Tag: Entertainment Business

Music Business Economics

We recently had a fun post about Hollywood accounting, about how the movie industry makes sure even big hit movies “lose money” on paper. So how about the recording industry? Well, they’re pretty famous for doing something quite similar. Reader Jay pointed out in the comments an article from The Root that goes through who gets paid what for music sales, and the basic answer is not the musician. That report suggests that for every $1,000 sold, the average musician gets $23.40.

RIAA Accounting: Why Even Major Label Musicians Rarely Make Money From Album Sales

Mike Masnick
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml

Recoup

Four-quadrant Movie

1st quadrant
male
under 25		 2nd quadrant
female
under 25
3rd quadrant
male
over 25		 4th quadrant
female
over 25

In the Hollywood movie industry, a four-quadrant movie is one which appeals to all four major demographic “quadrants” of the moviegoing audience: both male and female, and both over- and under-25s. Films are generally aimed at at least two such quadrants, and most tent-pole films are four-quadrant movies. A film’s budget is often correlated to the number of quadrants the film is expected to reach, and movies are rarely produced if not focused on at least two quadrants.

Although four-quadrant movies are generally family-friendly, this is not a requirement. Some other genres meeting this may be romantic (such as Titanic and Meet the Parents) or horror films (The Exorcist), or be crowd-pleasing in nature, such as high-profile action films or adaptations of popular novels. Four-quadrant movies often have both adult and child protagonists. They are often built on a “high-concept” premise with well-delineated heroes and villains, with emotion, action and danger present in the story.

Wikipedia

Hollywood explained to some literary snobs

“Shit has its own integrity.” The Wise Hack at the Writers’ Table in the MGM commissary used regularly to affirm this axiom for the benefit of us alien integers from the world of Quality Lit. It was plain to him (if not to the front office) that since we had come to Hollywood only to make money, our pictures would entirely lack the one basic homely ingredient that spells boffo world-wide grosses. The Wise Hack was not far wrong. He knew that the sort of exuberant badness which so often achieves perfect popularity cannot be faked even though, as he was quick to admit, no one ever lost a penny underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

THE TOP TEN BEST-SELLERS ACCORDING TO THE SUNDAY NEW YORK TIMES AS OF JANUARY 7 1973, The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal

Show Biz Wisdom

“The show must go on.”
“Always leave them wanting more.”
“You see the same people on the way up as you do on the way down.”
“You can put as much effort into a bad movie as a good one.”
– Proverbial Wisdom

“There are no small parts, only small actors.”
– Constantin Stanislavski

“I love acting. It is so much more real than life.”
– Oscar Wilde

“All the world is a stage”
– Shakespeare

“Nobody knows anything…… Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.”
– William Goldman

“Make sure you get paid.”
– Mick Jagger