Artists and Labels

[Jamis who?]

Here is an interesting inside look at how the music industry can be a shady one.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2004-05-16-royalties-main_x.htm

Jamis who? added 2 Minutes and 4 Seconds later...

Also what Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) say's about it.

http://www.mikeshinoda.com/blog/How_To-Responses_To_Fans-Music_Business-Featured/how_to_artist_royalties_indie_v_major

[AnewKINDofFEELING]

Re: Artists and Labels

Amanda Palmer wrote a very good blog about her dealings with a record label. Apparently No, Virginia didn't count against their contract.

[Knifeboy]

Re: Artists and Labels

What a slimeball RIAA representative almost arguing for artists having it TOO good

[cribble]

Re: Artists and Labels

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2008/12/16/riaa-website-portrait-of-an-industry-group-out-of-touch-with-its-own-interests/

---

I won't go into detail about the industry as it's a done to death.

One thing that currently pisses me off is the amount of money grabbing promotional websites that help aid new bands. Here's an example:

http://www.sonicbids.com/Opportunity/OpportunityView.aspx?opportunity_id=13639&utm_source=promoter&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=Promoter%2BButtons

So, this is for a Brighton based festival called "The Great Escape," it's pretty big and is well promoted through-out the UK. Now then, in order to enter my band into the TGE i have to pay $20 entrance fee + $6p/month subscription until they contact us - which will be about April time. And, we know how they work, they only want a band that was briefly in the NME in the last week or so.

It pisses me off how unaware of the scene they're holding their festival in.

Also, there's a website called "totally unsigned" which seems to be some weird way of booking a gig with a certain promoter in brighton. Now, why should I have to sign up to all these services, just to book gigs? Email and phoning, the classic one-to-one conversations, they work. None of this "well, we'll see how many hits you get on our website before we consider it." And we played one of their nights, and it was appallingly promoted. Infact, NONE! I fucking hate promoters who don't do their share of the work. And they're usually the type who grab the money and run at the end of the night.

Sorry to rant. Bye.

[AnewKINDofFEELING]

Re: Artists and Labels

Here's the story of Amanda Palmer's/Dresden Dolls problems with roadrunner:

dammmmmmmn!!!!!!!!

who’d have thunk it.
this is why i fucking love you guys. i couldn’t have thought this up in a million years. righteous.

a bunch of feminist blogs have posted about this fine phenomenon of belly pride…

http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/11/female_artists_1

http://www.feministing.com/archives/012421.html

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/12/impossibly-beautiful.html

and the guardian UK just ran a piece on it…holy shit….

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/03/dresden-dolls-roadrunner

….but some of them got the label story wrong.

so let me clarify, on the record, so shit is straight:
i am still on roadrunner records.

some of you may be curious about how this all works, so i will try to simplify.

in 2003, i signed a contract that bound us together to make 3 records with 4 options
(meaning the label could opt to drop me after each release, but i couldn’t leave of my own free will).

the first record was The Dresden Dolls.
the second record was Yes, Virginia.

they didn’t count No, Virginia against our contract (sad long story).

Who Killed Amanda Palmer was the third.

i had put a solid year of my life and $80,000 of my own savings (that will never be paid back by the label - another long sad story) into this record.

right before the european tour i went to the new york offices of roadrunner to say hi and check in.
my a&r guy (my main contact at the label) sat me down in his office and said he wanted to discuss the “leeds united” video.
he told me that there were certain shots that they wanted to either cut completely or digitally alter to “be more flattering”.

my favorite quote from that meeting:
“i’m a guy, amanda. i understand what people like.”

to which i reply: where have you been for the last five years?
do you have any idea who i am, what band i’ve been in, what kind of music i write, who my fans are….who didn’t send you the memo that i’m not britney spears? i’m not TRYING to look hungry. i’m trying to look HOT. there’s a difference.

the big irony here, like i said before, is that i am totally vain about shit like this.
i will be the first one to run screaming from photos where my fat little belly is rolling over my jeans and taking center stage.
i’ve been mistaken for pregnant so many times. it’s always funny. AND embarrassing. i was born with a fat little belly and i love wine. there’s just no changing things,
unless i want to live on salad. and i love salad, but not all the time. i also like pasta. even when the rest of my body is JACKED, RIPPED and SLAMMIN’,
my fat little belly happily stays in place. it’s just so.
i am used to it. and i have learned to Love the Belly.
still, however proud i may be of it in it’s natural state, it’s still not something i go out of my way to flaunt.
but this video….i mean, look at it. there’s just NOTHING there that anybody could really object to, even by MAINSTREAM standards.
so i was really perplexed. and i told the label i wasn’t changing anything. they backed down.

