Easy Music for Difficult Ears

In the meantime, my head has been busy with this latest goings-on at the RIAA. Could someone please tell why it is that the RIAA is seemingly run by Daffy Duck.
Basically, they are pushing for a law that could see though who copy compilation albums sued for $1.5 million. While the rest of the industry is making (slow) strides from this kind of threat tactic, once again the RIAA think that threatening their customers will stop folk uploading, downloading and copying music. And I’m sorry, but any company that hires former principals of the FBI (Kathy Leodler) to track down global pirates can fuck right off…

I (like many others) know that the recorded music industry is fucked and has been for a long time and in a sense it explains the shift by a lot of record companies towards what are known a 360 deals.
Essentially a 360 deal is a contract where record companies claim a percentage of profits from merchandise, tours. fan clubs and other material – this means of course that prices for gigs will rise, but it is also an acknowledgment that there is less money coming through the recorded industry. Prince’s move of giving his latest album away with the Mail on Sunday last summer and then going on to do 21-date residency of the O2 arena was one of the working nods in this direction.

In reality though, both Madonna and Robbie Williams are leading the charge with regards to 360’s. In 2002, Robbie Williams scored an estimated $80 million dollars with EMI, while last year Madonna left Warner Brothers and netted around $120 million with her deal with LiveNation – a concert promoter (the artist wing has now being renamed Artist Nation).

Surely there will be more to follow, but I can’t help but feel that any artist that signs an old style record contract now will live to regret it. Anyway while I’m here, enjoy the cartoon below – I stole it from some site…

Current Listening:
The Adverts “Crossing the Red Sea With the Adverts”

Sweet deal,
Leigh