Price of Whitney Houston's Music Rise After Death

Hours after reports of the tragic passing of vocal superstar Whitney Houston, Sony and ITunes reportedly raised the price of her music. An unnamed inside source claimed that her death prompted review of her Ultimate Collection catalog and it was discovered that it was priced incorrectly, which brought about the price increase.

This brings most people to believe that it was a cynical ploy by Sony, due to the increasing sales of music by Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse after their recent passing. I, myself, can't believe that they would stoop so low just to make a few bucks. You would think that people would have more respect than too use someones death to make money off them. I understand the saying that you are worth more after you are death but come on, seriously?!

The particular 1997 album, The Ultimate Collection, was priced at £4.99 (or approximately $8) in the Apple iTunes Store before Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m Pacific time from unspecified causes. At roughly 4 a.m. the following day, the price bumped up to £7.99 (or approximately $12.60), leaving millions of fans who wanted to commemorate her death scrutinizing the music giants for attempting to profit off this global tragedy (taken from Digitaltrends.com article)

Unbelievable Right?

Leave some comments and let me know your thoughts

As Always,

Keep The Music Alive and Straighten Your Tie

Blogging for Journalist Class Post: Kurt Hochenauer

In our class Tuesday, Dr. Hochenauer came and spoke to us about his blog OkieFunk. It is a very liberal blog about politics. He mentioned that most of his posts spawn as responses to the editorials in the Oklahoman. Honestly, I found him quite arrogant, as I do most liberals. I felt as if he was just out to argue against any conservative thoughts that people posted online or in the paper. I find it quite humorous that most liberals say conservatives are narrow-minded, but it seems to me that most liberals are the ones being narrow-minded.

Not to make this a liberal bashing session, Dr. Hoch, as they call him, is a very knowledgable person in the world of blogging. He has been blogging for a long time and has a lot of wisdom on the topic. He does, though, go against most blogging advice and he is making his post quite lengthy.

Sorry for the non-music related post. I will be posting soon about Whitney Houston's death and the controversy about Sony and ITunes raising the price of her music after word of her passing.

Until next time,

Keep The Music Alive and Straighten Your Tie

The Death of CD's??

Today in class we discussed a topic which has been talked about frequently in the past couple years, the fall of CD sales. It is a big issue as I have stated in past posts because with the average royalty structure, CD sales make up the majority of revenue.

I read an article in which I think breaks down the decline very thoroughly. He makes great points like CD will last as long as you can buy a CD player. So I encourage you to talk a look at the article as it will you give great insight to the status of CD sales.

I want to end this post with a question. Do you think the recent trend of vinyl production and sales is artists and labels attempt to make up for lost CD sales? Comment and let me know your thoughts!!

As always,

Keep The Music Alive, and Straighten Your Tie!

Music Streaming: How are the artists paid?

I came across an great article that talks about the many different music streaming sites that are primarily free and how popular they have become. David Harrell breaks down probably the most popular streaming site, Spotify. It is almost scary how small the payout is per play for the artists.

Spotify Per-Stream Payouts August 2009 to March 2011

Smallest: 0.02056 cents
Largest: 1.1456 cents
Average: 0.2865 cents

That means that it would take an artist, on average, 244 plays on Spotify to equal the cut they receive from a .99 ITunes download. Crazy to think about huh?

To read the whole article check it out here

Never Give Up Your Copyright!

We talk all the time about how, in today's industry, important copyright is to writers. With the endless avenues to promote your music and the countless opportunities to get your music played commercially, labels are out for copyright and publishing rights to more and more music.

I came across another great article talking to an expert in the world of copyright law, Barry Heyman. Take some time to take a look at the article and let me know your thoughts on the importance of keeping your copyright.

Keep The Music Alive, and Straighen Your Tie

Music Like Water

"Re-building the music industry is going to have to center around really understanding what the fans want and finding an infrastructure that will solidly support artists’ rights" - Trent Reznor

I just read an article about an interview that the CEO of TuneCore Jeff Price did recently with Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor. He talked about how he was focusing more on scoring films but what really caught my attention was when he began to talk about the future of the music business.

The quote at the beginning of this blog is something that we have been discussing in some of my classes at the Academy of Contemporary Music. I personally believe that in order to survive this new digital age, the music industry is gonna have to find a new structure for paying artist royalties.

The next statement made by Reznor is also an interesting one.

"What I consider, from a consumer point of view, the next good business model, the next thing that makes sense, is if there were mass adoption of music subscription services, like Spotify."

I am reading a book right now called "The Future of Music" by David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard. The authors titled the first chapter, Music Like Water. It is the idea that music will become a utility, like your water and electricity. You will pay a subscription fee once a month and have unlimited access to your music.

Now this book was the first time that I had seriously thought about the true possibility of this type of service. With programs like Spotify become highly popular, people are using these subscription services more and more. Does this mean that digital and physical sales are doomed? I personally don't think so, but you can't rule out the possibility.

I say all of this to make a point. If the industry is going to a more digital avenue for sales and such, we must restructure the way artists are paid. With the current system, artists are not making much off their digital sales. Most of the money is still coming from physical sales. Let me throw some numbers at you to put it into perspective with how artists are paid with an average major label contract.

When an artist has their music on ITunes, an average song costs anywhere from .99 cents to $1.29. For the sake of the argument, and for my lack of math skills, We will say the label has priced your music .99 per song. Apple has an agreement with all who sell their music on ITunes that says they will receive 30% of the revenue. So in this case Apple receives .30 cents per song sold individually. That leaves .70 cents for the label and artist. In most contracts, the label and artists split the digital revenue of the song. That means the artist themselves only make .35 cents per song off ITunes.

Let's say the label gave the band an $100,000 advance to produce the record. They will not see a dime of revenue from the sales until they pay back the advance. If my math is correct, that means the artist must sell 285,714 songs on ITunes before they ever see a dime.

With CD sales, the artist usually sees 10% of the revenue from each sale. In 1995, the average CD cost around $18.95 so the artist received 1.89. The average CD now cost around $10, so the artist receives $1 per sale. As the price of CDs continue to drop, the artists will continue to make less and less.

These are just a few of my thoughts and hopefully they will make you wonder about the direction the industry is currently taking. Leave comments and let me know what YOU think.

As always

Keep The Music Alive, and Straighten Your Tie.