More Petra on emusic

[rexreed]

I just checked the Petra offerings on emusic and was pleasantly surprised to see some more albums. Before now they only had Unseen Power, Double Take (groan), and God Fixation. Well now they have added 1974's Petra, Come and Join Us, Beyond Belief, Wake Up Call, the first two Priase albums and more! More than double- and it's cheaper than Itunes with no DRM. Awesome for me since I have been itching to pick up Come and Join us!

[Edward]

I don't get it. $9.99 is too much for an album?

eMusic doesn't pay the artists anything really.

[imc]

I don't get it. $9.99 is too much for an album?

We're consumers, the less we pay the better! It's not that $9.99 is too much, but if we can get the same thing for less, we do. Its the business of the industry to stay relevant and sustainable, not the consumers.

[Edward]

I don't get it. $9.99 is too much for an album?

We're consumers, the less we pay the better! It's not that $9.99 is too much, but if we can get the same thing for less, we do. Its the business of the industry to stay relevant and sustainable, not the consumers.

Yes, I know. People want music to be darn near free.

At NAMM, we see music gear and instrument manufacturers dialing things way back. We see retailers dialing things back. There are less new tools for the musician being made and sold. We are seeing things being watered and dumbed down so that there is less quality, less reliability and less service. Why? The musicians cannot make their investments back with downloads like they could with physical CDs. What does this mean to you? Less quality sound/production for the next generation, as the whole "industry" makes it's move to the lower end. The companies that make the truly great gear and instruments may not be around in the future. All but a handful of the best studios have closed their doors. Why? They are not getting paid, because there is so little to be made selling downloads.

eMusic has nothing to do with the "industry". Perhaps you are unaware of how things work. All of the download services charge a set-up fee, per album fee, track fee for every cut on the albums, annual fees, etc, etc. Even on iTunes, artists go in the hole more so than selling a CD. eMusic charges you less, and pays the artist less in the process.

So basically, you are getting the same thing for less, true, but it isn't helping anyone buy you. The people that made the music are not getting as much as they could have. There is more to think about than you and what you want sometimes.

There are plenty of places selling Petra CDs (nearly all titles) for less than the cost of downloading. Why not own a CD?

I completely disagree that the industry has to be sustainable. It needs to fail and be reincarnated. It is the consumer that needs to spend an amount that keeps up with inflation and cost of production. The customer has not for years now. We have seen other industries sell products below their value, and the companies has failed.

Expenses are expenses and they are higher than ever. The price of entertainment should have to go into the crapper and create a loss to the artist because you cannot afford to be entertained. You just go without. That is the way things used to be. If you cannot afford something, you save your money until you can and then you buy it. But now, we expect everything to come to us for free, which has taken the value and artistic longevity to a new low.

[shawnpfan01]

Hey Edward, tell Brent we want the new PDC album for free, I'll take 2 of each.

I know that money is tight for some people, but some of those same people would not hesitate to pay $50-60 bucks a ticket for a concert that they can only go to once. It really is funny when you think about it. They seem to think that all musicians are just rolling in the money and don't have to worry about monthly bills and food for their family.

[rexreed]

I don't get it. $9.99 is too much for an album?

eMusic doesn't pay the artists anything really.

Well, I absolutely abhor Itunes and avoid it if at all possible. The main reason is the blasted AAC format. Also, Itunes doesn't really pay the artist much either, especially in the case of Petra who seem to have little control of their library. Emusic is a legitimate means to purchase music. The cost per song averages 50 cents, half of I tunes. Sure, sometimes they don't have the artist you want, but if you like Petra they have a majority of the albums available now. The royalties are something the consumer has nothing to do with,.

I'm not sure what the comment actually means. If i were to buy a cd from a store, Petra would not get a penny, the disc has already been purchased by the store. If a Petra cd is purchased off ebay they get nothing. I like to download the music because I am 100 certain the local record shop does not have Come and Join us and I absolutely can't stand paying shipping!

So that is why it makes sense to DL a song in lieu of tracking down the disc, cassette, or album. I own a lot of CD's and they have all been ripped to my hard drive. Purchasing digital songs cuts out the step of ripping plus takes up less space in my house.

[executioner]

I keep hearing around here and in other places that the CD format is dead and buried but that actually is not the case. Foxnews had a report the other night about the life of the CD and sees it as strong as ever and has seen growth now for 3 straight years.
Each year for the last 8 years we have seen a decline in the amount of artists signed to record labels by about an average of 18% each year and they feel that number will continue to go down, and in reality the amount of CD's sold has gone down and average of 8% each year in that time frame. So we have less artists out there to choose from that is on a record label, but that 18% are going the indie route to control their own path and their integrity.
The amount of artists signed to a label is declining alot faster then the CD sales so in truth we have less artists selling more CD's at this rate.
BTW the trend in DL songs has also declined for three years now at a rate of 4%.
I personally choose the CD format and will always choose the hard copy over the internet, you loose so much of the music in DL and also it is harder for the artists to get their royalities that way. The best way to go is to buy directly from the artists off their web sites or/and through them at the concerts. I can't remember the last time I bought a CD from a store; it's probably been 5 yrs or so.

