CD Sales and Touring
STARPOLISH: Plus the reality for most musicians is that live shows are where they make their money, not CD sales.
LANDRETH:That's the tough thing. Once you factor in how that works, and how the system that's been in place works, and that how the artists gets paid for their music is shameful... We can go on all day about this. There are things in place that go back to day one with phonograph records...
STARPOLISH: Like breakage deductions for CDs?
LANDRETH: (laughing) Breakage, three-quarter rate, return policy... You take the total amount of the CD, and see how much the artist might actually end up with. And to top the whole thing off, any label will recoup all of their expenses — that bus ain't free, those promotional runs are not free, hotels and all that... expenses that add up, and that's all going to come out of the portion of the pot that you're supposed to get in the first place. They don't take it out of the portion that they make, they take it out of yours. So it makes it very difficult. I think the whole thing is way-upside-down. And I do believe there are good things going to happen in terms of shaking all of this up.
STARPOLISH: A couple of labels are finally beginning to address that; at least a few labels are saying that they're going to change their contracts. So even if nothing happening immediately, at least I think they are becoming more aware, and people in general are becoming more aware of what artists actually receive on record deals.
LANDRETH: Yeah, hopefully in the long run they will make some changes.
Challenges
STARPOLISH: Since we're talking about the business part, what aspects of the business do you feel are the hardest? What would you say is the biggest job for you?
LANDRETH: In the beginning it's knocking on the door and having anyone hear it. Because you're trying to get yourself out there, and get your music out there and make a name for yourself, and let's face it: you're one of a sea of faces and songs. And it all piles up, like in that scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones is looking for the ark, and it's all cradled up and stored in some titanic warehouse full of other crates just like it. That's the way I always envisioned what happens to the song and demo tape you send to a record company or a publisher: it ends up on their desk or the floor or the trash can in about 10 seconds. So that's the hardest thing in the beginning. The real payoff is if you can be real persistent, and if you can hang in there, because you are going to do it no matter what. Not because you are going to get rich playing music, but because it's in your soul. It's like what I was talking about earlier — it's almost like you're possessed; you just have to do it. And if you make your way through it and you have enough experience, the real payoff is that people will come out to hear you play your songs, and the notion that when you write a song and it kind of has a life of its own, it just goes out there into the universe and makes its way into someone's life.
Article comments
1 - jorge luis
hola