Best way to pay artists?
Sinclair
Basically, I've already downloaded the mp3s and decided I want to keep
them and pay the artist for them. I have several options:
a) Buy a CD online
b) Pay for a digital download in ITunes or some other service
c) Buy it directly from the artist web site as a download
d) Send the artist $10 through Paypal
e) Buy some overpriced piece of junk through their web site
I really don't need the CD or the download since I'm planning to
continue listening to the mp3s I have, so that's not a deciding factor.
I always try option c first, but very few artists have that option (They
Might Be Giants and Freezepop being two notable exceptions).
I'd love to do d just so they get a good chunk of money for an album
(more than the $1 they get through the other means), but surprisingly no
artists have that option available (is it part of their contract or
something?)
I've heard e recommended, but I want to make sure they get more out of
me buying a t-shirt/mug for $20 than from buying the CD (since I'm just
going to throw it away).
Any other options or suggestions?
stat...@hotmail.com
good question. i agree the $1 per record (if they're lucky) thing is
just ridiculous. in fact, some artists, like jody watley, teena marie,
cameo, deborah gibson, joan jett, and such, have released albums on
their own. they probably made more money that way as opposed to the
current set-up. they would have to tour constantly or work some other
field to make a buck. they should get a fair cut from the major
labels, even after their contracts with them have ended. from what i've
seen and read and heard, most recording artists do not see a dime in
record royalties until any and all costs involved are recouped. for
that matter, some artists, (i.e, susanna hoffs, sheila e., aimee mann,
prince) have had to wait for years for their contracts to expire. i
recall reading that merle haggard didnt begin seeing any record
royalties until he had a record out on an indie label. what does that
tell ya? maybe the indies have an edge over the majors. who knows?
p.s. check out some of my work here:
thanks.
markster
Rick Paul
particular, those are the only ones that clearly mark the money as being for
the recording, and that is important in case the artist who made the album
didn't do everything himself/herself. For example, there may be songwriters
other than the artist who will get paid nothing from a T-shirt sale (your
option e), but would at least get their 9.1 cents (or some fraction of that,
depending on if it is a co-writer, whether they own their own publishing,
etc.) per song for an album or digital download sale. The producer may also
get some amount of money for an album sale, but nothing from a T-shirt.
Neither of those would get any money from just a direct contribution to the
artist that isn't earmarked as being for a specific album, either.
Odds are the artist makes the most money if you buy the album directly from
them, be it as a CD or a download. After that, buying through somewhere
like CD Baby is likely to be next since that is also likely coming through
the artist, albeit with the extra middleman.
It's harder to say with something like iTunes, because it depends how it got
there. If you were to buy my one single ("The Lord's Prayer") from iTunes,
for 99 cents a track, I'd get whatever Apple/iTunes pays for that. I don't
recall the figure from memory, but I believe it may be something like 70
cents per track. My song got to iTunes through TuneCore, which doesn't take
a cut of the money iTunes pays. If it went through CD Baby instead, and I'm
right about the 70 cents figure, then CD Baby's 9% commission would come off
the top, leaving something like 64-cents for the artist. Some download
aggregators take as much as 50% commission, in which case the artist would
only get 35 cents in this scenario.
Actually, when I say the "artist" above, in the money talk, I really mean
whoever is getting paid after commissions to the download aggregators. It
might actually be the artist, but it could also be a record company, and
there might be royalty arrangements behind that. Also, that isn't taking
any other creative contributor royalties into account. So, for example, if
my tune were actually a cover (it isn't, and I don't have any co-writers on
it, either), then I'd have to pay the publisher (on behalf of the
songwriter) 9.1 cents, which would only leave me 61 cents (rounding for a
single sale) from the TuneCore model, and 9 cents less in each of the other
models.
If it really were a record company (i.e. other than the artist's own record
company), then how much the artist gets out of the money left after
aggregator commissions would depend on the artist's contract with the record
company. It could be extremely little in the case of something like a major
label. I read an article recently that gave some typical figures. I don't
recall them precisely, but I think we are talking a net of less than 10
cents, unless the artist is also the sole songwriter and owns his/her own
publishing.
