EARACHE RECORDS TAKES ONE GIANT STEP INTO THE FUTURE
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 5:30pm by Vince Neilstein
In a move that’s seen relatively little press, Earache announced on Monday that they’ll be giving away the entirety of Gama Bomb’s new album Tales From The Grave In Space for free via Rapidshare.
Woah, what? For free?!?!? “But there’s money to be made on music sales!!” cry the industry curmudgeons. That sound I just heard was a certain old-school metal publicist screaming in disgust when she wasn’t even asked to.
This is the most forward-thinking business decision I’ve seen any metal label make to date. It’s absolutely groundbreaking, and Earache should be applauded. Now I’m going to tell you why in exactly 1,123 words.
As much as record label owners and employees might not like to admit it, sales of recorded music are dying a slow, painful death. I’m not just talking CDs… everyone knows those are on the way out. I’m talking digital sales too. And for the love of God PLEASE do not tell me that vinyl’s recent surge in popularity is going to save the record industry… it’s a relative blip on the radar compared to the bigger picture, and it is and will remain a niche. The fact of the matter is, music is just worth less than it used to be.
Pause. I want to talk about the meaning of the words “worth” and “value” for a moment, two closely intertwined words that are at the heart of this debate. “Value” means nothing more than the amount of money someone is willing to pay for something… what it’s “worth” to them. Value and worth are determined by the consumer, not the merchant. Maynard James Keenan could take a shit, put it in a bag and post it up on eBay, and if the Tool frontman’s turds sold for $1,000 then by golly, that’s what they’re worth. Likewise, a car dealer could insist that a brand new BMW is worth $50,000 but if no one’s willing to pay that price… guess what, it’s not worth that much!
This is the fundamental mistake the record industry has been making ever since Napster changed everything. For a long, long time, labels controlled the means of distribution via retailers and manufactured pieces of plastic (or vinyl)… because they controlled the distribution they were able to set the price and there was nothing the consumer could do about it. With the Internet, EVERYONE became a distributor and that model was instantly irrelevant. Suddenly the price was no longer set in stone, and with “free” as an easily available (albeit not legal, but still available) option, labels and bands started to tinker.
Back to the topic at hand. Music just isn’t worth what it used to be, simply because consumers have DECIDED that it isn’t. Labels don’t get to dictate what it’s worth anymore… consumers do. And guess what, consumers are saying loud and clear that recorded music is most definitely NOT worth $10-$15 for the piece of plastic or a group of digital files on which it’s delivered. It might not even be worth anything. And that’s where Earache Records is getting smart.
Don’t bitch and complain that records cost money to record. Even though they cost WAY less than ever before, of course they still cost money and those who spend money to make records deserve to be recouped. I’ll get to that later.
Gama Bomb are a relatively new band. If a relatively established metal act like Marduk can only sell 650 units (physical and digital combined) in their album’s first week of release, any possible sales of a new Gama Bomb record are going to be completely negligible, equivalent to a rounding error on the band’s overall balance sheet. Earache realizes this; rather than potentially sell (for example) 200 copies, which would gross $2,000 out of which the profit would most certainly be $0 (when recording costs, etc are factored in), Earache would rather get the music out there to anyone who is willing to listen to it in an effort to build fans who like the music, and get these fans to pay for a show ticket and hopefully a t-shirt.
Of course, this logic only holds if Gama Bomb are in a 360-deal, which Earache have confirmed to me that they are. For those who might not know: whereas record contracts traditionally stipulate that labels only make money on record sales, a 360 deal has the label participating in all of the band’s income streams including touring and merch. So if you’re Earache, giving away a relatively small potatoes band’s album for free makes perfect sense; rather than waste time counting pennies, get the music out there and collect on things that fans actually give a shit about (AND are more profitable) such as shows and merch.
As for the digital argument, sure, I understand those of you who say you like to have the physical product in your hands. I, too, grew up with physical product and I like the artwork and such. But the reality of the situation is that today’s teenagers — and subsequently everyone who comes after them — do NOT share these values and there’s no way we’re going to magically convince them that a piece of plastic is worth something. Call it a shame, call it blasphemous, call it whatever you want — it’s reality, it’s where things are going, and that is that. Adjust. If you’re really a true fan of MUSIC and you enjoy it for the notes that stream from your speakers into your ears, ultimately the lack of a physical object to hold should not bother you. But I digress.
