Death of old music business and rise of digital DIY

Chris    Music     al teller, music business, music industry

Former record label head, Al Teller, shares his thoughts on how the music business has changed throughout the decades, what his experiences were and where things are at now.

Teller shares there are only two permanent aspects to the music business:

• Artists who create music
• Fans who want it

And the challenge of the business is two connect those two constituents in the most efficient and effective way.

Source: billboard.com

Indie record label economics

Chris    Music    

If you’ve ever wondered what the business side is like for an indie record label to record and promote an artist, check out the following article.

Indie record label economics

It seems the way money flows at a record label is largely a mystery to most artists who haven’t worked in the music industry for an extended period of time. It’s always interesting to lift the veil a bit on an unknown. Let’s take a look at one side of the economics of an indie record label, getting a new release to market.

Below is a summary of the actual expenses an indie record label incurred for a new release:

• Recording advance: $15,000
• Tour support: $2,100
• Mastering costs: $934.96
• Marketing: $13,433.23
• Advertising: $2,067.50
• Publicity: $5,153.34
• Manufacturing: $16,581.04
• Artwork / photos: $200
• Misc: $587.71
• Total: $56,057.78

Here is an overview of each of the line item in a little more detail:

Recording Advance
The money for the recording advance is used to cover the cost of recording. Including studio rental, mixing, session musicians, sound engineer and producer.

Tour Support
Artists have traditionally sold more overall units when they tour so record labels will often times financially support a tour. Tour support money can help pay some of the expenses of touring such as gas, insurance, hotels, food and supplies.

Mastering
Mastering is a post production process that takes the final mix of the recording, edits minor flaws, adjusts volume and stereo widths, equalizes tracks, etc. It’s usually expected that the person who masters the recording will be different from the person who mixes it so there is typically a separate line item in the budget.

Marketing
The marketing line item is entirely for retail co-op marketing expenses. Co-op marketing dollars are expenses distributors incur from retailers for special product placement, in-store promotions, listening stations or advertising. The amount of co-op marketing dollars the distributor (and ultimately the label) are willing to spend on a new release has a direct correlation to the amount of product the retailer orders.

Advertising
Advertising expenses can include any print, radio and online advertising the record label incurs to promote a new release (outside of retail co-op dollars).

Publicity
It’s fairly common for a record label to hire an independent publicist for a 90 day period to help promote a new release to press, print and online media, bloggers and anyone else who can help influence music fans.

Manufacturing
The manufacturing costs for a CD with jewel case can vary but is still around $1.00 per unit for a distributor or label with measurable volume.

Artwork
The cost of custom creative and / or photos for the release.

Miscellaneous
Just like the name implies this is the catch “everything else” expense category related to a new release. For example, legal fees or video production expenses charged to a new release could end up here.

For this particular release to break even it must generate $70,072.23 in gross sales ($56,057.78 + the 25% fee of sales paid to the distributor). The typical deductions a distributor takes on sales including return reserves and breakage (to name a few) further impact cash flow on sales back to the record label.

It’s important for artists to fully understand how the basic economics of an indie label work since they will not get paid any royalties from sales until the record label recoups all the expenses incurred in getting the record to market. This is true of both traditional record label agreements and even “50/50” licensing agreements. It is very common for artists to never receive royalties on sales from their record label since many new releases never fully recoup their expenses.

Dubstep: Is it taking over the world?

Chris    Music     dubstep, Pumped Up Kicks

It seems like no matter where I turn right now, there is Dubstep about. To be honest, I was completely oblivious to this form of music until Korn collaborated with Dubstep DJs on their recent album and from that point on, it’s everywhere.

I must say though, the following Dubstep dance video is pretty bad ass. It’s like someone put Michael Jackson’s moonwalk on steroids!

Foo Fighters new album Wasting Light live from 606

Chris    Music     foo fighters, foo fighters new album, wasting light live

Just finished watching the Foo Fighters documentary Back And Forth earlier tonight. Must say that it was a really insightful look into what Dave Grohl and his band have been through over the years. It has not been an easy ride to success at all.

Back And Forth basically details how the Foo Fighters started right up to the latest album Wasting Light. I stumbled upon this video of them playing the entire new album completely live.

Enjoy!

How to launch a rock super group

Chris    Music     ban, band promotion, musician & band, prom, promote your band

There is a new rock super group on the horizon made up of drummer Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age & other bands) and bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin).

They are calling themselves Them Crooked Vultures and have started creating a bit of stir without an album, without a record label and mainly just using the internet!

You can read more about this story at WebInkNow.com