Even if there is a major label deal there, and the artist is selling CDs off
his web site, that probably gives the most to the artist of any of these
legal options for the simple reason that they are probably then getting the
retailer's cut, in addition to whatever royalties they might be owed from
the record company.
Rick
--
=======================================
Rick Paul
Closet Cowboy Music (ASCAP)
Web: www.RickPaul.info
MySpace: www.myspace.com/rickpaulmusic
=======================================
"Sinclair" <not...@to.see> wrote in message
news:KcUpg.59395$Lm5....@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...
Cl.Massé
KcUpg.59395$Lm5....@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com
> What is the best way to pay artists of popular music?
>
> Basically, I've already downloaded the mp3s and decided I want to keep
> them and pay the artist for them. I have several options:
>
> a) Buy a CD online
> b) Pay for a digital download in ITunes or some other service
> c) Buy it directly from the artist web site as a download
> d) Send the artist $10 through Paypal
> e) Buy some overpriced piece of junk through their web site
With a CD, you'll get it with better quality, along with a jacket, the
lyrics, at least for decorating your living room or for scaring the birds on
you cherry tree. You can copy it and compress it in the format you like.
You can also give it to a friend for making him discover the artist.
--
~~~~ clmasse on free F-country
http://jude.iuma.com/
http://www.soundclick.com/nickelchrome
Lynn
Whilst you're there you can probably buy a CD or other merchandise, and may
even get them to sign it for you.
Regards,
Lynn
==============================================
My company - http://www.WobblyMusic.net
My Music - http://www.wobblymusic.net/RecordStore.htm
My Marketing tools - http://www.DoThisToWin.com
My Residual Income Builder - http://www.Music45.com
==============================================
"Sinclair" <not...@to.see> wrote in message
news:KcUpg.59395$Lm5....@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com...
musea/Tom Hendricks/H&PD
> The best way to benefit an artist directly is to go and see them play live.
> Whilst you're there you can probably buy a CD or other merchandise, and may
> even get them to sign it for you.
>
> Regards,
>
> Lynn
Here's one more way. Give them a review. With thousands of indie
musicians out there (just look at myspace.com for ex.)
there are too many to sort through. But if a few indie review services
could wade through most of them and tell us the cream of the crop,
and the ones to watch for, and the ones to avoid as not having
anything professional or innovative, then we could
finally make sense of it all and start rewarding the very talented.
(PS myspace.com/hunkasauruscom for some of mine)
David F. Cox
their own reviews under different names and resort to other tawdry practises
such as spamming newsgroups, and try to spread their name by crossposting
****.
A lot of musicians have websites, or at least webspace. If they could get
past the natural inclination to see each other as competitors and post links
to other musicians that they like, without expecting a return of the favour,
that would help.
David F. Cox
"musea/Tom Hendricks/H&PD" <tomhend...@cs.com> wrote in message
news:1153014581.2...@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Rick Paul
news:1153014581.2...@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
I was going to try having a listen, but I just get "song not found" for all
four of your MySpace songs at the above URL.
musea/Tom Hendricks/H&PD
I'll ask my webmaster to check in to it - he posted them on there.
In the meantime you can hear 2 cd's worth at
hunkasaurus.com and
another lp worth at the musea.us
though those are not all as professionally done.
musea/Tom Hendricks/H&PD
> I'll ask my webmaster to check in to it - he posted them on there.
He did (Sunday evening) and said they worked fine for him.
myspace.com/hunkasauruscom
Rick Paul
MySpace. I was able to listen to the few I tried on your other web site
with no problem. I actually listened to parts of the same named ones that
were on the MySpace site, so whatever the issue is must be specific to the
uploads on MySpace or the MySpace mechanisms themselves. I've seen this
same issue only one other time before, and, for that particular artist, all
the other songs on her MySpace page worked, just not that one particular
one, which was a fairly new upload at the time (I haven't gone back there
since then to see if anything has changed, and she did acknowledge the
problem and that she was looking into it).
