EMI Only Selling CDs To Mega-Chains From Now On 334
farrellj writes "According to Zeropaid, record company EMI has been notifying small music stores that they will no longer be able to buy EMI CDs from EMI, and will have to buy product from mega-chains like Walmart. Independent record store customers are some of the most loyal music buyers around. You are not going to find the back catalog, what used to be the staple of the music business, at your local Walmart. One wonders when the music business is going to run out of feet to shoot?"
Artists involved... (Score:5, Informative)
From EMI's website [emi.com]:
New Music finds and develops new, exciting and successful music. Its record labels include Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Nashville, EMI Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records, EMI Televisa Music, Manhattan, Mute, Parlophone and Virgin. Artists on EMI labels include Lily Allen, The Beatles, Beastie Boys, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Doves, Gorillaz, Iron Maiden, Norah Jones, Massive Attack, Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry, Pink Floyd, Queen, Sir Simon Rattle, 30 Seconds To Mars, KT Tunstall, Keith Urban and Robbie Williams, as well as international artists such as Amaral (Spain), Camille (France), Empire of the Sun (Australia), Tiziano Ferro (Italy), Flex (Mexico), LaFee (Germany) and Utada Hikaru (Japan).
Catalogue maximises the value of EMI's historic and extensive music assets. Seminal albums in EMI Music's catalogue include Hunky Dory and Aladdin Sane (David Bowie), Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band (The Beatles), Pet Sounds (Beach Boys), A Rush Of Blood To The Head (Coldplay), Birth Of The Cool (Miles Davis), Come Away With Me (Norah Jones), Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall (Pink Floyd), A Night At The Opera (Queen), OK Computer (Radiohead) and Songs For Swingin' Lovers (Frank Sinatra). EMI Music's Catalogue division also owns and runs the world-renowned recording studios Abbey Road in London and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles.
There's also this page [emi.com], with a more complete listing of artists.
EMI's catalog includes some of the arguably best albums of all time, and some of the most popular current artists. I don't see any way how this will end well.
Re:Legal? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm obviously missing something here, how can this business model work when you're reducing your customer base?
Ever hear of the 80:20 rule?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle [wikipedia.org]
"roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes"
Hypothetically speaking, if 80% of the sales come from 20% of the retailers,
then you can cut your logistics costs by dropping the underperforming 80% of retailers.
I say "hypothetical" because we don't know EMI's real #s,
and I realize it's not going to be a popular opinion, but
if cutting 80% of retailers leads to more than a 20% reduction in costs...
This had to be a high level decision and I'm guessing the bean counters won.
Re:What the hell? (Score:2, Informative)
We do, however, have a pretty good idea of the general standard of their products. It would be trite to say "...and nothing of value was lost", but it would also be largely true.
Re:What the hell? (Score:2, Informative)
Exactly, this is what already happens in other markets.
A wholesaler that already distributes Tshirts, posters, joss sticks etc will take on this role.
Upside for the supplier is they only deal in bulk.
Upside for the retailer is that they can now combine their CD orders with the Tshirt etc orders to meet minimum order values and be able to order more frequently.
It may cost the retailer a little more but that has to be weighed against the ability to reorder more often, from a stock aspect, the benefits of this cannot be stressed enough.
What will suffer is the tail, now a special order for that niche album will have to feed back an extra layer and so become slower. It is these sales that will end up as p2p searches instead, leading to reduced sales and then delisting by the supplier.
Expect more of the market to follow this model.
Expect it also to be reversed in 10 years or so as the suppliers look to bring back direct those smaller, higher margin, customers.
Re:CDs? (Score:5, Informative)
CD or compact disc is a physical medium that has spun off from the development of Laserdisc.
The audio CD has increasingly been sold in standards breaking versions with record companies pretending they are genuine Red Book Standard CDs. These fake audio CD's that the music industry has flooded the market with are used to distribute computer rootkits, or other Windows targeting malware hidden with music.
