My favorite bloggist of the moment completes his epic 2K0 roundup of the The Most Authentic/Relevant/Successful Artists of the Decade (The Best Albums/MP3s/Songs/Artists/Bands/Humans of the Decade). The winner? John Mayer. A result that actually makes some sense once you’ve waded through Carles’s unorthodox tiers of relevance and sussed out his bizarre methodology. Whatever that is.
Here’s a sample:
I think bands like [Dirty Projectors] are indicative of new markets of ‘people who have listened to way too much music’ in their lifetimes. They need something that sounds s0 different that it potentially blows, but it is also possibly ‘genius.’
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My favorite Kanye West song gets the Storytellers treatment. Not sure I understand what’s going on with that Fro-mullet. Also, I’m very sure this format does West a disservice. His songs are painstaking studio constructions, but part of their genius is the way his half-wack rapping skills help to create a conversational intimacy, simultaneously distracting you from the layers of hooks and sonic details while increasing the production’s ambient potency. Storytellers ditches that all that in favor of showing you the "real" Kanye. Who is sort of awkward and unlikeable. In fairness, I haven’t seen the full set yet. So my review is predictive, based on this clip.
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This week, Techdirt reported a bit sensationally that eMusic Prices Went Up, But Artists Aren’t Seeing Any Of That Cash. Which is technically true, but when I read the actual article Techdirt cited, I found it to be a lot less fiery and a lot more interesting.
First, we learn artists are paid quite a bit from their eMusic sales if the author’s experience is any guide. eMusic passes on 60% of its subscriber income to its artists and labels, but that can easily work out to 75-100% of what users might actually be paying. For example, for the third quarter of 2009, the author’s band received 34.2 cents for each individual song that was downloaded and $3.76 for each 12-track album that was downloaded. Users aren’t paying much more than that on a per-track basis. Recall the math I did in my June post about eMusic’s new pricing: under my current plan I only pay 42 cents per track and 4.64 for a 12-track album. At that rate, artists and independent labels would be getting a little over 80% of I what I pay on a per-track basis. Wow.
The second thing we learn is how eMusic’s business model has historically resulted in higher payments to Artists than the 60% figure would suggest:
The business model eMusic is less straightforward than those of the other digital music stores/services. Rather than paying a set wholesale price for digital songs, eMusic has a revenue sharing agreement, where — after certain expenses and deductions — 60% of its subscriber income is passed on to the labels in its catalog. How that 60% translates into a per-track amount is dependent on the download activity of eMusic subscribers: When subscribers don’t use all of their allotted downloads, the per-track amount is higher. This "digital breakage" has kept the per-track amount high, relative to the nominal per-track rates built into the subscription prices. Indeed, there have been times when the per-song download payout for my own music in the eMusic catalog has exceeded the per-song amount I pay for my monthly subscription.
Back in June, I speculated that the reason for change in the subscription plans might have been to preserve the current payout levels, as opposed to significantly increasing them. If — after the Sony material was added to the catalog — subscribers became less likely to let their downloads expire, then the previous per-song payouts would have decreased.
Based on the payout for the third quarter, it appears that the overall digital breakage by eMusic subscribers has declined — if it had remained the same, it seems likely that the increase in the per-track payout would have been much larger. However, because the overhaul of the subscription plans coincided with the introduction of the Sony material, it’s tough to say if that decrease was because of the availability of the Sony catalog, or the fact that with fewer downloads, subscribers were simply more likely to use them all. (Maybe it’s a combination of the two factors.)
I’m not surprised that eMusic’s Sony deal didn’t result in more money for artists. Sony probably cut a separate, superior deal than what you’d get if you just upload your stuff through CD Baby or Tunecore. But understanding eMusic’s model works leads to a more troubling conclusion. Adding Sony probably harms independent musicians in two key ways independent of the compensation arrangement:
- Fewer subscription downloads means users likely use up more (or all) of their downloads. There’s less “breakage”, so the distribution won’t be as favorable.
- With competition from Sony’s rich back catalog, users are spending fewer downloads on independent music.
I get about 63% back from an iTunes sale of my record. So, I don’t think eMusic can be criticized too harshly for the deal they’re cutting for artists. At least not on a percentage basis. But Sony’s addition will probably have a demonstrable affect on volume for independent musicians. Which means the mythical long tail is getting shorter.
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Somewhat incoherent review of the new Priestess record. But it’s a positive review, so there’s that. Saw it via SCR Jeremy’s shared Google Reader items.
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AudioTag will examine audio files and identify them using their digital profile. Lifehacker has the review. While we’re talking software, Makeuseof gives you some options for syncing your music folders with iTunes.
