Our final installment of Max’s list of 3 things that bug him about the music industry brings us to the concept that with over-saturation inevitably comes….
Devaluation
The basic principles of economics do not overlook the music industry — and with ample supply in the marketplace, music’s value has been driven down to an all time low. Public sales are in the gutter, synch license rates aren’t what they used to be, streaming royalties are worth less than the paper the check was printed on — its pretty bleak out there. And why shouldn’t it be? As a good friend of mine says, “If I didn’t pay for Drake’s album why would I pay for yours?” If the top of the industry is offering free or next-to-free music, why would I pay 15 dollars for your vinyl record of your amateur-ly produced album that is going to warp as it sits in my not-air-conditioned studio apartment this summer? I think that in general most artists should have come to terms that the days of making rent by selling physical media (or even digital) has now gone by the wayside. Don’t worry, there is always licensing though! License rates still hold their value if you are lucky enough as an artist to have some things going on, but if you’re not on the buzzing list of today then you may not like what you see in that world either. That is assuming you are able to garner a license and don’t get undercut by giant non-exclusive companies who had a track that sort of sounded like you, but was willing to part ways for an all-in-license of $15.94. Sorry, no Red Lobster tonight, friend.
Lastly, royalties are all kinds of f*cked up right now. Let’s take a look at public performance royalties for TV broadcast. Some of the biggest shows in the world right now such as Breaking Bad, Sons Of Anarchy, Mad Men, etc would pay you literally pennies on the dollar compared to their Network counter-parts. This is because royalties are still based on old, outdated models such as the ‘Nielsen family’ method. And if you think that is bad, have you ever had the privilege of receiving streaming royalties of any kind? I’m not sure if my last ASCAP Netflix royalties would even cover the load of laundry I just did last night. If you’re an artist, forget about ever making anything substantial off of Spotify — not until the whole music tech platform has a makeover (read: attracting paid subscribers in droves). When in fact, it would appear that the most popular ways of receiving media these days, via streaming, is in fact the least compensated in terms of royalty payouts. My opinion is if they are still this far behind on cable TV then streaming services are still a ways off from being properly addressed.
But that’s just my opinion, man.
— Max Cameron