View Full Version : Album prices should drop to £1
Hear hear, I totally agree.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11547279
SoulKiss
15-10-10, 12:40 PM
Why should musicians get away with recording an album or 2 then living like kings.
If I could get paid for each time that I produce gets used I'd be a millionaire in a month or so...
Albums should be purely promotional, just like radio airplay, it should drum up business to go see the bands live.
Think about it, if all bands needed to play live to earn a living there would be LOADS of cheap live gigs to go to in EVERY major town in the country EVERY weekend.
Would be brilliant for the fans, and would mean that only bands/artists that could actually perform would get the chance - the Studio Only/Autotune brigade would just vanish.
Why should musicians get away with recording an album or 2 then living like kings.
If I could get paid for each time that I produce gets used I'd be a millionaire in a month or so...
Albums should be purely promotional, just like radio airplay, it should drum up business to go see the bands live.
Think about it, if all bands needed to play live to earn a living there would be LOADS of cheap live gigs to go to in EVERY major town in the country EVERY weekend.
Would be brilliant for the fans, and would mean that only bands/artists that could actually perform would get the chance - the Studio Only/Autotune brigade would just vanish.
I agree.
Owenski
15-10-10, 12:44 PM
+1,
I've not paid for a CD since pre broadband and only recently paid for music because of Itunes only charging 5.99 for a full album. Still could have downloaded it illegally for free I know, but Illegal down loads WILL kill the film/music industry unless hte powers that be slash thier prices. The low itunes price was enough to tempt me into a purchase for the first tiem in nearly 10years... so it does work.
yep, I dont copy music. apart from the damage to the music industry (that I couldnt honestly give a cr@p (cr@p) about) its theft.
If its cheap enough, and theres no reason why it shouldnt be now with instant electronic delivery and virtually no distribution costs, then I'll buy more without being so choosey.
Why should musicians get away with recording an album or 2 then living like kings.
Major misconception. Really successful ones do (and in some cases well deserved), but most earn a pittance.
speedplay
15-10-10, 12:48 PM
If I could get paid for each time that I produce gets used I'd be a millionaire in a month or so...
Sperm banks, you have got to love em :)
SoulKiss
15-10-10, 12:51 PM
Sperm banks, you have got to love em :)
Shhhhhhh if everyone gets in on it the market will be flooded....
Sperm banks, you have got to love em :)
lol
thedonal
15-10-10, 12:55 PM
Major misconception. Really successful ones do (and in some cases well deserved), but most earn a pittance.
Yes-this.
Less than 5% of musicians earn top money. Most still live on less than most people on an 'average' wage get.
The record companies earn the most out of the cost (after the distribution and retail markups) and manage to devalue the content itself to avoid paying the writers/musicians much at all.
£1 is a joke- especially coming from someone who benefitted massively from the (artificially) high price of CDs.
But then, £14 is a lot- and isn't really helping the industry.
I'd be happy paying about £8 for a CD (I prefer CDs to downloads- but I'm old fashioned- also because the audio quality is better). Most CDs end up being this price in the sales anyway.
Given that many musicians spend years and loads of money on their art- learning performing and songwriting skills and buying/maintaining instruments and equipment, I think it's fair enough that they should earn a reasonable amount out of it.
Just because music itself is a fairly abstract thing and subject to interpretation, doesn't mean it should be devalued in any way.
Of course, as far as X-Factor goes... that's something different!
File sharing has been the best thing to happen to music since Jim Marshall. It's meant that artists make less on record sales and have to get off their arses and go on tour. That can only be a good thing.
maviczap
15-10-10, 12:59 PM
I'm old enough to remember when I could go into a record shop and come out with an armful of LP's
Produced cheaply in Portugal at the time, it did encourage me to buy buy buy. Plus the great artwork and stuff that used to come with LP's
CD's are great, but far too expensive, which is not good if they're ****e.
But I'll buy MP3's now
I don't download illegally, I'll buy what I want at £0.79 per track from Amazon
Most top artists make their money from Tours these day, so I understand
why is £1 a joke if it means you could end up selling far more than you did at a higher price. Its a different business model but it works, look at the iPhone app store. You can sell millions of copies at .59p and make a fortune.
Other than promotion, why is a record label required now? You could record, press CDs, distribute music online all without the need for a record label.
thedonal
15-10-10, 01:02 PM
It'd be a lovely dream- but just like the recording industry, promoters like to soak up as much as they can, so the players don't earn as much.
It's like the classic London circuit thing- you get a big crowd in through the door- but the promoter blags that you didn't get the minimum required in to get paid. They forget that it costs musicians money to play a gig- that often they don't have.
To be honest, unless you're a genius with music and marketing yourself or are just mega lucky with a "hit", the most cash to be earned from music these days is in media and music libraries- for ads, tv and movies, radio etc. Even that requires work and (sometimes) reasonable investment.
I haven't earned from a gig for years. The paying venues are drying up (even big venues for major bands- look at places like the Astoria in London- great venue turned into more flats or shops, probably) and mainly it's open mic now- the promotor gets paid for running the night (getting the bands in and doing the sound), but if they're lucky, the band might get a pint out of it. Occasionally.
Doesn't stop us all doing it though.
thedonal
15-10-10, 01:07 PM
why is £1 a joke if it means you could end up selling far more than you did at a higher price. Its a different business model but it works, look at the iPhone app store. You can sell millions of copies at .59p and make a fortune.
Other than promotion, why is a record label required now? You could record, press CDs, distribute music online all without the need for a record label.
How much does a CD cost?
How much markup does retail get?
How much does distribution cost?
How much for marketing a new CD?
How much do the record company get back of the loan, sorry advance, for each recording?
Right now, most musicians generally earn pennies from the cost of a full price CD (unless they're U2, Madonna, Pink Floyd or The Beatles and have a great contract or have paid their advances back)- imagine what they'd get from a £1 CD.
I completely agree that CDs should be cheaper, but there is a reasonable amount and an unreasonable amount- big and small.
Downloads- fair enough. Should be much cheaper than they are, as the costs are seriously minimal. But physical media is a different situation.
And I really do think that, while it is in many ways the way forward, digital media does detract from the magic and therefore magic of buying a new album.
perhaps the CD format is not a cost effective medium then for the lower tier artists.
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