Grex Music3 Conference

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Grex Music3 Item 137: mp3s or mp4s [-^A^-] r they so cool...
Entered by greycell on Mon Jan 27 16:36:34 UTC 2003:

1 new of 27 responses total.

#7 of 27 by cyklone on Fri Jan 31 00:01:16 2003:

I'm not sure you understand how the music business works or its history. 
In the old days a "single" (45 rpm record) also cost more than the pro
rata share of its contribution to the album (although you actually got two
songs, including the "b" side). So there is a historical basis for the
pricing you dislike. You would buy a single CD for the same reason people
*paid* for 45s in the past:  because they liked a single song enough to
want a separate copy and/or because they didn't like the entire album.
Gee, the more things change, the more they say the same. 

I also wonder how many "lifestyles" of musicians you have truly witnessed. 
Just because a band is on a record label, it doesn't mean they are all
living like Madonna. A band considered to have potential may get
$150,000-$500,000 for their first record. This money is divided among
however many members are in the band, less a cut for management, and
usually it is the ONLY money the band will ever see from a given record. 
Five figure deals are more common for bands with narrower appeal, and for
some genres the payment is under $10,000. So your comment about "survival"
is flat out WRONG.  Many bands on record labels spend their time on the
road living out of a van and eating whatever they can find when they pull
over for gas or a gig. I seriously doubt you would enjoy such a lifestyle
and almost certainly you would consider yours superior by comparison.

The only way most bands make money is by touring or selling *lots* of
records (it also helps to be the songwriter, who often makes more than
his/her non-writing bandmates). Since the music industry tends to screw
musicians on single royalties I'm not going to argue too strongly that
you are directly stealing money from the artist. However, the only way
artists gain some degree of financial or creative control is to show good
sales. When you steal a single you are denying a musician a "mark" that
should be reflected as a sale. 

There may be a lot of good arguments to be made against record companies; 
your post makes none of them. And to somehow delude yourself into thinking
the average signed band leads an enviable lifestyle is to utterly ignore
reality.