I don't think anyone gets rich doing Trad.
So, the price for good ITM is perfectly acceptable to me.
That said, I wish I had alot more money.

Q-How do you make a small fortune playing trad music ?
A- Start off with a large fortune.


RORY

The only CD's I buy are ITM, and then only solo/duo pure drop stuff so I don't mind paying 18-20 euros for the few CD's I buy each year usually from NPU online or the shop at Miltown, or Mazzy's in Dingle. I prefer live, warts and all recordings and listen/watch gladly ITMA/RTE/youtube/TG4 etc. material

A pop musician, a rock musician and a trad musician meet each other again on a class reunion ten years after their graduation. They report their latest achievements.
The pop musician: "I bought a new house with last years wages, it's a really nice one, even has enough space for my servants!"
The rock musician: "I got myself a new car with last years wages, a really nice Audi S5. And I put the rest into housing-saving, in a few years we'll be able to start building!"
The trad musician: "Well I got meself a new aran sweater with last years wages." The others: "What? And the rest?" Tradhead: "Well I got the rest from me Mom."

I didn't say it originally, but I'll say it again: there are literally hundreds of dollars to be made playing Irish music!
Q: How do you get a professional uilleann piper off your porch? A: Pay for the pizza.

Back on topic. Long ago I just gave up on keeping up with new recordings. I know I'm missing a lot in this. I just can't afford even domestic (read: cheap-er) CDs these days. It's too bad, in that I'd like to support [sic] the artists by buying their stuff. Plus there are so many terrific players/pizza delivery boys putting out some fantastic piping of late

This was a good number of years ago, but when our band recorded a CD it didn't cost much more to run 1,000 copies than it did 500. So we went for the extra 500, reasoning that even if we gave a fair number away as "audio business cards" (i.e. promotional copies), they might turn into a gig somewhere. And they have; oddly some of our better-paying gigs have come out of those gimme CDs!

We put the music online for free listening, but not for download. We also took the "loss leader" mentality and priced the CDs at $10, partly because we were able to keep production costs so low due to herculean volunteer efforts (banjo player produced and mastered, guitar player/singer designed the cover, I wrote the copy and did the PR, etc.). We were also crazy-efficient in the studio (I certainly would have liked a few more takes!), which helped with costs, too. We spent about $5000 on the whole shebang and I think we netted around $2500 - $3000 profit. Not a ton (especially among six players) but the extra $60 or so from CD sales was nice at the end of a low-paying gig. It'd at least help with gas money or bar tab! The online sales crept along to the tune of two or three CDs a month, which we put back into a fund that's hanging around in case we want to do another one. Shipping costs outside the U.S. put a dent in profits, but it wasn't worth the accounting nightmare.

I think Michael Cooney had a good idea putting his "Just Piping" on CDBaby for download only. I believe he's since printed some copies since he's getting around so much these days, but that was a good way to keep the initial costs down. If we do another recording or reissue our first one I'm going to push for doing it that way; downloads just make so much more sense in these iPod days, and $9.99 is a good impulse-buy price point (this I really know!).

My biggest problem is that all too often we're still getting paid the same amount for gigs as we were 15 years ago. We're asking for more, but it doesn't mean we get it. It amazes me that we encounter so much "Well, you love music so much, why won't you play for me for free?" mentality. But that's the eternal arts conundrum, I guess.

If you've read this far you probably know there's no real point here. Sorry!

Anyway, life in a niche market .... more and cheaper CDs vs. fewer at a higher price = ??? Don't know whether it's an advantage or not. Needless to say, we all have day jobs.

As for cost ... 23 EU plus 7 EU shipping is a LOT. I have to really, REALLY want a CD to pay almost $40 for it. That's almost a tank of gas!

! That's a great one!

personally, Spotify infuriates me. I'm assured its all perfectly legal, and my fair share will..trickle down... But, we never *directly* agreed to having our full tracks available for free dwnld during a spotify users trial period. The other PPD's (pay per dwnlds) as you all know,upload only a preview slice.
There are notable musicians that have specifically requested their material not be made available (through whatever deal has been negotiated) on Spotify because of this.
My suspicious nature tells me that serious money is changing hands high up in the food chain with this deal...not so much from transactions that are directly dependent on the uploaded content, (or even premium membership dues!) but even more considerable profit that comes from the distribution rights, licensing, app merchandising, and 3rd party tie-ins (everything you listen to can be shared on social media! cool...meanwhile libraries get federal indictments for divulging who borrows what book, dvd, or cd). so i think there is large money being made here.
strongly reminds me of 3 card monty.

