Back in the day Tone Deaf tended to get a lot of ‘must try harder’ comments on our school reports, particularly in the area of maths and science; while for physical education we got ‘shows no interest whatsoever’. Hey, we were daydreaming about rock n’ roll, okay?
With the recent filing of financial records with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission by record companies Universal and Warner, it’s now possible to give the record companies a report card and we’re afraid that when Tone Deaf gets out our red pen and looks at the financial results, it’s not so much a case of ‘must try harder’ as ‘perhaps this industry isn’t for you – have you thought about getting an apprenticeship?’ – just like they told all the dumb kids in Year 10.
Warner, who’s artist roster includes such blights upon humanity as Gabriella Kill-Me, The Verses and Thirsty Merc; dropped $5.9 million down the drain in 2009, sliding from a $1.1 million profit the previous calendar year, after a $14 million sales freefall.
Rival company Universal booked a $2.3 million loss for the same period, a huge drop from last year’s $5.7 million profit and largely attributable to a $10 million blow-out in the cost of sales. Artists nervously waiting to find out if they’ll be dropped from their roster include Ben Lee, Xavier Rudd and Muscles.
EMI is currently an international laughing stock as its parent company tries to stave off being repossessed, and has its future in Australia dependant on being able to hang on to the British parent’s teat – local sales dropped by a whopping $30 million and on paper, the company is insolvent in Australia without overseas support.
Sony is the only company to remain in the black, however this is in part attributable to a massive restructure which put all the profitable parts of the company (i.e. production, publishing, printing etc) into a separate company answerable to the parent in America, while the recorded music division has been cast adrift like a puppy being sent to the vet to get put down.
In any other business, company directors and executives who presided over such business efforts would have been made to walk the plank and fall on their swords a long time ago – yet in the music biz they carry on just as before, complaining that no-one buys CDs and that they’re not making squillions of dollars. The music business has changed irrevocably, with the internet and live gigs getting more and more music fans out there – it’s just that record companies stuck their heads in the sand and kept up their ludicrous business model in the hope that the big bad file sharing websites will go away. After all those years of ripping off fans and artists, they finally understand the fans and bands – ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?
