Revenue
is down yet profit is up...
The Music Industry is in trouble. Global revenue fell to below $15bn in 2014. Surf the Internet and you can find story after story, page after page, and blog after blog telling the woeful story of revenue loss for the record industry. Around 25% of revenue is spent on A&R and so the message is that there is less and less investment in new artists each year as revenue falls. The narrative is presented of the brave knights of the record companies fighting the illegal download dragons.
The Music Industry is in trouble. Global revenue fell to below $15bn in 2014. Surf the Internet and you can find story after story, page after page, and blog after blog telling the woeful story of revenue loss for the record industry. Around 25% of revenue is spent on A&R and so the message is that there is less and less investment in new artists each year as revenue falls. The narrative is presented of the brave knights of the record companies fighting the illegal download dragons.
Only 15% of us go to gigs regularly. Teenagers are not
buying music CD’s anymore, accounting for only 7% of the CD buying population
(although apparently for us oldies the habit dies hard, as over 50’s make up
61% of the CD buying population!)
Headline News: Music
Industry in Crisis.
Bottom line: No investment in new music because of fall in
revenue.
But here is a slightly different look at the data from Jonathan Band and Jonathan Gerafi, at policybandwidth in their report ‘Still
Profitable After All These Years…’ Taking Sony as an example (and the
basic trend is the same with Universal and Warner), they point out that the
Record Label Operating Profit in the 10 years from 2004 rose from $186 million
to $361 million, their Record Label Operating Profit Margins from 3.90% to
8.43%.
The Average Industry Operating Profit Margin for record
companies in 2013 was 7.26% (up from 4.04% in 2004). Brand and Gerafi offer a
comparison, in the construction industry it was 3.25% (up from 2.67% in 2004),
in Mining it was -1.20% (down from 10.20% in 2004) and in Transport 4.89% (down
from 7.44% in 2004).
Band and Gerafi conclude by asking, if revenue
is down yet profit is up where are the record companies saving money? It seems
to me that even though CD sales are down and revenue is down the labels are
still making a decent profit - this rather
implies that the squeeze on investment in new talent is purely to increase
profits!
For the love of music and not the love of money...
Personally I hate the idea that of my hard-earned cash spent
on a CD, about one third goes to the record company and less than half of that
goes to the artist. Imagine another world. A world where the artist was paid
and all involved in the music were paid and there was no massive profit!
Imagine a world where my hard-earned cash invested not in the record company
but in new artists and encouraging established artists to push the boundaries!
Welcome to Malt’n’Music and in particular to a gig by Blair
Dunlop. The organisers have asked me to step into the shoes of MC and I as
introduce the evening I proudly proclaim that we are a not-for-profit
organisation who plough everything back into the next gig. Well the next gig
has a starting float of (wait for it… drum roll please…) £9.32!
If you have read other blogs about Malt’n’Music gigs you will know that I wax lyrical about community,
troubadours and the meaning of real music. All this is true about this gig. Peter
Aldridge, the support act, plays a consummate set of laid-back thought
provoking original material proving that there are superb songwriters who write
for the love of music and not the love of money.
Blair Dunlop is the professional performer who sidles up
alongside the audience. He tells us that he has a little bit of local knowledge
gleamed from an ex from these parts and then proceeds to beat us over our heads
with stunning tune after stunning tune. By the end of the evening everyone is
his best friend, as he performs with such warmth, depth and feeling, and we
start to ask ourselves if we have found a long lost brother! And then there is
the fine ‘Blair Dunhop’ beer to enjoy back at The Lion!
Once again the community has come together to hear a sublime
evening of music and we make no profit! Does the artist get paid? Yes. Does the venue get paid? Yes. Do the PA guys
get paid? Yes! This is music without a
fat profit. Music without a massive cut taken by the industry. Music with soul,
because it is owned by the artist and not by faceless, tone deaf, industry grey
suits.
The deep movement of music...
People ask me why I make a 400 mile round trip just to go to
a gig when I could see the very same artist in London? The answer? Well, truth
be told it is partly to meet up with friends – life is too short not to take
the opportunity to be with people you care about. But it is also because as one
of the people who started Malt’n’Music it is in my bones. It is because I love
being part of a group who are promoting great music.
But most of all I make the journey because I love the moment
when the main act is playing and I stand at the back with the Malt’n’Music guys and we survey the
scene. We see the delight on people’s faces, the joy of their feet tapping, the
careless clapping along, and we know that the music is bringing the community
together, that it is deepening people’s experience of life and making people
realise they are glad to be alive. The depth of experience that comes from a
community, gathering together to receive a traveling minstrel far surpasses
that of a gathering of disparate people at an anonymous venue, massaging the
ego of someone else’s manufactured superstar.
And when you experience that feeling and know you have
played your part in making it happen, you don’t need payment, you don’t need
thanks. You know that what has been created has an eternal quality, and no
developer digging up the field around your village, no broken relationship, no
crass Government Policy, no stupid dispute with the neighbour, no speeding
ticket, no overdraft, no grievance at work, no question about life, the
universe and everything is going to change the truth of what has happened, as
the deep movement of music within the soul transforms the heart.
Don't ask about the crow - its a very small village....
Gig: 46 of 50
Date of Gig: Fri. 5th February 2016
Venue
Village Hall, Moulton
Venue
Village Hall, Moulton
Artists
Blair Dunlop
Peter Aldridge
Running total of artists seen 94
Blair Dunlop
Peter Aldridge
Running total of artists seen 94