Record labels: if you’re not signing new bands into 360 deals, you’re living in the past. Sure, it makes sense to sell as much physical product as possible as long as there are still people willing to buy it (and right now there certainly are) but the party is just about over… you’re the equivalent of that guy at the bar at 3:59am begging for just one more drink please when everyone else has gone home, passed out, or is off somewhere else getting laid. I don’t want to hear it about how 360 deals screw the artist either. There’s a give and take; the labels have more rights and are taking a higher percentage of the band’s income, but that’s incentive for the label to work harder to strike creative deals that move not just records but concert tickets and merch as well. It’s mutually beneficial. The line between label and manager becomes blurrier and blurrier until they’re one in the same. Labels, I implore you: Earache is moving boldly into the future; will you?
Since we’re equal opportunity haters and lovers here at MetalSucks, if any metal record label personnel would like the chance to respond publicly to this piece, I welcome your input and will give anyone a fair chance. Email vince [at] metalsucks.net.
Oh and about that Gama Bomb album, it’ll be available on November 5th right here. May as well download it, right? You may become a fan.
-VN
FINALLY!!!! Emails do work, yay for Emails!
Oh yeah, by the way Gama Bomb are awsome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0jFPO4leVQ
Yes, my friends and I are already fans.
When NIN gave away the Slip they earned plenty more fans. This will get me to listen to Earache, maybe like it. I hate that CD shops (resale music n shit) are dissapearing everywhere.
I meant Gama Bomb not Earache.
This is not true. I saw NIN at the garden in 2005 supporting “with teeth” (a sold record) and it was sold out. The next arena tour, for the slip, at the IZOD center, was sparsely attended and they had to block of the whole second tier of the arena due to lack of ticket sales.
Thats because The Slip was NIN’s worst effort ever. That was a terrible album.
thats because you shouldnt have to pay 100$ per fucking ticket..
Trent’s “Stealth Screen” isn’t going to pay for itself. NIN put on the most amazing visual show I have ever seen in my life. And, Trent pays for that stuff out of his own pocket. If he were just playing against a black backdrop and house-lights the tickets would be much cheaper, but so would the live experience. Sure, thousands of bands do it, but thousands of bands aren’t NIN. I’ll remember that show for the rest of my life. The hundreds of other shows I’ve seen in bars? Not so much.
Sounds like smart forward thinking to me. Technically I don’t think that consumers decided on the price of
music though cause if that was the case then EVERYTHING would be free from the food you get at the
grocery to the overpriced BMW you talked about.
Advances in technology chose this situation.
Prices on things like Food and that overpriced BMW arent chosen by the consumer, its determined by how willing they are to pay up for it. Everyone wants everything for free, but most people are willing to pay a price for certain things, which determines how much something is worth. (I thought Axl explained this fairly well)
Though I do agree that technology plays a very significant role with the current situation in music, and earache defiantly have the right idea in giving that album away for free. We’re all going to download it at least at first anyways.
Yeah I did that with Kowloon Walled City and that turned out pretty good. The best
part is there really is nothing to lose.
the byline says vince, not axl. vince is the smart one, right?
but yes, vince explained it very well.
Nice to see a pro-market argument here at Metalsucks. And here I thought people had lost faith in capitalism…
It’s going to take social1sm in action to cause people to love captalism again. Take for instance the
HUGE conservative shift that has happened as a result of Obama and his cronies pushing for
social1zed medicine. FOX News is by far number one ever since LOL!
BTW make sure you spell social1sm like this because otherwise you get modded here at
MS. This coming from people that want to preach tolerance and freedom…lol…oh the irony. Liberalism
is all about freedom. The freedom to do and think exactly like they do or have hell to pay.
socialism, socialism, socialism.
AAAAAAAAAAAAH! I’M BEING MODDED!
oooh shit… you were right… about the social1sm thing…
whoa, that actually happens…. thats fucked. i tried to type it.
