The Problem of Diminishing Financial Returns

[Chris H]

The reality is that musicians are being ripped off left, right and center, and the flow on effect is bringing many in the industry down the gurgler to the point where thy can not afford to exist on the diminishing financial return they get from their music or operating their studio etc, etc.
London musician, Whitey has just had a bit of a melt down over an issue with television production company Betty TV, who do Bear Grills and other very successful productions. Nothing new but, I see many musicians, smaller studio operators and those who have had a secure place in the industry, giving away their future in the hope of being recognized or gaining a foothold in the industry, or keeping the door of their studio open for another year. And we are being played against each other.......this is directly one of the reasons why I am no longer doing live recordings at the venue here on the Peninsula.....people get played off one another till the financial return makes it a loosing game. If you have invested half your life in gaining a comprehensive skill set around your creative passions and you cant feed your family........ you have to feed your family!
Here is a link to the Age article covering Whitey's reaction: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/ ... 2x5t4.html

[Paul Maybury]

Music is treated like a condiment now, just some free dressing for your lifestyle meal.
And if the condiment wasn't there, or cost extra, no one would want to eat the meal.
Some kind of distorted sense of entitlement is at work here.

[Sammas]

Wkikleaks released the proposed Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement recently - http://www.wikileaks.org/tpp/

Interestingly enough, the final section is Internet Service Provider Liability.

[CL/BN/NZ/MY/VN/CA/SG/MX propose; AU/US oppose: 1.268 Each Party shall limit the liability of, or the availability of remedies against, internet service providers269 [when acting as intermediaries270], for infringement of copyright or related rights that take place on or through communication networks, in relation to the provision or use of their services.]

It appears Canada is picketing pretty hard for some kind of restricted liability to be placed on ISP's when it comes to copyright and Intellectual property infringement. Sounds like they are chasing something like an ISP invoked 3-strikes and your out kind of policy.

[Kurt]

Canada has long been quite pragmatic about piracy. I seem to remember when the whole Napster shitfight hit they added a percentage to the cost of blank media to help compensate artists.

It appears Canada is picketing pretty hard for some kind of restricted liability to be placed on ISP's when it comes to copyright and Intellectual property infringement. Sounds like they are chasing something like an ISP invoked 3-strikes and your out kind of policy.

[gregwalker]

There is another insidious force at work in the licensing world too. Many artists are now pegged at lower and lower 'base rates' for syncs, especially unsigned artists. Artists are agreeing to rates as low as $150 per 30 secs, whereas better known (and represented) artists will be going for north of $1000 per 30 secs.
I personally find it bizarre that one person's music can be worth that much more or less than anothers. Unfortunately once an artist agrees to a low rate they're kinda stuck there unless they have a 'hit' record. It also slowly creates the precedent which more and more production companies will gravitate too, until some sync company or music supervisor successfully negotiates an even lower rate....and so on until that one last vestige of encouragement and renumeration also vanishes.

PS. I've also seen TV people balking at paying $250 per 30 secs for an excellent local track, but when its their favourite banal Lionel Richie song or something the purse strings magically open! Aaaargh

[Kurt]

Kids might all get a medal for participating these days but the fact is that some stuff is better and/or more valuable than other stuff. Once they figure out that they could just fire up a music generating iPhone app and never pay for music again, nobody's getting anything...

There is another insidious force at work in the licensing world too. Many artists are now pegged at lower and lower 'base rates' for syncs, especially unsigned artists. Artists are agreeing to rates as low as $150 per 30 secs, whereas better known (and represented) artists will be going for north of $1000 per 30 secs.
I personally find it bizarre that one person's music can be worth that much more or less than anothers. Unfortunately once an artist agrees to a low rate they're kinda stuck there unless they have a 'hit' record. It also slowly creates the precedent which more and more production companies will gravitate too, until some sync company or music supervisor successfully negotiates an even lower rate....and so on until that one last vestige of encouragement and renumeration also vanishes.

PS. I've also seen TV people balking at paying $250 per 30 secs for an excellent local track, but when its their favourite banal Lionel Richie song or something the purse strings magically open! Aaaargh

[Thirteen]

It's not just the music industry that this is happening to, manufacturing and retail are going the same way, it's a race to the bottom for prices. And then there is the thing where corporations used to hire a photographer for their launches and functions, now they go "Hey, Bob from finance just got a Canon 5D, let's get him to do the photos".

This will not end well for Australia.

[Kurt]

Everyone likes paying less for things, until people want to pay less for their things.

[NYMo]

Yet you can't get a plumber for weeks and have to pay a fortune for it.
Wish I'd done a trade when I was young instead of this miserable musicians life !

Cheers