Top Artists Balking At A La Carte Downloads

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mikenycLI
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Top Artists Balking At A La Carte Downloads

Postby mikenycLI » Mon Jun 23, 2003 4:21 am

Courtesy of billboard.com....

Top Artists Balking At A La Carte Downloads


Despite the major labels' success in clearing hundreds of thousands of tracks for purchase online through services like Apple's iTunes Music Store, some top artists continue to resist authorizing the dismantling of their albums for Internet consumption as a la carte singles.

Some acts are requiring that their music be sold exclusively in album bundles. For example, Linkin Park recently pulled its music as a singles offering from digital services. Sources say the band has expressed concerns about undercutting album sales. Other acts with similar stipulations about their work include Radiohead, Madonna, Jewel and Green Day, sources say.

Top acts and their representatives are expressing reservations about the creative and financial implications of shifting to a singles-based model. "The fear among artists is that the work of art they put together, the album, will become a thing of the past," says attorney Fred Goldring, whose firm represents Will Smith and Alanis Morissette.

Artist representatives say a singles-oriented model means a significant hit to the bottom line. Instead of divvying the spoils of a $12-$18 CD sale, labels, artists and songwriters are vying for nickels and dimes from 99 cent downloads. For artists who write their own material, the impact is even more substantial: Rather than collecting songwriting royalties on as many as 14 tracks, plus an artist royalty on the album sale, payment is being parsed on a per-track basis.


-- Brian Garrity, N.Y.

http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/artic ... id=1919550

britre
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Postby britre » Mon Jun 23, 2003 9:14 am

The business has become to big for it's britches. And maybe Alanis can get a day job now so *real music* by talent can proliferate and be heard giving us the next Beatles or Stones instead of money grubbing rap and pop artists.

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Rspaight
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Postby Rspaight » Mon Jun 23, 2003 12:56 pm

The artist/label (depending on the terms of the contract) can sell their product however they want. That said, though, I do miss the robust singles market and think the loss of the (cheap) single is a big part of why the music biz is in the tank, and why pirating is so big.

Why not market the album as "all the hit singles, plus bonus tracks available only in this bundle," then offer the singles separately for less, maybe bundled with an additional song to add value? That would be a radical change to the industry -- we could call it "the way things worked 20 years ago."

Ryan
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