LOL die in a fire you retarded simian. I don’t even want to waste my time talking about how everything you’ve said is so unbelievably stupid.
dude, fox was ALREADY number in cable news because the far right is extremely well tuned and conditioned to continue to buy that stuff. progressives, democrats and independents just aren’t as engaged as the far right. the election only galvanized an additional 5-10% of the population and pushed the GOP harder right. take all shit fwiw, prolly not much.
as for 360 deals, the are the best for the up-n-cumers. established bands (like ‘em or not), be it U2, Metallica (less so now), NIN, etc, they really should follow radiohead’s lead and totally abandon the labels. they have no need for them. the band can do everything and anything they want, including releasing an album online for free. they make all their money via ticket and merch sales. remember that video from marty friedman (i think…), about how much a band makes from an album sale? negligible when spread over 4-5 members. the real money is in touring. they make much more percentage of the box office.
on another note, i thought this was well thought out, well argued and well written. quality stuff, vn. here’s a follow up…how do bands in the metal community view 360 deals? generally for or against the idea?
Thats fine but when Skynet takes over the internet ill still Have my Original copies of Van Halen !, Back in Black, Master of Puppets etc…
I lol’d.
the lost generation. nobody will have pictures of their kids either.
Google is Skynet.
Why Rapidshare though? Mediafire is quicker and easier to use.
i ask myself this everytime i see a rapidshare link. I think it’s cheaper/ more profitable,
I do know that mediafire deletes albums way more quicker than rapidshare does, but If the album is legally allowed to be on it, then why not put it on mediafire instead? I don’t get it.
Yeah, horrible, horrible idea to use rapidshare. They really should’ve used torrents or a server.
soon CD’s will become the new vinyl: no longer sold in stores, but ordered on line for the true fans
That is a really smart move, right now I’m listening to some Gamma Bomb on youtube and thinking “man I need one of their albums”. And since I love CDs I’ll go round HMV tomorrow to look for some of their older works .
Great idea, i completely agree with the writer when he says athis 360 deal will be mutualy benificial, as it will bolster the amount of people that catch this band on tour.
a step towards the future indeed but one i am sad to see coming
i am a young man who hopes to be able to make a living doing artwork for bands, mainly album covers, but if the physical product is on it’s way out (which it clearly is) then that goes out the window
now i know theres still plenty of opportunities for artwork to be done for bands (promotional, tshirts, stage banners,…) there is something i find almost “sacred” about the album cover, its like if you get to do the artwork for album-x or band-y then you’ve “made it” (so to speak)
i mean lets face it you can bet your ass that derek riggs or vince locke would be much less known had they not done so much artwork for iron maiden and cannibal corpse (respectively)
but anyway back to what this news post is really about: good on ya to earache for boldly stepping foreward into the future
Digital Album Art is still sort of a big thing. As one of those who doesn’t really value a physical CD, I can say that going to a bands website/Myspace and seeing a metal album cover is pretty pleasing.
Werent Albums supposed disapear? There still here & CD’s will be here for MANY years to come, you can count on it!
There’s always going to be SOME people who prefer the physical media to digital. The issue is that they aren’t as profitable. Since we no longer require a physical format to listen to music, there’s no reason to believe it’ll survive. It’s all about convenience.
Most analysts have already predicted we’re in the last generation of physical media, particularly in regards to music, movies, and video games. You can download games to your XBOX, stream movies from Netflix, and jump on Amazon or iTunes to download music. There’s really no reason to risk filling landfills with unsold CDs for newer bands, especially factoring in manufacturing and distribution costs.
I’m a huge fan of the complete package and love the experience of opening a CD for the first time, but it’s ridiculous to think that this form of media will ever dominate again. It’s left for fans like us that grew up with albums, but it’s a dying breed.
I do recall Arthur Von Nagel saying in his first column that bands should never compromise on merchandise…
I think he said never give away all the rights to your merchandise. The record label normaly take a percentage anyway.
yeah i’d like to hear what he thinks of this.
I would never sign a 360 deal unless the percentages were gifts from god and all associated costs were paid for up front by the label in full. Of course labels want 360 deals: the merch and live shows are the only things that earns money. Bands want 360 deals because then their label takes care of their business for them.
I’m not interested in losing control of my music, my image or my merchandise. I can see why someone would sign such a deal but I LIKE handling my own business. Sucks for Marduk having mediocre sales, but if they wanted to put the work in to self-release their record and maintain their merch rights, they could have sold half of what they did their first week and likely made back all their money. You’re missing out on promotional muscle from the label obviously, but at least you don’t owe them a massive debt that will likely never recoup. And for what? Fame? Who cares.
