Dave's Top Eight

1. Jerry Reed...Revisited by Darrell Toney (reviewed 6/07) (5 Stars)
2. Sounds Like Sunday by Janet Paschal (reviewed 5/07) (5 Stars)
3. True To The Call by Kingdom Heirs (reviewed 3/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
4. Revival by Gold City (reviewed 10/06) (4 1/2 Stars)
5. Get Away Jordan by Ernie Haase & Signature Sound (reviewed 2/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
6. Breakin' Chains by Three Bridges (reviewed 5/07) (4 1/2 Stars)
7. Big Sky by The Isaacs (reviewed 4/07)
8. Skywriting by Mercy's Well (reviewed 7/07)

Click title to purchase at CBD.com...click artist name to read Dave's Review. A CD will automatically fall out of the Top Eight after twelve months if no CD surpasses it before then.

Most Recent Articles

2007 Singing News Top Five Fan Awards
Hoppers' Ride On Canaan
The Return Of Canaan
Church Music As A Career
AUDIO/PODCAST INTERVIEW>> Lily Fern & Steve Weathe...
CD Review: Triumphant Quartet (You Gotta Love It)
Three Bridges Crossing Over?
CD Review: Janet Paschal (Sounds Like Sunday)
AUDIO/PODCAST INTERVIEW>> Triumphant Quartet
Top SG Albums Of The Decade

I'mWithFred - Contribute Now

-----------

May 19, 2007

Real Record Labels

There are so many "pay as you go" labels in Southern Gospel, it's good to be reminded from time to time how a real record label works. Some amateur artists don't know. When they're approached by someone with a recognizable name in the industry, they're so flattered to have been noticed that they gladly fork over several thousand dollars in order to be able to say they're "on a label."

In contrast, a real record label pays the costs of production, duplication, royalties and marketing. This is shown as expense on the artist's account, but it isn't up to the artist to pay it back. It's up to the record label to sell enough copies at the retail level to put the project in the black. What most new artists and ordinary fans don't realize is that it's the sales of previously established artists that enables each label to take risks with upstarts.

From the beginning, the artist can buy their own CDs at a discount to sell to their fans, so the group can go ahead and start making money from the CDs in this manner. They may pay a little more than actual cost, and the record label can make some money on the side in this fashion, but it's still a significant enough discount that the artist can make money as well. I know that ten years ago or so, for example, the Star Song label artists could buy their own CDs at an 80% discount off of the distributor's suggested retail price. This would be around $3.15 each on a $15.98 recording, plus they paid for shipping, which I assume was actual costs.

This particular label was probably profiting 25 to 40 cents per CD or so on the pieces they sold to the artist (assuming the artist didn't over-extend and fail to pay their bills). Also, bankruptcy is a looming factor with any debut artist, because they ultimately succeed or fail at the whim of the concert attending public.

This is a common misconception, by the way. Debut artists don't make money from retail CD sales initially. They make most of their money by playing gigs that they obtained as a result of making a heavily marketed CD on a label., and they pad this income with any CDs they sell at the gigs. This is why it's so important that an artist have a fairly good regional base of fans before signing with a major label.

On the label side, manufacturing runs a couple of bucks per unit and royalties (assuming payment) run around 90 cents. If a label is shirking their obligation to pay royalties, the songwriters are more or less at their mercy. They can demand an audit of the label's books, typically, but that's time consuming and may not be worth the effort.

Assuming everyone is honest and can be counted on to pay their bills, and IF the label recoups their expenses (and that's a huge IF when it's a brand new artist), the artist will share in all future profits from the sales of their product at the retail level.

Labels:

posted by David Bruce Murray @ 11:23:00 AM


Links to this post:

Create a Link



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?