Chinese Democracy for free?

[ShotgunBlues1978]

The album cost $13 million so this is an impossibility

The smart move would be to maximize profits on the first album and then you can start with the discounting/gimmicks with albums 2-3 of the trilogy

[AdZ]

The album cost $13 million so this is an impossibility

How do you know?

[gunns1]

The album cost $13 million so this is an impossibility

How do you know?

well considering how long this album has taken to make, and all the studios/musicians/band equipment axl has hired

I doubt it would be free, do you?

[jarmo]

The album cost $13 million so this is an impossibility

How do you know?

well considering how long this album has taken to make, and all the studios/musicians/band equipment axl has hired

I doubt it would be free, do you?

Axl doesn't seem to be the kind of artist who's motivated by money.



I don't doubt that the record company wants to make as much money as possible on GN'R though.



/jarmo

[ShotgunBlues1978]

The album cost $13 million so this is an impossibility

How do you know?

A lot of sources have quoted that figure from the label.  Regardless of how much it actually cost, it's fairly obvious that the record label spent a lot of money on it and will want a return on that investment.  Record labels don't give a damn about anything but money, hence they won't be giving the album away for free

Trent can give his album away for free because he paid for it himself and isn't signed to a label.  He can do whatever he wants.  But since Geffen/Universal paid for much of the recording costs of CD and GnR are contractually obligated to them, they can't do the same thing

[HBK]

How the hell does an album make money if it is given away?

You get sponsors for each track. For example

Better - Johnson and Johnson
IRS - H&R Block
There was a Time - Rolex
Sorry - Hallmark
Prostitute - Trojan
Chinese Democracy - IOC
The General - GM

AJAAJ.. YES SR.


Chinese Democracy... Digital Download... EP Whit Sponsors... You Remembers BETTER / HD ?

 

HBK *

[gunns1]

in my opinion

GREAT music should be payed for,

and  everyone should buy it,

plain and simple...

axl hasnt busted his ass the last decade +  to give this cd out for free

that is absolutely stupid and ludacris....

of course you should buy it, show your appreciation

[1987]

at first i thought it wa a ridiculous idea... but after thinking about it... it could work.  look how yahoo and google and other web based companies make money.....advertising......   so if gnr could release the album for free exclusively on there site   and charge corporate sponsors ludicrous fees to advertise on there site..it  could work...  they could even make you sign up for the site for 'free'  but you have to give a email address.. and they could "share" that with the sponsors.    the release of the album would be a huge deal... i'm sure the could get top dollar from sponsors if they only offered the free download for a month and then sold it in stores.. a 30 second commercial during the super bowl costs over 30million dollars.. so clearly companies have a huge advertising budget.  this might actually be a good way for the music industry to capitalize on the internet.

[Bitch Slap Rappin]

No cd's or albums should be free. If you're a professional artist and the masses like your music than as a fan we should buy the cd for the price. Why is it that music should be free for everyone while everything else you have to pay. We all have day jobs and night jobs. How would you feel if you worked somewhere for eight hours and didn't get paid for the labor and hard work you did? I seriously doubt any of you would go back to that place of employment. Well professional artists should be shown the same respect and get paid for the art they create. Weather it's with a Major label and they get a royalty or if they are with an indie label real good artist should be compensated for their art. Especially if it's great!!!!   

[Oh My Choking Soul]

Well, you will always have the option to get albums for free these days, period. It's just about the industry embracing it at this point. If you want an album for free, you can get it for free with little to no risk.

In the furure artists will have no choice but to earn the real money from endorsements and touring.

[Thorned Rose]

they need to charge around 10-14 bucks for the album in the stores to make profit, considering the department stores buy it from the labels for 50-70% of that. Usually an artist gets around 75 cents to 2.00 per album sold directly... this is after the producer gets his... and etc

[Agno]

I hope they don't do that. I wan't a real album with a cover and a cd or lp.

[Thorned Rose]

I hope they don't do that. I wan't a real album with a cover and a cd or lp.

just to let you know... a cd and lp are basically the same thing.

a LP is a full length disc like AFD

a EP is a shortended demo like album like LIve like a suicide.

most cds are lps....

[HoldenCaulfield]

You gotta realize that even though 'In Rainbows' was released for free, when the physical product came out, it was the number one album in the country. I agree with the theory that they should release the album online for $9.99, then release a physical album the next week. It would still sell a ton of copies, and they make money with both releases. Now obviously, they won't give it away, and they shouldn't. This isn't just some album a band decided to do on a whim...