Cormorant self-released, and we earned back our entire recording budget in only TEN DAYS (and remember we spent 2 week in a ultra-pro studio with a name producer). From then on it’s pure profit. Sure it’s a lot more work and money up front, but that’s the cost for freedom and I feel it’s worth it. I don’t expect to get big operating this way, but I do expect the band to be financially self-sufficient so no asshole in a suit can dangle money in our faces and expect us to beg. Of course no one knows who the hell we are, but the point still stands: bands CAN self-release and then earn enough money to pay for the next album, and so on and so on. And they CAN do it without giving up their rights, compromising on their sound or values, or falling massively in debt.
Fuck, now I really have to finish that self-release guide quickly to back up my big mouth.
Please do. We’re about to release our first “full length” (what does that mean in the post-album world? whateverrrrrr it’s like y’know eight songs and 48 minutes) by ourselves and I, for one, am keen on your insights.
Arthur, do you think downloading music for free is ok? I’ve always been against it, I’ve wanted to support the bands I love, but the more I hear, it sounds like they don’t profit much off of it when I buy a record.
Being an artist, does it piss you off when people just download your music, or are you ok with it?
I’m fine with illegal downloading. I’m just happy that people listen to our music. Signed bands don’t see any profits from album sales until they’re recouped, and most never do. In our case, since we’re our own label, we see 100% of profits from sales. I think people understood that (I publicized the fact) so I feel more were willing to support us financially since they KNEW the money was going to us so we can pay for the next album. And Metazoa has been a big success in part for this reason. I feel that most music fans really do want to support the artists they enjoy, but don’t give two fucks about the labels. I got e-mails from fans who told me Metazoa was the first album they bought in years rather than pirate. We’re distributed by both Relapse and The End Records, who have pretty major webstores, but sales from our own shitty blogspot Paypal have trumped theirs, because I’m convinced, like you said, fans really and truly want to support the bands directly.
360 deals just add another layer of middleman between bands and their fans. It used to be if you went to a show and bought a shirt from the band directly, you knew you were helping them and not the label. Now I don’t know. I’m very much against it. I consider it exploitative. I’m with Metal Blade on this one. Someone go ask Gama Bomb how much money they’re earning for their hard work. I’d guess they haven’t made a cent.
Thanks arthur! I’m in a band I would like to one day describe as “up and coming.” We’ve got a few songs nailed down and we’re about to start gigging in a few weeks. Our bassist also has connections to Matchless Records, so being faced with the idea that I could be a recording artist VERY soon, i’ve been pondering this question more and more.
I suppose I’ll keep buying albums directly off iTunes, since there’s not really a way of knowing if the band is in a 360 deal. The only record label I’ve ever cared about supporting was metal blade, and that was only because I watched the Cannibal Corpse DVD and thought the guys that represented Metalblade were pretty cool.
I buy all the albums I love in physical copies. I’ve been heckling my local FYE to get Cormorant, among others, and I think I’m going to succeed, soon. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll most definitely end up buying Metazoa from your guys’ website, but I really want to get that kind of album into my local stores, so it will get more of an audience.
I think its a great idea, actual records just arent making money and its pointless to continue to push it. The reluctancy to give into free music is a bit silly, I download all my music for free anyways, purely because if a band hasnt directly sold it to me at a gig, its going to someone else and a tiny portion if anything at all if its not a particularly mainstream or well selling record anyway, will be going to the artist. And I can get the actual direct rip of the CD I want online for free. I dont really care about album art work or CDs if Im honest, it all goes on my Ipod.
I am however more than willing to buy merch and gig tickets of a band who tours, of which the margin for profit for the artist is massivly larger than for record sales, and I cant download a t-shirt or a live expierience like I can with actual music, theres just no incentive to buy it tbh. So I will be downloading this album, as I would have anyways, and if they stop by on tour illl get me a t-shirt or two.
Everyones a winner, this band will get more of its music out there and the record company will get their cash back on their undoubtably more succesful tours.
I hope CDs and vinyls remain available (at least at shows) for us die-hards, but yeah, Earache’s smart on this one. I noticed how their ads are often about merch they sell. Although I think guys like Arthur von Nagel are smarter, by foregoing the biz altogether and reaping full profit off of albums and merch. Still, nice to know one label might survive.
