How to buy the new Berzerker album

Steve Albini wrote an article about the unfair practices of the majors in which he does a case-study of a typical record deal. Be warned, Albini's article actually takes a few minutes to read, and it actually needs to be read to be understood.

Here are the numbers from his article. long,

Albini:

"There's no need to skew the figures to make the scenario look bad, since real-life examples more than abound. income is bold and underlined [underlines removed], expenses are not.

Advance: $ 250,000
Manager's cut: $ 37,500
Legal fees: $ 10,000
Recording Budget: $ 150,000
Producer's advance: $ 50,000
Studio fee: $ 52,500
Drum Amp, Mic and Phase "Doctors": $ 3,000
Recording tape: $ 8,000
Equipment rental: $ 5,000
Cartage and Transportation: $ 5,000
Lodgings while in studio: $ 10,000
Catering: $ 3,000
Mastering: $ 10,000
Tape copies, reference CDs, shipping tapes, misc. expenses: $ 2,000
Video budget: $ 30,000
Cameras: $ 8,000
Crew: $ 5,000
Processing and transfers: $ 3,000
Off-line: $ 2,000
On-line editing: $ 3,000
Catering: $ 1,000
Stage and construction: $ 3,000
Copies, couriers, transportation: $ 2,000
Director's fee: $ 3,000
Album Artwork: $ 5,000
Promotional photo shoot and duplication: $ 2,000
Band fund: $ 15,000
New fancy professional drum kit: $ 5,000
New fancy professional guitars [2]: $ 3,000
New fancy professional guitar amp rigs [2]: $ 4,000
New fancy potato-shaped bass guitar: $ 1,000
New fancy rack of lights bass amp: $ 1,000
Rehearsal space rental: $ 500
Big blowout party for their friends: $ 500
Tour expense [5 weeks]: $ 50,875
Bus: $ 25,000
Crew [3]: $ 7,500
Food and per diems: $ 7,875
Fuel: $ 3,000
Consumable supplies: $ 3,500
Wardrobe: $ 1,000
Promotion: $ 3,000
Tour gross income: $ 50,000
Agent's cut: $ 7,500
Manager's cut: $ 7,500
Merchandising advance: $ 20,000
Manager's cut: $ 3,000
Lawyer's fee: $ 1,000
Publishing advance: $ 20,000
Manager's cut: $ 3,000
Lawyer's fee: $ 1,000
Record sales: 250,000 @ $12 =
$3,000,000
Gross retail revenue Royalty: [13% of 90% of retail]:
$ 351,000
Less advance: $ 250,000
Producer's points: [3% less $50,000 advance]:
$ 40,000
Promotional budget: $ 25,000
Recoupable buyout from previous label: $ 50,000
Net royalty: $ -14,000

Record company income:

Record wholesale price: $6.50 x 250,000 =
$1,625,000 gross income
Artist Royalties: $ 351,000
Deficit from royalties: $ 14,000
Manufacturing, packaging and distribution: @ $2.20 per record: $ 550,000
Gross profit: $ 7l0,000

The Balance Sheet: This is how much each player got paid at the end of the game.

Record company: $ 710,000
Producer: $ 90,000
Manager: $ 51,000
Studio: $ 52,500
Previous label: $ 50,000
Agent: $ 7,500
Lawyer: $ 12,000
Band member net income each: $ 4,031.25

The band is now 1/4 of the way through its contract, has made the music industry more than 3 million dollars richer, but is in the hole $14,000 on royalties. The band members have each earned about 1/3 as much as they would working at a 7-11, but they got to ride in a tour bus for a month. The next album will be about the same, except that the record company will insist they spend more time and money on it. Since the previous one never "recouped," the band will have no leverage, and will oblige. The next tour will be about the same, except the merchandising advance will have already been paid, and the band, strangely enough, won't have earned any royalties from their T-shirts yet. Maybe the T-shirt guys have figured out how to count money like record company guys. Some of your friends are probably already this fucked. "

Category:

Music

Tags:

• berzerker
• industries
• earache
• steve
• albini
• music
• industry
• sex
• tits
• girls

[goemon4]

I don't even know who you are, but i will buy it... Not sarcasm...

[gombie]

This is actually one of the reasons i must learn to use Paypal... The other one is to get white zombie vinyls from ebay..

[DjTheNobody]

music industry is all about abusing artists who are only in it for the love of the music, but their love is being stolen by people who already have more then enough money. an artist in it for the love is an artist without a chance of feeding their wife and/or kids,

becouse creating the music takes too much time to get a real job on second hand, making it impossible to survive as an artist. i hope i said this right.

[Libano603]

shit... i discovered this awesome band only 2 days ago...and now the album is sold out...what i have to do? :(

[runishit]

DIY!!!!!!!

[samushi3]

Awesome :D!

[Camiiliin09]

what song is that?

[wtfjaftw]

holy shit artist makes 3 % thats bullshit retail disputing record manufacture dont make the albums!

[75spartanskid]

DIY!!!!!!!!!!

This is why i love lables like Slap-a-Ham, Dischord, Deep Six, Lengua Armada, Alternative Tentacles, SST..etc. All DIY lables from everyday janes and joes just like you, you,you,you,you and you.

[ChinoMoreno4life]

@panasony23 You probably dont care since your comment was from over a year ago but...the berzerker didnt make three millon dollars. this is just a random estimate. haha i wish though that the berzerker sold that many copies.

[ChinoMoreno4life]

So its probably better to start your own record label or Just release your own material independently. that is bullshit though the berzerker is my favorite death metal band and to find out how they got cheated just utterly pisses me off. what kind of example is this for future Death Metal and other underground types of bands?

[extinctlyville]

I take this as permission to pirate everything you guys released on Earache, which will make up for losing my discs to an ex in the first place...