Posted on - June 14, 2006 [at] 3:51 pm by Brad
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Grant Robertson has a good article on The Digital Music Weblog about Weird Al Yankovic’s cut from digital distribution:
King of comic rock, Weird Al Yankovic says digital is a raw deal for artists like himself. When asked by a fan whether purchasing a conventional CD or buying a digital file via iTunes would net Yankovic more pocket money the artist answered on his website.
“I am extremely grateful for your support, no matter which format you choose to legally obtain my music in, so you should do whatever makes the most sense for you personally. But since you ASKED… I actually do get significantly more money from CD sales, as opposed to downloads. This is the one thing about my renegotiated record contract that never made much sense to me. It costs the label NOTHING for somebody to download an album (no manufacturing costs, shipping, or really any overhead of any kind) and yet the artist (me) winds up making less from it. Go figure.”
This is one of the reasons why I get so tired with a lot of the music industry criticisms out there: a lot of them depend on the idea that artists make nothing worthwhile from CD purchases, which may be true in some cases, but not in all.
I get asked the same question occasionally and for my indie-self I make about the same whether you buy a CD direct from me or via a digital music store. (Update: except for Magnatune actually, where I only get 50% of what you pay.)
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13 Comments on this post
Kenny on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 14, 2006 at 3:57 pm
You say only, which makes me think that it’s a bad thing, but just to clarify, would you get more from Magnatune, or, say, CD Baby?
victor on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 14, 2006 at 6:03 pm
Sorry Brad, but an anecdotal case of a 55 year old guy who’s been grandfathered into record deals with the ‘majors’ after 30 years (!) is not any indication of a trend that artists make money from a record deal.
A major record deal for any previously unsigned artist is a signatory of debt, not profit. When you buy the CD you are helping pay off the artists’ debt to the label, that upwards of 95% of the time is never, as in ever, paid off in total. That’s unrefuted by anybody in the music industry because that’s just how it works.
I haven’t read the Al interview but if Weird Al is exaggerating the non-cost of distribution (it costs “NOTHING” in server up time and bandwidth to distribute millions of songs? really?) I wonder about the rest of his statements.
JY on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 14, 2006 at 8:33 pm
He will turn 47 in October, but I realize that’s beside the point.
JY
Big Cheez on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 14, 2006 at 8:34 pm
“it costs “NOTHING†in server up time and bandwidth to distribute millions of songs? really?”
———-
I don’t think Weird Al believes there is no cost of doing business digitally. What he is referring to is less total OH from the Label’s standpoint. Of course this depends on how much iTunes charges for the service, but I would imagine this would be less than the cost of selling a CD.
Debt or no debt, if the artist is receiving less from a service that doesn’t cost as much to produce a sale, I would think they are getting screwed. CD or digital – why not give the artist a flat percentage of the sale after cost?
I’m curious as to how much (net) profit is the label is earning on digital sales vs. CD sales? Bottom line – if the artist is getting a less net percentage of the sale from digital sales, that doesn’t make sense to me.
Brad on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 14, 2006 at 10:25 pm
Kenny: if you pay $10 for the album on iTunes (via CD Baby) I get $6.37. I get $4.65 from Magnatune.
Victor: server up time and bandwidth is all Apple’s cost and responsibility, which is how they earn their 30 cents or whatever they take off the top.
Paul Bruechner on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 15, 2006 at 9:51 am
I just bought Amanda Switzer’s Flyfishing DVD and loved the soundtrack. She told me that you did it. My son and I watched the DVD and he loved the music. What songs are used for that soundtrack? He wants to buy them off iTunes and he wants to know which songs to get.
Hey…keep on working hard…you got the right stuff
Best Regards,
Paul
Brad on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 15, 2006 at 9:54 am
Well that’s the first I think I’ve heard about being on a Flyfishing DVD so I have no idea what songs are on there…
Paul Bruechner on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 15, 2006 at 11:08 am
well …you music is spreading like an out of control wildfire
victor on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 15, 2006 at 4:42 pm
fwiw, I would not be at all surprised that BMG is now screwing artist more over digital downloads than CD sales, and I further wouldn’t be surprised that this is their ‘response’ to the move away from CD sales to downloading.
However, it’s also easy for me construct a scenario where BMG has spent the last 30 years keeping CD manufacturing and distributing very, very cost effective (if not profitable on it’s own), certainly NOT 30% of the retail cost of the CD. Meanwhile, downloading is a medium where, as you say, they are totally at the mercy of new world order as dictated by Apple.
“Debt or no debt, if the artist is receiving less from…”
again, +90% of the time newly signed artist to a major deal is receiving zero no matter how it’s distributed. Sorry.
and the most depressing part is learning that I am older than Weird Al. It was nothing but wishful thinking to say otherwise.
JY on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 16, 2006 at 12:34 pm
Is the record company itself losing money on those +90% of cases where the artist doesn’t get paid, or is it making money on some percentage of them?
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again, +90% of the time newly signed artist to a major deal is receiving zero no matter how it’s distributed. Sorry.
victor on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 16, 2006 at 6:31 pm
my feelings on the subject are summarized here
JY on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 16, 2006 at 8:11 pm
Interesting. According to the C.L. article you linked to, the record company can make a profit while the band makes nothing from a million CD sales. The LABEL owns the rights to the product yet many/most of expenses get deducted from the ARTIST’S royalties. Only artists who get popular enough to eventually renegotiate a FAIR contract wind up winning.
The system should be fixed, so artists whose CDs sell enough copies to make a profit for the label would get a fair share during the time a profit is made. If sales should drop to a point where the record company fails to make a decent profit, then artist would have to get dropped, but at least the artist would have earned some type of fair compensation during their brief moment in the sun, and then would have to decide whether to try and continue to make a living in music without a record deal or switch careers altogether.
Agreed the artist should be compensated if the label is making a profit, but wondering what a fair compensation should be for new artists in terms of a percentage of the labels profits?
JB on Weird Al Yankovic’s Digital Distribution
June 19, 2006 at 2:44 pm
victor totally wins.