What They'll Never Tell You About the Music BusinessI'm reading it as research for the book I'm writing. Now you see... I've always heard, and believed, that the music industry was shitté. But now I believe it is The Devil. It's, like, Satan personified. I didn't believe in demonry til I read this book. Not I understand why a black artist would go around with the word Slave written on his cheek in protest of his record company.
And this book isn't a shocking tell-all. It's a fairly dry and practical manual for artists and their teams on how the industry works, and how to run their personal businesses well. But the basic, dry facts of the case speak volumes.
In the music industry the artist pays for almost EVerything. The company foots the bills in the beginning, but you pay it allllll back from your royalties, while they start reaping profits from the first sale. This doesn't happen in other entertainment industries. An author might pay for some of their promotion costs, but she won't pay to actually, say, print the book. Musicians pay back the recording costs, mastering, fabricating the CDs, much of the promotional costs, tour costs (which are huge), and video costs.
But here's the bit I love. If the album's royalties aren't high enough to pay back the advance you were given, then the company starts taking the money off the royalties of... your NEXT album. This does not happen in the book industry. This doesn't happen to actors and directors.
It's like this weird combination between investor and banker. If you give someone a loan, then you have the right to get every penny back. If you're an investor, then you're a partner, and you share in the losses. But record companies are basically both--they invest, but they don't bear as much risk as a normal investor.
That's just one example. There are innumerable examples of how these companies, which are rolling in it, try to make the artists pay for more and more. It's ridiculous. The industry is full of supposed music lovers, often right up to the CEOs. How can these people claim to love music, and constantly screw over the musicians? It's ludicrous.
It reinforces my feeling that I like being part of the book industry. People in books LOVE BOOKS, and they LOVE THE AUTHORS. You can see it in the long hours and shitty pay. The agents believe in their authors and work long hours for little pay; the editors fight for their favourite books, champion their authors, working long hours for little pay. Not matter how big the publishing houses become, or the retail companies become, they are not rich, and don't spend their time scheming to get another penny out of the creative people without whom there'd be no business.
Oh la oh la. Digital music is probably the best thing that's happened to music in a longo time-o, if it ends up--block your ears--fucking over the vampires.
Ridiculous.
