by Larry Richman
October 4, 2006 2:10 PM

I could write a book on this, so I'll try to make one basic point. I must preface this by saying that my career began in the music business. I was a radio dj, concert promoter, band manager, club booker, talent scout, record producer, and I eventually had my own record label. So I know where the money goes. First I will address the argument that money is being taken out of the hands of the artists through downloading.

NOT TRUE. Artists make little or no money from CD sales, in general. the money from retail sales goes to the record label, the retailer, the distributor, etc. Unless you are talking about an artist like Madonna or The Rolling Stones, no profit goes to the artist. So much for that argument. So, you may ask, how do the artists make money? From concert ticket sales and merchandising -- t-shirts and the like. The CD's are released and played on the radio or the videos on TV to encourage and entice people to go to the concerts and that is where the artists make their money.

Therefore, anything that gets the artists' music out to the public helps to create a buzz on the street and encourage concert ticket sales. That is why most artists are in favor of P2P. In fact, many artists today willingly put their music on the net for free for just that reason. Bands like The Grateful Dead in the past, Phish recently, and Dave Matthews today, have taping sections, encouraging bootlegging of concerts so that their fan base grows.

The other arguments, about copyrights and publishing rights and creative ownership etc., I am not addressing here. It just bothers me when music fans buy into the notion that P2P takes money out of the hands of the artists. No opinions here -- just the way the music business works.

So who gets all the money that the public spends on CDs (and DVDs, etc.) if not the artists themselves? It goes to the corporate fatcats and the retailers, most of whom are themselves parts of large conglomerates. I'm not talking about the independent entrepeneurs, the mom & pop stores out there (are there any?). I'm talking about your Best Buy, et al. In some cases, the stores themselves are part of the same company (Viacom owns Blockbuster, Paramount, MTV, Showtime, CBS, and is the 2nd largest owner of radio stations in the country).

Now, it's true that these are public companies and, one could argue, ultimately the profit goes to the shareholders. But not when the CEO makes $100's of millions whether or not the company even makes a profit. Corporate greed rules in America, and, I suspect, elsewhere as well.

Again, I do not condone anyone doing anything illegal. but I understand the frustration and the motivation and the outrage.