God save us all from holier-than-thou musicians. I agree that Pearl Jam leaving their label isn’t exactly earth-shattering; I would think the examples of the Beatles and Led Zepplin leaving their labels to form their own was a hell of a lot more ground-breaking in it’s time, considering they were both at the high peak of stardom when they did so, and Pearl Jam is a act of only average popular interest these days.
I agree with what Lamia has been saying. Pearl Jam’s popularity has declined, and a big part of this has been that they’ve made the choice to benefit hardcore fans rather than a mass audience. They were and are uncomfortable with huge popularity and this seems simply another step in their desire to trim their audience down to a manageable level.
I don’t think there are any ego issues here. Pearl Jam will be fully aware that they will not sell as many records due to their decision. However, this does not seem to matter to them.
I can’t read the guys’ minds, but we’re talking about a band that decided, after its initial monster success, that it didn’t want to be beholden to TicketMaster or MTV, decisions that damaged their careers a lot less than I ever would’ve guessed. Shedding Epic is just one more step along this path.
As for Prince: While he’s selling a fraction of the albums that he did back in the 80s, he was making pennies apiece on units sold of PURPLE RAIN and LOVESEXY. I would estimate that he’s making about eight bucks per unit apiece on his more recent albums, and even if they sell in the 100,000 range (not enough to interest his old label), he’s still coming out ahead. This is a guy who will survive well into the Digital Age of the music biz, and it’s a business model that Eddie, Stone, Mike et al are very savvy to contemplate at this phase of their career.
Apple and Swan Song records were hardly Indie lables as they were distributed by EMI and Warners, the bands’ longtime record companies. I think Zappa did the Indie thing first with ZAPPA records. The label was distro’d by the majors, but Zappa held all the rights, meaning he could shop around for whoever gave him the best deal, Sony, EMI, and most recently Rykodisc I believe.
The band-owned thing started in force in the 80s when Dead Kennedys and Black Flag took their major label debuts (MCA in the case of Black Flag), and re-released them on their own lables, influencing a slew of band owned or wholly independent labels Many of which are still in existence today (Epitaph and Touch and Go to name two).
More recently Electric Frankenstein has been at the forefront of gaining a fan base through the internet, and they are just about ready to become huge, possibly huger than Pearl Jam was, using not much more than zines and the internet to acheive their goals.
Major labels are dead. Even though a deaf retarded monkey could tell the music industry what they’re doing wrong, they still insist on peddling garbage like Brittney Spears, Justin Timberlake and whoever the “American Idol” is this week.
Pearl Jam is doing the right thing in bailing out of a sinking ship. Think of all the bands that are going to get screwed when the majors start going under or conglomerating even more. Most bands end up signing away EVERYTHING, even the rights to their name, when they sign to a label. When that label goes under or changes hands, the band has little influence on what happens to them and the music they created.
Jon
No, actually it’s too bad that you go spreading lies like this as gospel truth.
To take just one example, Aerosmith has a royalty rate of around $4 per album, and additional royalties are divided up along songwriting credit lines.
How is it anyone but the band/artists fault that they have such a shitty royalty rate? No one holds a gun to their heads and makes them sign the contract. If they could be bothered to take a day or so and read the damn thing over carefully, but that is obviously too much work.
And why shouldn’t a band pay their record label back for the cost of production, videos, etc?
You seem to forget that it is the recording industry/business. If you aren’t in it to make money you are lying your ass off.
WOW!
If a group of young unknown nobodies like Aerosmith are getting 4 bucks an album, certainly that represents some kind of industry norm!! I’m sure everyone else in this thread joins me when I let slip a huge sigh of relief. Maybe the record industry really is in it for the artists!