In my April, 2017 column I wrote about a big journey I was preparing to take: releasing an album of my original instrumental music. In 2018.
I wrote that I’d inform my readers from time to time about the new world that is music distribution and sales today, and about changes that have occurred since the 1990s and early 2000s, those heady times when I made over half of my income from CD sales.
Dad, what’s a CD?
The first and not surprising change is that most music today is not purchased in CD form. CD sales have been declining steadily since their peak of 880 million units in 2001; 2017 sales were only 89 million units (Billboard.) Business Insider, citing Billboard and Consequence on Sound, wrote last week that Best Buy will stop selling CDs at all its stores by July 1. Target is expected to follow shortly, and is currently forcing record companies to sell to them on consignment and to buy back all unsold product.
So what’s left, if you’re hoping to sell music? Currently, the main options include downloading and streaming. These two different delivery modes both involve a computer or smart phone, and they do away with a physical product completely.
Downloads
Downloading typically results in “ownership;” buyers transfer digital files from a music sales point like iTunes, Amazon, or CDBaby to their own personal device. Some services, like iTunes, use software to limit the number of copies that users can make of the downloaded material; others do not. The downloaded material becomes analogous to the LP or CD that people used to purchase at a brick-and-mortar store.
Streaming
Streaming, however, is analogous to listening to music on the radio. Major streaming services, like AppleMusic, Spotify, Pandora and others supply the user with music to listen to, and allow the listener to create playlists of their favorite material. The strengths of large-scale computing are employed to offer the listener suggestions of music that others have deemed similar to what the listener likes.
One intriguing aspect of streaming is that like the radio, it can present new material that the listener was not previously aware of. And after joining the service, the user doesn’t have to do anything as complex as downloading an album or a tune. This is important. Simply opening the faucet to the music flow is pretty attractive. The expectation is beguiling: to hear what one likes, due to the personalization of playlists that include familiar favorites plus something new and unexpected. Combined with the ease of a low monthly payment, this collection of features has resulted in streaming overtaking music downloading as the primary means that most people use to experience their music.
Economics
Just about every time a new format for listening to music has emerged, the manufacturers and early adopters have said that the existing rules for compensating the creators of the music are burdensome, outmoded, and too expensive. The sheet music industry was threatened by the early 78 RPM disk and cylinder sales; musicians were threatened by recordings and then the record companies were threatened by radio and then by juke boxes… Meanwhile, music has become more and more devalued. If a person plays music for a hobby, this may not seem of great significance. But for people making a living in the music business, the economics are powerful and inescapable. A download of a complete original album nets the owner approximately 60 % of $9.99, or about $6.00 on iTunes. On CDBaby, the owner gets around $9.00. So if someone sells 5,000 downloads spread evenly among these retailers, the net is somewhere around $37,500 (mean price of $7.50 x 3,000 downloads.)
Independent record companies like mine used to sell our physical products to distributors for around $7.50 per unit, and would charge more to stores. Sales of 5,000 units could bring in a gross of $37,500 but we would still have to cover manufacturing and shipping costs in addition to recording and production costs.
Streaming, however, pays laughably low rates. In my “Studio Insider” column of December, 2014, I wrote: “Bette Midler made news last spring when she claimed that Pandora had paid her around $114 for ‘more than four million song spins over a three month period.’ Pandora soon countered that they had paid her approximately $6400 for the plays, but Midler had made a valid point: musicians’ and songwriters’ revenue from streaming, following the current pricing structures, cannot provide a living income to allow those writers to continue to produce their art. Several other major artists have published laughably low royalty sheets from streaming, and others (including Jason Aldean and David Byrne) have also pulled out of Spotify’s stable.”
What I’m doing
With the release of my new recording, “Two Steps West of the Mississippi,” I’ve configured CDBaby (pro distribution) to monitor and collect from the major streaming and downloading sites. Because I want to spend my time writing, recording and producing music, and not hounding Spotify for money, this seems like a good move. CDBaby emerged twenty years ago as a smart, agile company that provides independent musicians and small companies with a world-wide storefront for downloads and physical product. They’ve expanded their services steadily, and now provide musicians with guides and web tools to help them understand this changing industry.
I’ve also recently signed on with AirPlay Direct, a web-based company that acts as a radio-friendly warehouse of digital music files. It’s set up to allow musicians and record companies a platform for uploading music, photos, bio info and electronic press kits. It also has a portal for radio, so that DJs and radio hosts can access all the music and relevant materials easily — enabling them to present selected artists’ music on their shows in a meaningful and contextual way.
I’ll write again soon about my experiences with music distribution in the post-CD world. Some of the companies are better run than others, some are quick to respond to customer issues, and some are slow. Over time, I’ll mention company names, so that readers may find my experiences helpful for their own efforts.
Meanwhile, please go to CDBaby or my website (www.joeweed.com) and get yourself a copy of Two Steps West of the Mississippi. I’ll drink a toast to you!
Copyright © 2018 by Joe Weed
Joe Weed records acoustic music at his Highland Studios near Los Gatos, California. He has released seven albums of his own, produced many projects for independent artists and labels, and does scores for film, TV and museums. Joe’s composition “Hymn to the Big Sky” was heard in “The Dust Bowl,” a film by Ken Burns, which premiered nationally on PBS. Joe recently produced and released “Two Steps West of the Mississippi,” a collection of his original instrumental music based on American fiddle roots. Reach Joe by email at joe@joeweed.com, or by visiting joeweed.com.