Metal Reviews

Fair enough. It's impossible generally for the artist to put their work out themselves, though. They do need the label, and getting fucked is part of life, whether by labels, government taxes or whatever.

Really. But then, what I said about jam session players doesn't necessarily translate to an anti download rant. There's a lot of shades of grey here... Those musicians would benefit from the exposure bought by filesharing. It really just illustrates the fact that there's virtually no musicians outside of the uberkvlt 1% that are happy to not get paid.

Buy The Postman Syndrome's album since their label went bankrupt and gave them a bunch of copies of their album so they get 100% profit when you buy it!!!

I would say I pretty much agree with Eternal Idol though I do think Zad has a valid point. I am always more satisfied when I've bought the actual album and hold it in my hands. Why? Because I spent the time to seek out music that I was interested in. Thus, the money I worked hard to earn will be spent on a product that is of an equivalent value to me, and I am appreciating the effort that went into making the album. ... Sure I may actually be giving the label more money than the band, but I also have a certain appreciation for a label that seeks out the music that I like in order to distribute. If the band signed an absolutely stupid contract, then I have no control over that.

Capitalism isn't the same as greed, and greed is what's really the problem here. Also, it's always been the case that labels could get away with being greedy, and so there was no incentive for them to do differently. At least, it has been until recent years...

But going back to what I was saying a minute ago, it's nice to be able to actually listen to what it is you're considering buying. It's great to be able to find and listen to new bands and discover stuff you would have no chance of finding without the internet. And think of the things you buy that you don't inspect first? How many such things are there, and how do you feel when you are disappointed by something you spend money on? Hell, even when you go to the theater (and get thoroughly ripped off no matter how good the movie is, imo) you at least generally have an idea of what you're about to get. Do you buy clothes without checking them over for defects, checking the size, or trying them on first? Do you buy a painting without first getting to see it? Hell, no you don't do that stuff (do you?), and why should music be any different?

-Tyrion

Uh, 150.000$ is shitload of money, even if divided by the whole band! ie. to 5 members that's 30.000 piece which is like 2 years salary compared to a workman's job!!! Who are u kidding here?! :? ...But it's rare to make this much money off record sales...

And that "as long as you go to concerts the bands will be fine" is just BS!! How do you think the bands will go on tour if everyone just leeches their albums? If the label doesn't get enough income of the band they can't afford the f'king tour!!! Besides if you download say 100 albums, how many of those bands will u ever get a chance of seeing live?? (depends where u live) but I say just a handful. Because most bands tour just locally coz they/label can't afford it... So u would NOT be paying for their album and you would NOT be getting to their concert!! How supportive...



So, you actually think there is no difference in downloading an album and not giving the band ANYTHING as opposed to buying the album and giving the band at least SOMETHING?!? And buying the album gives the label money to promote the band and to get them on tour etc. :!:

Tyrion made a respectable post. Although I can't see no point in downloading a full album for tasters. That would just kill it for me. I would compare to it by accidentally seeing your christmas gift before going to the wrappers, and then on xmas eve acting all "whoee" when getting the present but underneath having no sense of true joy.
I actually have a genuine proof of this: A couple of years ago my cousin used to be just like me; discovering new metal bands and peridiocally buying many great CDs. Then I guess he lost a bit of interest to it as he started cutting down his collection, even selling several albums I hold in high regards :? At the same time DC:s popularity had rised and what once was 'downloading few tracks of selected new releases' was now 'downloading all the new interesting releases' to him. And I believe that was the downfall. Now days when I enthuastically try to suggest him something new and in my mind kickass music, he's just 'meh' and maybe checks the band out or occasinally downloads the whole album then just says something like "It was good/It was quite ok", and that's it. He never buys anything new anymore, only he's 'safe bands'... :( And it's not like he can't afford it, he's even got a job! I see it's partly because he's lost interested and can't be bothered, but it all started with him having all the cool new albums on computer :evil:

i might be mistake but i think tour management and the record label are different things... the bands dont go on tour because of lack of albums sales but because they dont think they have a big enough fan base in a certain area to do a headlining tour, they have to go in support of other bands one or two times and then go for a headlining usually


not when you sold millions of albums... i mean buying the album is giving the artist less than a dollar for the 15$ you're spending, you might as well just paypal them 15$ for each album of theirs you download if you really actually wanted to support the artist

First off, was that a joke? $150,000 split between 5 people is a lot of money? I make that much in a year and a half and I'm far from rich. I hope it was a joke.

