According to the annual financial report for EMI, smallest of the Big 4 record labels, the company lost 624 million euros (just over $800 million using today's conversion rates) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.
The report is prepared each year by EMI's owner, Terra Firma owned Maltby Capital, a Terra Firma owned company which purchased EMI in 2007.
Maltby Capital Chairman ... [ read the full article ]
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whining fat billionaire studios and corps winging they can't fill their bottom line by blatant theft any more.. oh dear (wipes away noon existent tears) .. what a choker.. good riddance
The Trent Reznor model that you mentioned does not work for new bands nor for Trent Reznor. Reznor's income has decreased substantially since he was dropped by his label, Interscope. He also hasn't increased his fanbase - it's actually decreased. You also don't see other musician's following his example except for giving away a couple of songs. Instead most musicians are cutting deals with other sources.
Originally posted by RockOut: The Trent Reznor model that you mentioned does not work for new bands nor for Trent Reznor. Reznor's income has decreased substantially since he was dropped by his label, Interscope. He also hasn't increased his fanbase - it's actually decreased. You also don't see other musician's following his example except for giving away a couple of songs. Instead most musicians are cutting deals with other sources.
Just because he makes less that way doesn't mean it doesn't work. The fact is there are more people successfully selling music today than ever before. Just because they're not making superstar money on their recordings, it doesn't mean they're not successful. It may mean there are fewer huge successes in the future, but that's a small price to pay for more artists reaching an audience and making a living. Most artists have never made a living selling recorded music, whether they're using a modern DIY model or the old label system. Recordings are primarily a promotional resource.
With the larger amount of music being produced independently it should be easier for the labels to find artists they can promote enough for above average success. As I stated in the article, the key is volume and not the size of individual successes. Even for the most successful recording artists live performances are usually a bigger money maker anyway. Musicians make their living performing, not selling recordings. Most of the same artists who make good money selling CDs or iTunes tracks make even better money performing live, as do the majority of artists who make literally nothing on their recordings.
Success is relative. You're making a comparison between successful today and successful in a different market. Once again, downloads aren't CDs. If they continue down the road they're on the result isn't the old CD market you seem to be using as a yardstick for success. It's a version of the current market which hasn't grown enough to replace the old CD revenue.
It's a bitch when you become obsolete..It's a case of either evolve or die for sure. I don't know what they are going to do but wringing more money out of the radio industry and suing the hell out of your average person for sharing a few songs sure isn't the route to go...
As a recording engineer and an ex-hi-fi designer, I can state without any reservation that if the record companies stopped messing with the media that sold in preference for an easy life EMI and others would not be in the mess they are now in.
Before this fiasco, we had CD, DVD-A, SACD and even music DVD's, the market place destroyed all this in favour of downloads that easily hackable and now they are moaning because they cannot admit their mistake.
Add to this the loudness war and many can understand why consumers are not buying the media, but prefer to buy old scratched vinyl instead.
The onset of this has also affected the Hi-Fi industry amongst other market places.
Is it not time the bosses of this industry sacked the children and bought in people that can do the job properly.
Just before anyone starts shouting airplay, the radio companies now have smart media that determines whether the music is set to overload levels and adjusts accordingly, so the record companies efforts in this are useless.
Remember the market is not just youngsters that do not have any money but adults too that have funded this indstry for a very long time.
Go back to old school of 30+ years and provide the market place and bands with what they really want.
Good music that is enjoyable to listen to and perhaps they might be able to pay the bands for the music they steal.
Music is just in a creative slum right now. I just don't care if another Nickelback/Saliva/Buckcherry/etc album comes out. Very few bands are doing anything I'd consider interesting atm...so I don't acquire music legally or illegally right now.