Music CDs are increasingly being marketed as remastered, this is usually a clue that the CD is basterdised in sound quality thanks to music industry obsession with loudness, making music completely unlistenable and giving ear ache in very short order. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war [wikipedia.org]
And just try to find... (Score:1, Informative)
uncensored versions at Wal-Mart.
Guess it's back to downloading music so that I can get it as the artist intended, not how Wal-Mart thinks it should be.
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Informative)
Why would an aspiring artist go to EMI and have a limited reach when he could as well go to some competitor and be sold also to customers of small music shops?
As a long-time musical artist & bandmember myself, I can tell you why. Most don't know any better. Most bands and artists are so desperate to "make it" that any label showing interest in them is considered as being offered the gold ring. They're sick and tired of playing dumpy bars and clubs and making $50-$75 a night, two or three nights a week, four sets a night. That's if they can actually stay booked steadily.
One of the things that being signed gets you is that it opens up a whole new level of venues to play, with a whole lot more money. A band goes from a few hundreds of dollars a show to two or three thousand. Billboards and radio ads go up ahead of their appearances, and crowds increase. Merch sales skyrocket.
The fact that the label that's offering them a contract doesn't distribute to independent record stores doesn't even enter the picture to their thinking.
Again, that's not all musicians/bands/artists, but most that I've encountered in my many years in "the biz".
Strat
Re:CDs? (Score:3, Informative)
Actually they already do and every other record company does aswell. Lossless is probably just issue with the music stores. They also provide music to spotify [spotify.com] and equivalent where users can listen to music for free or pay premium (9 euros a month) to listen to everything without ads. Speaking about spotify, it's said to getting close to US release soon, so americans can also enjoy the service we europeans have been enjoying for a year now :)
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Informative)
'Exactly, this is what already happens in other markets.'
This is what already happens in the music industry. The zeropaid author has misinterpreted the original waynerosso article (which itself seems to be over-hyping the situation - see some of the replies to the post):
http://www.waynerosso.com/2009/06/30/emi-to-mom-pops-eat-cake/ [waynerosso.com]
This only states that EMI wants the independents to purchase from 'one stops' rather than directly from EMI. These 'one stops' are one stop wholesale distributors, not one stop retail stores like Walmart.
From a post by 'chpthrlls' in the zeropaid thread:
"this really isn't such a big deal. First of all "One Stops" DOES NOT mean Wal-mart and Best Buy. A one stop is a distributor that buys from the labels and sells to retailers. Most indie stores get their product from one stops anyway. Some labels do sell directly to larger indie stores that have a large volume, but this, and only this, is what EMI is halting. I should know, as I am an indie retailer. We have always used a one stop distributor, and will continue to do so. And F*CK Wal-mart!"
From Jason Hughes in the waynerosso thread:
"This is sort of a false story. EMI closed a few accounts that were doing minimal orders. No stores in Seattle, or in our coalition for that matter, were closed. The ones that were closed got 3 months written notice. I'm not sure where Wayne is getting his info but he should fact check it."
From 'jack' in the waynerosso thread:
"Wayne's post is inaccurate. Every year, all the labels take a look at their accounts and make changes. I know people at EMI and know EMI sent letters (back in February) to a handful of small physical retailers -- we're talking a fraction of a percent of their physical accounts -- and informed them they'd need to go through one-stops for product. They gave them months and months of notice and a list of options for one stops. They didn't just call them last minute as Wayne claims."
MS is doing poorly? (Score:4, Informative)
Is this based on real data, or stuff you made up?
Looking at MS they have a P/E of 14.7, making their stock price low (20 is pretty normal). They have a 25% profit margin, cash way in excess of debt, and a 40% ROE. How is this "doing so poorly?" They are making tons of money, DESPITE the recession. They are not one of the tech companies in the red, and many are these days.
Yes, Apple is also doing great, however that doesn't mean MS is doing bad. They both can succeed, and are it seems.
