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Grex > Music3 > #41: The Crash in the Music Business |  |
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| 8 new of 71 responses total. |
krj
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response 64 of 71:
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Dec 27 05:27 UTC 2001 |
LA Times story: the record biz is reeling from big dollar contracts
given to big name stars whose sales have plummeted. Our sample
artists are Mariah Carey, REM and Macy Gray.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000102156dec26.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines
%2Dbusiness%2Dmanual
(sorry about the wrap)
"Labels Singing The Blues Over Expensive Failures"
quote:
> The Carey deal has turned out so badly that EMI music chief
> Alain Levy, hired after the album was released, has initiated an
> unusual attempt to cut the company's losses. Representatives for
> EMI and Carey declined to comment. But several sources close to the
> talks say EMI is pushing for a settlement with Carey under which
> the singer would receive a multimillion-dollar lump sum in exchange
> for agreeing to exit EMI's Virgin Records label.
>
> "The cost of doing business is out of control," said one label chief
> who spoke on condition of anonymity. ...
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flem
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response 65 of 71:
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Dec 27 21:15 UTC 2001 |
Yeah, those elected officials can get pretty expensive...
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gull
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response 66 of 71:
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Dec 28 14:52 UTC 2001 |
They just don't have the morals they used to. Used to be when you
bought a senator, they stayed bought. Now you have to keep paying out
over and over...
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krj
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response 67 of 71:
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Jan 23 19:16 UTC 2002 |
resp:43, resp:64 :: It was quite entertaining watching EMI deny the
story leaked by the LA Times on 12/27, that EMI was looking for a way
out of its $100 million contract with Mariah Carey.
About an hour ago the news hit the wires: it's everywhere so I won't
bother with a link. EMI is paying Mariah $28 million to go away.
Ms. Carey collects a total of $49 million dollars for her one album
GLITTER which sold 2 million copies. In the Reuters story at the NYTimes,
some analysts think EMI was too quick to bail out on Mariah, who
was the top-selling female singer of the 1990s, after one disappointing
album. (2 million sales is disappointing!!!!!!) Factors contributing
to poor sales of the album were a September 11 release date, and
Ms. Carey's physical and emotional health problems which prevented
her from supporting the release with public appearances.
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krj
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response 68 of 71:
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Jan 23 19:25 UTC 2002 |
vh1.com has different sales numbers for the GLITTER album, though
I suspect VH1 used USA sales and Reuters used world sales.
From VH1.COM:
> The news comes on the heels of much industry speculation
> that the singer would be axed from the label, since her first
> Virgin album, Glitter, is considered to be one of the biggest
> commercial disappointments in recent years. The LP has sold
> just over 500,000 copies since its release September 11,
> according to a paltry figure compared to some
> of Carey's previous albums for former label Columbia. By
> comparison, 1999's Rainbow sold more than 2.9 million copies,
> 1997's Butterfly sold more than 3.6 million and 1995's
> Daydream sold nearly 7.5 million.
Geez, what did the execs at EMI think when they looked at her sales
trend for the late 1990s? No wonder former EMI head Ken Berry got sacked.
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mcnally
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response 69 of 71:
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Jan 23 21:41 UTC 2002 |
Wow.. Even using the higher sales figures (2 million copies)
that's still $24.50 she's receiving per CD she actually sold.
To put it another way, if EMI sells half a billion records this
year, they'll essentially have to slap a ten cent Mariah Carey
tax on every one of them.
Better get shopping kids, the record companies are in trouble
and they need your help!
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tpryan
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response 70 of 71:
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Jan 23 23:07 UTC 2002 |
Selling 500,000 copies of an LP is rather astounding these
days. Now selling 500,000 copies of a CD might be considered nice.
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krj
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response 71 of 71:
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Feb 22 23:40 UTC 2002 |
Distribution North America (DNA), which I believe to have been the
leading distributor of indie rock CDs, has gone bankrupt.
Ugh. When the leading indie distributors went *boom* ten years ago,
some stuff went out of print, and some labels went away because they
couldn't absorb the loss of income they were due from the distributor.
Here's a story from the MSU State News:
http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=8889
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