Ask any respectable artist (read: one with a likely career in the industry) about a 360 record deal and they’ll tell you that it’s nothing short of a pact with the devil. For decades, labels have charged copious amounts of dollars for recording, manufacturing and distributing albums, but the show money was always their bread and butter. But according to Edgar Bronfman, CEO of Warner Music Group, the option to have the label in your pocket every turn of the way is no longer an option — it’s become mandatory.
Bronfman argued to a hostile crowd that it doesn’t make sense for labels to pour money into artist development when CD sales, their primary source of revenue, continue to decline (although he did say that digital sales now make up 20% of their revenue). Without other ways to make money from an artist, he said, they wouldn’t continue to promote artists.
What all this boils down to is record labels becoming increasingly disconsolate that they’re living in a world where artists are growing less dependent on them. Does a Drake or U-N-I need a record label to give away free music at one of their shows or online?
Let’s be real here.
Artists are accomplishing more and more without the security blanket of a major corporation so who’s going to feel pressured to split every slice of the pie with a company that can’t even promote their product to the fullest extent of their dollar?
Terry McBride explains the 360 deal in brief detail.
And as for artist development, Mr. Bronfman, I believe Curren$y said it best the other day:
When there’s no market for the bullshit, the labels will stop signing the bullshit, packaging the bullshit, shipping the bullshit…and filling the shelves with bullshit!
Take notes Mr. Major Record Label USA and act like you have the power to change things. Signing artists whose first hit will obviously be their only hit, got you in this mess to begin with.
via:smokingsection
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