Sunday, February 10th 2008

Record Label 'Quits', Uploads Music Directly to Pirate Bay

Piracy really needs no introduction. The RIAA is on it like a fat kid to cake, and a sizable chunk of internet users do it. Artists and record labels are caught in the middle of things, the victim in both cases. If pirates win, they make no money. If the RIAA wins, nobody will pay for their music. And so, in what is likely to be the only time this happens, an independent record label is hoisting a white flag. All music that German record label Dependent Records owns will be uploaded directly to The Pirate Bay. Dependent Records attracted mainly aggrotech, electro-industrial and futurepop artists. Dependent Records is doing this because they had to close shop recently, but still want the artists to see some exposure.

Update: The record label Dependent has informed us that this news posting is not true and that the owner Mr. Herwig has been an opponent of file sharing for a long time. Apparently the original news source Torrentfreak did not do their research properly.
Source: TorrentFreak
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17 Comments on Record Label 'Quits', Uploads Music Directly to Pirate Bay

#1
Atnevon
White Flag?

Skulls don't always mean death, but a new birth across the sea.

(That is, unless the cables broke. Which is a series of tubes as we know, hence the internet is something we can dump on a truck.)

Anywho, glad to see a company giving "the man" the finger in style.
Posted on Reply
#2
Fitseries3
Eleet Hardware Junkie
you know.... ticket sales and memorabilia make bands more money these days than the actual record sales. if bands were to release their music directly to the audience over the internet in ways such as DDL and .torrent, they would probably see a lot more support for their music. especially if they figure out a successful way to make people aware of their music. if you can make more people aware of your music, you WILL have more fans. more fans mean that more people will show up to your concerts/shows(ticket sales) and buy more of your bands memorabilia(t-shirts, hats, etc)

it just seams logical to me. how hard is it to upload or share 12 songs? very easy. give a little, in return for A LOT more success.
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#3
xmountainxlionx
fitseries3you know.... ticket sales and memorabilia make bands more money these days than the actual record sales. if bands were to release their music directly to the audience over the internet in ways such as DDL and .torrent, they would probably see a lot more support for their music. especially if they figure out a successful way to make people aware of their music. if you can make more people aware of your music, you WILL have more fans. more fans mean that more people will show up to your concerts/shows(ticket sales) and buy more of your bands memorabilia(t-shirts, hats, etc)

it just seams logical to me. how hard is it to upload or share 12 songs? very easy. give a little, in return for A LOT more success.
you pretty much are right on the money with that...assuming the artist/band isnt some greedy
sellout, that dosent know what the internet is.
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#4
imperialreign
fitseries3you know.... ticket sales and memorabilia make bands more money these days than the actual record sales. if bands were to release their music directly to the audience over the internet in ways such as DDL and .torrent, they would probably see a lot more support for their music. especially if they figure out a successful way to make people aware of their music. if you can make more people aware of your music, you WILL have more fans. more fans mean that more people will show up to your concerts/shows(ticket sales) and buy more of your bands memorabilia(t-shirts, hats, etc)

it just seams logical to me. how hard is it to upload or share 12 songs? very easy. give a little, in return for A LOT more success.
but, then you'd end up with a bunch of 128kbps tracks running around the internet - even the sites where you have to pay for tracks won't give you anything over 240, usually, and on top of that it's always mp3s or wmas.

Screw that shit. If no one wants to post music at CD quality or better, then there's not intrest on my behalf to download it. Hell, I didn't pay a couple grand for the audio equipment I personally installed in my car, nor the costs of my equipment here at home to be listeing to cheap, low quality, over compressed audio files.

But, I guess everyone else in the world is alright with 128, cause they're so used to listening to all their music on a friggin ipod with ear buds that they can no longer hear the difference between high quality bit rates and trash.



Anyhow, as to bands making more money with novelty stuffs at shows - from what I've heard talking with various band members over the years, they usually don't make much of crap off those sales. Typically, the revenue goes towards paying for odd stuff while on the road, or to pay for the tour bus, equipment repairs, etc.

Maybe if the record industries would quit charging 20 freaking dollars for a 30min, 8 track CD - people would be more willing to go back to the record stores.
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#5
Darknova
imperialreignbut, then you'd end up with a bunch of 128kbps tracks running around the internet - even the sites where you have to pay for tracks won't give you anything over 240, usually, and on top of that it's always mp3s or wmas.

Screw that shit. If no one wants to post music at CD quality or better, then there's not intrest on my behalf to download it. Hell, I didn't pay a couple grand for the audio equipment I personally installed in my car, nor the costs of my equipment here at home to be listeing to cheap, low quality, over compressed audio files.

But, I guess everyone else in the world is alright with 128, cause they're so used to listening to all their music on a friggin ipod with ear buds that they can no longer hear the difference between high quality bit rates and trash.