a few weeks later i had a meeting with the owner of the label. he said he thought it was a shame that someone as smart and talented as me could not make a commercial record that they could sell. and he thinks that someday i’ll see the light and write some better songs.

i told him i made exactly the record i wanted to make.

more than exactly. i think i’ve made an INCREDIBLE FUCKING record.
i really do.

he shook his head and felt sorry for me.

i feel sorry for them. they are trying to sell pieces of plastic in a digital world.
but they’re barking up the wrong tree if they think they can katy perry or avril lavigne me into the walmarts of the world.
not into it.
never was.
sorry.
i never wanted to sell millions of records as my primary goal, nor did i want to be a pop star.
i am very fucking happy with what they sneeringly call my “cottage industry” life.

so i think the relationship is rather doomed, from a creative standpoint.

i asked to be dropped a few weeks ago, so i could move forward in freedom.
they refused.
they have until june to decide whether to drop me or not.

let us pray.

[cribble]

Re: Artists and Labels

Harsh. Americans get crap deals.

A video I'm doing, an american hip-hop artists, is hold off a 5 album deal - which he'll sign eventually, after he's done working with the independent peeps.

Fucking awful. I would never sign that shit. Maybe if it were a library/publisher deal.

[TheRuleofThree]

Re: Artists and Labels

Just the sounds of a dying industry model. This was a system built years ago when record stores meant something and you had to rely on sprawling corporations and labels to get your music anywhere. These days more people log in to Myspace than listen to the radio or watch TRL. Payola accomplishes a fraction of what it used to.

The downside? Good bands signed to shitty labels get screwed. The upside? It takes a collapse like this to create something new and better.

Bottom line - music is art and expression and speech and a million other things, and it's unfair to simply classify it as a "product." Artists need a means to survive. When someone finds the perfect balance let me know.

[AnewKINDofFEELING]

Re: Artists and Labels

I will buy select CDs, like the new dredg album, but the only hard copies of albums I tend to buy anymore are DVD-A versions. CDs are just outdated. It's like buying your favorite album on cassette in 1994.

[cribble]

Re: Artists and Labels

That's the problem with the industry. The lack of cassettes.

[AnewKINDofFEELING]

Re: Artists and Labels

That's the problem with the industry. The lack of cassettes.

Fucking right, I'm going to have to record everything onto mix tapes to sell. Each one can be Special Edition, right?

Edit: I think this is referred to as the Billy Corgan Business Model. Who is there to rape if you can't rape your fans?

[BuddyGoodness]

Re: Artists and Labels

Edit: I think this is referred to as the Billy Corgan Business Model. Who is there to rape if you can't rape your fans?

LOL

[erikpemberton]

Re: Artists and Labels

pretty sick of hearing about the music industry being "revolutionized" at this point

[BuddyGoodness]

Re: Artists and Labels

revolution is a word thrown about too much. A revolution in toilet paper!

[erikpemberton]

Re: Artists and Labels

yeah, marketing buzzwords put me to sleep

i have an idea that's gonna revolutionize the music industry

it's called "you reap what you sow, so stop putting out crap, coming up with crazy marketing schemes, hyping up undeserving acts, burying the ones with actual talent, and let go of your greed"

i don't think it'll catch on

but hey, billy corgan can keep killing off my respect for him if he wants to

fight the power

signed,
a man who wants to own everything on cd or flac, but keeps getting laughed at or looked at like a crazy person whenever suggesting cd or flac releases to bands who are going digital-only

your loss
my money works in other economic systems, like buying products from other bands who care more about the quality of the audio they release than the commoditization of it

ultraviolet sound - that was a dig at you, mostly
at least fixt has started to take customers more seriously and offers wav downloads

fuck this "new music economy"

by the way, if you want to make sure you've got every song from the new killers album, go back in time and pre-order the us itunes version and also buy either the uk cd version or uk itunes version - otherwise you'll be missing tracks

despite liking the album a lot, i have yet to buy a copy

WONDER WHY

[cribble]

Re: Artists and Labels

RECESSION!

THE PWNR OF BUZZWORDS!