Adam Duritz Learns The Facts
In January, as sales of August & Everything After heated up,
Adam Duritz [Counting Crows] faced the lessons every newly successful
musician learns--that the record business is set up to profit the
record companies... [Duritz] has been amazed to discover that the
record industry seems to 'build it up for the bands to fail'.
'We're on the road kickin' our ass, working and working,' Duritz
said, 'and the economics of it are just insulting! It's all recoupable.
To begin with, when you make a record the label lends you the money to
make it, but you've got to pay it all back out of your very small
percentage before you see any money. So you pay for your own record,
but they own it... They own it, and they're making money on it long,
long before you've recouped, because of the small percentage you get...
It's just a way for them to keep you owing them money forever. It's the
art of the deal.'
'They say, "Don't complain, you make millions of dollars!" No you don't.
The guys in my band are all broke except for me. I got a publishing deal
so I got some extra money. I gave some of my publishing to my band,
which is the only reason they're even surviving. We're out there on the
road making $200 a week right now... doing a very good job promoting a
record that the label gets all the money from. And the touring money is
recoupable too! So we're paying them to be out on the road promoting a
record that they get 80-90% of! You think about that for awhile and it's
incredibly insulting.'
'This is something musicians ought to know', says Charlie Gillingham
[Counting Crows]. 'There is no money in the music business. Last year
I made $3,000.'
