Bruce Dickinson

There’s your problem. I would be shocked if Maiden are taking that much.

I would be shocked if Maiden aren't getting above 50%. You're an entrerprise worth millions and still allow someone to rip you off because they just have a logistics chain? Doesn't make sense. But let's continue this elsewhere...
 
I would be shocked if Maiden aren't getting above 50%. You're an entrerprise worth millions and still allow someone to rip you off because they just have a logistics chain? Doesn't make sense. But let's continue this elsewhere...

They're not being ripped off. 15% would be a very high profit, usually artists make considerably less off record sales.
 
Look, Maiden does not operate as your average signed band. The signed band has no money, record company pays for everything to get the album from idea phase to shelves. In Maiden's case, I am not 100% sure but I have strong opinion that it doesn't.

They have their own crew, they book studio time at their own discretion, the sole creative input is coming from the Maiden, artists are paid by Maiden, etc. Record company probably doesn't have anything with it. So, you have a 40-year old top brand and out of it's lab comes the prototype product. Other company needs to multiply it on cheap, sub $1 media and use its logistics chain to deploy the products to the shelves. I can't see how they'd negotiate most of the profits, let alone 85% percent. That's insane.

What's actually returned when that 85% number is effective, is investment that's flowing back through the record label to investors. Because artists had no initial capital to make the finished product on their own. The investor is the same record label in most of the cases.

That's not the case with Maiden.
 
Lets say Maiden have sold 200.000 copies of TBOS in US and UK combined. Lets also presume they sold 100.000 in the rest of the world. Lets also say that 70% of CD sale goes to Maiden and 30% to rec.company. Lets also say that average CD price on world market is $10.

From the rest of the world lot, they'd have $700.000 to take care of complete album from idea to release cycle. From the US/UK lot, they can pay themselves out, effectively cashing $200k+ per member.

$200k per 5-6 years (whatever they take to make an album nowadays) isn't much but it's tertiary source of income for them.

Do you think this is unresonable hypothesis?

I think you are vastly overestimating how much money they are making off CD sales...

In terms of total number of albums sold, it is way over the figures you have presented (in excess of 700000 and significantly more than TFF, if the figures that were mentioned some time ago are to be believed).

In either case, it is a shame that people now assume music is something that one can get for free. :(
 
Time to get back to listening to solo Bruce.

SKUNKWORKS:
Space Race
- Good opener; I'm excited to listen to this somewhat different album. 9/10
Back From The Edge - Wow, this song was even better. Completely roped me in! 9.5/10
Inertia - The lyrics seem like Deja Vu, Part II. Another cool song! Why did I put off listening to this? 9/10
Faith - I liked this one too, just not to the same extent. 8/10
Solar Confinement - Also good! One part reminded me of Queensryche. 8/10
Dreamstate - This is such a strong album. Also good! 8/10
I Will Not Accept The Truth - See above. 9/10
Inside the Machine - See above. 9/10
Headswitch - See above. 9/10
Meltdown - See above. 9/10
Octavia - See above. 8/10
Innerspace - See above. 8/10
Strange Death In Paradise - See above. 8.5/10

Overall: There is no stand-out track on this album. There is also no bad song on this album. Instead, everything works together to build a fortress of impenetrably awesome Brucie workmanship. Loved it. 9/10

Also listening to this for obvious reasons:

R 101 - WTF is

Regarding Inertia, the lyrics are inspired by their trip to play in Sarajevo in the middle of the war, back in 1994. R 101 is an acoustic song in the folky being of Led Zeppelin III, hence the pun on the title. :lol:

SKUNKWORKS is a brilliant album, massively underrated. The stand-out track, in my humble opinion, is the absolutely brilliant Strange Death in Paradise, about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bruce revisited a similar concept in Omega and Brighter than a Thousand Suns.

Space Race - 8.5/10
Back From The Edge - 8.5/10
Inertia - 8.5/10
Faith - 8/10
Solar Confinement - 8/10
Dreamstate - 6/10
I Will Not Accept The Truth - 7.5/10
Inside the Machine - 8/10
Headswitch - 8/10
Meltdown - 8/10
Octavia - 8.5/10
Innerspace - 8/10
Strange Death In Paradise - 10/10
 
Look, Maiden does not operate as your average signed band. The signed band has no money, record company pays for everything to get the album from idea phase to shelves.

Exactly, and that's why it's reasonable to assume Maiden make 15% off record sales. This is an extremely high margin, and something only the biggest artists on a major label ever make. I would guess it's more like 10%, anyway. Most signed artists couldn't even dream of making this much. In fact, most artists don't make anything off record sales and usually have to pay off record production costs with the entire profit otherwise allocated to them from record sales, and a good chunk of their touring profits too.
Maiden make their money through touring and merchandise. In the 80's that may have been different, but I would guess that today, record sales more or less break even production, distribution and marketing costs, and that's it. The only reason why they would even release anything anymore is because it helps promote their tours and t-shirts.
 
Re: record sales, you have to remember it's not just the record company taking a large cut, about half of the price tag goes to the retailer and the distributor. It's pretty easy to see why most bands barely see any money out of new releases, with how streaming basically doesn't make any money either and CDs are sold in really low volumes at relatively low prices.
 
record sales, you have to remember it's not just the record company taking a large cut, about half of the price tag goes to the retailer and the distributor.

Exactly, this is why small bands often ask their fans to buy stuff either from their website or at their gigs. They cut out the wholesale and retail cycle while keeping the prices mostly the same, and thus see quite a bit more money this way.
 
ACCIDENT OF BIRTH:

Good album; it's not perfect but it had some cool songs. The stand-outs are definitely the title track and Man Of Sorrows. Arc of Space, Omega, and Darkside of Aquarius were also good (though from what I've seen that last one isn't as good as some say.) A good overall 8.5/10.
 
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