Recording - December 2009 - 2

PUBLISHER: ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Thomas Hawley Brent Heintz EDITORIAL EDITOR: Lorenz Rychner ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Mike Metlay WEB EDITOR: Justin Peacock MÚSICO PRO EDITOR: Fernando Curiel CONTRIBUTORS Nick Casares, Scott Dorsey, Paul Vnuk Jr., Dave Martin, Paul J. Stamler, Devon Brent, Cliff Goldmacher, Frank Wright, Marty Peters, David Summer Worth What’s the worth of music? How do you assess the worth of your recordings? If making and producing music is your hobby, are you willing to give away your recordings even though you have a considerable investment in your studio gear? What if music production is your livelihood—how do you recoup your investment and ongoing expenses and make a profit—enough to live on? How do you break it down? Per song? Per hours spent on a project? Or how? If it takes you twenty hours to write, rehearse, record, mix, and release a song, what is it worth when it is finished? Less than a song that took you, say, thirty hours to complete? If it is one of ten tracks on a CD that you can sell for ten bucks at your gigs, it works out to a buck per song. If you manage to have it placed in a retail situation like iTunes, it can be had for something like 99 cents. Is that what a song is worth? Hold your emails—I’m not prying into the way you conduct your business, these are rhetorical questions only. What made me wonder about these things were the press reports of the two trials where four record labels took Jammie Thomas-Rasset to court over illegal downloads/filesharing of 24 songs. The minimum award stipulated by the applicable law was reported as being $750 per song, which would have totalled $18,000 for the 24 songs. Just a thought—it you go to one of the few remaining CD retail stores and pocket two CDs totalling 24 songs and walk out without paying, or if you swipe 24 candy bars or packs of gum worth 99 cents each—how much do you think your punishment will be if you get caught? In a first trial the verdict against her was $222,000 total, or $9,250 per song. In a second trial, the jury increased that to $80,000 per song, for a total damage award of $1.92 million. For 24 songs So—what’s a song worth? I don’t know the answer—nor do I know Ms. Jammie Thomas-Rasset, or anything else about that case except what I read in the press. Still, it makes me wonder just what defines how much a song can be worth? Could it be that the assumption here goes as follows: Once a song has been “liberated” and is circulating on the internet without cost, there could easily be 80,000 people helping themselves, people who otherwise would have been willing to spend a buck each on just that song? Is that what defines the worth of a song? ‘Tis the season—or soon it will be, anyway; even though we send this issue to the printers at the very end of October, it feels like late December here in Colorado—with lots of snow and very cold temperatures right now, making it much easier for us to get into the spirit that’s appropriate for the December issue. In that spirit we present to you, in addition to many articles designed to enhance your studio and what use you make of it, our Holiday Gift Guide, beginning on page 12. Our Mike Metlay made it his mission to include only items that had been tried and tested—by him mostly, and by a few other contributors. So take that fat marker and use it all over the pages, then leave them visible in strategic places, to make clear to anyone who sees them that you are keen on this and that item—and may you receive copiously when the gift-giving starts in earnest among your family and friends. All of us at Recording wish you much success and happiness in the year to come, and may your songs turn to gold without the need for any lawsuits But whether or not money is the object, I hope that making and recording music will bring you riches that cannot be measured in money terms. Happy recording! TAXI METER EDITOR: Kenny Kerner ART & PRODUCTION ART DIRECTOR: Scott Simmonds PRODUCTION MANAGER: Colin Courtney PHOTOGRAPHY: Brent Heintz PLAYBACK PLATINUM SERIES EDITOR/PRODUCER: Lorenz Rychner CIRCULATION CIRCULATION MANAGER: Tiffany Sepe ADVERTISING SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR: Brent Heintz CLASSIFIEDS MANAGER: Stephanie King ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Stephanie King EXECUTIVE OFFICERS PRESIDENT: Thomas Hawley VICE PRESIDENT: Brent Heintz Subscriptions/Address Changes: 1-800-582-8326 281-261-2581 Advertising/Classifieds/Main Office: (303) 516-9118 RECORDING MAGAZINE (ISSN 1078-8352; USPS 002-298) is published monthly, 12 times per year, by Music Maker Publications, Inc., 5408 Idylwild Trail, Boulder, CO 80301-3523. Tel: (303) 516-9118 Fax: (303) 516-9119 email: info@recordingmag.com Periodicals Postage is paid at Boulder, CO and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RECORDING, Subscriber Services, P.O. Box 334, Stafford, TX, 77497. Tel: 1-800-582-8326 or 832-886-1126. Subscription rate: $19.95 per year. All material is subject to worldwide copyright protection, and reproduction or imitation in whole or in part is expressly forbidden without written consent from the publishers. All reasonable care is taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of the magazine, but Music Maker Publications, Inc. cannot be held legally responsible for its contents. The publishers cannot assume responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or materials. All trademarked names, whether indicated as such or not, are owned by their respective companies. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #41491032. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2 © Copyright 2009 Music Maker Publications, Inc. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. RECORDING DECEMBER 2009

Recording - December 2009

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