MP3.com P4P

Hi all.

I have not really minded Mp3.coms chopping and changing of it's payments formula as part of an attempt to get the recipe right, after all this hasn't been done before so there is no economic model to follow. There are however limits.

They will now weight payments according to the length of time you have been a member of the premium service so that two artists with identical down loads will be paid at different rates depending on length of membership. This is obviously to prevent a new artist from placing a body of work up and waiting until the P4P would cover the subscription fee and then joining, at break even.

There is a ten day delay for uploads for non subscribing artists I don't believe this has any basis in administrative delays as claimed. It is another ploy to discourage non subscribing artists.

I noted as well Irene's post regarding commercial plays not being paid for as they were before This probably represents a reduction in Irene's case of $20.00 per day.

I think if they want to play Irene's stuff in department stores, elevators or call on hold or whatever they do, they should dam well pay. If this will not fit with the recipe they should stop doing it.

Cheers

YEAH, what HE said!

Thanks Gary...I finally got more info on their business retail changes, which basically says that they've been 'subsidizing' the program up until now, and they still hope for it to do better in future. Their argument is that Muzak actually pays LESS per play...which would have to be less than $0.004 per play (which is what I figure I'm getting from mp3.com now), but Muzak has far more outlets which means a higher payment to the artist. Of course, I really don't know what's true, but there you go.

People have threatened to pull out of the program, but I doubt that's really going to change anything.

I find it interesting that MP3 cannot give any information about where the 'retail music' is being played. A song of mine was picked up for that service over a year ago and I got decent plays and earnings from it for just about a year...however upon questioning, MP3 said they couldn't tell me a thing about where it was playing, who chose it, etc...and although I normally get zero retail music plays on that song these days, every now and again it will pop up with an unusually high amount for just one day, like 250 plays...i find the whole thing shady....anyone else have a similar experience?

'retail music' is being I got decent plays and said they couldn't tell me a normally get zero retail music unusually high amount for just a similar experience?

I've had two songs on it for about three months, two more just popped up recently. I was really disappointed that they changed the program, but I figured it wouldn't last anyways

As far as 'shady', the messageboards at mp3.com are full of people accusing them of all kinds of things. So far they all seem to be people trying to start nasty rumours with very little to substantiate them. The way I see it, although mp3.com has made their share of mistakes, like any other business, they're trying to be viable and survive. As Bruce Hornsby says: 'That's Just The Way It Is'!

Oh, I'm not disparaging MP3...I made a decent amount of money from them and got exposure I never would have otherwise....I just wish the company was more connected with the artists.The lack of communication has definitely gotten worse over the time I've been involved.

I mean I can't be alone in this one