I figured I'd post a couple of answers to questions not directly related to the RIAA. IANAL - but because I have released several independent records and stared down the barrel of a major label contract I thought I'd post my findings.
Artists are "advanced" a sum upon the signing of a recording contract. This a really a loan and the record company will recoup all costs and this "loan" before you are paid any royalty.
Typically artists recieve 11-14% of profit as additional royalty on a recording. ALL other expences are paid first (studio, promo, distribution, tour support, and advances ) The record companies keep the books and you must sue to see them. Artists have often complained that these costs are artificially inflated by the record companies to avoid paying royalty. Consider also that your management will get 15-20% of everything you make , even royalty.
Most smaller bands playing small/medium clubs make thier cash touring. Venues get 25-35% of all merchandise sales (ever wonder why concert Ts cost $25-30?) And again management will take 15-20% of all thats left.
As you can see if you are in a 5 person band and split all the cash evenly (which is rare) the managers and record companies make all the money and you are left with a large bill called an "advance". If you cant recoup the cost of your advance then the record company has the right to dissolve your band. And they are never under any obligation to release anything, ever.
My question to Janis is...
Obviously the major record companies have complete vertical control of the entire industry, from the studios and producers all the way down to the offerings in retail outlets.
How do we as independent musicians break thru this grip on wide distribution and make independently produced music available to the masses? How do we get the masses to even be aware they have a choice wheh the airplay is never there? Do the masses really want 18 dollar Britteny CDs?
Increasingly Audio/Video production is becoming de-centrelized to the point where editors and producers need to be able to work from a common source that addresses "thier" needs. Not the needs of gamers or SOHO admins. Since the production work is mostly done on Macs it makes perfect sense to use a Mac server. Cost of hardware has always been secondary to quality of workflow and consistency in delivering the end product. (meaning: the shit should just work! and it should work the way you'd expect) Face it, we pay THOUSANDS for audio cards and video equipment. We are not home "tinkerers" and dont want to tinker with our servers. If these Xservers can also double as workstations 2 birds go down with one stone.
Windows admins and Linux hobbiests will never get it.
"Heh, why not push some other good stuff too? Open office - good and free."
I agree but... Customers are gonna want something that adds value other than its low price. Servers have been ideal targets because of the transparency. To the end user it seems the same. Although I was as giddy as a school girl when OO.o went 1.0, putting it on peoples desktops (to replace MS Office) wont be that easy. Alot of people have used Ms Office since high school and theres a BIG comfort zone to overcome. Ms Office ships preloaded on most small business OEM PCs. So it appears "free" to the bean counters. I havent given up hope though. My ideal product scenerio, to sell to small businesses, would be Open Office running in some enforced MS compatibilty mode on an open sourced terminal server. Completely managed by me;-) In order to sell it (really selling your services) it must be transparent to the end user.
This is how we (we being those who think code should be free) will propogate onto the desktop. Once the apps are in place and running the OS is next. The key is transparency to the end users. and savings for the small business owners.
The Enterprise will learn what alot SMBs already know. Samba rocks as a drop in replacement for an NT file and print box. In small offices all the users need to know is that they have a new domain password. And poof! NT is gone. If you're admin in a small business or support/consult for multiple ones, sit down with the deci$ion maker and compare the virtues of *bsd/*nix running Samba to WinNT/2k with its licencing and security issues. You WILL close the deal. No wonder MS would like to see them go away.
So... as long as know one knows whats really going on under the hood. We'll all be safer!? I hardly think so...
Hopefully Judge CKK will see right thru this attempt at obviously controlling the market thru obscurity and risking the virtual safety of its customers. Customers who, in essence, dont have choice.
Sure enough, even the Mac lovers can agree that for the same cash a PC is gonna be faster than Mac. Intel and AMD have big incentives to keep those clock speeds as high as possible. But... where are the studies about the entire work flow? Just because the machine is faster at grinding thru certain processes, it doesnt mean that the same job will get done quicker. What's the time to import/export files? What about saving those big files off to another disk? What about the learning curve for new apps (or OSs for that matter?) What about downtime for repairs and upgrades? What about end user training? These all "cost" in the end. I'm not saying that Apple would win this kind of study but I know from personal experience I do "get more done" on my Mac than on my PC.
Are there similar initiatives in any region of the US ? The arguments put forth by the Peruvian congressmen are cut/copy/paste ready for almost any US or local government body interested in preserving freedom of information, and the security of the citizens data. It seems that with the BSA cracking down on public schools and Microsoft's disasterous security reputation it would be time to DEMAND open and free software on systems operated in the publics interest.
I to have made the switch from Win2K/Outlook to RHLinux/Evolution at work. We dont use Exchange and the one thing I cannot seem to find is an importer that will handle those pesky PST files. So all my old contacts and mail are still stuck in Outlook. Grrrr.
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I figured I'd post a couple of answers to questions not directly related to the RIAA. IANAL - but because I have released several independent records and stared down the barrel of a major label contract I thought I'd post my findings.
...
