In a recent interview with the guys at Digg.com Trent Reznor of the Nine Inch Nails went through some interesting responses to questions about how he sees his future and the future of music.
To quote him from the AudioLife blog page:
“One of the biggest wake-up calls of my career was when I saw a record contract. I said, ‘Wait - you sell it for $18.98 and I make 80 cents? And I have to pay you back the money you lent me to make it and then you own it? Who the f**k made that rule? Oh! The record labels made it because artists are dumb and they’ll sign anything’ - like I did. When we found out we’d been released (from their recording contract) it was like, ‘Thank God!’. But 20 minutes later it was, ‘Uh-oh, now what are we going to do?’ It was incredibly liberating, and it was terrifying.”
The only thing I would like to add to this is that the great rock and roll swindle is still out there, but its now on the Internet too. So musicians beware!
But beware guys! some of the new guys are trying to screw you too! hear about the licensing site that just cut their artists earnings by 30% to finance their own expansion? (cheaper than paying a bank interest or shareholders dividends I guess). Also there are some other guys out there who call themselves ‘innovative’ who are offering only 25% cut on a small music sale as a loss leader to charging clients $400 for device installations to listen to the music! So the artists effectively get a minority stake in the loss leader. I do worry that there are musicians out there who don’t understand the value of their music and may think to themselves that sort of deal is “25% of something I won’t get unless I sign up”. But hopefully most will ignore it and consider the better business propositions out there who are aiming to champion the value of music licensed for business use and royalty free background music subscription services elsewhere.
Here at Kesseny Music Publishing all deals are as they should be so we split all our agreements 50 50. My costs, your costs. You earn, I earn. Make it simple, everyone wins, no greed, happy world 
Fair Trade Royalty Free Music Rules
Pump Audio evolves from innovator to corporate dinosaur. The great rock and roll swindle lives on!
See: Pump Audio Reduces Music Royalties By 30%
So, things going bad at Pump eh? no cash to invest in growth?
Hell! why not take it away from the musicians! take their money instead?
I can see this ‘logic’ being worked out in an office full of suits. Suit one says, “hell boys we’ve got these artists by the balls, they ain’t going anywhere”. Suit two says, “lets make them investors in the business but, better still, don’t give them any shares”.
This is another nail in the coffin of the performing royalty related music licensing industry. More and more artists will look to new innovative ways to sell their music and, with the growth of royalty free music rising they will see that it is a real and attractive alternative to the costly lisensing and royalty fee process that is more costly to license buyers.
With the credit crunch redefining the way businesses think about the costs of their business there has never been a better time for artists to build a catalogue of royalty free music and never been a better time for businesses to strip a layer of cost from their businesses by purchasing quality royalty free music.
Musak Holdings goes ?Chapter 11¹ which for those of us who aren¹t savy to US
business legal terminology means that it is trying to protect itself from
going bankrupt. However, this is usually, in my experience, the last you
hear from a company as it slips beneath the water.
The article at
chron.com about Musak Holdings, who are a supplier of background music &
infamous for the bland life music of many generations ago. Although this
reference is somewhat unfair now what strikes me as interesting is why a
Musak Holdings is having trouble.
It blames, “long-standing debt” but the article continues to say, ” a slew
of store closures is also at fault, executives said recently, as the
continuing recession causes struggling businesses to cancel their Muzak
accounts.”
What it doesn¹t say is that it Is finding it hard to compete as the music
business, in all its areas, begins to change. Much like the large record
companies who seemingly find it hard to adapt and change, Musak holdings, it
seems to me, might be suffering the same, stereotypical large ‘too-slow-to
change’ corporate problem.
Today’s business music market looks very different to it was when Musak
Holdings started out. Whilst most of the innovation that has taken place in
the music industry has been high profile there has, and will continue to be
much innovation in the following few years. The Internet, of course, enables
businesses as well as consumers to look for new suppliers who can provide
better products and services and this will continue with the background
music market this year with background music becoming available from royalty
free libraries who are primed for providing businesses better deals with
even better and targetted music.
Just watch.
Here¹s a useful article on what sort of music works for weddings from a guy in the wedding business. I thought his comment about getting music composed for a wedding was interesting.
When you consider the simplicity and availability of pre-cleared licensed music for background music use in DVD productions, and at a low price compared to the hourly rate of a professional composer, its certainly worth seriously considering all your options before you go ahead. If you take a look at Ambient Music Garden’s collection of ambient, relaxation and feel good chillout and lounge music collections.
The background music article for wedding dvd productions is located at content4reprint.
Ambient Music Garden: Music for healing and therapy products.
Electronic Music Library: Complex sync licensing made simple.
Background Music Library: Music to back your business.
Relaxation Music Garden: Just listen & relax.
A new face for Kesseny. Kesseny music publishing.
