Option A vs Option B
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 Option A vs Option B
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| Author | Topic: Option A vs Option B |
| #1
Davey Boy Crocky Guru Posts: 245 |
posted 05-22-2000 02:55 PM
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This reminds me of some of the little "games" or "excercises" a psycholgist might use on a group to find out what the level of trust is among the group. You see, there can be no doubt that the winning strategy for Artists is for every artist to select option A. If this were to happen, every Artst would get fair and equal pay for LS advertising revenue, and be able to keep his 75% share of publishing revenues. But, alas, we all know this won't happen. There will be artists who will grab for the extra share of Ad Revenue. Once the trust is initially broken, it quickly breaks down as more and more Artists don't want to settle for a lesser share of Ad Revenue than the next guy. If all of the Artists select Option B, then Listensmart is the big winner. They are paying the exact same amount of Ad Revenue that they would if everyone selected Option A, and every artists recieves the same amount as well, so Artists gain nothing. But now Listensmart gets to keep twice as big a share of the Publishing revenue pie. Just my meandering thoughts. No real conclusions. ------------------ Davey Boy Crocky's Solo Project IP: Logged |
| #2
KennyLee Guru Posts: 1114 |
posted 05-22-2000 03:23 PM
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There was a lot of talk about the co-publishing approach early on in this site. My first impression was that the option was included to address that. All other things being equal, I would probably go for the 75-25 option. Why? Because website ad revenue has not been shown to be that significant for the artist. So it's the small piece of the revenue pie. Whereas, money from licensing fees is potentially large. See what I mean? ------------------ IP: Logged |
| #3
Davey Boy Crocky Guru Posts: 245 |
posted 05-22-2000 03:33 PM
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Yeah Kenny, I feel the same way. If any BIG bucks come out of this it will be from the Publishing side, and not the Ad Revenue Sharing. It will be Option A for me too. BTW, I wanted to let you know that I think you are doing a great job by keeping on top of the Mp3.com news articles and Michaels Minutes and posting your views there. It helps to keep the big propaganda machine under control. Also BTW, did you get my email from about a week ago (re: comp CD)? ------------------ Davey Boy Crocky's Solo Project IP: Logged |
| #4
Andrew Hickey Guru Posts: 407 |
posted 05-22-2000 03:39 PM
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Obviously you're right... but I think others won't see it that way and certainly some will sign up for option B. I may even choose to do so myself, simply because my level of income is such that the extra short term income from the download money (if it approaches the levels they claim) would be very beneficial to my career (I could regain control of some master tapes I haven't yet paid for and so forth). I don't see the songs I have at the moment as being the ones that will bring me most success - I plan on writing much more, and better, material - and the short term revenue may actually work out better than the long term. On the other hand I do understand the 'stick together' thing - and agree...and I'd rather have as much of my rights kept to myself as possible... Decisions, decisions... www.listensmart.com/stealth_munchkin http://stealthmunchkin.iuma.com www.musicbuilder.com/stealth_munchkin ------------------ IP: Logged |
| #5
DoctorOakroot Guru Posts: 538 |
posted 05-22-2000 03:44 PM
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Davey, it is a lot like the "prisoner's dilemma" psych problems - but there's more to it. It's true that it doesn't matter to LS in terms of ad revenue payout what the mix of A's and B's is - they pay half the revenue either way. But there are differences. If you think that your music will probably make most of it's money on LS from ad revenue, you might as well go for the 50/50 split and get twice as much ad revenue. This would apply if your music is particularly uncommercial or if you just don't want to go out and promote it. On the other hand, if you're sure that your music is exactly right to be the next hot thing in the pop world... you should do the 75/25 contract - give up some money on the front end in favor of money on the back end. LS may choose to promote 50/50 songs more agressively, since they have more to gain. Therefore: it's important to realize that in signing the 75/25 deal, you would be keeping half the publishing - that means half the responibility to get out there and promote the song so that there's a back end to get half of. Kenny Lee, this is the first time an OMD has put half of their overall ad revenue on the table... it may be significant. And fundamentally that's why LS is asking us to put something meaningful (our songs) on the table in return. Personally, I'm really struggling with the option A vs B thing. My music is not likely to be the next big thing, but it's not totaly uncommercial either. And I intend to keep pitching my songs for TV, film, etc. So I'll be doing my job as a co-publisher - but is that worth the lost ad revenue? Well, I'm leaning toward 75/25 at the moment. Dr O ------------------ IP: Logged |
