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Ask Singer Janis Ian About the RIAA and Online Music
Janis Ian has been a popular songwriter and performer since the 1960s, and has decided that Internet music downloads help her and many other recording artists. She wrote an article saying so, then wrote a followup piece, and now it's time for Janis to answer your questions about how the RIAA, the "major labels," and online filesharing affect artists like her. We'll send 10 of the highest moderated questions to Janis tomorrow and post her answers when we get them back. (Off-topic note: Alton Brown has not forgotten Slashdot. He had some show taping problems that messed up his schedule, and asks us to be patient, please.)
Sorry if my earlier post got truncated. The cost of a CD/album has nothing to do with the cost of a PC music recording system. That would be like saying the cost of a Spielberg motion picture can't be much more than the cost of a camera and a roll of film. The cost of making a Spielberg picture depends (in part) on the cost of hiring Spielberg and Tom Cruise to make it, plus many other costs. The cost of recording studio equipment has dropped dramatically in the last 20 years. But the cost of making an album is the cost of hiring all the musicians, songwriters, engineer and producer who make it, and those guys charge money because they've been working their whole lives to become good musicians. Furthermore, if a movie is to become a hit, the film studio or record label has to spend millions of dollars marketing it. "Spider Man" would not have been a hit unless the studio had spent a great deal of money on all the movie trailers you saw all over TV and all the posters you saw at bus stops. Web sites cost money too. With all major-label record albums, the label spends much more money promoting and marketing the album than they spend recording it. And very, very few albums become platinum or gold sellers in the absence of hundreds of thousands of dollars in promotion money. So, in short, the cost of recording an album might be small if it's an indie punk project where the musicians don't expect to get paid. But the cost of a major-label pop record is a huge gamble involving hundreds of thousands. The record company invests the money (gambles) in the hopes that they can reap rewards (profits). The question is, how will the Internet, P2P and MP3s cause the balance to tip? Will record labels have to figure out how to have hits when they have the potential to earn far less money from them? If so, how can they justify the marketing budget if it will be even harder for them to earn their money back? Fascinating.
OK I get the impression that many don't have a clue who Janis Ian is, but she's "been there done that" on Major Labels has double digit Grammy Nominations, and is a writer for Performing Songwriter magazine. She's known to the music community quite well, and had two huge hits in the late sixtys early 70's. How many hits have you had? Pay attention, She's on your side. (SMACK)