Posted on 05/07/2010 2:01:58 PM PDT by a fool in paradise
...computational neuroscientist Anders Sandberg recently noted that although we have strong instinctive feelings about ownership, intellectual property doesn’t always fit into that framework....
..Optimists argue that the music industry has coped before with disruptive new technology. Until recordings came along, songs, not singers, were Big Business. So while copyright law allocated royalties for performances, it said nothing about what happened when you recorded those performances and sold thousands of copies of the recording. Only after protracted legal maneuvering did we work out an arrangement that allowed both businesses to thrive.
...collectors switching from cassette and vinyl to CD swelled the music industry’s coffers in the 1980s and ’90s, so the eventual softening of sales is hardly surprising. The concert industry is indeed booming despite the downturn. And people who admit to downloading music illegally may actually spend more money on recorded music than people who don’t. One assumes they plump up concert revenues as well.
...Concert-promotion mogul Michael Rapino has said that just 2 percent of Americans attend more than a couple of concerts a year...
...To be sure, today’s 20-something file-sharer may someday pay $200 to watch Vampire Weekend rock the Astrodome. Or maybe not; the Internet tends to fragment audiences. Generation X, of which I am a member, was probably the last to grow up with the Top 40 and only a few TV stations—and the kind of common taste that this structure instilled. The bounty of the World Wide Web encourages niche interests....
But the broader music industry, like other entertainment fields, has always worked on a tournament model: a lot of starving artists hoping to be among the few who make it big....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Wonder why The Atlantic didn't bother to write THAT piece...
Ironic that the entertainment industry doesn’t like freeloaders but have no problem strapping hard workers with the burden of paying for welfare bums.
“Avatar” Breaks Sales Records on Blu-ray and DVD
http://mashable.com/2010/04/26/avatar-blu-ray-sales-record/
‘Avatar’ to break worldwide sales record this week
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2010/01/25/avatar_to_break_worldwide_sales_record_this_week
2009 concert haul
1. U2; $123 million; $7,689,626; $93.77.
2. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band; $94.5; $2,147,288; $87.94.
3. Elton John/Billy Joel; $88; $3,259,794; $125.61
4. Britney Spears; $82.5; $1,618,381; $88.04.
5. AC/DC; $77.9; $1,657,220; $83.76.
6. Kenny Chesney; $71.1; $1,421,271; $68.73.
7. Jonas Brothers; $69.8; $1,341,990; $59.78.
8. Dave Matthews Band; $56.9; $1,211,005; $52.97.
9. Fleetwood Mac; $54.5; $1,067,620; $97.02.
10. Metallica; $53.4; $1,525,402; $65.16.
11. Nickelback; $47.4; $729,231; $47.42.
12. “Walking With Dinosaurs” ; $46.2; $1,126,829; $39.77.
13. Miley Cyrus; $45; $1,045,645; $68.87.
14. Trans-Siberian Orchestra; $43.7; $606,944; $44.68.
15. Eagles; $42.8; $1,710,773; $129.30.
16. Keith Urban; $42.7; $712,078; $63.27.
17. Celine Dion; $42.6; $1,934,759; $108.24.
18. Rascal Flatts; $42.2; $766,863; $54.84.
19. Coldplay; $40.8; $1,046,154; $61.79.
20. Paul McCartney; $40.7; $5,087,500; $121.57.
Oh dear - looks like the poorhouse for the entertainers....
Most of it has died real quick in the real world and when it gets on the net it’s just a curiosity.
I hear that. I always chuckle when some liberal artist complains about his/her royalties, but has no problem with asking other to “redistribute their wealth”.
...To be sure, today’s 20-something file-sharer may someday pay $200 to watch Vampire Weekend rock the Astrodome. Or maybe not; the Internet tends to fragment audiences. Generation X, of which I am a member, was probably the last to grow up with the Top 40 and only a few TV stations—and the kind of common taste that this structure instilled. The bounty of the World Wide Web encourages niche interests....But the broader music industry, like other entertainment fields, has always worked on a tournament model: a lot of starving artists hoping to be among the few who make it big....