The thing is, bands don't make a lot from album sales, but when albums don't sell, labels stop promoting, then bands don't tour, then they get dropped in debt and without an outlet for their music. Many of them break up because of this. Just because downloading steals more from the labels you're still screwing the bands in the end.

EDIT: I guess this was covered. Whoopsie.

Considering the number of albums Collective Soul has sold, I think that's a pretty low number. I'm sure if you compare it to others, it will seem like a lot, but that's really not very much. Consider how long they've been together (well over 10 years), and divinde that 150,000. Also, I'm guessing that the band probably does not split the money equally...

@MetalKnight,

What you said about not downloading an entire album is a good point. I tend to listen to albums in their entirety, and I generally consider albums as a whole rather than a sum of parts, but you can often still get a good idea of how an album is just by taking 3 or 4 consecutive songs.

I think I'm getting a lot though just from the packaging. Yes, some bands skimp in this area, and that can be disappointing, but I still like to have the art, liner notes, and the cd itself sitting on my shelf. That kind of thing is worth a lot to me.

-Tyrion

You are mixing things in your argument that it makes my head dizzy! ...I just say that if the band thinks they don't have enough fan base, it's because they haven't sold enough albums. It kinda loops around <=>



Labels take a huge chunck yes. But I only know the deal on the recent Sound Riot slander, and they had the dollar/euro per album deal with their bands, so based on that if the band in question sold less than 2 mil. records it's "ok", but if more then they made a very crappy deal!! And thus it's their fault.
...Oops, I just realized a grave mistake! If the band sold MILLIONS of albums and got only 150 THOUSAND dollars then they got UTTERLY F**CKED!!!!!!!!1 :? What tha hell, what kind of a deal is that?!?! That would mean if they sold ie. 2 mil. albums they only got 8 cents per album!!? :shock: No way, man. There's... this is... wrong...

Yeah, buying the albums straight from the artist would be ideal. That's what unsigned bands do.



Wtf. Are you some boss on Motorola or what?! That would be over 8000 DOLLARS A MONTH!!!! If you make this much money you might as well FLY with your private jet (which u of course have by now) and deliver that Maraya CD to me PERSONALLY at my FRONT DOOR!! M'kay? :twisted:

I second u on the second paragraph.



Yeah, I realized the ratio above ---^ :oops:

OK, maybe I exaggerated a bit because I don't make over $8,000 a month. It would still take me less than two years, but more than a year and a half. Still, in Massachusetts that's not a lot of money at all. And it's clearly not a lot of money for a band that's had quite a few top 40 hits.

I apparantly need to move to Mass.!

.:crast:.

Wtf?

$150000 between 5 people = $30000 each.

$30000 each =/= over $8000 per month :?

I think we're talking about 1 person making $150,000 in 1½-2years. That's how I understood Eyez0rz.

.:crast:.

Argh, money confuses me... good job I don't have much.

I just switched jobs and got up my salary some, but I suck at handling money. Doesn't take long for me to spend it all on, well, I have no clue what I spend my money on. Metal and booze probably,

.:crast:.

It's alright guys, I'd be more than happy to take that annoying money from you. Uncle Zad to the rescue!

All I can say is that I don't have a single friend who buys music anymore, they all download. I'm the only one of the group who actually buys music. None of my friends are into metal though, so perhaps downloading is killing mainstream music more so then metal.

Hah, I'm very capable of spending it myself,

.:crast:.

Well said on all points.

Also, as Kuruus says, the people I know who only download listen to losery crap anyway. My few metal friends actually have a cd collection, one that is always growing. We feel a need to pay tribute to worthy bands by way of purchasing their music. With the immense amount of music in existence, downloading is the only way to sift through any portion of it unless you're swimming in cash.

Exactly. Well played.