MusicFollow

1. Don't charge ridiculous amounts for a cd. I'm not paying more than 15 bucks for a cd.

2. Make sure more of the money goes to the artists, this is a problem with several labels.

3. Major music retailers bringing in more variety of music, instead of just bringing in what's popular(only major retailers in my city)

4. Have more artists who focus on making good music instead of making a couple good hit songs on an album full of crap.

Edited, Oct 24th 2010 8:51am by Driftwood

What do you consider to be a fair number for $14 or $15?




In the interest of total disclosure (and I meant to post this originally but got side tracked somewhere, sorry) the reason I'm asking is that I work in the music business. Not the "oh, so-and-so is playing this venue, I can totally get you tickets" side, but the business side. We manage out clients money. We work for artists, and not record labels, though we do work with the labels on occasion (invoicing them, looking through royalty statements, etc.).

I'm considering getting my MBA, and as part of the admissions process I'll need to write an essay on a "real world business problem." I was listening to the radio on the way home the other day, and in an interview, someone asked an artist that was getting back into music how an artist "makes money" with all of the downloaded music these days. Her answer was, "I don't think the artists have figured that out yet."

I don't know if they were talking specifically about piracy or not, but it got me thinking, and I thought if I could look at the actual money going out and coming in for some of our clients in regards to music sales, and figured out from some of the fan base what would inspire them to buy more music, I could write my essay on that. (And my super wild pipe-dream is that I'll come up with The Answer and make a ton of money because I figured out how to make the fans and the artists happy.)

Well, no more than a dollar a track, excluding intros, outros and interludes.


Edit


I guess this is a more accurate statement.

Edited, Oct 24th 2010 5:43pm by Almalieque

Yes.

Since when does a song need to be long for it to be good?

This argument is obsolete with the advent of iTunes, Amazon and other online single-song vendors. It's a little childish to still be using it, and only outs you as someone who would pirate music no matter the arrangement, just because you can.

Start listening to prog rock and prog metal, enough 10 minute songs.

And stuff like Black Rose Immortal (and P2 because it's too long for 1 youtube vid)


And length of an album is pretty insignificant to me.
Good music is good music and whether the album is 30 minutes or 90 minutes isn't all that important to me.
I'm also fine with paying €25 for a special edition of an album (Hell, I've done that on multiple occasions)
Really the only reason I don't buy everything is because my wallet can't handle it but I still plan on buying almost everything that I have downloaded.
Downloading for me is pretty much a test ride of the music.

I also would never pay for a download, ever.
If I'm paying for music I want a shiny disc, cool artwork and a pretty booklet.


That all said, I think making music by selling songs isn't really viable anymore. If you want to make money as a band you do live shows and personally I'm not sure I mind.
I feel sorry for artists losing a way to make money but I think that bands should shine live because that's what music is made for.

Edited, Oct 25th 2010 12:24am by Aethien

Hardly any. Iirc, it's usually no more than a dollar.

The sound and light effects are extremely expensive, and that's an overhead cost that an orchestra usually won't have to worry about. Not to mention all of the crew that is involved in putting on a production. It's extremely expensive to put on even a mild show nowadays. And most people will complain if they don't get the fancy light shows anymore.

Depends on the band. The bigger, more popular bands do make good money on their performances. But the bands just starting out don't get paid jack as a headliner, and sometimes have to pay money to be an opening act. Merch sales are what pay the bills for these bands.