I’m not making an argument, but just my situation: I don’t live in a city or near a city and I’ve hardly been to a “real” show. I already have more band shirts than I can wear regularly. So, I have no money stream to them. I suppose them selling the CD themselves via mailorder would not justify the costs of the CD in this case? Lastly, this download better be perfectly reproduced losslessly, or I could never support an endeavor that has lower data rates than CDs.
when I was kid in a hicktown in the middle of bumfuk egypt, no bands ever came to town. So we started our own bands and threw parties and local gigs. It’s called a ’scene’, you mighta heard of one. Takes a little bit of effort too. But if you like girls and free beer, there’s one hellluva payoff.
Yeah, but what about lame o’s like me that dont buy tshirts or go to concerts? They wont make anything off me whereas they would have before as I buy the music…sol?
Unfortunately you’re in the minority. The piece says what’s true, recorded music sales are dying. This shift is physical music sales really does not affect underground metal bands as much as it does your corporate metal/rock players (i.e. Disturbed, Korn). Underground metal has survived all these years because of the dedicated fanbase doing whatever they can to help their band. Touring is how underground bands have always paid their rent and that holds true today. If you personally don’t go to shows or buy merch but you still like the band, maybe you’ll tell your friend about the band and he/she will go to the show and buy a shirt.
Metal Blade still doesn’t do 360 deals. Vince – you should talk to Slagel about this sometime. Some of our new deals are moving to a totally different direction while still letting the band make money from tour and merch. We don’t want to take away bands’ only sources of income. There are ways of keeping costs down and keeping liability low with out 360 deals.
And everyone is still missing the fact that touring is incredibly expensive for bands and most new band get paid $100-$200 a night TOPS. You’re also assuming that they’re crushing in merch sales, which not all news bands do. Of course I haven’t read ALL of the above comments…
This is very true. We’re very happy when we get $200 for a show from the promoter. Merch sales really depend on the crowd and how well you played that night. Sometimes you sell many hundreds of dollars worth of shirts, sometimes you’re lucky to unload a single CD.
While this all well and good, It worries me that labels might turn on artist, signing them to 3 – 5 year contracts making them play every single shithole in the world to sell T – Shirts. The bands must be paid like employees for this to work, with a minimum hourly rate for touring time etc or else the labels will whore the bands like no tomorrow under contracts, paying the band nothing, forcing them too play to pay off recording debts.
Bands are indeed ‘ a product’ when signed to a label, no different to a pair of shoes really, and they must be reinbursed and their music treated like ‘patended products’.
While this a great move for the music industry, it must be regulated and artist must be protected, and so should their creations.
Communist!
I think currently what an album is ‘worth’ isn’t so much based on artistic integrity as much as the value people place on their time. Seems to me that a lot of people would rather spend their day on facebook or myspace (regardless of the fact that these programs are free) or their cellphone then listen to music. I’m not saying that the average metal fan is at this level, but there are enough people who don’t attach the same portion of their day that could be spent on one’s favorite artists and songs because of these new sources of ‘entertainment’
This is one of the ‘real’ killers of the music industry; the average person just doesn’t have the time to sit and listen to music like they used to. There are too many other forms of entertainment, and so many of them are all connected online, and constantly updating. Other than old-school metal/music fans, does anyone actuall get together with otehr people and listen to a new album? More often than not, it’s just ripped to an iPod and becomes background noise.
Whatever. Just you wait, someday my massive collection of 8 Tracks, VHS tapes and cassettes will be worth MILLIONS.
why have a record deal if you give away the music? I think lables are on the way out as well. I work with a band that just dropped their label and put out their new album on their own and the money made is 100% theirs to keep. It might require a little more work on the bands end to get it out there but getting rid of the middle man is the way to do it.
but why rapidshare? bittorrent is a better platform. at least, they should choose two platforms.
WOW! Retro trash thinking forwards? Who would have thought.
hahaha nice
an electronic dj+drummer group called pretty lights did the same thing. both albums were available for free download from the groups website. by april they had upwards of 70k downloads. the group makes all of its money via touring and is clearly doing well. they added an lcd light show to their sets and for the current tour, they are on some giant tour bus. clearly this idea works and hopefully all labels will see this in the near future.
Great article and you are a 100% on point.It is a bold but great move for Earache.I am interested in seeing what and how other record labels are gonna respond to this..