Artists are "advanced" a sum upon the signing of a recording contract. This a really a loan and the record company will recoup all costs and this "loan" before you are paid any royalty.
Typically artists recieve 11-14% of profit as additional royalty on a recording. ALL other expences are paid first (studio, promo, distribution, tour support, and advances ) The record companies keep the books and you must sue to see them. Artists have often complained that these costs are artificially inflated by the record companies to avoid paying royalty.
Consider also that your management will get 15-20% of everything you make , even royalty.
Most smaller bands playing small/medium clubs make thier cash touring. Venues get 25-35% of all merchandise sales (ever wonder why concert Ts cost $25-30?) And again management will take 15-20% of all thats left.
As you can see if you are in a 5 person band and split all the cash evenly (which is rare) the managers and record companies make all the money and you are left with a large bill called an "advance". If you cant recoup the cost of your advance then the record company has the right to dissolve your band. And they are never under any obligation to release anything, ever.
My question to Janis is
Obviously the major record companies have complete vertical control of the entire industry, from the studios and producers all the way down to the offerings in retail outlets.
How do we as independent musicians break thru this grip on wide distribution and make independently produced music available to the masses? How do we get the masses to even be aware they have a choice wheh the airplay is never there? Do the masses really want 18 dollar Britteny CDs?
thanks in advance
The 'Slide
Here it is ... ADC to VGA connector !
h tm
Now use 2 VGA monitors with your G4!
http://www.networkpromktg.com/adc_to_vga_cable.
yer welcome -
the 'slide
"gotta have more cowbell!"
Increasingly Audio/Video production is becoming de-centrelized to the point where editors and producers need to be able to work from a common source that addresses "thier" needs. Not the needs of gamers or SOHO admins.
Since the production work is mostly done on Macs it makes perfect sense to use a Mac server.
Cost of hardware has always been secondary to quality of workflow and consistency in delivering the end product. (meaning: the shit should just work! and it should work the way you'd expect)
Face it, we pay THOUSANDS for audio cards and video equipment. We are not home "tinkerers" and dont want to tinker with our servers.
If these Xservers can also double as workstations 2 birds go down with one stone.
Windows admins and Linux hobbiests will never get it.
Go Apple !
"Heh, why not push some other good stuff too?
... ;-)
Open office - good and free."
I agree but
Customers are gonna want something that adds value other than its low price. Servers have been ideal targets because of the transparency. To the end user it seems the same. Although I was as giddy as a school girl when OO.o went 1.0, putting it on peoples desktops (to replace MS Office) wont be that easy. Alot of people have used Ms Office since high school and theres a BIG comfort zone to overcome. Ms Office ships preloaded on most small business OEM PCs. So it appears "free" to the bean counters.
I havent given up hope though. My ideal product scenerio, to sell to small businesses, would be Open Office running in some enforced MS compatibilty mode on an open sourced terminal server. Completely managed by me
In order to sell it (really selling your services) it must be transparent to the end user.
This is how we (we being those who think code should be free) will propogate onto the desktop. Once the apps are in place and running the OS is next. The key is transparency to the end users. and savings for the small business owners.
This is my version of embrace and extend.
The 'slide
The Enterprise will learn what alot SMBs already know. Samba rocks as a drop in replacement for an NT file and print box.
In small offices all the users need to know is that they have a new domain password. And poof! NT is gone.
If you're admin in a small business or support/consult for multiple ones, sit down with the deci$ion maker and compare the virtues of *bsd/*nix running Samba to WinNT/2k with its licencing and security issues.
You WILL close the deal.
No wonder MS would like to see them go away.
the 'slide
So ... as long as know one knows whats really going on under the hood. We'll all be safer!? ...
I hardly think so
Hopefully Judge CKK will see right thru this attempt at obviously controlling the market thru obscurity and risking the virtual safety of its customers. Customers who, in essence, dont have choice.
Sure enough, even the Mac lovers can agree that for the same cash a PC is gonna be faster than Mac. Intel and AMD have big incentives to keep those clock speeds as high as possible. ... where are the studies about the entire work flow? Just because the machine is faster at grinding thru certain processes, it doesnt mean that the same job will get done quicker. What's the time to import/export files? What about saving those big files off to another disk? What about the learning curve for new apps (or OSs for that matter?) What about downtime for repairs and upgrades? What about end user training? These all "cost" in the end. I'm not saying that Apple would win this kind of study but I know from personal experience I do "get more done" on my Mac than on my PC.
But
Are there similar initiatives in any region of the US ?
The arguments put forth by the Peruvian congressmen are cut/copy/paste ready for almost any US or local government body interested in preserving freedom of information, and the security of the citizens data.
It seems that with the BSA cracking down on public schools and Microsoft's disasterous security reputation it would be time to DEMAND open and free software on systems operated in the publics interest.
Now thats a URL !
Thanks.
I to have made the switch from Win2K/Outlook to RHLinux/Evolution at work. We dont use Exchange and the one thing I cannot seem to find is an importer that will handle those pesky PST files. So all my old contacts and mail are still stuck in Outlook. Grrrr.
T