Posts by robbery
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
<- your, not you're.
I hate my english teachers
-
Have you worked your way through a major label contract of recent?
who said anything about major?
I said label, you're the one who's got this obsession with these big boys. you need some new friends to play with man, your last batch have scared and scarred you.
The industry people I play with who want me to sign contracts aren't quite so distant and evil, infact I think I could take em in a bar room brawl.is just nonsense by a very hefty margin.
you know that's not true in a huge portion of the cases of musical endeavor., especially in this country, only the top top top small percent are in the big earners league. everyone else is in that other group, break even or less. that often quoted thing about labels needing to make big on the hit artists to make up for the money they lost on the other 100. its a lottery,
you're hefty margin is heftily exaggerated.
-
You think hiring a lawyer
there's plenty written about this topic to deal with this yourself, a google search will give you a swag of things to be wary of. sure a lawyer would know better but there's no one forcing you to go with the evil in nyc any more, there are plenty of options, just find the one that suits, safe in the knowledge that in 95% of the cases you're not going to be much worse off than if you did every - friggin - thing - yourself.
-
if you are not the sort of artist who can't hustle their way into finding $5000 or $3000 or whatever it takes to have career beyond the pub, or finding an independent label to do it, then I'm not interested.
So you're judging the quality of an artist by its ability to generate start up cash, essentially their ability to have a day job, or to have friends with money they will loan to them.
some of the best music I've seen or had contact with came from just such people, and you'll know this yourself through you're own label.
you live in a different league if you think $5000 is nothing to most artists. here its unreachable unless you have a day job. no one who is not a covers band playing weddings is pulling that.
All I'm saying is, evil labels have their place, they perform a service.You think hiring a lawyer to take on the we-don't-give-a-fuck-who-you-are international Business Affairs dept of a major label in NYC or London is cheaper and more cost effective than hiring Mark to promote your record? Seriously?
no I'm saying seriously, the scary monster you keep talking about isn't so scary when its a known quantity.
at the end of the day the money you lose to a label gets you the support of their team. the money you lose to kneebone may or may not get you anything at all. he'll put it in front of people but he can't make them eat it. if a label is behind you it filters out that dreamer factor (you've met plenty no doubt, the I'm going to be famous you just watch, but they're so horrible words can't describe the pain their music causes......shiver). labels take you on cos they think you've got something. you take your self on cos you believe in yourself, and quite often you might be the only one.
you're advocating earning kneebone a living at the expense of a more powerful system, I can dig that cos kneebonees a cooler guy, but its half dozen the other and I'd rather be losing someone elses cash, but los of people are totally prepared to lose their own, on your advice :) -
ask yourself if they are making more money by simply paying the likes of Mark Kneebone $5000, or giving away 90% of the return to a label (who also deduct that other 10% to cover costs). Maybe they've all worked it out, I reckon so.
knowing a few of those people, the answer is the difference is marginal. factor into that equation the amount of time each band member/support crew put in of unpaid time and its much of a muchness. there are exceptions. but the financial benefits of do it yourself a greatly overrated, especially if you're in the 80% of the market section who don't make a great deal so there's fuck all to be ripped off.
The real benefit to do it yourself is a sense of connection with your audience.so you see the 90% clause in your contract, are you igning it or you turning it around to be more favourable?
why are we afraid of these contracts if everyone's aware of em now and is in a position to negotiate them more favourable. looks like the monster isn't so scary once you know how they play the game.
$5000 to kneebone is still $5000, if you ain't got it ............. -
People make music because they want to be heard,
some people make music or film cos they want to express, purely for self fulfillment.
we want to hear it or see it cos their motive of self expression appeals to us, sometimes more than those who's motive is to draw attention to themselves or make some cash. -
People are telling each other what to listen to.
and that's coming full circle to "people are paying people to tell people what to listen to". Its not so much each other either, its people are telling readers what to listen to and watch and the readers don't necessarily get to talk directly back to the writer and say what they like.
It's a lot of work to get your stuff in front of the right people if you can get past the spam filter receptionist, large dog at the gate, cos once everyone gets on board the new model of promotion it starts to get infra structure developing around it and getting to big for self management.
and that brings it full circle to pr people getting paid to do it for you only this time you don't have a money bags label picking up the bill to push your "90% likely crap album.same things happening in the film market with hype companies being paid to write fake reviews on IMDB to up the perceived coolness of it.
It doesn't seem to want to stay community based,
-
they also don't have the money to master for web, do layouts the expertise to get a deal for downloading, promote it, promote it,and get it infront of people (promote it), get it in stores, get it on air, get it on sites, get it somewhere any where. and for all of those roles there's someone who's there willing to charge for it, cash up front. even more so in the new era of freedom. its a new era of freedom to pay all the bills yourself. surely you miss the majors expense account now :)
-
The actual cost of making the record is a very small, and for many acts, increasingly smaller part of the equation.
the time period you base your hatred of the evil empire on was when it was quite expensive, and as you've said artists are more aware and the deals are more varied and fair.
truth is though, and I see this all the time, artists have fuck all capital, even where 500 cds are $1750 packaged and delivered, they don't have that money, and I'm also seeing many of the 'buy your own home studio' people back through after 4 years of fighting a machine when all they want to do is play their music.
labels, studios, and everyone else who takes a cut don't do nothing in the equation. some take more than others. some have taken the piss,
its got to be weighted against where you might be if they didn't come to the party. the money men and the marketing production muscle is worth a lot. ask any do it yourself artist on his or her seond or third year of burning cds, managing websites and predominantly not making music cos they have no spare time. -
Once Apple is no longer the pre-eminent online marketplace (and that's happening as we type) their cut will reflect that they've got to attract artists by offering better deals.
its hasn''t work that way with the mobile phone market in nz for far far to long.