ARTIKEL VAN OKTOBER 2005 (AAPA article from October 2005 - latest news section)

COPYING & DOWNLOADING:

On the subject of illegal copying and piracy, I’ve recently been hearing a new reason (self justified excuse?) why people think it’s ok to copy music and not buy the CD. Apart from the usual argument that CD’s are too expensive, they now come out with “Bands maken hun geld van de live optredens en niet van de verkoop van CD’s” - “The bands make their money from the concerts and not from the CD sales”.
All I can say to that is BULLSHIT!


I’m not sure how this "myth" began but let me assure you of the following facts:

1 - the majority of artists (especially those on independent labels) actually end up losing money from tours and concerts, which just like EP/single releases, are usually done as a loss making exercise but are necessary to help promote an album. The reality is that the promoters, the artists’ agent and the venue itself are usually the biggest earners from the majority of live performances. THE AGENT: deals with live gigs, concerts and touring. It is usually the agent’s job to work with local promoters and to determine the ticket price. The Agent usually earns between 10 & 30% (depending on popularity of the artist). THE PROMOTER: is responsible for the promotion of the gig, security, catering, venue hire, etc which can easily run up to 40-50% of the ticket price. THE TICKET: After tax has been deducted and by the time the promoter has deducted costs then there is usually around 50% of the ticket price left over to share as profit between the promoter and the artist/band, which is then split from 70-30 up to 90-10 in favour of the artist. THE ARTIST/BAND: will usually have their own sound and lighting engineers, a tour manager and will have to pay their roadies, while touring also includes transport and hotel costs. So once all these costs and percentages have been deducted (Agent, promoter, tour costs, venue, etc) there isn’t much, if anything, left over for the artists!


2 - making music costs money and therefore selling product (CD & records) is the only way to survive. Record companies will provide an advance to their artists for recording costs, promotional video costs, producer’s advances and fees, transport and tour support money, wardrobe, art work, etc, etc but the term “advance” is a big clue here so they (the record company) will also want to re-coupe the majority of these costs before the artist can start to actually earn anything themselves.


3 - Simple mathematics: Most artists with a record deal will also have a publishing deal, a manager and an agent. They will also require the services of a producer and sound engineers, a promoter for tours and festivals (often more than one as soon as they start to cross borders), art designers, roadies, the list goes on. The reality here is that they all these people also expect to get paid.


So think about it - Would you be prepared to work for nothing?



xtra info: All new albums (CDs) & DVDs can be purchased from various online shops for 12 Euros (8 GBP) - and postage is also free!

Our favourite for all the latest releases is the CD Wow website at: http://www13.cd-wow.com/