nmdmatt // libérerMédias

The music industry is suffering. The major record
labels – which rely on CDs for most of their revenue – are in decline.
CD sales in the US have dropped more than 20 percent from a peak of
$13.4 billion in 2000. But don’t be fooled: The market for music is
thriving. With the rise of peer-to-peer networks, the iPod, and other
digital technologies – plus a 100 percent jump in concert ticket sales
since 1999 – the world is awash in music. The industry now has more
sources of revenue – ringtones, concert tickets, license agreements
with TV shows and videogames – than ever before.

Record labels have always been the center of gravity in the industry
– the locus of power, ideas, and money. Labels discovered the talent,
pushed the songs, and got the product on the air and into stores. The
goal: move records, and later, CDs. “The labels were never in the
business of selling music,” says David Kusek, vice president of
Boston’s Berklee College of Music and coauthor of The Future of Music. “They were in the business of selling plastic discs.”

Musicians generally make very little from the sale of their records.
The costs of production, marketing, and promotion are charged against
sales, and even if they go multiplatinum and cover those costs, their
cut of any extra revenue is usually less than 10 percent. On top of
this, the labels typically retain the copyrights to the recordings,
which allows them to profit from the musicians’ catalogs indefinitely.
“It’s as if you received a loan for a house,” says Ed Robertson, one of
BNL’s lead vocalists. “But when you finish paying off that loan, the
label says thank you and keeps the house.”

WiredNews is reporting that a Canadian Record Label is finally doing what all labels should do, focus on the artist, fan, and music. Their company lets the artists run the record, but the company becomes management, publishing, and recording. It’s almost how I have setup NMD Records to run. All I do is try to help manage the signed bands, put out CDs, and just try to go the extra length the band may not have been able to. I keep a small profit off CD sales, but they make most of the money, more than I make.