Moshpit Tragedy has been offering free downloads for it’s band for a few years. But they put a different spin of it. They have a “sliding scale download”, which means you can pay what you want. You can pay10.00 or you can pay 0.00. The downloads come with all the inserts and u-card so the cd people can print the stuff out and make a cd if they want. If a Black Metal label wanted to start this kind of distro, the people could just get a hand held tape recorder and hold it up to the computer speakers and then they would have a tape. I have always thought downloads of band were a good idea but .99 a song in robbery!
360 Deals are just as bad if not worse then a standard Record Company deal.
You are basically taking money from the artist that the record company doesn’t deserve.
I could go make and album. Get a rapidshare account and distribute my CD for free too. I could also sign a distrubution deal to get my physcial album in stores. I just pay them a percentage to put it in stores.
That way I keep ALL my MASTERS and ALL my MERCH.
The 80’s and 90’s made the world greedy for selling tons of albums. The model is smaller now.
But giving up your Merch rights as a band is a terrible idea. As a metal band. That is your money maker. even back in the day that was your money maker. Still is.
exactly.
so if artists can get screwed out of their tour and merch income then what? how do make a living playing music? right when it seems like the parasitic tendencies of the label were being re-evaluated, they find a new way to dig in the pocket of artists. Im not going to download that band’s record. just the same way Im not going to listen to that free CD that comes in the mail or that they give you at a coffee shop. music isnt worth anything certainly for the reasons you mention, but also because theres too much of it. supply and demand patnah. too many bands, too many fucking energy drink companies and Snowboard clothing companies starting labels and trying to make money. now that bigger venues take a cut of bands merch, what do you sell that’s yours? if you’re going to drive around the country playing music….buying gas, eating, sleeping somewhere, money is going to have to change hands somewhere. what you say is the future also can end up just the same as the current major label system. indentured servitude and debt.
It’s really just a PR move, it’s not as if the album wouldn’t be freely available anyway so doing this just makes it obvious that you’re accepting this and moving on to new business models. I wonder how Earache will handle the spread to download blogs that will happen within minutes, I guarantee the album will leak before it’s ‘released’ on rapidshare anyway, it would be a good move to make your band/label blog-friendly as the people who run and use them represent the core audience for underground music these days and having them on side posting your albums is some of the cheapest and most effective promotion you CAN’T buy. I run a download blog and you’d be amazed at the bands bypassing their labels to contact blogs direct for upload posts knowing that even smaller blogs can guarantee maybe 200/300 new people at least hearing their album.
Great article, but there’s one more thing I’d like to say: I think instead of giving the album out, it should be”pay what you
so if artists can get screwed out of their tour and merch income then what? how do make a living playing music? right when it seems like the parasitic tendencies of the label were being re-evaluated, they find a new way to dig in the pocket of artists. Im not going to download that band’s record. just the same way Im not going to listen to that free CD that comes in the mail or that they give you at a coffee shop. music isnt worth anything certainly for the reasons you mention, but also because theres too much of it. supply and demand patnah. too many bands, too many fucking energy drink companies and Snowboard clothing companies starting labels and trying to make money. now that bigger venues take a cut of bands merch, what do you sell that’s yours? if you’re going to drive around the country playing music….buying gas, eating, sleeping somewhere, money is going to have to change hands somewhere. what you say is the future also can end up just the same as the current major label system. indentured servitude and debt.
Venues taking a cut of merch is a serious ripoff. I’m in a little local band and we got to play a larger venue a few years ago. We were just the little local opening band, with only a handful of shirts and a cd, and the venue wanted us to pay them more than we would’ve even made selling a little merch. We just sold stuff out back during the show. It sucked, but it was better than handing over everything we would’ve made.
“Woah, what? For free?!?!? “But there’s money to be made on music sales!!” cry the industry curmudgeons. That sound I just heard was a certain old-school metal publicist screaming in disgust when she wasn’t even asked to.”
haha the best part of that panel, and vince you should of been on it more then I deserved to be
Hey Vince,
Our recent guest blogger, Eric Powell, from 16Volt, released his entire back catalogue for free way back in May of this year.
http://16volt.com/news/16volt-back-catalog-for-free/
All of the 16Volt albums are still available for download and definitely worth a listen for lovers of industrial metal.
That’s awesome! I’ve had a hard time finding the discs and didn’t want to just DL them. I’ve seen them live and they’re definitely worth supporting.