anyway

here's a link to a 57 page academic paper on the current (April 2012) state of affairs in the music industry. Looks good! Although I'd love to take my time, pore over it, and ponder its implications in thoughtful and considerate reflection,, I'm too busy stringing together 2 cent gigs and getting to, from, and between venues for such a luxury.

http://musicbusinessresearch.files.word ... _final.pdf

I was havng a nose around the Canadian Virtual Gramaphone site today and noticed in the comments for the 78s it sometimes notes the record has a price on the label. They seemed to range between 75 cents to 1.00 Canadian or Us. so that was for two sides in the twenties/thirties.
10 bucks doesnt sound too bad.
by the way check Amazon for used stuff or overstocked stuff. I've bought some good stuff latley for less than a few quid including shipping.


so does anyone know if artists are compensated by streaming sites such as deezer, spotify, grooveshark?


sorry chas didnt see your post( edit)

Perfect! I've gotta teach a music biz class, and needed some reading material!

I can dig the boggle!....burned some serious grey matter myself on this pdf.

However, page 38, 2nd paragraph, directly adresses your original question.
its fully loaded with good stuff.

yo- aint it cool how their eyes are in sync & all that?

I'm a huge fan of spotify. First, I often want to hear different variations of a tune without buying them at $1 each. I make playlists for my favorites. For 5 euros a month I can listen to a ton of music legally.

New CDs are too expensive and inefficient (production, distribution, etc.). When I wNt to purchase (for the car or iPhone), I buy the mp3's and if I want, burn my own cd (for the car).

Finally,if it's not available on spotify or mp3, I look for a used CD.

Buying MP3's is a win/win for everyone but the record companies and stores. It's cheaper so we can buy more and it's easier for smaller artiststo publish their work.

If anyone is worried about artists not getting enough money, onecan always send them some extra money as a gift.

give you my addres, then ,shall I ?
(I take credit cards.)

If anyone;s actually read & understood the first article in the link, sharing sites such as the one you mention are transitions toward another method of music distribution. My main concern (and IMHO it ought to be the concern of everyone who has ever tried to profit from making music); is how the content creator is excluded from this (third) "contextual" model of music distribution. So long as mp3's are bought and sold, a remnant of the ownership model of music dist (which is how the current profit system is setup) will function to the advantage of the artist, however minimal. Once a contextual model is fully acheived, profit from music (if I understand this author correctly) will be derived in overwhelming majority from trading content, to the detriment of the music creator. It's kind of like letting the shareholders, board of directors, and stockbrokers make profit while workers are paid less. The Wallstreetization of the music industry, if you will. Best case scenario is that sharing sites will eventually pay for new production when trade flatlines or content gets stale, but Im not hopeful.

Certainly this dry marketplace stuff has never been of interest to the musical dabbler who;s content to noodle with friends in the corner of a bar for free drinks. But when major distribution starts heading in the direction of pretty much damming up the 'non-gig' revenue stream, its a big deal.

Cathy - "$40 dollars - that's almost a tank of gas". When last week I filled our car - a Volkswagen Fox, by no means a "gas-guzzler" - according to an online currency converter, it cost me nearly $87. Just thought I'd mention it.

... also yesterday, I bought a CD by Mick Mulcahy from a local traditional music shop which I like to support. It was £12.95 = just over $20. Most of the CDs in his shop - "Celtic Chords", in Stonehaven, if you want to check the website - were between £14 and £15.
I have a note of some of the prices I paid for CDs in various years in the past - eg

"Trian 2" - 1995 - £14.00
"Island Angel" - "Altan" - 1993 - £12.99
"Feadog Stain" - Mary Bergin - 1993 - £12.99 . Peter's shop is selling this same CD for £12.95, so that price hasn't changed in 19 years.

I'm not really seeking to make any point here, other than to show that in my experience, buying traditional Irish CDs in Scotland, the price hasn't increased significantly, and certainly not in line with inflation, over the last 20 years.
I bought some CDs from the "Compass" sale a month ago, and what does make things more expensive is the postal charges, and I appreciate that if you're buying from Ireland and shipping to the US, that does make things in some cases prohibitively expensive. I do know this though - if anyone's making what might be regarded as an excessive profit out of selling traditional music CDs, it's not the people who play on them.