Comments on: The Music Business in Flux: as usual http://www.harmonicminer.com/wordpress/2008/06/21/the-music-business-in-flux-as-usual/ Digging for golden resonance, and resonant gold Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:24:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: harmonicminer http://www.harmonicminer.com/wordpress/2008/06/21/the-music-business-in-flux-as-usual/comment-page-1/#comment-36 harmonicminer Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:32:35 +0000 http://www.harmonicminer.com/wordpress/?p=54#comment-36 Yep, we need some kind of royalties system, based on trust and reputation, something like eBay. I'm still waiting for a few checks, myself. Yep, we need some kind of royalties system, based on trust and reputation, something like eBay.

I’m still waiting for a few checks, myself.

]]> By: michael lee http://www.harmonicminer.com/wordpress/2008/06/21/the-music-business-in-flux-as-usual/comment-page-1/#comment-35 michael lee Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:46:56 +0000 http://www.harmonicminer.com/wordpress/?p=54#comment-35 I've said this before, but I think it's astounding that the "Music Industry" (and by that I mean the massive corporate commercial version of it) doesn't know how to make money by selling 100,000 of something. They only know how to make money selling 6 million of something. With the rise of the internet, indie artists are now realizing that they can sell 100,000 of their record, and those 100k people don't have to be geographically grouped. Indie no longer means exclusively regional. The next big shift is going to be figuring out how to handle the economics of making indie records when there isn't one company paying the bill. Without the big money advance, more projects are being made with people taking a stake in the back-end sales. I think you might start to see a new developing cottage industry for handling back-end percentages on these projects, so that an engineer can agree to track 10 days for 5 points on the album, and can be confident that an independent accountant (or someone like that, an escrow company for royalties, basically) is going to ensure that their interests are protected. Right now, I have about two dozen indie projects that I have a back-end stake in, built up over the past ten years. There's no possible way I can keep on top of those accounts. I have to just trust that the artist will stay current. I'd be more inclined to take on further projects on that basis if I knew who was watching the money. I’ve said this before, but I think it’s astounding that the “Music Industry” (and by that I mean the massive corporate commercial version of it) doesn’t know how to make money by selling 100,000 of something. They only know how to make money selling 6 million of something.

With the rise of the internet, indie artists are now realizing that they can sell 100,000 of their record, and those 100k people don’t have to be geographically grouped. Indie no longer means exclusively regional.

The next big shift is going to be figuring out how to handle the economics of making indie records when there isn’t one company paying the bill. Without the big money advance, more projects are being made with people taking a stake in the back-end sales. I think you might start to see a new developing cottage industry for handling back-end percentages on these projects, so that an engineer can agree to track 10 days for 5 points on the album, and can be confident that an independent accountant (or someone like that, an escrow company for royalties, basically) is going to ensure that their interests are protected.

Right now, I have about two dozen indie projects that I have a back-end stake in, built up over the past ten years. There’s no possible way I can keep on top of those accounts. I have to just trust that the artist will stay current. I’d be more inclined to take on further projects on that basis if I knew who was watching the money.

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