Please let's try to keep facts straight here. "Doing bad," in the business world would mean that your company is having some real financial trouble. AMD is doing bad. They are losing money left and right, and were even before the downturn. Thus there is worry if they'll be able to stay in business. That is doing bad. Making a profit, and a healthy one at that, in a recession is not doing bad, that is doing great.
Re:CDs? (Score:5, Informative)
Music CDs are increasingly being marketed as remastered, this is usually a clue that the CD is basterdised in sound quality thanks to music industry obsession with loudness
Older ones that were originally on analog are being re-remastered (if they weren't already) because when they put the analog music on CD, they remixed the multitrack analog, and a lot of the early ones were poorly done. It's a rare album that's sucessfully mixed as well as the LP, or mixed faithfully.
When CDs first came out I salivated for a player (they were very expensive then and I was poor), especially wanting a digital version of Dark Side of the Moon. When they became affordable and I bought one, that was the first CD I bought.
I was very disappointed.
It's a bit of an irony that they go for "loud". CDs have a superior dynamic range than LPs, yet going for "loud" wastes this. Back in the analog days the engineers strived for dynamics, and many titles used dynamic range for artistry - The above mentioned album is an example, as is Boston's first album, as is Santanna's Abraxis.
Bullshit Misleading Spin on True Situation (Score:5, Informative)
From a post by 'chpthrlls' in the zeropaid thread via the linked comment: "First of all "One Stops" DOES NOT mean Wal-mart and Best Buy. A one stop is a distributor that buys from the labels and sells to retailers. Most indie stores get their product from one stops anyway."
Even before I'd read the correct explanation, I'd already realised that this didn't sound plausible, even for the death-wish record industry. My initial guess was that EMI were making them buy through their distributors (as normally happens anyway) and someone had- either through ignorance and/or a vested interest in their own position- misinterpreted this as the "story" that we were presented with.
I was right, and I'm neither a genius, nor work in the music industry.
If I spotted this, why did Wayne Rosso, ZeroPaid or Slashdot themselves not figure this out and spend five minutes checking the facts?
Oh yeah, I know. Never question it if it makes a good story, even when it's blatantly fishy to anyone with an ounce of common sense.
Re:What the hell? (Score:5, Informative)
You lie! Slashdot reliably informs me that it is fine to pirate music whenever I feel like it, because musicians should make their money from live performances yadda yadda Beethoven yadda yadda player piano lawsuits yadda yadda.
Now you're saying that doing live performances is very low-earning and doesn't provide a decent income unless you are famous enough to be already filling stadiums. That is just un-possible. Slashdot readers are famous for expertise in business management (which as we know is a lame activity done by jerks that is nowhere near as difficult or intellectual as installing software patches or writing v23332 of the companies timesheet software).
I know that you're being facetious, but I'll reply.
Live performances are still the best income-generators for most bands, signed or unsigned.
It's just that being signed opens up a whole new level of venues and opportunities that are out of reach for unsigned bands. Booking agents that handle the larger, more famous and lucrative venues won't touch an unsigned band/artist, regardless of how talented they may be.
Gigging as an unsigned band is much like living like a poorer college student. There's a lot of Ramen noodles in the diet. :)
The average signed act (not the top one-half of one percent of signed acts that become truly famous) still only makes $2K-$3K on average per performance. After expenses that go along with a top-shelf touring band, that still doesn't leave much.
I'd love to have my bands' CDs "pirated" across the world! The promotional value would be tremendous! Even if my band were to be signed, I still would be fine with people "pirating" our CDs as royalties after the Hollywood accounting used by labels means that CD sales would still only account for a very small percentage of income. This leaves live performances and merch sales as still being the lions'-share of a bands' income, whether they are signed with a label or not.
I view "pirating" of my bands' music to be an invaluable source of viral marketing, regardless of if we were signed or not.
Strat