If you really have no life you’ll know I’ve been considering setting up an indie record label – the concept was also aired in last week’s podcast; it’s picked up and taken a stage further in this week’s.
Coincidentally, today sees the launch of The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC).
The FAC seems to be a kind of ‘trade association’ to garner support for calling on the recording industry to change.
Nothing wrong with that per se, but it is an interesting concept, given the long list of very established artists who have already signed the FAC’s charter.
However their general concepts bear looking at.
I like the shift that the artist retains ownership of their work (unlike the current situation) but that it is leased back, for a period of time, to the record label.
I’m not sure I like the terms the FAC are promoting, I think they’re not very generous to the artist. Also, the ‘all or nothing’ approach…? Why go down that road? Why can’t artists and labels share the income on a proportional basis from the moment income starts to get generated?
I’m also not sure I like what the FAC are proposing for performers to receive equal payment with authors. This would reduce the income authors would normally receive by 50% whilst giving money to cover artists and remixers who, it might be said, could conceivably have had less artistic input than the authors.
However I’m sure that the FAC has been established as a stake in the ground, a point from which dialogue could begin.
It will be interesting to see how that dialogue moves forward over the next few years – because that’s how long I’m sure it would take to effect any change on the established music industry.
Me, I’d just rather write a groundbreakingly different set of contracts between the label and the artists, and cut out all of the history.
B.