The FT is reporting that Madonna is close to an agreement with Live Nation, the concert promoter, that would pay her more than $100m in exchange for three albums and the exclusive rights to promote her concerts and to market her merchandise in a wide-ranging partnership. The FT sheds some light on the new deal:
Instead of sharing in only one piece of the income — say, CD sales — companies are angling to share in all of an artist’s business lines, like publishing, merchandise sales and endorsement fees.
The deal, which includes cash and stock, would pay her about half the total upfront, said these people, who requested anonymity because the agreement had not been completed.
…Madonna’s “Confessions” tour last year ranked as the highest-grossing tour ever by a female artist, according to Billboard magazine. The tour generated roughly $195m from 60 shows and drew more than 1.2m fans. Her last album, “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” sold an estimated 1.6m copies in the United States.
Hmmm… can you remember that theory we talked a while back that the only content people will pay for these days is live content? More here.
FT.com / Companies / Media & internet – Madonna set to leave record label
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The web is saturated with articles and blogs about the death of the music industry & what Madonna, Radiohead and the like in collusion with web 2.0 digital models and P2P sites are doing to the industry … “killing it”?
But this IS the new industry … a place where the majority of content is created and consumed for free, where the creativity embodied on your musical content IS the value attributed to it.
A place where the merit in music conquers all. Or at least in the years to come it will.
It is my absolute belief that “where music leads all else will follow” .. that is the breakdown of the commercial music industry to elements of trade, file sharing, swapping & purchase will one day encompass our whole online commercial structure.
Merit and creative truth will rule, meaningless content (read “pop”) will simply become ignored meaninglessness, and it will struggle for any traction.
The sharing and spread across digital platforms of all online services and products will occur, with value being judged by merit. This will occur whether we are talking about a music track, a new product or a simple day to day service.
Advertisers will no longer be able to saturate our TV screens with useless products and thinly veiled lies about necessity – purchase value & immediacy will be decided by the purchaser.
ok, …. deeper : the human mind is a spark of the almighty consciousness of the creator, imagination and creativity are the doors from which this consciousness emerges.
As human minds develop further and become more fully tuned to the nature of spirit, by stopping thought, abandoning knowledge & trusting intuition, creativity also becomes more fully tuned to this truth. That is, music / knowledge / content / product is freed from the shackles of blind commercialism, prejudice or banality will simply cut through and gain traction by the simple fact of its creative merit.
The deeper the self realization of a person and his/her creativity, the more he/she influences the whole universe by subtle creative vibrations.
Silence is the potent carrier of the present tense. Every sound or action comes from silence & dies back into the ocean of silence.
Death to the music industry, long live the industry of creativity.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:34 am