonder if this could ever happen; personally, i'd be ALL over a new analog music medium, anyone with me? where's the engineers........

 

[number1sixerfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sovkiller /img/forum/go_quote.gif Royalties, man you are talking of the Beatles era....maybe 20 year back, You will feel really lucky if you get paid your contract for recording certain amount of albums now....most of the times they do not even get the full contract amount as there are a lot of legal advice and personel involved that really sucks big time out of that business...

Regardless if the contract is held up or not, royalty percentages remain to be the most common way of paying an artist. I'm not saying that artist don't get the rough end of the stick, but saying that most artist don't get a single penny from their albums simply is not true.

A lot of times artist are taken advantage of by the record labels and it's a shame. However we often do them just the same(not we at head-fi, but the general public) by ways that have already been mentioned in this thread.

 

[kyleisgreat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by number1sixerfan /img/forum/go_quote.gif Regardless if the contract is held up or not, royalty percentages remain to be the most common way of paying an artist. I'm not saying that artist don't get the rough end of the stick, but saying that most artist don't get a single penny from their albums simply is not true.

Im pretty sure what happens is the label gives the artist money to record the record, but this becomes a loan. Any money the artist makes off the record (whatever amount per disc) first goes to paying the record label back for the money they "loaned" them to record the album. So whatever little money they make usually goes back to the records company, so unless you're selling millions of records you're not going to make any money.

Plus there is the Trent Reznor quote of his dealings with Interscope, where they made more money off of Nine Inch Nails then he did.

But most of this walmart business is irrelevant to me. As much as the RIAA would have you believe, I listen to (and spend more on) music now with the internet then I ever have before. True, I download a lot of music, but if I like it I go out and buy a shirt, go to a show, and yes, even buy their albums(on the internet, of course)! And the music I enjoy, really can function (now with the internet) independently of these mega-retailers, and hopefully soon independent of the records labels (In their current form).

 

[number1sixerfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyleisgreat /img/forum/go_quote.gif Im pretty sure what happens is the label gives the artist money to record the record, but this becomes a loan. Any money the artist makes off the record (whatever amount per disc) first goes to paying the record label back for the money they "loaned" them to record the album. So whatever little money they make usually goes back to the records company, so unless you're selling millions of records you're not going to make any money.

Yea, this is what I said earlier.

It's like a signing bonus.

Let me once again say that I think that most artist DO get screwed. I was not saying that they do well off of royalties, simply that what they get paid IS specifically related to how many albums that they sell.

Quote:

Originally Posted by uzziah /img/forum/go_quote.gif i do think it's a shame what's happened to the music industry, but considering walmart's selection, i'm inclined to vote the same way as the other's saying "who cares?" i'm just not that concerned about megagroups getting by; who i really care about are the little independent musicians; they're the ones who need the money, and walmart isn't stocking them anyway; what i'd like to see is more ways for them to sell their music; downloadable certainly is where it's at, but there needs to be some brainstorming on how to "compete" with illegal downloading; when it comes to digital i'm ALL FOR artists recording their own stuff themselves, and releasing it themselves on their websites, cut out all the overhead of labels

But most of the "little" artist want to become "bigger" artist in order to make real money. It would be interesting to see if internet technology will lead to independent artist making an actual mainstream career without the labels.

 

[archosman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sovkiller /img/forum/go_quote.gif Royalties, man you are talking of the Beatles era....maybe 20 year back, You will feel really lucky if you get paid your contract for recording certain amount of albums now....most of the times they do not even get the full contract amount as there are a lot of legal advice and personel involved that really sucks big time out of that business...

As usual talking out of your ass...

My old college roommate is running a small independent label here in Nashville. Before that he used to be with one of the biggest New York labels out there. I've seen quite a bit of things over the years on how the record industry works. I'm way too tired at the moment to give examples, but I'm going to send this to him and see what he thinks.

The whole industry has been in a state of flux for several years now. Their old business model is no longer valid in today's market. This WalMart thing is nothing new. They basically tell the retailer "We want this item for this price" and either you play ball or they don't stock your item. He told me a couple of weeks ago they're moving around their music displays in all of the Walmarts, but I can't remember what or why right at this minute. Real estate for music product is at a premium now.

You probably don't remember when Garth Brook's "Chris Gaines" album came out. Did terrible and yet when you would walk into a shop they were displayed right out front as you walked in. The label spent a huuge amount of money through Christmas to keep that sucker in the public eye to no avail.

Remember how he came out and said that WalMart was going to be the only place where you could buy Garth CDs? WalMart lost their shirt on that deal with a ton of unsold product that went back.

We have a saying here... shipped gold - came back platinum.

Wounded Bird is making a pretty good living off of old music. They go to the major label, ask if they can run a limited amount of say Don Ellis's Tears of Joy (believe it's in small runs of 4000-500), use the original artwork and don't do any mixing... and they're doing very well. I've bought a few of their Jazz cds and they've done a good job getting out material that would not likely be a candidate for wide cd release.

 

[archosman]

You all realize that this article is 4 years old?


thought it sounded familiar...

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by archosman /img/forum/go_quote.gif As usual talking out of your ass...

As usual, you as polite and educated as an ass, don't forget that a personal offense is the last resource to try to make a point...Anyway I do not feel that my mission in life is to educate people like you...