Rick
--
=======================================
Rick Paul
Closet Cowboy Music (ASCAP)
Web: www.RickPaul.info
MySpace: www.myspace.com/rickpaulmusic
=======================================
"musea/Tom Hendricks/H&PD" <tomhend...@cs.com> wrote in message
news:1153104172.4...@35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Cl.Massé
SAlug.22795$IU2....@newsfe2-win.ntli.net
> A lot of musicians have websites, or at least webspace. If they could get
> past the natural inclination to see each other as competitors and post
> links to other musicians that they like, without expecting a return of
> the favour, that would help.
That's quite a good idea. We aren't competitors, we are allied against the
big bad music industry.
musea/Tom Hendricks/H&PD
> I'm still getting the same result ("song not found") when trying to play on
> MySpace. I was able to listen to the few I tried on your other web site
> with no problem. I actually listened to parts of the same named ones that
> were on the MySpace site, so whatever the issue is must be specific to the
> uploads on MySpace or the MySpace mechanisms themselves. I've seen this
> same issue only one other time before, and, for that particular artist, all
> the other songs on her MySpace page worked, just not that one particular
> one, which was a fairly new upload at the time (I haven't gone back there
> since then to see if anything has changed, and she did acknowledge the
> problem and that she was looking into it).
>
> Rick
Very strange. Well I'm glad you got to hear them anyway.
If anyone else has the same problem on downloads from
the myspace.com/hunkasauruscom
4 MP3s, please let me know.
Thanks,
Tom
Rick Paul
> Very strange. Well I'm glad you got to hear them anyway.
> If anyone else has the same problem on downloads from
> the myspace.com/hunkasauruscom
> 4 MP3s, please let me know.
Note that the problem wasn't on downloads -- I didn't even try that. It was
on trying to play the clips, via clicking on the title of the song or
pressing play (or just letting the first one on the page try to stream
automatically).
Rick
Cl.Massé
de news: 1153104172.4...@35g2000cwc.googlegroups.com
> He did (Sunday evening) and said they worked fine for him.
Yeah, the only snag is that it is not for him. Is he a real webmaster?
musea/Tom Hendricks/H&PD
> Note that the problem wasn't on downloads -- I didn't even try that. It was
> on trying to play the clips, via clicking on the title of the song or
> pressing play (or just letting the first one on the page try to stream
> automatically).
>
> Rick
>
> --
> =======================================
> Rick Paul
> Closet Cowboy Music (ASCAP)
> Web: www.RickPaul.info
> MySpace: www.myspace.com/rickpaulmusic
> =======================================
I have that same problem - but its because I have an old Mac system.
PC or Apple?
Rick Paul
Rick
--
=======================================
Rick Paul
Closet Cowboy Music (ASCAP)
Web: www.RickPaul.info
MySpace: www.myspace.com/rickpaulmusic
=======================================
"musea/Tom Hendricks/H&PD" <tomhend...@cs.com> wrote in message
news:1153330619.3...@i3g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
Cl.Massé
P8Hug.548$bP5...@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net
> I'm still getting the same result ("song not found") when trying to play
> on MySpace.
What is your plateform. Which browser/player do you use? Is Java
installed? Which are your security settings? Are JavaScript and/or ActiveX
enabled?
Rick Paul
just not this specific one. MySpace uses a Flash 9 player.
Rick
--
=======================================
Rick Paul
Closet Cowboy Music (ASCAP)
Web: www.RickPaul.info
MySpace: www.myspace.com/rickpaulmusic
=======================================
"Cl.Massé" <ret...@contactprospect.com> wrote in message
news:44bfacb0$0$11772$626a...@news.free.fr...
Cl.Massé
> It's IE 6 (with latest updates). It works for other people's MySpace
> stuff, just not this specific one. MySpace uses a Flash 9 player.
I see only one explanation: the file name contains characters that aren't
allowed by your version of Flash or something else, or it's format uses
features that aren't supported.