Time was, the music industry was made up of a lot of regionally located companies (Motown and Fortune in Detroit, Chess in Chicago, Sun and Stax in Memphis, King-Federal in Cincinnati, Starday and Duke-Peacock in Houston, Imperial in New Orleans...) in addition to Decca, Columbia, Capitol, and later big boys like Atlantic.
These got gobbled up (Stax by Atlantic, Duke-Peacock by ABC, and so on). Now it is Warner Bros., Sony, and a few other major monopolies.
SubPop was the last fluke rock and roll label to get on radio coast to coast. And SubPop's acts of the last 15 years haven't gotten the same radio or tv exposure despite them being "something different" than the majors offer as well as something other than "Nirvana-PearlJam-Soundgarden" retreads.
Time was that a band gigged around awhile, put out a single and got picked up for regional and national distribution. Now they are all manufactured. If you ARE a viable band for 5 years, the majors don't WANT you unless they can completely own your back catalog (as happened with Sympathy For The Record Industry's White Stripes releases, all released on a handshake).
Plenty of talent there. The labels won't touch it. The public doesn't want the crap they push same as home viewers don't want the same crap Big Media is pushing as "news" on tv or in newspapers or magazines.
Big Media's circle jerk has petered out. The public has gone elsewhere. Call it "niche markets". It is UNTAPPED markets. Same with the tea party frustration over the political establishment evermore pushing this country into socialism and open borders in spite of public protest against it from voting members of BOTH political parties.
Paul McCartney sold $69,000 in albums last year for his complete post-Beatles catalog.
Paul didn’t blame “downloaders”. He blamed EMI for taking him for granted and not bothering to promote his recorded works (unless they have the word BEATLES in the name).
So he moved his catalog to a smaller label, Concord, where he will be a bigger fish and more favorably considered. Just as David Bowie did in the late 1980s when he was pissed to find his albums put out on cheaply mastered CDs and thrown into the “budget releases” ghetto. He signed with Ryko who put out remastered editions with bonus cuts and heavy promotion.
Ahmet Ertegün at Atlantic Records made less money after he had to finally pay Ruth Brown her royalties decades later too.
There are far greater abusers, freeloaders that plague this country beyond the petty file-sharer. They are the >50% of self-styled americans that do not pay Federal Income Taxes.
Good assessment.
I never aspired to be a recording artist...I just like playing. The last two bands I was in had websites where you could listen to mp3’s of our songs and short clips of performances. We earned our keep by performing not selling records.
I guess my ambitions are out of step with Corporate America...
The ones who are hurt are the songwriters / publishers, etc.
Illegal downloading is stealing...this “but look how much they make (the artists) crap sounds WAY TOO MUCH like Obama saying that at some point your’ve made enough money...what right does anyone have to say that about anyone else?
Well, if they didn't charge and arm and a leg for the tickets, plus fees, plus taxes, just to see something on stage from 300 yards away, I'd go to more of them.
After subpop, NOTHING.
Nobody new who has anything resembling original talent. Nobody.
My favorite bands aren't huge ones anyway, but ones which will fill a couple hundred seat music club when they come through town and charge $10 or $15 for a ticket. Once a band starts having "people" to lug their equipment around, they are probably getting too big and expensive to see.
There is a VAST difference between songwriters/artists and publishers/copyright holders beginning with the fact that they are often not the same person/entity.
I feel old and grumpy when I say it, but I agree. I like a very wide array of music, but the stuff that passes for pop today leaves me cold. It’s plastic and soulless and derivative. I’m not paying for that dreck.
I used to go to friends houses with stacks of records under my arm. We’d sit and play them and argue about them.
I think it was the earliest form of “file sharing.”
Later, when playing in a band, we did covers, because that’s what the frats wanted to hear.
Around the same time, cassettes came out and you could could stack 2 hour’s worth of favorite album cuts back to back.
Nowadays people share music through ISPs they pay up to $50 bucks or more a month. They pay these fees in order to access and share media.
Too bad for the record execs. I can understand their position, but their rights to their “intellectual property”— rights that last much longer and are far cheaper to secure than patents— do not trump my rights to ‘security within lodgings” against unreasonable search and seizure.
The President has noted that clearly at some point you have earned enough money.
When do they give back?
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