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Wow, are you misguided!: I hate to break it to you, but a band sees, on average, $1 per album sale. They have zero control over the pricing, unless they are handling the entire distribution chain, or they are so immensely big (think Rolling Stones, U2) that they actually have some leverage; even then, the retailer still sets the price!

At $1 per album, a band needs to go gold to earn $500,000. And if you have 4 people in your band, that's $125,000 each. A tidy sum, but when you consider how many years of practice, song writing, touring in a scummy van to dirty bars for years to play for hamburger money, etc. it takes to get to that point, it is a meager payout. Let's not forget the fact that only a minute fraction of bands that release an album actually go gold with it. Most artists are permanently indebted to their record company because they received an advance which they lived off of while recording that album.

So yes, the bands do indeed make their money on ticket sales, T-Shirts, etc. And I cannot blame them. Go ahead, cry about ticket prices; while you are at it, could you please ask Broadway theaters and the opera houses to lower their price for high quality, live entertainment? Or the football teams? How about getting the price of a movie at the theater knocked back to $5 while you are at it.

If you hate the bands so much, stop buying their music, stop listening to them, and go to the bar to hear local bands. But if people are lining up to pay a particular price for something they do not need (food, shelter, clothing, heating), it is hard to say that it is a "rip off." Just because you attach less monetary value to it than other people does not mean squat.

You have the easy part. You download a song or (heaven forbid) work a few hours to earn the money to buy a CD. Try making an album one day, then come back and complain that $15 for a CD (of which you only saw $1) is a rip off. Is the RIAA a bunch of jerks? Sure. Do CD cost more than they should? Sure. But I am willing to pay that price to ensure that the artist who put their heart and soul into their music gets paid, regardless of how much the record company and the RIAA skim off the top.

J.Ja; Posted by: Justin James Posted on: 09/27/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use