How Labels And Artists Divvy Up Your Dollar Online

Subliminal Fusion writes "Business 2.0 has an article that breaks down where that $1 goes when you buy a song from iTunes or other online music services. Key figures: the site takes .40, the labels take .30 and the artists get a measly 12 cents for each download."

Comments

Isn't that a step up?

[Niahak]

the artists get a measly 12 cents for each download. From all the articles there have been about the artists under the RIAA, 12% is a hell of a lot better than the cut they get normally. Sure, it's measly, but it's probably a step up. Here's to hoping it'll increase.

Measly 12%?

[IthnkImParanoid]

Is 12% really that measly? I agree it's low (unless the artist is a britney spears/in sync clone, in which case it's too high), but what percent does an artist get from CD's? What percent is standard for authors? My mom is an author, and gets about 25 cents from a 5.99 paperback... Seems like online music is giving artists a bigger cut compared to more traditional methods.

Top Artists Balking At A La Carte Downloads

[mechaZardoz]

billboard article

Despite the major labels' success in clearing hundreds of thousands of tracks for purchase online through services like Apple's iTunes Music Store, some top artists continue to resist authorizing the dismantling of their albums for Internet consumption as a la carte singles. Some acts are requiring that their music be sold exclusively in album bundles. For example, Linkin Park recently pulled its music as a singles offering from digital services. Sources say the band has expressed concerns about undercutting album sales. Other acts with similar stipulations about their work include Radiohead, Madonna, Jewel and Green Day, sources say.

Now, from an artistic standpoint I can see where they are coming from, there are certainly albums that must be experienced as a whole, or at least in the order that they were laid down. Still, I have to wonder whether they're not just shooting themselves in the foot; if the concern is over money lost to piracy, wouldn't 12 cents in the hand be worth it to an artist rather than 0? Eventually, they'll make the money back on volume; it seems they're too obsessed with immediate returns.

Re:You're fogetting...

[McAddress]

But the two percent of the market they are targeting is the cream of the crop of consumers.
1.I know this sounds like flaimbait, but Mac users will buy anything Steve Jobs tells them is good. (I admit it, I really want to get a 17 inch powerbook) 2.They are used to paying full price for things having to do with technology, because Apple products and peripherals don't go on sale. 3.They have proven that they like the product, with the iPod being as successful as it was. (Even before the windows versions)

That is why the iTunes music store was such an unprecidented success. It was not just sheer luck.

Lousy deals and the death of the album.

[MsGeek]

• the site takes .40,
• the labels take .30 and
• the labels take another 12 cents from the artist's share to recoup "production advances" and "independent promotion"

This is completely and totally true. $0.12 is actually PROGRESS when compared to the status quo. Here's a better breakdown of the whole situation, courtesy record producer Steve Albini:
http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

As far as the whiners about "the death of the album" go, two things wrong with their premises:

1. Up until the 1970s that's the way radio and records went. Top 40 Radio created a singles-oriented business, with the album as gravy. Even with great albums like Sgt. Pepper the Beatles made sure there was at least one good single on there if not a few. It was only with the popularity of Album Oriented Radio in the 1970s that things changed. The last gasp of the single 45rpm record as a mass consumer good was in the early 1980s.
2. The primacy of the album has been basically stood on its head in the first decade of the 21st century. The average CD has you back in the '60s again, with albums that have one or two good songs and an ocean of filler. Some of the people complaining on that list are guilty of this crime against the music consumer.

All that Steve Jobs is doing is levelling the playing field for the consumer. You have never been prevented from downloading a whole album on iTunes...in fact, you get an economic incentive to do so with the $9.99 bargain "album" rate. If a band makes a super-bitchen album, and people hear that the album is great as a whole, they will download the whole album rather than download the songs piecemeal without the advantage of the bulk rate.

The fact of the matter is that the "album" died years ago. Deal with it.