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PressPlay and MusicNet vs. Artists

Posted by michael on from the wake-up-call-for-musicians dept.

gilroy writes: "According to a New York Times article (free registration, yadda yadda), despite taking the moral high ground (that they want to see artists compensated, as opposed to all those evil downloaders), the record companies have actually set up pay schedules so as to -- wait for it -- rip off the artists who record the music. Some figure they will earn less than $0.0023 per download -- yes, that's hundredths of a penny. Best quote from the article: 'For many acts, suddenly there appears to be little difference between the illicit file-sharing system and record-label services.' Good to see they're fighting for the artists, n'est-ce pas?"

9 of 446 comments (clear)

  1. Well, at least now we know what took so long by mxcantor · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, it wasn't really coding or encryption work that delayed these services so long. It was getting all the $500,000/year business people to figure out how to optimally screw both consumer and artist at once.

    Never doub the ability of a business school grad to screw a large number of people when they put their mind to it.

  2. Oh yeah, I want to become a rock star by donglekey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because when my one hit wonder song goes platinum and recieves 1,000,000 downloads, I will have made a wopping 2,300 dollars, almost enough to compensate the recording studio for greeting me. I think I will stick with the 'making money from my computer' SPAM I get from my joecool@aol.com email address. I'll bet Scientology wishes they thought of it first.

    --

    This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
    1. Re:Oh yeah, I want to become a rock star by CDWert · · Score: 3, Funny

      As an attorney for the churh of ScienKookery,

      We herwith and forthto demand an immediate retraction.

      Any use of the very word ScienKookery is expressly forbidden due to copyright violations.

      Blah...Blah Blah....

      --
      Sig went tro...aahemmm.....fishing........
  3. Where do I send my money? by south · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well now we know how much songs are worth, I figure my 11gigs of mp3s work out to around something in the range of $5.33. I can afford that, where do I send my money?

  4. What do the artists have to complain about? by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny
    They just need to shed their glamorous images and spend more carefully. By my math, if they choose cost-effective food such as a McDonald's Value Meal for $2.79, it would only take 1213 dedicated fans downloading their song to pay for lunch.

    Even better, the fans have to download broken formats that will be unplayable in a few years, so the artists can have another Big Mac later on, courtesy of the same 1213 fans!

  5. From the article by Aexia · · Score: 4, Funny
    We've written them letters and put them on notice up front, as did most managers and lawyers, saying, `Don't put our artists' music up.' But they'll do it anyway. They're so arrogant. They're taking the position of: `We don't care. Let's just do it without asking.' They're ignoring their contracts. It's ridiculous.



    The manager also expressed shock that the Pope is Catholic, it rains in Seattle, and that Bill Clinton is no longer President.

  6. Liars! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    That sucks. I really thought that as soon as the music industry eliminated illegal filesharing, world culture would gain tremendously from a steep increase in high-quality content made by well compensated artists. What a let-down.

  7. DMCA raid? by Animats · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe the artists who want their music off can arrange a DMCA raid on Pressplay.

  8. In related news by prockcore · · Score: 2, Funny

    In related news, Napster settles all of it's lawsuits by sending the plaintiffs an old jar full of pennies found in the attic.