So,
I have recently started my own record company and as someone who spent about a year doing R&D I can tell you that I don’t think giving albums away for free are going to last very long. The future of music hinges on the musicians’ healtha nd financial well being and I for one am a HUGE supporter of this. My business plan is clear, digital ONLY sales. Also labels being smart with their finances would help in the long run as well, alot of labels out there ran up a lot of bad debt over stupid practices(see EMI) and look at where they are at. I do not nor ever will sing my bands to 360 deals becaus eI believe they degrade the artist. I set them up with a standard deal for a 1 album. If they like working with me and I like working with them I option to pick them up for 3 more. ALSO, I give my artists the option of a health/dental/401 k plan, and really work with the artist on building long-term financial success so that artists are able to get up in the morning and play with there kids and spend time with their families, instead of recovering at a methodone clinic.
PS Vinnie seriously needs to take a business/accounting class and learn about checks and balances.
Good luck selling fresh air, we’re not buying.
yep…you are.
I bet if you couldnt steal music then music sales would be bigger than ever. But I guess its alright to steal things from people as long as its only music. Stealing every thing else is a crime. Who cares. Stealing from musicians is A OK in my book. Most of them are dumb anyway.
I think people should be able to work into anyones house and take what they want. Fuck it.
I moonlighted in a local blues band, and we were getting between $300-600 a gig, so making money performing is pretty much about popular taste (and how good you are). I had to give it up because 3-4 sets of blues shuffles a night were sucking my soul dry.
People forget that only about 100 years ago, everyone was hanging on their porch diddlin’ banjos with their friends and nobody gave a crap about making bucks. Only professional performers and people who wrote and published songs got paid. Shit, even Mozart was buried in a pauper’s grave.
Blame the industrial revolution (and the finance wonks) for giving people the false belief that everything you touch and do has a dollar sign attached to it. Then, take a long hard look in the mirror and think about what truly makes you happy…
Excellent post. A tiny nitpick, but:
““Value” means nothing more than the amount of money someone is willing to pay for something… what it’s “worth” to them.”
That is only one theory of value (one which I happen to agree with), there are others- but that’s dorky econ talk not fit for a metal blog.
CDs are just not worth it to me because the art is so negligible. I love art. If you can give me a cool book with art and lyrics with a record, I will gladly shell out $5-10 out for it depending on how awesome it is. I realize even that is a difference between me and most of my generation for music, but I also go to shows and buy t-shirts. The sad reality is that most people don’t do this. These are the people who buy CDs and don’t really care about music despite their Facebook status that says music is their life. So to all labels: Give me some art and lyrics with a digital download card, but in a format more meaningful than some 120mm x 120mm booklet and I will give you $10 and will go see your band on tour and buy a t-shirt. I’m willing to spend the money I work for on things that actually contain some value to me.
Excellent article! Very insightful as well. As a digital distributor for more than 75 underground metal labels, I believe digital sales are still moving along quite well in the marketplace while CDs are dying a slow death. Perhaps your vision may come true, with the advent of the demise of digital sales. However, in spite of the mass availability of free digital music, there are still people buying it because they enjoy the platforms they use to obtain music. Some people don’t like dealing with torrent systems and prefer paid platforms like what iTunes, Amazon or eMusic offer. Other sites like Amie St., offer a system in which the cost of songs and albums increase depending on their popularity, which is an assumed measure of their value. More so, sites like Magnatune allow buyers to determine the value altogether. Magnatune provides an excellent insight into the consumer’s mind and how various people judge the worth of music in a variety of ways.
360 deals would be a nice save if concert attendance wasn’t also plummeting along with sales. It’s all a dyin’ art – welcome to the terminal ward. What’s in it for me?
The free download thing is kind of bitchin’ because I’ll get a chance to listen to it (legally!) without having to put out money right away for a CD given the economic state. Right on. I will buy the album though…always do. (P.S. Gama Bomb is awesome!)
I’m in an independent, unsigned band and we’re releasing our new album ourselves. We realize we won’t see jack shit in CD sales, so we had enough made up “just in case” someone actually orders one, but took the extra step to have our music available on iTunes, Amazon, Snocap, and every other online music distribution service. Still probably won’t see barely any sales, but at least the music there if anyone happens to be c curious. The music industry is quickly turning into a garage sale/flea market.