RIAA, Apple, Others Call for Reduced Artists' Royalties

RIAA, Apple, Others Call for Reduced Artists’ Royalties

February 5th, 2008

What a surprise. But it’s true.

At issue is the so-called “mechanical royalty” — payments made for copies of sound recordings, including those made by digital means, to songwriters and publishers.

In a twist for royalty fights, such new-media players as Yahoo, Apple and Napster and major record labels agree with one another and want the royalty they pay to the publishers and songwriters to be lowered.

In effect, this would lower the amount of royalties an artist earns from the sale of a downloaded track to around…ohh, SIX CENTS. For every dollar spent on their music, artists would earn six pennies.

If you’re Justin Timberlake and you sell millions of downloads, those six pennies can add up. But what if you’re a struggling artist fighting to Make It Big? Those six pennies won’t even buy you a candybar.

More than ever, it’s patently stupid to sign with a Major Label. And there’s simply no reason to do so. As my friend Jeremy, the guitarist for the suitably awesome ThouShaltNot, has noted: “The [recording] industry is as healthy as ever. In fact, more healthy than ever. People everywhere are recording music and they love doing it. What’s dying is the businessmen trying to leech some profits out of the recording industry. But the people who are actually being industrious are having a blast.”

ThouShaltNot are currently signed to Dancing Ferret Discs, an independent label operating out of Philadelphia whose support for their artists is 100% top-notch. They provide everything a band could need: distribution for their music, live support, and an equitable royalty rate that actually makes it worth while for their artists to release music through the label. And Dancing Ferret is just one of literally thousands of smaller, conscientious labels releasing music in the United States and the EU.

As the Information Society classic goes, “Think about it.” Seriously. Think about it.

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