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RIAA Wants Artist Royalties Lowered
laughingcoyote writes "The RIAA has asked the panel of federal government Copyright Royalty Judges to lower royalties paid to publishers and songwriters. They're specifically after digital recordings, and uses like cell phone ringtones. They say that the rates (which were placed in 1981) don't apply the same way to new technologies."
From the article: "According to The Hollywood Reporter, the RIAA maintains that in the modern period when piracy began devastating the record industry profits to publishers from sales of ringtones and other 'innovative services' grew dramatically. Record industry executives believe this to be cause to advocate reducing the royalties paid to the artists who wrote the original music."
"wouldn't one then also come to the conclusion that CD prices are massively inflated,"
Not really, entertainment is one of the few constant priced expenses we've had in our lives.
For instance, I use to spend around $7 - $9 for cassettes and around $10 - $14 on LPs back in the day. My first CD player was in the mid '80s...CDs were easily $20. These days, I couldn't imagine spending any more on my CDs than I did my LPs.
So, the cost of entertainment on CD has gotten cheaper over the last 20 years. However, the cost to produce this music has gone up every year. I certainly know the rates I charge my clients has gone up significantly since getting into the music industry (though personally, that has been simply to weed out the underbrush, and to keep my prices 'competitive' -- if you are charging significantly less than others of the same caliber, the assumption is that you really aren't in the same class). I know when I first started working, $20k was enough to record a 3 piece rock group that was expected to sell at the national level. To hit these same numbers today, a factor of 10 is necessary.
It isn't the cost of the technology to record, nor the medium (i.e., there is no reason downloadable medium costs less than CDs...the *ONLY* thing you are saving is counter-space...them endcaps cost a lot of money)...it is, and has always been, the people that make it expensive. Not one of us are going to take a pay cut so that you can get your entertainment a little cheaper.
Or wait a second...isn't this the site that always gets a little bitchy when people start to talk about outsourcing their jobs overseas? Maybe I can replace all of my session players with Indians and Asians. Replace our management with the 419 operators in Nigeria...nah, I trust those guys a little more. Quite honestly, the musicians I hear from overseas are just as good. Heck, a few of these are go to guys when I need something recorded but my client can't afford the name players (I have a drummer in Vietnam that I can send a scratch track to with minimal tracking on, and tell him the artist / style we were hoping to have, and generally he is so good, we have to go back and restructure the song around the stuff he provided to show it off a little more).
So the outsourcing is going on as I speak. Its not much right now, but it will happen. And we try not to do it that much (most bigger artists are union, which means a restriction on this sort of activity).
So how about your job? I'm certain that someone in a third world country could do it faster, more efficient, and cheaper. I could safely argue that your job worth is massively inflated for what you do. Capitalism is only held together by the loose threads that I pretend you are worth what you say you are and in return you do the same for me. You decide that you can go elsewhere cheaper, and I'll agree in theory. I'll also let the world know how insignificant your job really is in return. Again, let me know how you feel about this when you are outsourced and your belief in the idea that the 'other guys' will be providing just as good of quality in return.