David Byrne fra Talking Heads: Hvem har brug for pladeselskaber?

 
David Byrne har holdt et foredrag, hvor han forklarer, hvordan pladeselskaberne allerede i dag snyder musikerne uden at gøre noget særligt godt for dem (som vi tidligere har citeret bl.a. Courtney Love for).

Byrnes argument fremgår bl.a. af denne passus fra New York Times:

He said record labels will be faced with a sort of choice -- to ramp up marketing services to use music as a loss leader for tours and merchandise revenue, or aim only for international stars of the ilk of Britney Spears.

"Artists need help," said Byrne, who said he's in the final stages of negotiating a new contract with Nonesuch Records, a boutique label owned by Warner Music Group.

He said the idea of artists working completely independently of a record label is possible, and pointed to the success of singer/songwriter Aimee Mann. Yet Byrne noted that such a model won't work for smaller or developing acts, who need a team to provide marketing and tour support.

But Byrne seemed to imply that labels are not changing as rapidly as they need to be. He pointed to the royalties artists receive on each CD sale, and put the number at about $1.60. He said the royalty rate is essentially the same with an iTunes sale.

"There's no manufacturing or distribution costs," Byrne said, "but somehow the artist ended up with the exact same amount."

Byrne tilføjede, at YouTube i dag giver musikerne betydeligt bedre muligheder for at promovere sig selv, end MTV gør, og at han selv skaffer en stor del af sin musik ved ulovlig fildeling - fordi han nægter af acceptere bl.a. iTunes' kopibeskyttelse.

Link (via Boing Boing).

[ agger, Sun 18 Mar, :11:37: /itpolitik] - kommentar(er) - link

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