willyhoops;201261 Wrote: > Ah so these bum deals have generated a lot of publicity, thrown a lot of > confusion on the topic, and given the record companies a bad name. Still > maybe it's getting carried away to junk the whole industry on the basis > of that.
It's not a matter of being a bum deal. For a small independent record company, they are taking unknowns and helping them to make records; some work and do very well, while others flop. It's a risk, and the classic approach is to diversify the portfolio and hope you choose a few good'uns. In order to do well, a band needs a lot of promotion, so there is a huge cost for a small label. The problem comes with the big boys, who often sign the big names as loss-leaders (just like the book industry!), and have to put huge amounts through as recoupable expenses on the rest of their artists, just to balance their books. These artists never recoup. So a small artist can either go with a small label, who will care about them but is quite unlikely to make them into a new Britney Spears, or they can go to a major, who might make them big but they'll never get any money out of it until they have enough clout to renegotiate their contract. Of course, new bands are desperate for a contract, so will often sign away all sorts of rights. Naturally these are polarised examples spun rather negatively, but it gives a taste of the situation. The problem is that there is no better business model out there at the moment, but it will change - it needs to! But DRM will not force a change in the right way. Adam -- adamslim Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others http://www.last.fm/user/AdamSlim/ 'Last.fm group: people who don't listen to any of last.fm's top artists' (http://www.last.fm/group/People+who+don%27t+listen+to+any+of+last.fm%27s+top+artists) "To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us ... condemning [young soldiers] to fight in what would be an un-winnable urban guerrilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability" - George Bush Snr, 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34928 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
