The Butt Ugly Weblog

Unfortunately it's not always a progressive tax, or it can even be a reversed progressive tax. Small labels in the electornic music industry are being taxed heavily, because part of the electronic scene is for DJs (the main customer base) to be the first to have the latest. It's a lot quicker to torrent the music than wait for the vinyl or a legal download.

Traditionally releasing a track to a DJ-led scene works by building anticipation before release by sending few copies to selected DJs and magazines, hoping for good reviews, advertising the release date, and then hoping *everyone* will be buying the track on that date, or at least that week, to secure a chart position. A good chart position will further advertise the track and bring in more buyers from the mainstream, less hardcore music geek audience.

Nowadays when you get to the "building anticipation" phase, everybody can already torrent the track. It's not that bad for Madonna because a tiny fraction of her fans are music geeks who have to get it first. She will be taxed lightly. But for electronic musicians, the geeks can often make up the entire audience. And they are not up for waiting for the proper release. Hence, the tax percentage can be wayy bigger and more significant for small labels.

--Niko, 28-Feb-2007

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