Like A Record

I'm going to briefly make a statement about a new trend in "Let's Try Our Damnedest To Save What's Left Of The Current Record Label Business Model".

I'm talking about the "360" deal the majors are making the new bands sign.

Basically, since CD sales are sinking to such low levels, and labels haven't been able to adapt to downloads, they've decided they need to take a cut of artists' touring, merchandice, and publishing.

So, according to a nifty graphic in Rolling Stone, under these terms an artist goes on tour and a.) Label receives 10% of the touring income, b.) 10% of the sales at the swag tables, and c.) a bigger cut of the songwriting publishing, provided the artist is also a songwriter.

On the positive side, this type of deal would force the label to have an active role in promoting the artist because they would have much to lose if the artist doesn't have any commercial success.

Negatively, artists would have an increasingly difficult time even breaking even, let alone make an actual profit due to the label's dipping into a formerly sacred source of income.

I don't know what the answer is. I feel a major sense of desperation from the labels to come up with methods to remain viable in the music marketplace.

Anyone else want to weigh in on this topic?