“Well we live in a country which believes in Freedom Of Speech..”

Wendy James 1991

I have been asked many 100’s of times to spell out in cold hard figures the..

“whole iTunes deal,drybaby..?”

Every single day I get many request for this information

Well..

You all wanted it

Your wish is my command…you poor devils!

Here it is

(and believe me I left out a LOT of legal mumbo jumbo..)

All you guys out there who are currently in bands or thinking of forming one

Read this..

Following an iTunes agreement with the record labels, the iTunes share of income is $0.34 cents out of each $0.99 download.

The following shows the way in which some record labels, most certainly the major labels (i.e., Universal, Sony-BMG, EMI and Warner Bros), pay third parties with respect to each $0.99 download, assuming that the recording agreement allocated the artist an “all in” royalty rate of 15% (i.e. which includes a producer royalty of 3%, leaving a “net artist” rate of 12%):

NOTE: $0.025 is in fact about 2 cents NOT 25 cents..

Artist iTunes Royalty
$0.99 download single song price to the consumer
less $0.34 to Apple
left $0.65 x 130% (wholesale markup)
x 12% (net artist net rate) = $0.10 Producer iTunes Royalty
$0.99 download single song price to the consumer
less $0.34 to Apple
left $0.65 x 130% (wholesale markup)
x 3% (producer rate) = $0.025

Some record labels take this even further by first deducting the mechanical royalty off of the $0.65 cents prior to calculating the iTunes royalty, which is then paid to the artist and the producer, resulting in a lower royalty rate. See the following:

NOTE: $0.088 is 8 cents NOT 88 cents..

Artist iTunes Royalty
$0.99 download single song price to the consumer
less $0.34 to Apple
left $0.65 less a digital mechanical royalty of $0.085 cents
left $0.565 x 130% ( wholesale markup)
x 12% (net artist net rate) = $0.088

Producer iTunes Royalty
$0.99 download single song price to the consumer
less $0.3 to Apple
left $0.65 less a digital mechanical royalty of $0.085 cents
left $0.65 x 130% (wholesale markup)
x 3% (producer rate) = $0.022

One major label in particular goes so far as to take a packaging deduction!

There is NO packaging with a download to your machine.

With respect to mechanical royalties paid for digital distributions of musical compositions, record companies in the U.S. have been using a notice of compulsory license when notifying music publishers/managements of their intention to offer digital downloads of musical compositions. This ‘notice’ usually lists the record company, the recording artist, the name of the musical composition, the identity of the songwriters and music publishers and the expected distribution date of the ‘digital phonograph delivery’ of the song. These compulsory licenses are typically referred to as “DPD Licenses” (to be negociated in different countries etc)and they are paid at the maximum statutory rate, which is currently 8.5 cents for songs under 5 minutes or 1.65 cents per minute if the song is over 5 minutes.They covere the standard markets (basically 1,2,3 and 4)

Primary market(1): US/Canada

Secondary Market(2): Europe

Third Market (3): Australia/Japan/New Zealand

Fourth Market (4): Far East,Korea,Russia,South America

Can Unsigned Artists be distributed through iTunes?

Of course.An artist who has not signed to a major or independent record label can still get their music distributed via iTunes by a number of various distributors now affiliated with Apple. The one that I will mention in this article is iFanz.com. but they are all more or less the same Out of the $0.65 cents left over after Apple takes its $0.34 share, iFanz charges 40% per download so the artist gets 60% of 65 cents.In all cases, the artist is responsible for all third party payments, including any royalties payable to producers of the recordings and digital mechanical royalties, which are paid to owners and/or controllers of the musical compositions contained on each recording. With respect to digital mechanical royalties, the online service (i.e. iTunes), like a physical retailer,pays these royalties to the record companies (who own and control the recordings containing the songs), who in turn pays either the songwriters, music publishers or pay to a distributor who in turn pays the music publishers and artists.

ITunes is NOT a record label.

They do not sign confidentiality agreements with artists.

Why should they?

They monitor all “reviews” and delete ones which are fake to boost sales.

Reviews from “Street Teams” are always banned immediately.

