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Speaking of new models . . .
I’ve been pondering what the future is going to look like and I’d be interested to hear from musicians, managers, other people in the business (or just interested in it) in N. America what they think a new model could possibly look like or involve, especially as it applies to Europe. What would musicians need and be willing to let go of?
Coming from a label background, I can see serious issues for the musician who tried to work in Europe without someone with European experience. Laws, taxes, promo, each country’s quirks, and so on, all have to be navigated in order to work or sell music here, and it’s a bit more complicated than N. America. How would you see an entity, whether it’s a label taking on a new role or an independent business, working with you?
And about the giving up part, record sales plummeting as they are, most labels already take a cut of download sales, but what about merch? I’ve seen this mentioned in articles before, but from my perspective it feels like taking money out of the bands’ pocket. Would musicians be willing to work out a merch deal? What about if the merch was produced in Europe instead of lugging it overseas? What about touring? Fees? Anything else you can think of?
Coming from a label background, I can see serious issues for the musician who tried to work in Europe without someone with European experience. Laws, taxes, promo, each country’s quirks, and so on, all have to be navigated in order to work or sell music here, and it’s a bit more complicated than N. America. How would you see an entity, whether it’s a label taking on a new role or an independent business, working with you?
And about the giving up part, record sales plummeting as they are, most labels already take a cut of download sales, but what about merch? I’ve seen this mentioned in articles before, but from my perspective it feels like taking money out of the bands’ pocket. Would musicians be willing to work out a merch deal? What about if the merch was produced in Europe instead of lugging it overseas? What about touring? Fees? Anything else you can think of?
Tags: business, europe, labels, models, new
Views: 1
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by mojobone on -
We'll see large labels again, but the landscape will look a bit different when the dust clears. Streaming is the next phase, why download when every song ever recorded will be available for streaming? Who needs to pay for all that extra disc space? What I'm really hoping for is an end to the practice of "sampling" radio stations (for chart results PRO airplay figures, etc.) when it's now perfectly feasible for every terrestrial and internet station and podcast to report every playlist-the majors have used this to shut independents out of song and performance royalties for decades. The "Long Tail" is a temporary glitch in the timeline, merely a window of opportunity-the new majors will soon learn how to lock up large segments of the market and squeeze out the indies once again. Happens with each successive generation of new music and more so with paradigm-shifting new technologies.
Concerning merchandise, my opinion is that a band or performer would have to be out of their collective minds to sign a 360 deal in the current climate. My buck oh-five.
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