Monday 14 June 2010

Why will Yoso make a fraction of the amount CIRCA: did on each CD sold?

Having been around for over a year, and already on their fourth drummer(!), Yoso's debut album, Elements, is now available for pre-order. Release comes in July, the exact date depending on format and where you live.

It seems the delay has been, in part, because the band sought a different business model than its predecessor (and ongoing sibling) band, CIRCA:. While CIRCA: self-released material, but have had to largely abandoned live work, Yoso are aiming at a bigger market, with a CD released through a regular record company (Frontiers Records, who also have Asia on their books), and a tour planned.

As such, this is an appropriate time to direct you to this entry from the fantastic Information is Beautiful blog. It illustrates how a band might get ~80% of the sale price of a self-released CD, but a mere 3-10% on a standard retail CD. And forget being an artist and making money from Spotify or Last.fm plays!

So why not always self-release? Because a record label and selling through mainstream retailers means you can reach a much bigger market. But you need at least 8 times as many sales to make the same amount of money. Thus, the difficult decision for a band like Yoso.