my favourite quote in music by none other than 'trent reznor' of NIN (strange)..."the goal was to create a record that, ultimately, you'll like - but probably not the first time you hear it"
a couple days ago, i was slumped on a leather couch in 'chapters', my headphones bringing in 'the doves' and my eyes reading 'killing yourself to live' (might I add, Klosterman is going downhill, between this effort and IV...damn!) when I sat forward and spotted a couple attractive italian ladies (late 20's) who were sitting on the floor nearby, casually reading. eventually got back to my own reading and 10 minutes later, i see one of them walk by, look over and than walk back to her original position (what was that about), 5 minutes later, she walks up to me, hands me this book, a bestseller and its titled "man of my dreams". i laugh and smile, she laughs and smiles and than they walk away and leave. my point...I fuckin' rock...or i'm a joke...either way, i'm amusing people. so, i'll keep on writing...
finished reading a book that finally brings some validity to the aforementioned top 40 music list, book being "can't stop, won't stop" on the history/culture of hip hop. coming in, this is a subject I had little knowledge or interest in, but now I feel like afrika bambaataa's long lost white cousin. the writing fills you in on the birth and rise of: MCing, DJing, b-boying, graffiti, public enemy, gangs in NY and LA, the LA riots, DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, NWA, Def Jam. if you haven't completed christmas shopping, i recommend you put this book in the hands of your musically inclined siblings. if your coming from outside the Hip-hop fan base, you will feel like a whole world has been opened up to you without listening to a second of the music, the 2nd half gets overly political and one-sided, but overall the read provides an entertaining and informative basics.
now, the truth on what an artist makes with the sale of a CD...royalty breakdown: (first in terms than in numbers)
suggested retail list price - 10% breakage deduction - 25% new technology deduction - 25% packaging deduction - 10% free goods x (artist royalty - producers royalty) = net royalty per sale
ex. $16.98 x .90 x .75 x .75 x .90 x .09 (12% - 3%) = $0.70
now let me clarify how disgusting this calculation is. first off, the 'breakage deduction' was originally put in place back in the day of vinyl's, which were sensitive to breaking on distribution(and now we have CDs that rarely break, if at all, yet this clause has remained in tact). The 'New Technology Deduction' was inserted on the birth of CDs as a "financial relief for incredible cost of R&D", when in fact, most labels invest nothing at all. A 'packaging deduction' is pretty self-explanatory, but get this, the record labels have decided to keep this in tact for digital sales, which do not even have a package, they are not physical products! Onto 'free goods' , this clause is in place to eliminate the label having to pay royalties on promotional copies. yet, in truth, they use it to defer paying royalties on an additional 10% of units shipped (money in their pocket, but none in the artists). This shit is just the beginning, foreign sale royalties are further decreased, and an artist doesn't see a penny of royalties until all recording costs are recouped, etc. Now you know why most artists encourage illegal downloading, they don't see much from sales anyways!
my brother has thrown me this website www.danceage.com. type in any album you want (most) and you can listen to its entire contents, free, without downloading.
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