a New Way Forward
No, this is not about Iraq, I doubt the way there will ever be forward. This is about the music industry, and the growing trends happening. Things are really getting interesting. Did you hear.....
Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have been officially released from their major label contract, and Trent has vowed to stay completely independent from here on out, selling his music directly to his fans via his website.
Hit Def Jam rapper Joe Budden has also been released from his contract (by choice) and is now gearing up to release a mix tape via his website. He claims pre order sales are already at 25,000 units!!! Artists usually make about $1.20 per album sold when they are on a label. Simple math here, $1.20 X 25,000 = $30,000. Say after his expenses he makes $7 per unit on his mixtape. $7 X 25,000 = $175,000. Now, while thats not extravagant living, it aint bad money at all.
Radiohead. Their new album "In Rainbows" is available for download as of today directly from their website. In case you havent heard, the band is selling the downloadable version of their new album at...... get this.... whatever price YOU want to pay!!!! Even if you dont want to pay a single cent, you can download it from them for free, with their blessing (although I'm sure they'd rather you paid something). Now Radiohead is still signed to a major, but obviously this marketing strategy has the blessing of their label.
Prince. I dont know how Prince is marketing his new album, but his previous album a couple years ago, every person who bought a concert ticket to his completely sold out US tour also "purchased" a CD along with the ticket. Meaning the album "sold" over a million copies and stayed strong on the Billboard Charts for his entire tour. I'm sure he made 50 times more from his tour than he could have ever made on album sales. Genius.
Madonna is reportedly close to leaving her major label contract with Warner Music Group and signing an incredibly big deal with Live Nation, (which is a tour promoter) for touring and recording.
All this is to say that the industry is changing drastically and quickly, and more and more established artists are taking their careers into their own hands. Over the last several years i've seen majors stop developing and nuturing new talent like they used to, and at the same time focusing more and more on their keystone artists. But if their Keystone artists start leaving in droves, wow, the major labels are gonna be hurting. I'm not saying this is going to happen en mass, but its certainly happening on a small scale now. Something to keep an eye on for sure.
[EDIT] i just found this great article and wanted to add it...
And The Walls Came Tumbling Down
-Ken Lewis
Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have been officially released from their major label contract, and Trent has vowed to stay completely independent from here on out, selling his music directly to his fans via his website.
Hit Def Jam rapper Joe Budden has also been released from his contract (by choice) and is now gearing up to release a mix tape via his website. He claims pre order sales are already at 25,000 units!!! Artists usually make about $1.20 per album sold when they are on a label. Simple math here, $1.20 X 25,000 = $30,000. Say after his expenses he makes $7 per unit on his mixtape. $7 X 25,000 = $175,000. Now, while thats not extravagant living, it aint bad money at all.
Radiohead. Their new album "In Rainbows" is available for download as of today directly from their website. In case you havent heard, the band is selling the downloadable version of their new album at...... get this.... whatever price YOU want to pay!!!! Even if you dont want to pay a single cent, you can download it from them for free, with their blessing (although I'm sure they'd rather you paid something). Now Radiohead is still signed to a major, but obviously this marketing strategy has the blessing of their label.
Prince. I dont know how Prince is marketing his new album, but his previous album a couple years ago, every person who bought a concert ticket to his completely sold out US tour also "purchased" a CD along with the ticket. Meaning the album "sold" over a million copies and stayed strong on the Billboard Charts for his entire tour. I'm sure he made 50 times more from his tour than he could have ever made on album sales. Genius.
Madonna is reportedly close to leaving her major label contract with Warner Music Group and signing an incredibly big deal with Live Nation, (which is a tour promoter) for touring and recording.
All this is to say that the industry is changing drastically and quickly, and more and more established artists are taking their careers into their own hands. Over the last several years i've seen majors stop developing and nuturing new talent like they used to, and at the same time focusing more and more on their keystone artists. But if their Keystone artists start leaving in droves, wow, the major labels are gonna be hurting. I'm not saying this is going to happen en mass, but its certainly happening on a small scale now. Something to keep an eye on for sure.
[EDIT] i just found this great article and wanted to add it...
And The Walls Came Tumbling Down
-Ken Lewis
posted by Protools Mixing at 2:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home