“ Sad But True ”: Why Metallica ’ s Fans Continue to Fail Them ( and Not Vice Versa ) Twenty Years After the Napster Lawsuit
What the fans failed to perceive is that their behavior both before and after the Napster lawsuit contributed to the collapse of an industry that had faithfully ( if not entirely perfectly ) produced and distributed state-of-the-art recordings of new music created by their favorite bands . As Napster and other copycat pirating sites ( pun intended ) rapidly and thoughtlessly led the world into a digital + Internet = free-music economy , the record industry experienced an incremental decline in record sales . Every year since 2000 until 2014 , its value dropped , hitting a low of $ 15 billion at its lowest , before it finally moved into recovery mode in 2015 ( Ford ).
Inasmuch as culture has of late taught us that this fact should be a cause for celebration because “ money is evil ” and “ corporations are bad ,” such misinformed and benighted mantras often fail to take into consideration the fact that record labels routinely take on significant economic risk when signing artists , and profit only on the commercial success of a handful of new acts ( Day 74-75 ). As Day further notes ,
Specifically , record labels provide a typical new artist with over $ 1,000,000 in capital to promote a new album , while providing more established artists with nearly $ 5,000,000 in total funding . New artists generally receive a $ 200,000 advance for personal expenses , which allows the artists to concentrate on their creative work , and an additional $ 200,000 for recording costs . On average , the label pays another $ 300,000 for artist promotion and marketing , $ 200,000 for music videos , and $ 100,000 to fund the artist ’ s first promotional tour . ( 75 )
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