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Digital Downloads and Supporting the Artist

i started thinking about this the other day when i saw a producer tell people to buy the vinyl of his new track, not the digital download. how do royalties usually work when downloading from beatport, audiojelly, etc? do they usually get paid per download or is it just a flat fee up front?

also, if you want to support the artist more, is it better to buy the vinyl? sorry if these are obvious questions, i just always wondered

Re: Digital Downloads and Supporting the Artist

quote:

Originally posted by Dew50 i started thinking about this the other day when i saw a producer tell people to buy the vinyl of his new track, not the digital download. how do royalties usually work when downloading from beatport, audiojelly, etc? do they usually get paid per download or is it just a flat fee up front? also, if you want to support the artist more, is it better to buy the vinyl? sorry if these are obvious questions, i just always wondered

not an obvious question, iv wondered the same thing myself. i think they get paid to make a remix.. not how many of that remix they sell...

but i could be wrong. from my understanding an arist signs with a lable for lets say 2 singles and 4 remixes or 1 album or something like that.

From what I understand the artist is send a check every month based on the # of downloads.

Re: Re: Digital Downloads and Supporting the Artist

quote:

Originally posted by nchs09 not an obvious question, iv wondered the same thing myself. i think they get paid to make a remix.. not how many of that remix they sell... but i could be wrong. from my understanding an arist signs with a lable for lets say 2 singles and 4 remixes or 1 album or something like that.

i think i did hear that about remixes now that you mention it. that does make sense that they just get a set amount of money up front.

quote:

Originally posted by epdarks From what I understand the artist is send a check every month based on the # of downloads.

so it's possible to track the number of downloads that each track gets? that's another thing i always wondered about

I believe, once a label decides to sign a track, the artist is payed a flat fee for that particular track and thats it. I think thats how it works with vynils. For digital, i am unsure, but im guessing its the same.

i think their payed according to the number of downloads. that sounds more logical to me, right? i mean it has to be fair - the more popular your music is, the more money you deserve

My friend is going to be releasing a track on beatport. I will let you guys know how it works. I'll be talking to him in the next day or so, and I'll ask him. I have always wondered how it works too.

Rock On,

Mike

Artists get paid per copy sold (paid as a cheque at the end of a given time period from release). They usually also get an advance (i.e. a flat amount upfront), although I'm not sure how many digital labels do this.

It varies from label to label as to whether for a digital download the artist gets the same amount, less than or more than they would for a vinyl sale... so if someone was persuading people to buy the vinyl it sounds like the label he was signed to give less for a digital download sale than a vinyl sale.

To add to what Stu has said.

It depends on your contract with the label.

As a producer you have to be careful what you sign up to as in a lot of cases record labels will give you a one off fee and that's it regardless of the over all success of a track. A typical example of a bad record deal is the one Jason Nevins had. Basically made a world wide hit but made virtually no money out of it due to the deal and of course the royalties that went to Run DMC or more correctly Profile Records.

So many guys these days are so hungry to get signed up that they don't stop to consider what they are signing up to.

Record deals may vary greatly and for example Ferry will be able to get more money out of a deal than you or I could.
How you get paid is no different.

Tracks also get sold on from minor labels to more major ones if they are successful and again depending on your contract it will decide if you get a piece of that or not. Most artists in this scenario have made what they are going to make out of this in terms of record sales long before this happens and in a sense almost end up surrendering the rights to call the track theirs other than in name.

Cheers
Nem

lots of good info here, thanks for all the responses

Theres also a story behind Timo Maas' remix of "Dooms Night" that i read sometime ago. If i remember correctly Timo got shafted and all the money he should have made for that remix went directly to Azzido da Bass or to the label.

Timo was not a happy camper as you can imagine!

quote:

Originally posted by Nemesis44 It depends on your contract with the label.

QFT

Everything depends on the contract in regards to royalties, etc.

Regardless of buying vinyl or digital downloads though, you are supporting the artist either way.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris Allen Regardless of buying vinyl or digital downloads though, you are supporting the artist either way.

Indeed.

Whether you want to buy one format over another if the artist gets more from it depends how far you want to go... if you really wanna support him, wire him the contents of your bank account.

I don't see the point in going out of your way to give an artist a couple of extra pence at most, when the other options are all totally legal.

Thinking about it, I can imagine the reason that would make the vinyl support the artist a lot more would be that effectively you're buying 2 or 3 tracks... but if you only want one of them, you might as well just go and buy the track you want on mp3 and then a couple of their other tracks which you don't like - amounts to the same and of course would be daft.

It all depends on the contract. The more unknown you are the more likely you are to be paid only a flat fee for the track then it becomes the property of the label who gets to keep any money they make from the sales. Sometimes you will get a small amount per sale but only a small amount as almost nobody gets to keep full rights to their masters.

quote:

Originally posted by Dew50 so it's possible to track the number of downloads that each track gets? that's another thing i always wondered about

Of course it flippin' is! We're living in modern times.....

quote:

Originally posted by Jarvmeister Of course it flippin' is! We're living in modern times.....

haha i figured it was, i just didn't know if the sites were willing to share all that info with the labels.

thanks for everyone else who responded, lots of good info here

quote:

Originally posted by epdarks From what I understand the artist is send a check every month based on the # of downloads.

yeh im pretty sure thats right

so from a 1.99 download at beatport... or wherever...

how much of that goes to the label?

then

how much of what goes to the label goes to the artist?


anyone know?

quote:

Originally posted by mylespower so from a 1.99 download at beatport... or wherever... how much of that goes to the label? then how much of what goes to the label goes to the artist? anyone know?

50/50 in most cases for digital. Much much less for vinyl, but the sale price is also much higher.

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