4 ms·

It'll really be fantastic when media companies like WB are just a bad memory.

by beedogs 15y ago

VMG 15y ago
What exactly do you mean by "companies like WB"? Companies pursuing aggressive strategies against copyright infringement? Companies with multi-million-dollar budgets funding expensive projects like movies or records?
- zizee 15y ago
  I think records are only "expensive" to make when using creative accounting to screw over artists...
  - cbr 15y ago
    This sounds unlikely. Can't we divide the expenses of a recording studio by the number of albums issued to get average costs?
    - gcr 15y ago
      I don't think that's representative. The costs of printing the first CD far outweigh the costs of printing all the rest.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
  - gcr 15y ago
    Simply writing, performing, and recording the songs on an album is comparatively cheap compared to: - Polishing the album. - Releasing the album. - Marketing the album. - Promoting tours, shows, ads, interviews. - Building and supporting a fanbase through blogs, forums, and so forth These problems have subproblems, and even the following list is grossly over-simplified: - Polishing: Remastering is time-consuming and boring. Hiring a designer to design the album cover and CD inserts is time-consuming and boring. - Releasing: Publishing to iTunes, Amazon, and other music distributors is peanuts compared to the actual logistics of printing, pressing, and shipping 100,000 CDs to paying customers. - Marketing: What advertising do you want to do to promote the album? What markets exist? How will you reach them? Who will pay for it? How will you get radio stations to play your artist's music? - Promoting tours: How will you come up with the $10,000 fee to reserve a mid/low-range venue for a single night? How can you convince the venue that you have enough fans to make it worth their trouble? Who will you hire for sound/lights/mixing duty? How on earth will you get there? How will you pay for the flights? Hotels? Bus or car rental? Do you really have time to plan all that? - Building a fanbase: How will people promote your artist? What keeps the fans coming back? Who writes/edits your artist's blog? Does your artist have a forum? If so, who installs it? Who moderates it and keeps the spambots out? Are there any community events? Who plans and hosts those? Who reports them? Who promotes them? - Website hosting: Who will you pay to design your website? How will you pay for hosting / sysadmin / content distribution? What happens on release day when a million people visit the website once and your bill is $100k/month? What happens the week after release day and you get 30 hits/month but your hosting bill is still $100k/month because you've upgraded all your hardware? Not siding with "BigCorp Musicmonster Co." here, but these are unsolved problems and every single one is an obstacle. Independent artists have neither the time nor money to worry about it. No wonder so many musicians decide to sign the recording deal and make all of these problems disappear. At what cost to their soul? The music industry needs a reboot.

It'll really be fantastic when media companies like WB are just a bad memory.

by beedogs 15y ago

It'll really be fantastic when media companies like WB are just a bad memory.

VMG 15y ago

What exactly do you mean by "companies like WB"? Companies pursuing aggressive strategies against copyright infringement? Companies with multi-million-dollar budgets funding expensive projects like movies or records?

zizee 15y ago
I think records are only "expensive" to make when using creative accounting to screw over artists...
- cbr 15y ago
  This sounds unlikely. Can't we divide the expenses of a recording studio by the number of albums issued to get average costs?
  - gcr 15y ago
    I don't think that's representative. The costs of printing the first CD far outweigh the costs of printing all the rest.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- gcr 15y ago
  Simply writing, performing, and recording the songs on an album is comparatively cheap compared to: - Polishing the album. - Releasing the album. - Marketing the album. - Promoting tours, shows, ads, interviews. - Building and supporting a fanbase through blogs, forums, and so forth These problems have subproblems, and even the following list is grossly over-simplified: - Polishing: Remastering is time-consuming and boring. Hiring a designer to design the album cover and CD inserts is time-consuming and boring. - Releasing: Publishing to iTunes, Amazon, and other music distributors is peanuts compared to the actual logistics of printing, pressing, and shipping 100,000 CDs to paying customers. - Marketing: What advertising do you want to do to promote the album? What markets exist? How will you reach them? Who will pay for it? How will you get radio stations to play your artist's music? - Promoting tours: How will you come up with the $10,000 fee to reserve a mid/low-range venue for a single night? How can you convince the venue that you have enough fans to make it worth their trouble? Who will you hire for sound/lights/mixing duty? How on earth will you get there? How will you pay for the flights? Hotels? Bus or car rental? Do you really have time to plan all that? - Building a fanbase: How will people promote your artist? What keeps the fans coming back? Who writes/edits your artist's blog? Does your artist have a forum? If so, who installs it? Who moderates it and keeps the spambots out? Are there any community events? Who plans and hosts those? Who reports them? Who promotes them? - Website hosting: Who will you pay to design your website? How will you pay for hosting / sysadmin / content distribution? What happens on release day when a million people visit the website once and your bill is $100k/month? What happens the week after release day and you get 30 hits/month but your hosting bill is still $100k/month because you've upgraded all your hardware? Not siding with "BigCorp Musicmonster Co." here, but these are unsolved problems and every single one is an obstacle. Independent artists have neither the time nor money to worry about it. No wonder so many musicians decide to sign the recording deal and make all of these problems disappear. At what cost to their soul? The music industry needs a reboot.