Jim Ray wrote: > ...the grateful dead would have a separate section of every concert > for tapers. the openly promoted the copying of their music. funny > how they were the top grossing band.
Just to throw my .02 in (as someone who is a recording artist and has experience in dealing with record companies...) - artists don't see any real money from their albums. The only financial* motivation for recording an album is to get it played on the radio so people will come to your shows - where the real money is. Some may not be aware, but some of the larger bands charge quite a fee to play at large venues. This is just an estimation out of my butt, but I believe Pearl Jam would probably go for at least $150,000 - $200,000 for one show. (My band used to charge $1,000) Also, if a song gets played on a radio station anywhere in America, the song's author gets $0.06, I think it was. The band will get another $0.06. So radio play can get some cash in their pocket as well. If a CD is sold, the band may get $0.50 if they're lucky. Now, sell a million copies (which not many artists can do anyway), and sure that's a good chunk of change (half a million). But compare that to how much some can get for one evening of work, and you'll see why many bands themselves want you to copy their music - so you'll come to their concerts where the real money is! It's the $RECORD_COMPANY that wants you to buy the $15 CD. They probably make something like a $10 or $11 profit per CD. Most of the artists I listen to (Wilco, Flaming Lips, etc.) encourage us to copy their music. $RECORD_COMPANY is out to screw people and make as much profit as possible in the process (I've experienced this first hand). My $0.02... *Of course, recording can also be a pretty enjoyable experience, and it allows you to do some things artisticly that couldn't be done live as easily. -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/ TriLUG PGP Keyring : http://trilug.org/~chrish/trilug.asc