(52 people suddenly saying how much they “love” an album is dodgy anyway..)

Reviews from people “connected” to the artist financially are banned too.

(Promotors,Managers,Publish Company Staff,Distribution Staff etc)

And if the artist continues to post fake reviews they will be removed from iTunes.

(iTunes publish a list of “removed” artists every couple of months to the media)

Generally any review which has the word “Buy” too in it sets off an electronic flag.

This is an open secret among staffers

This means that iTunes can spot such a review among 1 Billion songs in seconds.

Minimum Sales Figures (MSF) for iTunes is approx 1,500 downloads..

But this can change according to the artist..

Obviously U2 or Justin Timberlake would easily sell a minimum of 1,500..

But an Indie band in Cowpoke,Idaho would struggle to sell 10 downloads..

AND….
“what was cinepops money deal with wendy drybaby?”

Well basically it breaks down like this..
CinePop Management Owned (Copyrighted)

Transvision Vamp Merchandise 75%
Transvision Vamp Song Publishing 75%-85%
Transvision Vamp Touring 75-85%
Sponsorship (Levis and Nat West Bank later) 75%

Average cost of T Vamp T shirt (1989) £11.99
Cost of t shirt (blank) (1989) £ 2.00
Cost of printing photo on shirt (1989) £ 3.00

Profit (before tax and v.a.t) (1989) £ 8.00

Cinepop get 75% of that (before tax and vat) =£ 6.00

Cinepop get 75% of all tour mechandise (t shirts,caps,posters,krings,programes)

Cinepop Song Publishing

Average royalty per radio play (1989) £ 170.00
Cinepop get 75% of this £ 128.00

Cinepop Touring Ltd

Average advance paid to Transvison Vamp for tour (1989) £71,000 per venue
Cinepop get 75% of this £53,000 per venue

Average ticket price (known as gate) (1989) £8.00
Cinepop get 75% of this £6.00

In 1989 Tour was Sponsored by Levi’s jeans
Through their advertising agency Bartle,Bogle Hegarty (BBH)

It was a “six figure” deal. (ie more than £100,000)

Cinepop got 75% of the money

Wendy claimed in an interview the “help” from Levi’s was designed to keep ticket prices low for the fans.

The tickets cost exactly the same as they would have done without sponsorship.

Wendy and the band all got free clothes from the Levi’s range..

Which,as part of the deal,they wore publically for the rest of 1989.

The sleeve of Born to Be Sold is part of the “advertising” for Levi’s.

All the band are wearing Levi’s clothing range at the time

In 1991 Cinepop tried to get Levi’s to sponsor the Bubble Of Babble tour.

BBH refused saying Wendy James was a “has been”

They sponsored Kylie Minogue’s tour instead.

Wendy later in 1991 said she “regretted” posing topless in a pair of Levi’s jeans

As “tacky publicity” for Levi’s

In the US in 1991 Wendy did an ad campaign for “The Gap”

Advertising a $7.00 t shirt

The poster is hyper rare as it was pulled from magazines a few weeks before the launch of the campaign

and Gap refuse to mention it to this day.

Wendy,Cinepop,and MCA US denied she had ever done a “Gap” campaign

“It doesn’t exist because I never done it..”
Wendy James Creem (US) magazine 1991

(This poster is currently posted on ALL the sites of DryBaby 2.0)

Cinepop are now defunct.

Simon Watson has managed 4 other bands since 1991.

Fired by all of them.

Simon Watson claims he never made “more than £28,000″ from Transvision Vamp

Cinepop also owned the copyright in the following items

(Paid for with Transvision Vamp’s money)

I Just Wanna Photo Session (Enrique B) £45,000

Looks Could Kill Photo Session (Paul Cox) £55,000-£60,000

Bubble Of Babble (video documentary,22 mins) £75,000

T Vamp Live At The Brixton Academy (1991) (Egg Productions) £ 80,000

U.S. Management Contract (Pete Murphy’s Management) £ 75,000

Fee for cancelled 2nd part of Bubble Tour (uk) (Metropolis Tours UK) £60,000

Total= £ 395,000

Hope that answers the question.

Got that?