[oompa]

Originally Posted by Chris

It's my understanding that, genreally, bands like those that spawn from American Idol really aren't making much off of record sales anyway. Many of the friends that I have in bands see minimal (like, less than 5%) returns on album sales, and they make their living by touring. I think the pop culture bands (your Britneys, Kellys, etc) see the majority of the record profits going straight to their label.

I know that for some smaller bands on big labels (Universal, for one) the amount of return on "the record deal" that the members actually see would suprise the hell out of you. They're able to have modest careers in music, but for every band signed to a "Multi million dollar label deal", there's a lot of wealthy executives, and a lot of band members paying mortgages and making car payments.

Paul has a great point. I can be the biggest Unearth fan in the world, but if I don't go out and buy their albums, the label doesn't see them as marketable. If I don't go to the shows, they don't make a living. If you really like the music that bands have spent countless hours and dollars on creating for you, you owe it to them to pick up the album.

i agree on that as well. it is still a difference for me tho, between big and small bands. and instead of telling friends they shouldnt download (since im a musician myself), i tell them to prioritize whatever money they have for music on smaller bands releases.

if i only discovered 10 good albums every year, i wouldnt have a problem. when the amount is like.. 10 times that, i cant buy them all, so i prioritize to buy the smaller bands releases over any multieverything band that makes a million dollars per show on their world tour.

to be honest, i cant afford all the music i want to listen to. and im not gonna sit home and think "god i really want to listen to this album all the time, but i cant afford to buy it cus i bought this other album". i download and i listen. eventually ill buy every good album, im just a little bit behind until i win that lottery jackpot

[Drew]

Originally Posted by Paul Warren

Who is going to be the first amongst us to try this theory?

I'm actually kind of on the fence with giving this a go. I'm not saying this to be a dick (you rule, dude ), I'm dead serious and it's something I've been toying with for a year or so now.

I'm also, I realize, an independant artist doing all his own recording. I'm probably going to shell out $100 or so to my drummer buddy for his time in cutting tracks for my album, and I'll probably pay a local studio a few hours' time for drum tracking which I can then import into Sonar. Say, $400 all told for a small Berkshire County area studio to do the raw tracking on the drums for me, plus giving my buddy some cash for his time. Fuck, I might just buy a Firepod and do it myself, but that brings mics into play, and unless Mark has a good collection of drum mics that might be a problem. Either way, I'll rack up less than $500 in actual "cost" recording and mixing my album, and even with mastering and production costs to produce a thousand or so discs, I'll still probably come in less than two grand in the hole, maybe. And, I mean, I'll never sell that many anyway. I'm totally being stupid here, but I'm willing to pay that just for the privelage of having a professionally mastered and packaged copy of my own album in my hands. Obviously, this makes things a little different than it does for someone out ten grand in studio time and printing costs who doesn't have the financial flexibility to just say "fuck it." I'm aware of that.

Currently, I've got my old mp3.com album available for free download on my web page, because while it's fun, I don't think it's good enough to ask people to pay for. I'm on the fence though with this one - on one hand, no one really wants to kiss two grand goodbye, but I'm not doing this for the money, exactly. So, I'm thinking of putting the whole thing on my site in mp3 format either in serviceable but not CD quality format (96k or so), or full 128k, and just spamming the hell out of all of the boards I post at with a link to a page with the music. Then, on the page, having a note that says "Here's my album. If you really like it, here's a link to buy it from me for a nominal cost. I'll even sign the fucker if you want. If you don't want to buy it, that's cool too - pass the music to your friends, share it on P2P networks, burn it and play it in your car, whatever. If anyone likes it, send them here to download it, and tell them they can buy it here too if they want the "real" product. I just had a lot of fun making this album, and I want to get it to as many people as I can. If I sell a few discs in the process, badass. If not, I'm just happy people are listening to this."

God only knows if I'll sell discs this way, and god only knows if the material's going to be good enough when all's said and done so that I can really say I'm getting "exposure" through giving my music away. And, like I said, I'm still not sure if I'm going to do this or not - it depends on what kind of financial shape I'm in when I print the album. But I think it'd be interesting to see what happens.

So, to answer your question, Paul, yes, I can think of one person just stupid enough to try that.

[Kotex]

I download music a lot. But if it's a band and album I really like I always go out and buy it. They deserve ot be suported. I also like having the whole album case, artwork, and everything else that comes along with the album.

[T_money419]

Jack Black( ) on piracy:
YouTube - TENACIOUS D - Jack Black on Piracy