Mint Chicks Musichyped.
The Mint Chicks recently announced they were ditching Warners for a new digital music startup called Music Hype. I blogged about it last week, which garnered a response in the comments from Music Hype's Dave Moskovitz. I've reposted it below.
"Unfortunately, Pattrick (the journalist) misheard what I said in the phone interview ... I said "a few cents", not "two cents". See this article for a description of how much your typical artist might see from an iTunes sale. Most are lucky to see 8-15c from each iTunes download. I'd like to point out that it isn't really iTunes fault, it's the decrepit underlying structure where labels call the shots and collect the cash, distributing crumbs back to most artists.
We want to change that by putting artists in the drivers seat. MusicHy.pe is a platform they can use to build community and better engage, collaborate with, and inspire their fan bases. We're facilitators, not controllers of production nor distribution.
We'll be using BandCamp for direct music sales. Currently the only fees they charge are PayPal's micropayment charges which work out at about 10c on the dollar.
Fact or fiction? Middlepeople have been taking advantage of musicians for too long, and we're fixing that."
I contacted Stephen O'Hoy at Amplifier.co.nz for his thoughts on Moskovitz's comments. His reaction, via email...
"The quote from the original article was removed after I spoke to the journalist involved. It was incorrect and misleading and the only reason I can see for such rubbish being printed is to support Musichype’s business model.
DRM represents more New Zealand artists at iTunes than any other label or aggregator in the land. Even after our commission and in several cases non-resident international withholding tax being taken into account, artists are seeing back around or in excess of 50% of iTunes retail price. This is considerably more than the $0.08 - $0.15 that Dave is asserting.
Far from the “decrepit underlying structure” with “labels calling the shots” the truth of the modern, digital industry is that the power of distribution has passed back to the artist and independent label. Couple this with independent physical distribution (Rhythmethod, Border, Pure….) and independent promo/plugging (Maiden, The Label, Isaac) and there’s probably never been an easier time to do it yourself."
2 comments:
The thing I found amusing was the implication that in 2010 the mint chicks are going to be on a good coin from this incredible new fangled downloading technology.
Profits from download sales for a modestly successful albeit talented local group I imagine will barely keep the lights on. 90 odd cents I'm sure will stack up, just not that high.
So does that mean that Bad Buzz won't be released digitally at all? Also, it almost seems like a backwards step to release something via a fancy USB that costs more than an album and only gives fans four new songs. Essentially, the exclusive USB is more disposable than a CD - it's a tangible product that doesn't give fans anything else that they won't already be able to access through the internet for free, such as the bands videos. The whole thing feels like an obstacle to being able to freely and quickly obtain music the way we do at the moment (i.e buying it from Amplifier or iTunes). Plus, users are only going to transfer the mp3 files from the USB to their iPod (or whatever device they use) or burn it to a CD. Obviously there is a lot more to be said on this from all sides and I'm looking forward to hearing more.
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