sounds like a lot and anything I would release would be buried.... any thoughts ??

ya bud, "c'est la vie," as we like to say

18,000?  No wonder I can't keep up!  Oh well, only two or three are probably worth listening to anyway.

I've read similar reports. So yes, if you round up all the distributors reports then I guess that figure would be about right! 

Competition has always been very fierce in the music business and as the Internet bloomed and technology advances the music scene became even-more over-saturated. I also agree for most bands their releases usually gets buried especially by the heavy weights in the business! 

Keep on writing and recording; keep it fun; laugh/joke when sh#t happens (laughter is good for the soul) and last of all; never, ever give up; 

There is still hope for unknown independent artists on a low budget;
Clever marketing strategies; live performances help; careful planning (usually at least several months in advance) targeting (finding the right audience (unexpectedly; usually friends of friends of friends lol), all that and having connections is the key. Sure enough though; this all takes a lot of time and effort! Oh and try not to stir-up any negativity (bite ya' tongue lol) because that can do way more harm than good especially in this business!  

Good luck and have fun {sigh} Come on man get cracking {big sigh}  We need this all done tomorrow {arghhhhhh} 

Yeah.  Heck, Public Enemy was just voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I (with over 100,000 songs in my library) had never even heard of them!

Competition has always been very fierce in the music business and as the Internet bloomed and technology advances the music scene became even-more over-saturated. I also agree for most bands their releases usually gets buried especially by the heavy weights in the business!  

Speaking of the entertainment industry...


I had just read an old article about some movie planned to be produced - it listed a cost of $150 million. Hmm, yeah, par for the big-feature course, I had thought. The comes the studio money guy and he axes it because the director insists on an 'R' rating to do it proper. Here's the kicker, money-bags then goes on to say that he'd need to make $500 million just to break even with all his marketing costs.

So, I'm supposed to believe that it costs more than twice as much to sell the damn thing than it is to make it to begin with? 

I always thought a good product needs little sales pitch. Of course, it's not that simple in reality, but what a waste of cash here.

SuperG


I always thought a good product needs little sales pitch. 

I know I've, "said this before," but I've got the numbers swirling in my head, and I think for a cool $150,000..   I could break a band.  In contrast, "Taylor Swifts," marketing budget is a $1,000,000 a song.

Edit =  I've got this figured out, "all in my head," except for, "funding."   You can't go to a bank, and borrow a $150,000 and be like, "yep, I makin Rock Stars."

The banker will be all, "Yeah dude."  We only do home and car.


Edit again = I'll say this, "the last place, I expect to see any profit whatsoever is: In the actual sale of recorded music.  Recorded music is just a vehicle...

Its like, "the printer."  When what you really want to sell is, "the cartridge."

Next up, the Cartridge Family!

SuperG


 

So, I'm supposed to believe that it costs more than twice as much to sell the damn thing than it is to make it to begin with? 

I always thought a good product needs little sales pitch. Of course, it's not that simple in reality, but what a waste of cash here.

When Gnarls Barkley became the first one to sell gold (or was it platinum...) with download distribution in the UK, all the kids were "Yeah, me too, you see, it's possible!! Just put the song in the net and up you go!!".  They did not come to think of the tens of thousands of pounds invsted in marketing that product. Big ads in music magazines etc.

Kalle Rantaaho

SuperG


 

So, I'm supposed to believe that it costs more than twice as much to sell the damn thing than it is to make it to begin with? 

I always thought a good product needs little sales pitch. Of course, it's not that simple in reality, but what a waste of cash here.

When Gnarls Barkley became the first one to sell gold (or was it platinum...) with download distribution in the UK, all the kids were "Yeah, me too, you see, it's possible!! Just put the song in the net and up you go!!".  They did not come to think of the tens of thousands of pounds invsted in marketing that product. Big ads in music magazines etc.

I hear you. But i do think that marketing, although necessary, punches way above it's weight, financially. This is true even in my industry, which is electronics manufacturing. The ratio of engineering and manufacturing costs compared to marketing and sales is outrageous.

Here's an example, say I sell a gold record at 10 pounds a pop. That's ten million bucks. If I spend tens of thousands of pounds marketing it, that's a bargain in the low single digits percentage wise. Now imagine I told you that I spent 7.5 million pounds just to market that record. We've gone from a few percent to 75 percent. 

You'd expect that the cost of distribution dropping dramatically would affect sales and make music less expensive and more even popular. The popularity is there for some artists, but they aren't getting any break. It's just more money in the pocket for the distributors.