[obie]

Indie label Artemis says that they won't collect internet radio royalties:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/interne...eut/index.html

People who record for Artemis: Beth Neilsen Chapman, Steve Earle, Jay Farrar, Jeffrey Gaines, Rickie Lee Jones, Kittie, Graham Nash, Marah, Nashville **********, North Mississippi All-Stars, Rev. Horton Heat, Jimmie Vaughn, Warren Zevon.

Good for them. I've been looking for a reason to purchase some Steve Earle stuff anyway.

[Footix]

Originally posted by obie
Indie label Artemis says that they won't collect internet radio royalties:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/interne...eut/index.html

People who record for Artemis: Beth Neilsen Chapman, Steve Earle, Jay Farrar, Jeffrey Gaines, Rickie Lee Jones, Kittie, Graham Nash, Marah, Nashville **********, North Mississippi All-Stars, Rev. Horton Heat, Jimmie Vaughn, Warren Zevon.

Good for them. I've been looking for a reason to purchase some Steve Earle stuff anyway.

I'd like to know what his artists think of this...most of them are "niche" artists who don't make a hell of a lot of dough anyway. Some of the money Goldberg (a multi-millionaire, by the way) is not collecting would have been earmarked for the artist, if these royalties are collected the same way traditional broadcasting royalties are.

Goldberg's always been a bit of a visionary, though his recent track record has been on a downward trend...I hope this is not just a publicity stunt.

[obie]

Footix, with all due respect to your encyclopedic knowledge of popular music, if you think that a band like Nashville ********** was expecting to get rich off of internet royalties, you're nuts.

Keep in mind that right now there are no "broadcast royalties" paid to anybody, because of the radio / free advertising finding that's been used for decades. Hence, artists like those on Artemis make their money through songwriting royalties (which are paid by all broadcasters, whether it be radio or internet, and distributed more directly to the artist), and licensing if they're lucky, or perhaps they can be a support act on a big tour. But cd sales are not a moneymaker for most of them, and internet radio royalties, if they happen, will likely be distributed in roughly the same way that cd sale profits will be -- 5-10% of total revenue to the artist, once the advance is repaid. How much is that really going to help these acts, or any acts for that matter? It's free money to the labels, but pennies on the dollar for the artist.

My guess is that if you ask somebody like Steve Earle if he'd prefer the broadcast exposure or the royalties, he'd take the exposure. I could be wrong, though.

[Footix]

Originally posted by obie
Footix, with all due respect to your encyclopedic knowledge of popular music, if you think that a band like Nashville ********** was expecting to get rich off of internet royalties, you're nuts.

Totally not my point.

I was just wondering out loud what a band that spends a ton of time out on the road at breakeven costs to promote an Artemis release thinks about their rich boss forsaking the couple of bucks they might make on the internet.

Granted, Goldberg's roster has a much higher than normal "artist" to "in-it-for-the-money" ratio of talent for a record company, but some of these guys like Gaines & Marah don't have a pot to piss in, and a couple of internet royalty payments would make life a little sweeter, no matter how small. Remember, the majority of recording artists never see money beyond their initial signing fees (except, of course at Cikowski Records of Detroit).

Then again, it could be years until everyone agrees on a reporting and collection system to make collection work.