CaptBevvil
I HAVE A DEGREE IN FYSIKS!
Posts: 798
Studying? No. But when highschool drop out joe can be just as successful (if not more so) then someone who gets a Masters or even PhD in Music...you have to take a step back and re-evaluate things. Is it a legitimate career? Yes, by definition, it has proven itself to be "legitimate". But no, I do not believe that society should support it in the way it does, nor do I believe the RIAA or others should be allowed to milk something for far more than it's worth. ESPECIALLY when the "artist" themselves receive a very small proportion.
Where do you get the idea that "the majority of musicians work their whole life and then retire with their pension"? Are we even talking about the same people here? There's a fundamental difference from the kids that go on to become "one hit wonders" or even became successful enough to stick with it for 10 or so years and those that have formal training in music and go on to teach it. I mean, do you honestly want me to sit here and name all of the Pop culture "artist" that have dropped off the face of the Earth after just a few years?
And I'm arguing that the music isn't worth what the economy (thanks to the RIAA) has "bloated" the value of music to be. If you cut the middle man (the RIAA), you could produce CD's in your basement, promote, & distribute them, for a retail price of $5 and you'd make just as much per CD (if not more) as you would if the RIAA was doing the same thing for you.
Well, since CD sales have dropped since the introduction of iTunes and other services...I'll let you connect the dots on that one.
Again, it goes back to the diffrence between supporting the band and supporting their label.
Except that, under a label deal, you won't make anything near $20 per CD. In fact, you'll be lucky if you see $0.10 per CD. Seriously, you need to do some research. Artist get screwed, which is why I said you're better off making your own label company in your basement (which is the growing trend).
No, not really. Young bands don't get signed to large labels if they don't make a tons of concessions. If they don't sign to a large label, then they generally don't make it (short of maybe a "one hit wonder"). Of course, there are exceptions, but it's rare. Also, the label company ussually gives them a 'bottom line' quote estimate. If more Artist recieved a quoted percentage estimate, they'd probably be far less inclined to sign.
He means, it's like having a manager that takes a 95% cut of your earnings. Sound fair to you? I didn't think so.
That's not a very good analogy considering that I don't have the money for a car right now either, but I could literally go down to a dealer and help myself to a car (with $0 down, no payments for 6 months, and financing through them). As for the rest of this quote, you've only proved that you're in it for the money and have already day dreamed about how you plan to spin your millions if you "make it".
Except that it's already been explained SEVERAL TIMES how artist are loosing money with iTunes. It has also been explained SEVERAL TIMES how even 2/3 of entertainment artist believe that P2P music downloading has made a POSITIVE impact on their success! What part of that do you still not get?
You have no clue, do you? Seriously, you need to research your "profession" some more...
"The solution is simple."