[brent]

I don't get it. $9.99 is too much for an album?

eMusic doesn't pay the artists anything really.

Well, I absolutely abhor Itunes and avoid it if at all possible. The main reason is the blasted AAC format. Also, Itunes doesn't really pay the artist much either, especially in the case of Petra who seem to have little control of their library. Emusic is a legitimate means to purchase music. The cost per song averages 50 cents, half of I tunes. Sure, sometimes they don't have the artist you want, but if you like Petra they have a majority of the albums available now. The royalties are something the consumer has nothing to do with,.

I'm not sure what the comment actually means. If i were to buy a cd from a store, Petra would not get a penny, the disc has already been purchased by the store. If a Petra cd is purchased off ebay they get nothing. I like to download the music because I am 100 certain the local record shop does not have Come and Join us and I absolutely can't stand paying shipping!

So that is why it makes sense to DL a song in lieu of tracking down the disc, cassette, or album. I own a lot of CD's and they have all been ripped to my hard drive. Purchasing digital songs cuts out the step of ripping plus takes up less space in my house.

If you buy a Petra CD fomr a brick and mortar store now, it would be a disc manufactured under license or by the current rights holder (including Bob). In both cases the guys get paid.

Under license the guys get a percentage up front side and then points on the backside for units sold. If it is by their current distributor, it is all on the backside. But they ARE getting paid. If you are buying old inventory, which I doubt, because all inventory was subject to "floor planning" which means anything not moving past 90 days was returned going back to the distributor. All of what you buy in the stores now is from current stock, being pressed recently.

With iTunes, there IS control. They only put out what is submitted to them. There are other deeper reasons for the whole ctalaog not being on iTunes. iTunes does not even remove non-selling tunes from the library.

[brent]

I keep hearing around here and in other places that the CD format is dead and buried but that actually is not the case. Foxnews had a report the other night about the life of the CD and sees it as strong as ever and has seen growth now for 3 straight years.
Each year for the last 8 years we have seen a decline in the amount of artists signed to record labels by about an average of 18% each year and they feel that number will continue to go down, and in reality the amount of CD's sold has gone down and average of 8% each year in that time frame. So we have less artists out there to choose from that is on a record label, but that 18% are going the indie route to control their own path and their integrity.
The amount of artists signed to a label is declining alot faster then the CD sales so in truth we have less artists selling more CD's at this rate.
BTW the trend in DL songs has also declined for three years now at a rate of 4%.
I personally choose the CD format and will always choose the hard copy over the internet, you loose so much of the music in DL and also it is harder for the artists to get their royalities that way. The best way to go is to buy directly from the artists off their web sites or/and through them at the concerts. I can't remember the last time I bought a CD from a store; it's probably been 5 yrs or so.

CD is not dead IMO, but for many it is. There IS a HUGE trend down, like in BILLIONS of dollars down. BUT, that said, the RIAA reporting only covers major label releases. It does not account for the huge indie market. There have been several indie artists that have sole over 500,000 units in two weeks this last year. Why? They were good and appealed to people with money. The bulk of the industry apeals to people with no money or morals and that is why CD sales are down for them and why their market would rather steal music...they are all dookie people.

[Boray]

Listen online for free:
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/artist/ ... sic/albums

[brent]

I don't have a problem with people streaming on-line and listening for free as long as the company streaming pays the royalties the law requires them to pay. The artist makes practically nothing, but it is better than completely nothing. The only downside is that artists now have to invest time and resources holding unaccountable people's feet to the fire.

[shawnpfan01]

Hey Brent, you know no matter what you say people are always going to want something for nothing, I like the fact that you try and educate these guys but they don't seem to care about the artist and what they have to go through to make money.

[Dan]

Listen online for free:
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/artist/ ... sic/albums

How this can be legal is beyond me.

[Boray]

Listen online for free:
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/artist/ ... sic/albums

How this can be legal is beyond me.

I don't know exacly "how legal" groveshark is... But the similar music service called "Spotify" is legal (which also has Petra btw). But on Spotify, they send commercial snippets in between the songs sometimes. On groveshark there are just visible ads so that's a little strange.

I think you should compare these sites to radio. You can listen to radio for free, but THEY have to pay to broadcast music. And if you want to get rid of the ads, you can pay instead...