Artist versus Label - Digital Download Royalties

A Major Label Artist Makes 8 Cents On a 99-Cent iTunes Download...

Where is the love in this war on downloads and digital formats. This article clearly shows how the artist has found themselves  in a position of clearly being raped of profits and royalties. I must be clear that this rule only applies to artists that are signed to major record labels. Maybe some independent artists have this to worry about, maybe not. UMG has a deal in place with their artists that they only make 40% of the revenue made from a digital download. Now what might type of costs does an artist get when a song is downloaded? I thought that the idea of a digital download gave the artist more revenue because a digital download does not have a cost attached to it like packaging a cd.

Look at this example from Digital Music News and countless other bloggers (Digital Music News, 2011):

There are two major deductions stated above that no one even knows about until now. The average person would need a lawyer just to figure out what these deductions really mean. What is “Less Net Sales Deduction”. That is a deduction of 15%. The second one is “Less Container Charge for Audiophile Records” at a whopping 25%. That is a total of 40% of money taken from the artist. The picture gets worse as the forecast for more deductions will emerge on the next example. (Digital Music News, 2011):

The record labels have found another way for them to steal money from their artists. There is no way that they could have not learned for the mess that they are in already.  I am wondering if the federal courts are going to side with the labels or the artists in this case. I think that the artists have the upper hand, but you know that lobbyists play a very important role in keeping things in place in favor of their personal gain.

Rapper Chuck D is leading the way in suing UMG for digital downloads. His case has the backing of federal courts that is keeping the case in the public eye. His case will hopefully bring an end to the recording industries abuse of power over their artists, especially past artists who live on fixed incomes and did not have a clause in their contracts regarding cd sales and digital downloads.

What will be the future of the recording industry if they cannot find a common ground to exploit music for their gain? The average artist today does not need a record label or distribution. They do not need the big marketing machine’s to get the product to the masses. The artists can fight the big fight today and hopefully the outcome will be in their favor. 

Music publishing is the industry that can harbor all of these problems for individual artists, composers, and songwriters. One can start their own publishing company and get their songs placed on iTunes and get all of their profits with companies like Tune Core. The profit margin is 100% for the artist.

The is a link below explains how one should go about being paid using Tune Core and iTunes. It also explains how you should sell your music and also discusses pay rate. This is a must read for those that are serious considering selling their music in to todays music industry, as well as becoming independent music publishers.