the_truth_ said:
Even tho i kinda agree with you its way more to it. Sales went down for everybody. Downloading/bootleggin is the main cause of sales declining you even see major labels focusing on digital sales and ringtones more.
It wont ever get back to what it used ( it will never like you said 'sell' again) to be its a new generation that came up on downloading they dont know anything else. Cats is hardly eating off this rapshit anymore all across the country.. you have to grind twice as hard these days its all bad
Go look it up, rap artists NEVER made big bread off album sales...they made it in all those other areas (publishing, tours, etc.) Nelly made crap on his first album, something like $0.08 for every dollar...but he got rich because he did everything else correctly. $0.08 PER DOLLAR! That is peanuts after you pay the label what you owe them. THEN, you pay the manager, the label, the attorney, the accountant and the IRS. IF you have a 12% royalty rate, you end up with about 6% of the royalties IF THAT! Packaging Deduction, all that shit adds up. So, you walk with about $0.96 per record sold.
So, if rappers aren't eating, they need to not blame downloading, because they made ass off record sales to begin with. You can't DOWNLOAD a radio broadcast and take away from the publishing royalties. You can't pirate a concert, feel me? People still go to concerts, and the radio still exists (Two biggest money makers in the record industry).