[Red1]

Although I don't think there is any chance of the label giving it away for 'free', I think that the right option could actually work.

In last weekends Mail On Sunday (UK Newspaper) the new Paul McCartney album was given away for free.  However, the album wasn't free because what happens in those cases is that the Newspaper would have paid a huge lump sum for the album.  The McCartney camp would have weighed up the odds and decided to take the money because a HUGE number of people wouldn't have bought the paper even for the album:

a) because like many of us they just don't want music for free.  The album is avaialble to buy and they will go and do it that way - and probably get a jewel case and full artwork etc.

b) they don't agree with the political stance of the Newspaper and wont buy it regardless of the covermounted gift.

So McCartney has gotten his new music out to an audience of 2,184,303 (official ABC circulation figure of the Mail On Sunday for the UK) which is made up of both fans and new listeners - who may in turn now buy back catalogue music, or pay for merchandise, or concert tickets.


I would think that if the label wanted to do something along those lines (although I highly doubt there is a magazine with a high enough circulation for it to be a serious consideration) it would need Axl's approval and I can't see him wanting the fruits of his labour distributed in that way.  

I see the benefits of Music 2.0 and the new model BUT I still feel that free music on this kind of scale is devaluing the industry.  It;s a catch 22.  I applaud people like Radiohead, NIN etc for thinking outside of the box, but despite the fact we all know music will eventually be 100% free, I think these artists are speeding up the process and in my personal opinion that is not a good thing.

[Jay Tea]

How the hell does an album make money if it is given away?

You get sponsors for each track. For example

Better - Johnson and Johnson
IRS - H&R Block
There was a Time - Rolex
Sorry - Hallmark
Prostitute - Trojan
Chinese Democracy - IOC
The General - GM

LOL! That post get a big huge LOL from me.
I love it

[world war]

giving it away for free doesn't necessarily mean they make less money and they wouldn't do it out of the kindness of their hearts so the amount of money spent on it has nothing to do with it.  geffen wants to make as much money as they can off their bands regardless.

if they gave it away for free it would only be because people are downloading more and more these days and profit may be impossible through cd sales but.....................it is not impossible through concert sales. if giving the cd away means more new and younger fans at the end of the day, it means more people spending money on conerts, merchandise, and future cd's.

i don't think the cd will be free but i am sure they are gonna do something different, although a clever or fully invested promotion could do the trick also which may already be in the works with dr pepper.

[GnR-NOW]

first of all, i dont think that the actually album Chinese Democracy cost 13 million dollars.  I do think that all of the songs they made cost 13 million dollars, and if you believe what baz says about there being 4 albums worth of material, thats about a little more then 3 million for an album

[Naltav]

No cd's or albums should be free. If you're a professional artist and the masses like your music than as a fan we should buy the cd for the price. Why is it that music should be free for everyone while everything else you have to pay. We all have day jobs and night jobs. How would you feel if you worked somewhere for eight hours and didn't get paid for the labor and hard work you did? I seriously doubt any of you would go back to that place of employment. Well professional artists should be shown the same respect and get paid for the art they create. Weather it's with a Major label and they get a royalty or if they are with an indie label real good artist should be compensated for their art. Especially if it's great!!!!   

??

Who's gonna decide if an album is great for me?! Certainly not the "masses"

The Spice Girls sold millions of albums in the late 90's, and were loved by the "masses". But in my opinion, we who love great music/art should have gotten paid for being exposed to their music.

A lot of great musicians/bands make fantastic records, keep a dayjob and doesn't complain at all.....

There are creative ways for an album to be "free". Many of which have been suggested on this forum.

Prince gave away a shitload of albums in Britain (it was included in a newspaper), then held many concerts in London and sold advertising spaces to corporations at the venue and also gave away free albums to a lot of people who attended the gigs.

The fans got a good deal for minimal expences, and in the other end, Prince made millions out of concert and advertising incomes....

Not sure if Prince was under a record-contract during this stunt. But an artist signed to a label has the same oportunities to pull this of. You just have to "think outside the box", as they say... 

To think that an album, great or not, have to cost this or that is ancient thinking IMO.

[W. Adam S]

How the hell does an album make money if it is given away? We know it is at least $13 Million in the hole so far

Record companies are making more money from live shows at the moment, thats why there are a load of 'free' records being released at the moment, the way they see it you can make a lot more money from the following tour if more people know about the music. Thats why we got Paul Mcartneys new album free in the sunday paper in the UK.