Music Missinve XIV
By: Ken Brzezinski |
Monday February 08, 2010 |
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Fighting Goliath |
| Ever see a scene in a movie or a TV show where thugs or the mafia move into a city and start charging “protection” fees lest “God fahbid something bad should happen”? That’s what we call extortion, and that’s what hundreds and thousands of musicians have been going through for since the beginning of the “music industry”. All of these talented artists who want to get paid to do what they love, and what do they have to do to try and make the money they dream of? Make a deal with the devil. Here’s something a lot of people don’t know…that band you love, the singer and guitarist who have enhanced your life with what you think is the most beautiful music in the world, they make anywhere between 3 cents and 2 dollars on the CDs you spend upwards of 20 bucks on each and every day. The median is probably somewhere around a quarter to a dollar. Think of that. The product that is all them, they come up with totally; music, lyrics, cover art, and all, nets them as low as 1% of the profit. That’s just pathetic. When you come up with something on your own or with your band, what the hell does some suit who works at a record label have to do with it? Promotion? Isn’t that what touring is for? Labels may do some promoting but don’t kid yourself, a record label is nothing than a blood sucking vampire, living off the lifeblood of the music and the musicians you and I hold near and dear to our hearts. On a side note, this issue of control of music is the reason I was one of probably a few that sided with Metallica in their whole fight with Napster. If I write music or anything (like a column) unless I give up the rights to it willingly, it’s mine to do with as I please. I tell you what, I’d be furious if some jag was using my words or my music to sell his crappy bootleg CDs or to get traffic on his crappy website. Money isn’t the issue, it’s control. But speaking of Metallica, they set a very scary precedent in the music industry in 1994 and 1995. They had been with their record label (Elektra Records) since 1983 and they were still making the same sh*t per CD rate they were making a decade ago, despite releasing one of the best selling albums of the decade, The Black Album. So the band sued the record label to get out of their contract. Instead of letting what they kenw was a license to print money walk away, Elektra folded and not only increased Metallica’s share in their profits to some astronomical number (rumored to be upwards of 75% per CD sold), the band also retained possession of the master tapes of their recordings. They, RIGHTFULLY, said in court that Metallica and not Elektra owned their music and the judge agreed. Every wonder why bands like Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones have 50,000 greatest hits albums and Metallica doesn’t have one? That’s why. Lars and other members of the band even used that as an example, how they didn’t want a ton of these useless “greatest hits” albums out there. But they won. Goliath took on Goliath and they won. And don’t misunderstand me, there are other bands who have lucrative contracts as well with their record labels. But much like sports, the renegotiation comes after the end of a long contract and in music, you’re usually not going to be dominant for decades like Metallica and a few others have been. So instead of feeding this massive monsters who are now fading as it is, don’t buy the CDs. There are a ton of other things you can do to support the bands you love. Go to their shows, for one. Sure, you have to pay the Ticketmaster rape charge (thank you Pearl Jam for fighting the good fight, but in the end it was all for naught), but they don’t take it off the top before the band can see it. The venue does that, however they aren’t taking 95% of it. The band, I believe, pays a “rental” fee out of the profits from the total gate. The other and BEST way to support a band is to buy their merch (excluding CDs of course.) T-shirts, stickers, buttons, posters, underwear (Rob Zombie makes a fine woman’s G-string), and whatever other chachkies the bands happens to be selling. They pay upfront for these things usually and then whatever profit they make is going right into their pocket. So the next time you think you’re doing a disservice to a band by not buying their CD, know that if you are, it’s not as bad as what the record labels are already doing to them. |
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