5 Comments

1. I’m suspicious of these numbers. How do we know these numbers are for real and that the source(s) who are reporting these figures are giving a true and correct count? The labels have rigged numbers in traditional sales for years and have refused to give up information on the average sale price of each unit sold. They can give you a quote on the MRSP per unit but not the real price it actually sold for. And therein lies the rub.
   There are a myriad of reasons for the need to have the knowledge of the real price figures but when you have that real price you can start to do the math on what was sold and what constitutes a real sale.
   Click fraud in the digital realm is a very serious problem for publishing rights, performance royalties, stock holders, investors and the unknowing public.
   Just look how much ad revenue has stayed with or gone back to Print-media because of unverifiable actual individual clicks per ad ratio figures, and thus the investment and returns on those ads can not be justified in any business sense. In many instances the online ad agencies and their like sources, lied and tampered with those numbers to inflate their fees and defraud the paying costumers of those online ads.
   I’m just worried that the same my be happening here. Each time those big sales numbers get crated-out, the labels should be ask to prove it. Also, if these uber-digital Wonder Acts are for real with these great sales under their belt…then the axiom should hold that your biggest sports arena or mega concert venue that seats 20- 30 thousands fans sold be sold out quickly and for months to come. These kind of sales should mean that the Rock n’ Roll circus is coming to town. Right?

2. Personally I do trust the numbers, they can be verified somewhat easy , just figure out the number of retweets , posts and the like , and it’s then not too awfully hard to validate.

3. It’s quite easy to inflate your downloads by just buying them your self and chocking it up to promotion. For every .99 cent purchase , the label gets back .70 cents and shoots the artists 5 cents. It was to hard to pull that off in the old days with over shipping CD’s and high returns. Because of 360 deals with the artists, it’s in the labels best interest to inflate the downloads to add hype and encourage high inflated live performance guarantees for their artists – of which they share in.
   It will end up being Live Nation and AEG’s problem.

4. Tricky…that’s very interesting….good insight. But as you may know the live attendance numbers have not panned out. Live Nation would confess this much and have done so on the record. Large arenas (which are the life-blood of the industry) are out of business or are an the verge of going outta business because of the lack of great strong acts being released and promoted by the labels. The 5,000 seaters on down are fairing well, considering, but you can’t run an industry on those thin returns.
   Jimmy Iovine himself said that he(and his generation) had ruined the music industry as we had known it. How did they do it? Mike Rapino say it’s because low quality acts. Iovine and his ilk are lost in their own junk and myth-making. As the old axiom holds: Crap in. Crap out. (Now, Jimmy is touting the idea of himself taking over the Hollywood film industry. God Help us.)
   As to Brandon’s statements: I’m sorry but how is it that “retweets, post and the like..” can pass for verified sales and a tool for proper accounting? Please, expand and define your argument. You may have invented a new form of an economic theory.
   Thanks

5. Hey Tricky, that was an interesting observation, never thought of that one. Hmm wonder if that goes on, as part of the MARKETING budgets of the Major’s.
   http://musi-source.blogspot.com

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