Comments on: RIAA vs. MP3 vs. Adam Smith

By: Signa

Signa — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

interesting read. i never really think about a “black market” when it comes to file sharing but its totally true. when you think about it CDs and DVDs are not really any different as purchasable goods than say a sports watch. but in reality it is totally different because of this black market factor. if they sold at the right level of margin there woudlnt be a black market problem.

By: Uncle Nasty Fingers

Uncle Nasty Fingers — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

Interesting but the “cost” of a music CD includes other cost variables (including grossly inflated profits). Paying the artist and promoting alone can cost a bit …
People really LIKE having the physical CD if they would price the damn things around $7 they could make great profits and eliminate alot of bootleg and p2p issues …. but they are just too damn greedy … Look at the money they are spending on politics ands influencing law enforcement and tell me ego doesn’t have something to do with this ….

By: Psilaxs

Psilaxs — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

Marginal Costs eh? Ok go buy a shit-load of pre-manufactured blank cd’s all your production cost are now covered. Now go out Find Produce Promote Publicize Train Book concert venues Engineer the Audio Provide for the living expenses off all involved in mentioned tasks and you have covered the basics. It is more than the damned cost of the plastic that houses all the work the physical cd itself is inconsequential in terms of production cost. This is a macro economic issue and one that has a lot of underlying cost involved.

I am tired of kids talking out their ass about what it cost to make something. The raw material for the car you drive is probably no more than 3-4 thousand dollars so therefor General Motors and Ford are part of the BIG transportation cartel!

Please learn to look below the surface.

By: Unsueable Davey Brown

Unsueable Davey Brown — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

You’d have a point if what you were saying was true however the artists themselves disagree with your math. Here’s a classic from 2000 where Courtney Love explains it.

http://www.jdray.com/Daviews/courtney.html

By: Unsueable Davey Brown

Unsueable Davey Brown — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

Damn. You can’t edit these things. I’d like to make clear my above comment is directed at Psilaxs not the writer of the original article.

By: statusquo80

statusquo80 — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

@Unsueable Davey Brown

I really dont think Courtney Love knows anything about the economics of the music industry. In fact I don’t think she knows anything other then how to pull a trigger. But seriously record companies and artists are making insane amounts of money. The money some of them make in 10 years is more then most of us could make if we worked 10 lifetimes. Courtney was complaining in the article they sometimes they make as little as $45000 per album. OMG only $45000 boo hoo!

Anyway the point is that if the records were priced fairly people would go out to buy them because most people out there would rather have the actual disc and not have to worry about being sued. There is no complicated economics here only greed.

By: Psilaxs

Psilaxs — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

Yeah using courtney love as an economic example is a very bad one. Best thing she knows how to do is snort coke and smoke meth.

By: Unsueable Davey Brown

Unsueable Davey Brown — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

Oh well…if Coutney won’t do let’s try a few more.

[quote]The record label pays an advance to the artist for the cost of producing the album and the artist then records and delivers the album to the record label. The record company agrees to pay the artist a royalty on sales of the album based on a complex calculation involving numerous variables. However the royalty is not actually paid to the artist until after recoupment by the record label of all advances out of the artist’s royalty. These advances often include not only the cost of the recording but also the cost of video production tour support and independent promotion.[/quote]

http://www.outersound.com/osu/contracts/bankrupt.html

[quote]Plus most record label contracts are for seven albums – more than most artists make in their entire careers. The upshot of this is that the record label can potentially own all the artist’s work for as long as they are making music. Artists are often charged excessively for recording studio time marketing travel equipment etc so before their album even goes to press they may owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to the label. And they may receive as little as 20-30 cents per album while the record label gets closer to $10.[/quote]

http://www.systemcrasher.com/about.html

[quote]Do you not find it strange that a 2-hour DVD with commentary subtitles and extra scenes can be sold for less than $10 while few audio CDs are that low priced?

Janis:
I don’t find it strange I find it reprehensible[/quote]

http://interviews.slashdot.org/interviews/02/09/23/133228.shtml?tid=141

By: Unsueable Davey Brown

Unsueable Davey Brown — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

There was another kind of famous article on this. I can’t remember the name of it or the guy who wrote it. I think he was the manager of Nirvana or something like that. He broke everything down piece by piece showing exactly how much of the production and promotional costs of producing an album was payed for by the artist.

Does anyone know the article I’m talking about?

By: Unsueable Davey Brown

Unsueable Davey Brown — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 +0000

Screw it. I did some research. What I’m talking about is called “recoupment”. The artist pays for production costs and at least half the promotion. So that comes out of the disproportionately small artist end of the contract. The rest is all gravy for the big five.

The recording artists coalition has a whole section on it under “recoupment”.

http://www.recordingartistscoalition.com/industrypractices.php

You’ll notice they’re also accusing the recording industry of fudging the figures in the books so they are paying more in recoupment and receiving less in royalties.