| #6
nakedDNA Guru Posts: 308 |
posted 05-22-2000 03:53 PM
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I don't think there's enough history to make an educated decision. I can see both sides as Andrew put it. My worry about 50/50 is that the ad pool will be diluted when the catalogue grows and grows. That is unless I didn't read the fine prints carefully. Without any selection screening, some artist may try to saturate the pool with songs they damn well know is not gonna be sellable. I guess it's fair that people who actually make more money off the publishing contract, will get less of the ad revenue compared to others. But the up-shot with the 75/25 is higher. Hopefully everyone will learn from their own methods, and apply them to their new songs. Hopefully your best stuff is ahead of you! My tentative conclusion: Songs you want to promote and hope will get a deal, do 75/25. Rest of the songs, do 50/50. Is that allowed? ------------------ IP: Logged |
| #7
Davey Boy Crocky Guru Posts: 245 |
posted 05-22-2000 04:30 PM
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quote: I would venture to say that if you think your songs are going to be hot in the pop world, you shouldn't sign either contract, but instead form your own Publishing Company and keep 100% of the profits and get 0 download credits (Option C Option B kind of means: I do not think my song has much in the way of publishing potential, but I am going to promote the hell out of it on Listensmart and try to get some significant Ad Revenue. If Listensmart manages to get some publishing revenue from it, they can keep half. Option A means: I think my song has some publishing revenue potential, either as a song someone might cover or in movies/TV/sync. However, I am not going to pursue it, but instead let Listensmart persue it for 25% of the proceeds. ------------------ Davey Boy Crocky's Solo Project IP: Logged |
| #8
JimmyStewart Guru Posts: 236 |
posted 05-22-2000 04:45 PM
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Something else to think about....24 months is an eternity in the age of on-line music....just look at what has happened in the last year and a half... I would be very, very carefull when contemplating ANY publishing contract. Think seriously about what you are doing, and until you understand the in's and out's of what you might THINK will work for you, you can always opt for OPTION "C"... ------------------ IP: Logged |
| #9
DoctorOakroot Guru Posts: 538 |
posted 05-22-2000 04:47 PM
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I don't know, Davey, if I were going to sit back and do nothing, I'd go ahead and give LS 50% to give them a bigger incentive to sell the song. But one could certainly analyze it your way. Still leaning toward option A myself. Dr O ------------------ IP: Logged |
| #10
DoctorOakroot Guru Posts: 538 |
posted 05-22-2000 04:49 PM
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quote: Which means we'll know whether LS is going to fly in time to pull out if it looks like a flop. ------------------ IP: Logged |
| #11
KennyLee Guru Posts: 1114 |
posted 05-22-2000 06:09 PM
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quote: I did get your email and have been busy. So, to be honest, I just forgot about it. Thanks for noticing my work in the "news" section on mp3.com. It was dead before I got there. But apparently a lot of people read the news there. Although very few people post there. A lot of industry types check out what people say. So I feel like I'm having a small impact by participating. Also, the people that run the news section are fairly good to work with. They let me moderate one day on the "Content at the Edges" concept. Back on topic, I am awaiting Bill House;s evaluation of the contract first. Then I will take his evaluation and the contract to my attorney. But outside of all that, the few hundred dollars a blues artist can make on the web is small compared to the thousands one could make IF....and I repeat, IF...my music is licensed to a movie, for instance. So, my thoughts, based on what I know at the present time is to keep as much of the big pie as I can. Plus, as I understand it, I can still generate web revenues elsewhere. ------------------ IP: Logged |
| #12
DJ Zip Guru Posts: 138 |
posted 05-22-2000 07:13 PM
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I've been totally stressed out & exhausted lately and I just got home from work, so I probably missed something, but skimming over this thread...why couldn't you decide between option A and option B on a song-per-song basis? Yeah, it'd make the accounting insane on LS's part, but they never said you had to decide on a blanket-basis, did they? They're letting us select which songs to place under the contract - why not let us select which contract for each? That way you could place the songs you felt had the greatest synch/etc potential under that contract and the others under the other... Just a thought...seems like that's what'd be best/nicest for the artists...let's see what LS does, I guess... ------------------ IP: Logged |
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