Anyhow, as to bands making more money with novelty stuffs at shows - from what I've heard talking with various band members over the years, they usually don't make much of crap off those sales. Typically, the revenue goes towards paying for odd stuff while on the road, or to pay for the tour bus, equipment repairs, etc.

Maybe if the record industries would quit charging 20 freaking dollars for a 30min, 8 track CD - people would be more willing to go back to the record stores.
I agree and disagree at the same time. There is too much low quality crap out there, especially on torrent sites, however, if you spend time looking around, you will find certain groups/people who release CD quality. It's rare mind, but still out there.

Small-time bands have a hard time making money from gigs etc. but when they hit it big, they get a much bigger return, however, as you say, depending on the band, most of them spend the money on stupid shit. Most of their income comes from advertising anyway, which includes, advertising for albums etc.

Charge me £5 for an album, I'll buy it, charge £14.97 I'll laugh at you and go download it.

(god you gotta love woolworths promotion section and staff discount lol)
Posted on Reply
#6
Triprift
Gives ppl cheaper albulms and they might get more sales and less dls my sis worked in a recording studio years ago and tolled me it cost about $4 australian to make an albulm. The prices here are 20 to 30 odd bucks wich is just a ripoff.
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#7
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
But how do they earn that way? It costs just US $ 2.00 to buy a legit album here in India.
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#8
Triprift
Well in truth theyd earn just nicely theyd still be making a profit an maybe more if more ppl will purchase the albulms instead of dlin.
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#9
Disparia
Yeah, what's up with 128K MP3's today? We did 128K back in the day (mid-90's) because people were on modems and Pentium computers :D
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#10
Triprift
256 or higher is the bomb just like other have said there hard to find damn you 128 :cry:
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#11
beyond_amusia
Makes sense for exposure, but first people will have to know who the bands are before they'll download the torrents... On the other hand, it's great news for fans that want hard to find albums released on that lable.
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#12
Cold Storm
Battosai
all right here is something that gets me... A lot of times for a rapper to get people to start going for him, he has to make sample tracks, mix-tapes. And, with the mix-tapes come the fan base that want the album, then want to see the rapper go. But, without the mix-tape or anything of that nature, they just come onto the screen and get lost in the crowd.
A lot of times mix-tapes aren't free. But, for most, they do give them out via their web-sites. And with that the FAN wants more and more, and buy more and more... The amount of money to get a cd here is outrages. 15.99 for a cd thats over a year old... It's stupid. Its not as bad as the 18.99 when the world first new about "CD's" but its still bad.
just my .2 cents
Posted on Reply
#13
zOaib
fitseries3you know.... ticket sales and memorabilia make bands more money these days than the actual record sales. if bands were to release their music directly to the audience over the internet in ways such as DDL and .torrent, they would probably see a lot more support for their music. especially if they figure out a successful way to make people aware of their music. if you can make more people aware of your music, you WILL have more fans. more fans mean that more people will show up to your concerts/shows(ticket sales) and buy more of your bands memorabilia(t-shirts, hats, etc)

it just seams logical to me. how hard is it to upload or share 12 songs? very easy. give a little, in return for A LOT more success.
exactly and if these artists are in this biz to only make money and not for their passion for the music , then they deserve to be screwed by the pirates , music should be free and people will give them more respect and indirectly more support , and how much do these guys need to survive on these days , a single concert with a sellout can rack in good amount probably more than a person who only makes 35k per year in the usa ................
Posted on Reply
#14
beyond_amusia
Cold Storm... The amount of money to get a cd here is outrages. 15.99 for a cd thats over a year old... It's stupid. Its not as bad as the 18.99 when the world first new about "CD's" but its still bad.
just my .2 cents
That reminds me of the price gouging done in Australia with last Nine Inch Nail's last album. They were charging an extra $10 per CD because of the packaging he piad for himself; he told his fans to steal his music because of it.
Posted on Reply
#15
Cold Storm
Battosai
oh yeah, they asked everyone to do that.. They thought it was wrong for it to happen. NIN is a great band, and he doesn't like that sort of thing for his fans. They buy it because its great. The lead singer puts so much into their albums its unbelievable. Its just isn't right to up the price 10 dollars for how its packaged.. IMO
Posted on Reply
#16
imperialreign
but, if it was any other band, they probably wouldn't have had the same weight as NIN did with dealing with the label.

See - our problem here, is that it costs less than $0.50 to produce the CD, case and liners - the musician's typically only see anywhere between $1-$2 profit for a single CD; all the other money goes to the label, the CEO's, the lawyers, the middlemen, etc. Same with gift sales at venues - the artist see very little profit from it, the rest goes to pay for equipment repairs (shit breaks on the road), the tour bus (or plane), the tour manager, road crew, etc. And yet, it's the labels that bitch about people stealing music, not the musicians.

I find it sad that I can order a CD from overseas, pay for it to be shipped here to the US - and the total cost of the album and shipping is still less than I would pay for it in stores.
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